I get this question quite a lot and thought it would be a good topic for Tips of the day…

Problem: Lines or polylines of a boundary show up inside your open property corner symbols. See the image below for an example:

The additional problem is that, if you trim the lines inside the symbols to make it look cleaner, you’re actually modifying the length of property lines so the distances from corner-to-corner are no longer accurate.

Here’s an alternative: You can download a modified set of Carlson’s point symbols that include a “wipeout” entity that hides the lines behind/underneath the open symbols instead of trimming them and changing the length of the lines. Using the new set of symbols, the same property lines and symbols look like those in the image below (notice that the distances of linework are unchanged):

How to do this?

Here is the knowledge base article on Carlson’s website that includes a ZIP file with the new symbol DWG files and instructions on where the files must be saved.

Carlson posted the 2015 versions of their for CAD (IntelliCAD or AutoCAD 2004-2015) on Tuesday afternoon… you can Download Carlson 2015 products with IntelliCAD here. The 2015 versions of embedded AutoCAD products (Survey and Takeoff OEM) will be released later this summer.

If your maintenance contract is current or you have purchased 2014 products within the past 90 days, you’re automatically eligible for an upgrade to 2015. Click here to look up your 2015 serial number using your 2014 serial number.

Click here to review the list of all improvements

Click here to read about updates in Carlson Survey 2015

Click here to read about updates in Carlson Civil and Carlson Hydrology 2015

Click here to read about updates in Carlson Takeoff Suite 2015 – including Construction, CADNet, Trench and GeoTech

There are price increases with 2015 products. Click one of these links if you would like to Request a Demonstration or Request a Custom Proposal to upgrade to 2015 or purchase new software.

Please follow this link to see if you’re eligible for our monthly webinars including CAD and Carlson Tips & Tricks, Intro to Survey and GIS and What’s New in Carlson 2015.

As we’re all getting ready for the release of Carlson’s 2014 desktop products, Carlson Software has scheduled a series of 5 lunchtime webinars to introduce new features and enhancements. See below for details and registration links:

Carlson Survey and Civil 2014
Wednesday, July 24th – presented by Scott Griffin, Director of Sales

Carlson Construction 2014
Wednesday, July 31st – presented by Todd Carlson, Takeoff Product Manager

Carlson Hydrology 2014 and all new Carlson Trench
Wednesday, August 7th – Mark Long, Developer, & Todd Carlson

Carlson Mining 2014
Wednesday, August 14th – Grant Wenker, Director, Mining Division

All new CADnet
Wednesday, August 21st – Jim Carlson, Regional Sales Director

All new GeoTech
Wednesday, August 28th – Dave Sanford, Regional Sales Director

Carlson released the 2013 version of their desktop products today. This includes: Civil Suite, Civil, Survey, Hydrology, GIS, Takeoff, Construction, Point Cloud, Geology, Surface/Underground Mining and Natural Regrade.

The 2013 embedded-AutoCAD versions of Takeoff and Survey have not yet been released.

Unlike previous versions of Carlson that support running on top of IntelliCAD or AutoCAD products 2000-2012, Carlson 2013 can only be run on IntelliCAD or AutoCAD products 2004-2013. This includes AutoCAD, Map, Land Desktop and Civil 3d. Also, anyone using the FREE IntelliCAD that comes with Carlson is eligible for a FREE GIS Starter Kit from Esri which includes ArcMap.

You can download Carlson 2013 here.

If you are using 2012 and are current on your annual maintenance contract, you can click here to look up your new 2013 serial number online. You will need to enter your contact information and your 2012 serial number in order to generate the 2013 serial number. You can find your serial number by opening Carlson Software and going to Help > About Carlson Software > Change Registration.

If you have trouble finding your serial number or would like to know the cost to upgrade to 2013, please email me with your request.

Click here for the full list of improvements to Carlson 2013

Click here for improvements to the General commands in 2013

Click here for the additional data file & conversion support in Carlson 2013

Click here for improvements to Survey commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Civil commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Hydrology commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to GIS commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Takeoff commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Point Cloud commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Geology commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Surface/Underground Mining commands in 2013

Click here for improvements to Natural Regrade commands in 2013

Carlson released a new build of their desktop software earlier this week. This includes updates to the IntelliCAD/for AutoCAD versions of Survey, Civil, Hydrology, GIS, Basic Mining, Geology, Underground Mining, Surface Mining, Natural Regrade, Field, Takeoff, Construction and Point Clouds.

To confirm your current build number, go to Help > About Carlson. You’ll see the build number on the top line of the text box.

You can download the latest full version or updates to your current installation here.

If you would like to try out any of the Carlson Software products for 30-days, email me here.

For those anxious to try out the very latest and greatest updates in the testing versions of IntelliCAD 7.1, you can also send me an email to gain access to a new blog, “The Little CAD Engine That Could”, administered by Leonid Entov of Carlson Software.

Participation in the testing and access to the blog is by invitation only, so email me and I’ll pass along your request.

You can download the most recent updates to Carlson’s 2012 desktop software HERE

Looking for Carlson Software manuals? Prior to the 2010 release, Carlson included printed manuals with your purchase and, in addition, the manuals have always been available to print for yourself from the Help files.

With the 2010 release, Carlson “opened” a storefront on the self-publishing site called Lulu.com. You can order 2009 and 2010 Carlson Software manuals here http://stores.lulu.com/carlsonsw.

The 2010 edition of Carlson Software is a few weeks away from general release and is slated to have approximately 400 new features and enhancements. Suffice it to say, there should be something for just about everyone with this release. While by no means exhaustive, here are just a few of the new features that will be found in Carlson 2010 (a few of which were mentioned in the Coming in Carlson 2010 post):

1. Support for IntelliCAD 6.6 and the AutoCAD 2010 product line – Carlson 2010 will continue to ship with a complimentary copy of IntelliCAD now based on the 6.6 code stream from the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium. Work continues on the migration to the IntelliCAD 7 release which is expected later this year or early in 2010. Carlson 2010 will also support the AutoCAD 2010 family of products including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Map, et. al. Since Land Desktop was officially retired in summer, 2008, now is a great time for organizations to look at Carlson as an alternative to the Land Desktop upgrade path.

   Side note observation… For those Carlson IntelliCAD users out there, don’t forget to inquire about your complimentary Carlson-IntelliCAD GIS Starter Kit from ESRI!

2. Settings Explorer for CAD Managers – Carlson 2010 introduces an efficient Settings Explorer that allows CAD Managers and users alike to examine, set and migrate settings from machine to machine within an organization.
3. Layout Manager and Field Text for CAD Drafters – Geared for deliverable output, the Layout Manager and Field Text routines helps automate the creation of plot-ready maps.
4. Smart Annotation for CAD Drafters and Surveyors – Carlson 2010 helps simplify the annotation typically applied to subdivisions.
5. Merging of C&G into Carlson Survey for Surveyors – The long-awaited integration of Carlson’s C&G product line with the more traditional Carlson Survey routines provides land surveyors with arguably the most comprehensive collection of survey routines available today.
6. Drawing Inspector Multi-select for everyone – The highly useful Carlson Drawing Inspector is becoming even more useful with the ability to now display multiple information categories at once.

   

   Multi-option Drawing Inspector

7. Template Grade Table for Engineers – In an effort to augment the highly flexible and powerful Template Transition, Template Point Centerline and Template Point Profile routines found in Carlson Civil, a new Template Grade Table provides robust functionality that can be used to design a variety of roadway scenarios. Additionally, the information found in the Template Grade Table can also be utilized in Carlson SurvCE beginning with the 2.5 version of the product.
8. Edge of Pavement Profiles for Engineers – The ability to produce the graphical results of edge of pavement profiles is now much simpler with Carlson 2010 by giving engineers the ability to extract profile information from the imperical design values that contribute to the vertical aspect of the roadway design.
9. HydroCAD Linkage for Hydrologists – As originally announced at the 1^st annual Carlson User Conference, the data collaboration between Carlson Hydrology and HydroCAD will help users “save time on repetitious data entry, increasing their accuracy, and giving them access to HydroCAD’s extensive rainfall libraries and stormwater chamber specifications.”
10. Improved Watershed Delineation for Hydrologists – Watersheds in Carlson 2010 can be delineated by three levels: drainage, land use and soil type.

For Carlson Mining clients that might also happen to come across this post, Carlson 2010 offers new functionality for you, too! Check with your Carlson Mining specialist for additional details.

To summarize, Carlson Software is continuing to offer responsive solutions to client-requested technology needs and is standing ready to assist you! Check out our wide-array of technolgy solutions by visiting us on-line at http://www.carlsonsw.com!

I’d like to offer a few other arguments for the use of the DVIEW TWIST routines discussed in North Rotation: Using Twist Screen. The four Carlson DVIEW routines cited:

Standard – This option allows you to select a rotation angle using the mouse.

Line, Polyline or Text – This option allow you to select an object to set as a view baseline.  It is the most useful when trying to match views to objects such as property lines or road centerlines.

Surveyor – This option prompts for the manual entry of a bearing or azimuth for the rotation angle.

Restore Due North – This option returns the screen to the orientation where North is straight up.

fall right in line with remarks made by ESRI’s Brent Jones at the 2009 Carlson User Conference who said:

“GIS changes the whole domain for surveyors,” Jones added, “And surveyors need to be ready for what’s coming next — high accuracy GIS. The key is geo-referencing,” he said. “We can use our data to communicate to our world with greater precision over greater areas.”

In my opinion, a User Coordinate System (UCS, by its very definition), takes the data one step further away from being geo-referenced. There are those that would probably argue that having data in a World Coordinate System (WCS) and at assumed coordinates of something like 5000,5000,100 is no better than using a UCS to shift this same data to a proper geo-referenced coordinate system. From a holistic stand-point, I’d tend to agree. However, what sets the WCS vs. UCS argument apart is this simple statement:

All drawings must have a WCS yet not all drawings have a UCS.

When one considers the longevity of information represented in drawings created to this point in time and then reflects on how this information might also be used in the future, I feel it is important to model that information (and subsequently allow that information to be easily extracted) in a consistent and reliable fashion. A User Coordinate System is typically only understood and used by its creator which in turn, limits its use and subsequently increases the risk of liability when the User Coordinate System isn’t known or understood by a “downstream” recipient of the drawing (survey stake-out, machine control excavation, etc).

Side note observation… Is it me or are there some parallels between UCS and custom ARX objects used in other products? When I look at how long the DVIEW vs. UCS arguments have been made, I can only surmise the length of time that will be involved to bring the non-proprietary vs. proprietary data argument to a close. I suspect it’s going to be a long, tough road.

In any event, it is my opinion that standardizing on a single WCS should provide more consistent deliverables when the drawings/projects span multiple people, offices and/or disciplines. When properly adopted, using a “twisted view” of geo-referenced data in a World Coordinate System should provide more feature-rich information now and into the future when our data is mapped onto the Earth.