What's new in GeoTools V6

[Anonymous]

GeoTools from Four Dimension Technologies is an add-on program for AutoCAD
2006/2005/2004/2002/2000i and 2000 and vertical compatibles.

GeoTools is a productivity tool and helps you finish all of your AutoCAD
tasks faster and efficiently.

Fully functional 30-day evaluation version at
http://www.4d-technologies.com/geotools

GeoTools is fully dialog box driven, 100% icon menu, pull-down menu, command
line and compatible with scrippts fro unattended operations.

This new edition is 100% toolbar, pulldown menu, command-line and script
driven. With this new addition, it is now much faster than ever to access
your tools and this single feature alone can save you over a hundred or more
keystrokes during your work.

Multiple GeoTools interfaces:

- Toolbar pick
- Pull-down menu pick
- AutoCAD command-line
- Automated batch script

GeoTools is for productivity. It brings together under the umbrella of one
product, a set of over 100 useful commands that help you plan and finish
your work in AutoCAD much faster. GeoTools is built to eliminate the most
common bottlenecks in AutoCAD and was born to fulfill the needs of the
mapping, surveying, utilities, civil, GIS users of AutoCAD. Today, the
program has grown beyond its initial domain and many of he tools are general
purpose enough to be of interest to just any AutoCAD user.

Look under the hood carefully. Some tools that you see here may seem to be
already present in your core AutoCAD or in other tools that you may have
used. Don't be misled. In many cases, GeoTools offers you more
possibilities, more options than is possible in ther tools. Check it out for
yourself.

Multiple purchase options: You now no longer need to purchase the entire
toolkit. Our unique 'MyGeoTools' feature allows you to order only the
required tools that you need. Check out this URL for more info:

http://www.4d-technologies.com/geotools/my_geotools.htm

-------------------------------------------------
What' new in GeoTools V6:
( Includes all changes since the last update of GeoTools V5 [i.e 5.40] )


*********** New commands added in GeoTools V6
GT_XP_RETDAT ( Miscellaneous Tools - Explode objects, retain object data and
extended entity data):

The GT_XP_RETDAT command is a modified explode command which explodes
polylines, blocks, hatches, regions and mulitple polygon objects while
retaining both extended entity data and object table data in each one of the
exploded components.

GT_CmdDlgTog (Only on command line) : Automatic toggle command-line mode
(script-mode) on and off.

GT_CmdDlg (Only on command line) : Asks for a Yes/No question and toggles
GeoTools command-line mode on/off

GT_GEO_INS : (Miscellaneous Tools - Add geo-referenced images):
The GT_GEO_INS command can be used to insert geo-referenced image files.
These image files can be either in the TIF, BMP, PNG or JPG format and they
MUST be accompanied by their world files as well. The World files have an
extension of TFW, BPW or JGW. This command DOES NOT import GeoTIFF files in
which the geo-referencing information is stored in the file header. Instead,
this is a command designed to work with the normal TIF, JPG and BMP files
only which have their world files also available.

GT_SPLITTEXT : (Text Tools - Split Text into smaller strings) :
The GT_SPLITTEXT command is used to split a long line of text or Mtext
string into a number of smaller text strings based on a delimiter. So, if
you have a text string that looks like:
"The,Quick,Brown,Fox,Jumps,Over,The,Lazy,Dog" and if the comma character ","
is specified as the delimiter, this command will create individual text
strings like "The" "Quick" "Brown" "Fox" "Jumps" "Over" "The" "Lazy" "Dog"
at almost the same insertion point locations as where the original string
was in the combined string. This command has been released in an interim
(as-is) state. We realize there are some rough edges and they will be fixed
soon. Any feedback is welcome and will be taken constructively.

GT_DRAWPOLYINCRDECR: (Polyline Tools & Draw Tools - Draw 3d polylines with
automatically incrementing/decrementing elevations):
The GT_DRAWPOLYINCRDECR command is used to automatically create 3d polylines
with incrementing or decrementing vertex elevations between successive
picks. You can either draw the 3d polylines manually by specifying their XY
locations and have the Z values generated automatically or specify an
existing selection of 3d polylines and have their z values automatically
populated.

GT_ASS_EL_TEXT (Conversion Tools - Assign contour elevations from text
objects):
The GT_ASS_EL_TEXT command is another "intelligence adding" tool. It allows
you to assign elevations to contour polylines which do not have elevations
but, unlike the GT_ASS_EL command which performs automatic incrementing of
elevations, this command asks for a text label object to acquire the
elevation from, for each of the picked contour object. You are asked to pick
a reference contour and a corresponding text object for the elevation.


********** Commands enhanced or changed


GT_FLIP : [Polyline Tools - Flip (reverse) directions] :
Two new options have been added to this command. You can now flip polylines
based on the values of the first and last point elevations. Depending on
whether the first point elevation is lesser than or greater than the last
point elevation, you can reverse the direction of the polyline. This is a
very useful tool in many surveying and mapping applications where you expect
polylines to be flowing in either increasing or decreasing z values. This
command helps to identify such flows and reverse them. Please be aware that
this tool only looks at the first and last point elevations and does not
check the intermediate vertex elevation values for any reason.

In the future, we plan to come up with a more "intelligent" polyline
elevation analyzer program that would also study the pattern on intermediate
elevations and check if there are intermediate segments that violate the
desired flow of the vertices.

GT_3DOFFSET : [Polyline Tools - 3d offset of polylines] :
The internal mechanism of this command has been altered slightly to overcome
some bugs which would show up while handling some situations of 3d polyline
vertices. The program is now more stable and error-proof. These changes
affect only the handling of offsets when the number of vertices between the
source and offsetted polylines are not the same.

GT_REPBLK : (Block Tools - Replace blocks) :
The GT_REPBLK command now allows a manual selection of blocks to be made for
block replacement. The earlier way of working would replcae every instance
of one block with another. This has now been changed. Additionally, this
command now retains both extended entity data as well as object table data
while replacing one block with another.

GT_SCALE_Z (Miscellaneous Tools - Scale Z elevation values):
This command now has its edit box width increased to 8. So, you can add more
number of digits to the precision of the values that you are scaling.

Common enhancements:
GT_LINE2PL : (Polyline/Conversion Tools - Convert lines and arcs/circles to
polyline):
GT_3DF2PL : (Conversion/Polyline Tools - 3DFaces to polylines)
GT_3DF2PFACE : (Conversion Tools - 3DFaces to polyface mesh)
GT_PFACE2PL : (Conversion Tools - Polyface mesh to polylines)
GT_CH3D2D : (Polyline Tools - Convert 3D-to-2D polylines)
GT_CH2D3D : (Polyline Tools - Convert 2D-to-3D polylines)
GT_XP_RETDADT: (Miscellaneous Tools - Explode objects, retain Xdata and
object data)
GT_REPBLK : (Block Tools - Replace Blocks)

All of the above commands have been enhanced to retain both extended entity
data and object table data while entities are transformed from source to
target.

GT_OD_SEARCH (Autodesk Map Tools - Search and replace Object Table Data):
The GT_OD_SEARCH command now has an option to just do the Search without the
Replace.

There is a new option called 'Replace Values' which, if checked, performs a
search and replace operation. If it is not checked, only a search is
performed and the objects meeting the search criteria will be placed in the
active selection set. Some other bugs in this command have been fixed.

GT_XP_RETDAT : (Miscellaneous Tools - Retain object table data and extended
entity data):
The GT_XP_RETDAT command has now been enhanced and it can now explode REGION
objects and retain their object data and extented entity data in their
exploded polyline form.

GT_IMPEX: (Export Tools - Import/Export points and lines) - The GT_IMPEX
command now has additional options to handle exporting of linear features.

The following enhancements to the GT_IMPEX command have been done in this
update:

1. You can now optionally create a blank line between two line/polygon
records
2. You can now optionally use a different last point elevation identifier
for line/polygon records. If this option is checked, the last elevation of
each line or polyline record will have a different elevation string as
entered in the edit box below. This feature is provided because some systems
identify the end of a line/polyline by reading a special value set in the
elevation field of the last point.
3. You can now overwrite an existing output file or simply append to it.

Progress Indicator Interval : Often, GeoTools displays a progress indicator
by way of an informative message on the command line that indicates how many
objects have been processed and how many are remaining to be processed.

Until now, the progress indicator message was updated for each object that
was being processed. This can be quite time-consuming when large data-sets
have to be processed and it takes up significant computing time. To overcome
this, we are introducing a parameter called 'Progress Indicator Interval' in
the General Settings dialog box (GT_GENSET command).
Here, you can now specify the progress indicator interval you want. So, if
you specify 100 as the interval, the progress indicator will refresh itself
only once each 100 objects are processed. This speeds up processing
significantly.

GT_ASN_PROP: (Assign inherited properties from neighboring objects -
Conversion Tools) : The GT_ASN_PROP command can now assign to each vertex of
a 3d polyline elevation values inherited from neigbouring text or block
attributes.

GT_MODTXT: (Globally Modify Text/MText objects): This command now has an
added option to trim characters from the beginning or end of a string of
text/mtext upto a specifed marker character. The marker character should be
a single character that has to be specified in the object edit box labelled
"Enter value for selected property"

Bug Fix & Enhancement : GT_DENSIFY : The GT_DENSIFY command has now been bug
fixed and updated. The command now correctly interpolates the in-between
added vertices and it acquires 3d elevations correctly by interpolation.

There have been some minor changes in the program options. The option to
measure distances by 'Slope' or 'Horizontal' has been removed and the
program now measures in Slope only. The option to "Interpolate" 3d polyline
vertices has been removed and interpolation is now automatic for 3d
polylines.


************* Bug Fixes

GT_NEWSTART : (Polyline Tools - Specify a new start for closed polylines) :
The GT_NEWSTART command has a small bug fixed. Whether the polylines had an
explicit closing vertex duplicated as first vertex or not (implicit
closing), the same structure is now carried forward to the new polyline with
its modified start point. Earlier, no matter what the original polyline was,
the new polyline had its last point duplicated explicitly as the first
point.

- Rakesh Rao [rakesh.rao(at)4d-technologies.com]
- Four Dimension Technologies
[www.4d-technologies.com]
- Coordinate Systems