Copan News

Jun-2009

Easier Install and Update

To simplify the installation and update of Copan, the key file, CopanKey.bin, is now included in the installer package. So, whenever you install an upgraded version, you no longer need to copy the key file to the new program folder. (New users will still need to request a password, as before, but we won't need to send them a .bin file.)

Status Bar and Continuous Coordinates Added

The bottom of the main graphics window now has a status bar, the right side of which continuously shows the current N-E coordinates of your mouse-pointer.

Tools Added to Right Mouse-Button Pop-Up Menu

When your mouse-pointer is on the main graphics window and you press the right mouse-button, you'll see some new tools:

Select allows you to then click on a point to open it in the Point Edit utility. (Just ignore the list of 6 selection choices that pop-up immediately after you choose Select; only individual selection is currently allowed.)
Measure allows you to quickly measure (i.e., show bearing & distance, dN & dE of) any line you draw from a clicked location.
Mouse Wheel allows you to resume normal use of the mouse wheel (i.e., it gets you out of Select or Measure modes).

More Precision Options Added

In the Geomatic section of General Program Settings,

Area decimals allows you to limit the precision of the displayed area values in Map Trav, Map Check, or Area Calc.
Show seconds allows you to turn off the display of seconds, for low-precision work.
Seconds decimals allows you to specify high-precision angle display — especially useful when you need to determine the precise bearing between two far-apart control points.

Minor Bug-Fix in Field Data Process

If you happened to have a traverse that had both a redundant, closing angle at its end, and a station (other than the start/end) with more than one set-up, the resulting traverse closure came out slightly wrong. That bug is now fixed. (FYI, Copan is designed to allow a mix of traverse and non-traverse set-ups within a field file.)

Newly-discovered Bugs

Neither of these recently discovered bugs have been fixed:

Imperial Printing

Copan assumes coordinates are in metres when scaling graphics for output to a printer, so imperial coordfiles will not print at the proper scale. In future, you will be able to specify proper ground-to-paper scales, but not yet.

Messy Degree

It is possible, though unlikely, that the display or output of DMS angles is corrupted on your system. In rare cases, on display/output, the deg symbol (°) is replaced by a question mark (?) and the first digit of the minutes is obscured.

If that has happened to you, please let us know — especially if you found a solution to the problem. In future, you will be able to choose alternative DMS symbols for output/display, but not yet.

Jun-2009