Business Center – HCE v2.70 release notes

Line-related Features

• Create Circle – You can now use the Create Circle command to draw a 360° arc at a constant elevation. Using the auto-advance mode, you can quickly create multiple circles with the same radius. (See the Create a Circle help topic.)

Surface-related Features

• Surface Info Report enhancements – In the Surface Information Report, you can now choose to include information on the surface’s area sorted by elevation/depth range and by slope range. In addition, you can specify a boundary in the report to limit the portion of the surface on which you get statistics. (See the Run a Surface Information Report help topic.)
• Drape Objects on Surface – In addition to polylines and linestrings, you can now use the Drape Object on Surface command to vertically project points onto a surface. A draped point is dependent on the location (X,Y or latitude, longitude) of the reference point and the surface’s topography. (See the Drape a Point of Line on a Surface help topic.)
• Offset a Draped Line – Once you have created a draped line, you can use the Properties pane to add a horizontal offset from the reference line to the draped line and to add a vertical offset from the dependent surface to the draped line. (See the Drape a Point of Line on a Surface help topic.)
• Surface shadows – You can now show/hide a surface’s shadows in the Properties pane.
• Surface Name and Slope in the Coordinates scroll – In the Coordinates scroll, you can now choose to show the slope of any surface triangle and the name of the surface you are hovering over in the Plan View.
• Surface properties from View Filter Manager – You can now access properties for any surface from the View Filter Manager by right-clicking the surface name and selecting Properties in the context menu.
• Surface transparency – You can now control the transparency of a surface in the Properties pane for the surface. This enables you make objects, such as an image of a site plan, visible behind the surface.
• Drape cut/fill colors on Finished Design surface – In the Properties pane for a cut/fill map, you can now set Drape surface to Yes to display the cut and fill colors on the surface selected as the Final surface in the Create Cut/Fill Map command.

  Corridor-related Features

• Icon for dependent corridor templates – Corridor templates that were copied from other templates or that reference other templates are now indicated by a distinct icon in the Project Explorer.

• A major change has been made in how site improvements are assigned. The new method described below is much faster, eliminates many user errors and provides instant feedback of how the improvement will be applied. Although the previous method is still supported, it is highly recommended that users review the updated Takeoff training guides and adopt the new method.

(See the Understanding Area-based Site Improvements help topic.)

• Assign Site Improvement – You can now use the Assign Site Improvements command to create area-based site improvements more easily and with greater certainty that they are calculating the intended area. In addition, the slope area (not just the planimetric) is now calculated for the site improvement areas assigned using this method.

(See the Assign Site Improvements to Takeoff Layers help topic.) The benefits of this new method include:

• When site improvements abut, you no longer need to have coincidental boundaries. A single line can serve as a boundary between site improvements. This can eliminate issues caused by small gaps and overlaps in the individual boundaries of adjoining site improvements.

• You no longer have to make closed areas to contain site improvements.  Closed areas can still be used automatically or manually.
• You can use 2D and 3D linework.

• You get immediate feedback and shading of the resulting area.

• If you pick a point and the area is not enclosed, you get a warning.

• Minor drafting imperfections, such as gaps that keep multiple lines from forming the intended enclosed area, can be ignored via a tolerance, allowing the site improvement to be formed in spite of that issue. Additionally, such data imperfections have become clear, allowing you to fix those problems as a part of a data preparation process.

• Copying materials and site improvements – You can now copy materials and site improvements within a category or library or from either library to the other library by selecting an item or category and dragging-and-dropping it to a new location.

(See the Copy from the External Library to Your Project Library help topic.)

• Distinguish between earthen materials – You can now distinguish between earthen materials for mass earthworks and those for select operations in Material and Site Improvement Manager when you are preparing to do takeoff calculations. (See the Create and Edit Earthen Materials help topic.)
• Earthen (Mass earthworks) Materials – Earthen materials found within the project site’s subsurface earthen material strata or off-site borrow pits that contribute to the analysis of mass earthworks.
• Earthen (Select) Materials – Earthen materials of a select nature that may be required for specific purposes. These include mined, manufactured or otherwise processed materials.

Features data

• Update feature codes – Feature codes are automatically updated when you modify processed features. There is no need to undo and redo feature code processing to update the codes.

(See “Process Feature Codes” in the online Help.)

Corridors

• RXL spiral support – Import and export Bloss and Cubic spirals and Korean Cubic Parabolas.

Data exchange support

• Export data to ArcGIS 9.3.1 – Use the Geodatabase XML exporter to export data to ArcGIS 9.3.1.
• AutoCAD units export – Export AutoCAD files with specified units.
• GeoXR monopole – Import and process data gathered using the new Trimble

  GeoXR monopole.

• Spectra Precision Survey Pro 5.2 – Import files from Spectra Precision’s Survey Pro 5.2. Also, export lines and alignments to Survey Pro.
• FAST Survey – Import FAST Survey formatted files with local coordinate systems support.

  General

• Laser observations – View laser observations in the Optical Spreadsheet.
• Check-for-updates MSMs – View installed MSMs included in the “Installed

  Version” list in the Check for Updates dialog so you do not need to re-install. Documentation

• Enterprise Deployment Guide -The guide has been updated to include instructions for deploying software updates using Msiexec.exe.
• Additional Workflow Wizards – You can now use new workflow guides, wizards, and help topics to understand and work through the workflows for site mass haul, corridor data prep, corridor mass haul, and others.
  (See the Follow Workflow Guides help topic.)

  Miscellaneous Features

Enhancements from the BC-HCE 2.61 and 2.62 Patches

• Printing and plotting – When printing or plotting (in landscape orientation) a plotbox that contains an image, the image is no longer stretched. In addition, any gridlines within the plotbox now appear in the correct locations when printed or plotted.

New snaps – Three snap commands have been added:

• Station from Segment Snap enables you to calculate a station value from a point along a specific segment of an alignment or line.

(See the Station from Segment Snap help topic.)

• Bearing of Segment Snap enables you to specify a bearing by picking a segment with the desired bearing in the Plan View.

(See the Bearing of Segment Snap help topic.)

• Length of Segment Snap enables you to specify a length or distance by picking a segment with the desired length in the Plan View.

(See the Length of Segment Snap help topic.)

• Intersection of Lines snap – When snapping to the ‘intersection’ of two lines, if the lines do not actually touch, the intersection is computed by projecting one or both of the lines to their nearest intersection.
  (See the Intersection of Lines Snap help topic.)
• Edit Linestring – When you are editing a linestring (using the Edit Linestring command), the segment you are editing is highlighted in both the Plan View and 3D View. In addition, you can now pick linestring segments and vertical points of intersection (VPIs) in the 3D View.
• Offset Line – The command’s boxes have been rearranged and an auto- advance option has been added to the offset boxes. These improvements allow you to simply pick the line to offset and then the side on which to create the offset line once you have specified the name, layer, and offset distances; this helps you to create multiple offset lines more efficiently.
• Float View – You can now separate (‘float’) browser page views (such as the Start Page, Workflow Guides, and reports) from your program window so you can move them onto a second monitor.
• Trim/Extend Lines – If a line crosses over itself, you can now trim the line back to the point at which it self-intersects by picking the line as its own bounding line.
• Line highlighting – Selected lines now highlight consistently in all graphic views (using the highlight color and line width defined in program options).
• CAD block import – When you convert blocks to 3D points during a .dxf/.dwg file import, points are no longer created for blocks at 0,0; often, these were invalid points geographically separated from your actual data.