New version of Topocad - 11

22 December 2008, 7:49pm

Chaos systems AB released its eleventh version of Topocad, the CAD software for surveying, mapping and design on 19 December 2008.

Topocad's development cycle is very steady and continuous. Every Christmas there is a new version, with a new version number, that contains the big changes that require new file formats.

Topocad have thousands of users spread all over the world, and fields many different ideas and requirements from the users. This is the foundation for new developments and many of the users' demands are put into new releases.

For version 11, three areas have been focused on: Administration, CAD/mapping/layout and Volume calculation.

"The CAD/mapping part involves all users and is important for us because it concerns our next step to make Topocad more involved in the mapping and planning process, especially in local authorities. We plan to release a new module within this field during 2009 and it is a good step for us to improve features such as layout and drawing sheet management, automatic scale bars and North arrows, automatic fix of deleted texts in drawing views and things that enhance speed to create nice drawings and maps, which still is very important for most of our users", says Tomas Sandström, sales manager and one of the partners of Chaos systems AB.

"When it comes to the administrative part, Topocad 11 has a new interface with more buttons, a check for corrupt files, a logging function for each command in the files where you also can create your own notes, and functions for better handling of system files as attribute tables and line type files".

"Our users work with many different file formats, from simple coordinate files, to CAD drawing files and GIS tool files and also different types of databases. It has been easy to import and export many different file types but now it is also possible to use these files as external references directly. No translation or transformation is needed - Topocad reads the files direct and you can mix file types such as DWG, DGN, Shape, MIF, XYZ, LandXML, MX genio and many more. If they have different insertion points or rotations, this is also made directly in the settings for the external references. And for file formats that uses layers, we can turn different layers on and off, also important to have the best graphic view for work and for output", continues Tomas Sandström.

"In version 10 many new features were released for cross sectioning calculations and especially for the output from cross sections to LandXML files and digital terrain models. It is difficult to do much more concerning design and volume calculations, but a couple of things are released in version 11. One of them is use of many different digital terrain models in the cross section calculation and the other is a completely new calculation of volume using an excavation bottom and comparing this towards two digital terrain models just entering the slopes towards them in excavation and/or fill (bank). It is a very fast way to handle complex calculations and excavations for houses, road bodies, parking lots and other surfaces", continues Tomas Sandström.

This is part of all new commands and improvements that have been developed in Topocad 11, read more and download from our web site.

Information from:
Tomas Sandström, Anja Jonasson, Chaos systems AB

Chaos systems AB

Geo: International