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Spring/Summer 2001 News

 

Welcome

The last few months have been very busy. With most of our customers now using Upgrade 2000, we have turned our attention to developing the next version (see Version 4 Preview for a peek at some of the planned features).

Version 4 will be a major release. To speed the development, we have added Erle Dzus to the development team. Erle is a programmer with a strong surveying background. He will be working on Version 4 along with Dave and Craig.

We are also working with Forsite Consultants to improve and integrate their Road Management systems (FORCOST and FORTRAK) with the Softree products.

In addition to software development, we have been busy with support and training over the last few months. This fall and winter we have successfully completed 8 training sessions and attended various conferences in Canada and the US. Attendance at our courses has been very strong and we are very encouraged by level of interest in applying the software to new applications.

 

Help Us Make Our Product Better

Santa's Christmas Wish List

 We are always looking for suggestions on ways to improve our products. We encourage you to take a few minutes to fill out our Wish List Survey at our web site: http://www.softree.com/support/customer_survey.htm.

While your are at our web site, you might also want to sign up for our free email newsletter.

 

Softree Staff

Yes, We Do Exist

 At the request of a customer who has been in contact with us by phone and email for several years, we have included a photo of ourselves. For those of you who are alarmed by our appearance, don't worry, we may not look good but we do write good software and provide excellent service.

From left to right. Erle Dzus, Dave Mills, Wendy Hellofs, Dr. Nugget, Craig Speirs, Jack Rimac, Chuck VanToorn

Training

Spring/Summer Schedule Now Available

 

 

Click here for more information.

Jack Trains in Indonesia


RoadEng applied in the management of tropical forests

 My trip extended from August 25th to September 26th 2000 and was organized by Art Klassen (Director of the Tropical Forest Foundation in Indonesia). The first week of the trip was devoted to preparation followed by two training sessions, and the final week to document the techniques and procedures learned.

Both training sessions were held at the CIFOR (Center for International Forestry) compound in Bogor Indonesia. I was told that Bogor was a small city 60 km south of Jakarta (I later found out that it had a population of about 2 million. I guess that is small compared to 15 to 20 million people living in Jakarta).


Training Session in Bagor Indonesia
Group photo in front of CIFOR offices

The purpose of the training was to create topographic tree maps for planning. Strip-line surveys were entered, adjusted and then imported into the Terrain Module to create contours. The resulting maps often had annomilies due to entry errors or insufficient data. Most of the anomalies could be corrected by re-checking the data entry and adding suitable break-lines. If that didn’t work, the contours were simply broken, portions discarded and manually redrawn to correspond to field observations. Tree position data was drawn with the mouse.


Typical contour map created from strip lines		 Other topics were presented to make the contour maps look presentable, such as adding symbols to indicate different commercial tree species, buffering around streams.

The second training session was similar to the first but included one day for road design. There were 20 attendees with approximately 5 attending from the first training session.

Upgrade 2000

Painless conversion.

 		 It has been said that if the software industry made automobiles, every year the gear shift and steering wheel would be in a different place ("user interface improvements"). This is not the case with Upgrade 2000.

On the surface, Upgrade 2000 looks and feels the same as previous versions, but underneath, it has been re-designed to make it faster, easier and more reliable. For a detailed list of enhancements visit our web site (www.softree.com).

The cost for this upgrade for RoadEng is $195Canadian and for Terrain Tools $129 Canadian. Contact Wendy Hellofs at (604-519-6222) to order.

Road Management Software

Discounted Pricing for RoadEng Users

FORCOST is a software package for cost estimating, budgeting and appraisal submissions. It compiles data from RoadEng or GPS traverses to provide quick and consistent estimates for engineered road sections. Roads can be divided into sections with similar sub-grade construction variables to standardize, simplify and expedite cost submissions. FORCOST calculates and reports engineered costs based on the concept outlined in the MOF Engineering Manual Estimating Guide.

FORTRAK manages construction, maintenance, deactivation, watershed restoration and other development activities of roads, bridges and cut blocks. FORTRAK consists of 3 modules; Construction, Obligations and Project Plan.

Both FORCOST and FORTRAK have been developed by Forsite Consultants Ltd. They use Microsoft Access® and provide links to GIS for quick and efficient visual representation.

Discounted Prices for RoadEng users

FORCOST - Cost estimating $3555 Canadian

FORTRAK - Obligations module $3555 Canadian

FORTRAK - Professional $5760 Canadian

 

Version 4 Preview

32 Bit Version At Last!

 

 The long awaited 32 bit versions of RoadEng and Terrain Tools are finally on the horizon. Last Summer development on Version 4 began. Here is a quick look at some of the new features you can look forward to in this new version.
  • Support for long file names.
  • Full support for UTM coordinates.
  • Chainage equations.
  • Survey adjustment history.
  • Culvert editing using the mouse.
  • Enhanced export to AutoCAD®.
  • Improved support for images.
  • Sight distance calculation
  • Embedding spreadsheets and other documents in Multi-plot
  • Support for multi-span and partial suspension for cable analysis.
  • Improved support for data collectors.
  • Station reference by index.
  • Improvements in volume calculations
  • Read/write for ArcView® Shape files.

 

Tips and Techniques

Creating a profile from a scanned topo map

 Click here for an example of creating a profile from a scanned topo map.