Copan News
Dec-2008
New Angles on Things
Azimuths to Bearings
What Copan used to refer to mainly as azimuths are now referred to as bearings.
While azimuth
is sometimes used, bearing
is the more common word in the context of plane surveying and mapping.
This has no effect on program function beyond seeing Azim
and Azimuth
being replaced nearly everywhere by Brng
and Bearing
.
Quadrant Bearings Output
You now have the option, in Program | Settings | General, to have all bearings output in quadrant form.
Before, all bearings were output in whole-circle form. You still have the option of using either form for input.
Also, added to the set of possible input bearing expressions are NE, NW, SE, and SW as shortcuts for N45E, N45W, S45E, and S45W.
If this is something you will use, please let us know if you think the formatting needs tweaking.
South-based Whole-circle Bearings
For those very few folks who need this, there is now the option to specify that whole-circle bearings are south-based.
After you specify this, in Program | Settings | General, 0° will mean south, 90° west, 180° north, etc, for input and output.
If this is something you will use, please check this new functionality carefully and let us know if there are any problems.
COGO Enhanced
Direct and Inverse Calcs
The Direct/Inverse COGO calculation mode is now separated into the Direct mode and the Inverse mode.
Distance and Offset
The Distance/Offset COGO entry boxes are now separated into Distance boxes and Offset boxes.
You can now do a Direct (i.e. forward) calculation with a bearing and both a distance and an offset. Before, it was just bearing and distance.
Also, you can now constrain an Inverse calculation with a bearing to get both a distance and an offset. Again, before, it was just bearing and distance.
Corner Angle Calcs
The 3 point inverse COGO calculation mode is now called the Angle
mode to conform more to common usage.
An Angle Left option has been added to angle calculation mode, to give the counter-clockwise angle (as a negative value) from the from point to the to point. The default mode is still Angle Right. Also, the output listing for angle calculation has been streamlined and clarified. Before, it took up much space and was potentially confusing.
Drop-Down Lists
The drop-down lists for COGO bearings, distances and offsets are now in reverse order: the most recently added or calculated values now appear at the top of the lists (before, they were at bottom).
Cogo Lite
The Units Factor list and its associated Apply and 1/UF buttons have now been added to COGO Lite (previously they were only in regular COGO).
Multiple Inverses
- After a multi-inverse calculation, the input box values now remain intact until the newly-added Clear boxes button is clicked.
- The Chain & Offset output mode is now called the Distance & Offset mode, to reflect more common usage.
Field Modules
Small improvements to the Field Data / Field Bearings / Field Resections modules:
- Bearing expressions are now allowed in the bearing (formerly
azimuth
) entry boxes.
- What Copan saw as incomplete setups and shots from Geodimeter JOB/RAW files during a Data Load are now accepted and no longer mess up a subsequent reference point number.
(When more Geodimeter labels were recognized, back in March 2008, an unintended side-effect was that Copan got confused about the ref. number after receiving incomplete observations.)
- When loading precise angle observations from Leica GSI-16 files, Copan now properly formats recorded values of between M'59.5" and M'59.9" as N'00", where N=M+1. Before, they would become M'60".
- When resection observations having HI's and HS's were made to control points having no elevations, the resulting rises were a mess. This has been fixed.
Import/Export of Text Coordinate Files
Some improvements to the CoordFile Import/Export Ascii module:
- The import/export filename extension is now more intelligently handled.
- The default field widths for fixed-format files have been changed. They will now
- better accommodate the increase in allowable exported coordinate precision, introduced in version 08.01, and
- allow the format of manually exported files to be consistent with that of auto exported files.
Auto-Export of Coordinate Files
You now have a second set of auto export options. If you'd like to have Copan automatically export a coordfile to (up to) two differently formatted text files each time the coordfile is closed, go to Program | Settings | General and the Logistic section.
Area and Perimeter Calculation with Curves
Curve validation has been added to the Inverse Map Traverse module (also known as Area Calc):
- If a sequence of points defines a tangential or reverse tangential curve, Copan now validates the curve's "tangentiality" (i.e., it compares the directions of the curve radials against those of the adjacent segments).
- Also, for any curve, Copan now tests for "radial equality" (i.e., it compares the lengths of the curve radials against each other).
Before, Copan would only validate curves defined in Map Trav and Map Check, not in Area Calc.
When will Copan have Drawing Capabilities?
On our in-house version of Copan, we currently have the ability to export symbolized drawings to AutoCAD DWG files.
Also, we
are working on a Copan drawing module that will have many useful CAD functions, independent of AutoCAD.
When a CAD version of Copan is released, some time in 2009, we will be charging the public for it.
However, the free version of Copan will remain free and will continue to evolve.
Dec-2008