Terrain Tools CE is now shipping. This new product allows you to enter field notes on a handheld computer (see below for details).

This winter we have been very busy consolidating and enhancing all our desktop products. Based on your feedback, we’ve made a variety of improvements. If you haven’t already done so, we recommend you visit our web site and check that you have the latest version (Support | Software Updates section). It’s free!

This year we have attended a variety of forestry and civil engineering conferences in Canada and the US.

Response has been very positive! It’s particularly encouraging to show our products to customers using other software and to hear things like "this software is so easy and interactive, where have you guys been?".

Wendy at the National Association of County Engineers
Conference, Orlando Fl

Every company needs an identity. This spring after considerable soul searching we have come up with a new company positioning line, "Engineering an Easier Way". This phrase best represents our commitment to making our products easier to use and focused on engineering (not CAD). With this as our mantra, we will be working hard to ensure all our products are easier to use so you can be more productive.

Craig Speirs
President

This fall and winter we will be running courses in RoadEng and Terrain Tools. Courses will be tailored to the expertise and specific interests of the group. 

...Click here for more information.

LIDAR has been described as a technology whose time is coming in forestry. Everyone seems to agree that it is a useful tool for forest data collection. Despite this, LIDAR is not yet widely used. This may change soon.

LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) is based on pulses of laser light striking the surfaces of the earth and measuring the time of pulse return. The LIDAR laser scanner is mounted on an airplane along with a Inertial Measuring Unit and Airborne GPS. LIDAR is capable of collecting highly accurate topographic data under the canopy. With this information available in the early stages of planning, the engineer has the opportunity to optimize the location of roads and cut blocks. Although the acquisition cost is high, the potential for saving construction costs is tremendous.

This spring, Sunpine Forest Products Ltd. (a division of Weldwood of Canada) hosted a workshop in Sundre Alberta on the use of LIDAR in Forestry Applications. Presentations at the conference included road engineering and case studies by Jay Mills of Jeodesy GIS and Kelsey Kure of Sunpine. These case studies compare road location and design using LIDAR and conventional methods. In both cases RoadEng was used to design the alignment and produce earthwork quantities.

Also at the workshop, presentations on Cut block design and Planning of Cable Harvesting were given by Ed Wassink of Sunpine Forest Products, Bill Redhead of Trees Consulting Ltd., and Kelley LeRoy of Woody Forest Management. GIS software and RoadEng were used in the all the case studies.

The results from this workshop are very interesting and shed light on the economics of using LIDAR for planning forest operations. The proceedings from this workshop are available in PDF format at http://www.softree.com/articles/LiDARWorkshop.pdf.

Development of trails for international tourists and for local communities are being designed using RoadEng in Queenstown, New Zealand. The Queenstown area is known for its breathtaking scenery and it attracts large numbers of sightseeing visitors as well as those who want to sample the bungy jumping, paragliding, jet boating, skiing and other activities the region offers. Trail walking is an increasingly popular activity. The Wakatipu Trails Trust recently launched its Walkway Strategy which outlines development of many new trails in the Lake Wakatipu Basin for use by tourists as well as the growing number of new Queenstown residents.

Frame Group, Softree's RoadEng agent in NZ has been demonstrating the benefits in using the software for the design of trails.

Traditionally trails have been formed without survey or plans and have followed the horse trails remnant from the area's goldmining days. With the introduction of new standards for walkways in NZ, RoadEng is being put to good use to ensure that trail grades and formation are to a standard that permits easy use by a wide range of visitors including those less capable visitors who have difficulty on the old horse trails.

Trevor Butler looking over the site of many 
new trails in the Wakatipu Basin and Queenstown 
from high on the Remarkables Range

Drew Kenny of Frame Group has developed techniques to use RoadEng to design sections of steps and landings on trails as well as using the capability of the software to design bridge and culvert locations. Trevor Butler, Managing Director of Frame Group says, "Trails are mini roads, the techniques for designing good trails are the same as those for designing roads". He is running a series of workshops throughout NZ on the planning and design of walking trails.

This July we added a Premium Support service intended for customers who wish to stay current with Softree products.

In addition to phone, fax and email assistance, Premium Support includes.

• All major and minor software upgrades.
• A 15% discount on training.
• A 15% discount on new software products.

The cost of Premium Support is $300 CDN ($250 US) per license per year.

Softree Español recently announced the first beta release of RoadEng and Terrain Tools Español. Companies interested in participating in a beta test program should contact Ben Rencoret at info@softree-espanol.com or by calling (250) 337-5880.

Softree Español, operated through Esys Technologies Inc. (a subsidiary of Econ Consulting) is developing markets for Softree products in Latin America.

Did You Know?

Lat/Lon Coordinates

Images and GIS World Files

World files are small text files which accompany an image to describe its scale and location. This is called a geo-referenced image.

Most geographic images such as orthophotos come with a world file. When they are read into Terrain (or other gis/mapping software) they appear in the correct location and have the correct scale. It is possible to trace features on these images with the mouse and determine areas and lengths.

This is not the case, if you scan an air photo or paper map yourself. Before this image is useful it must be georeferenced. This can be easily done using Terrain. An example positioning and scaling an image is included in the Terrain manual.

To save an image world file from Terrain

Culvert changes in field notes

Many engineers keep track of culverts by changing their field notes, even after they have begun a road design. Because the Location module allows you to add or remove cross drains independently from the field notes, changes to the notes are not automatically applied.

There is an easy way to update your Location culverts. In the culvert Panel choose the Import option.

Re-Import Culverts from Survey Notes