RELEASE 4.1 Product Notes

July 2007

The following changes have been made to DAT/EM products. Please review these items before installing your update.

As always, DAT/EM welcomes comments and suggestions from you, our clients, so please don’t hesitate to contact our support department at support@datem.com, or by calling in or faxing us with your requests.

Release 4.1 is compiled specifically for Windows 2000 and XP. Windows VISTA is not supported at this time.

Release 4.1 is compatible with the following CAD versions:

AutoCAD: *R14, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

MicroStation: *Ustn J, MicroStation V8 2004 Edition

ArcGIS: ArcMap 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2

*These versions are available but no longer supported. No further development will occur.

Summit Evolution

1. Polyline shapefiles were added as acceptable formats for DTM input for orthophotos and other processes within Summit.

2. There were problems displaying and applying the correct principal points for rotated digital camera files. Now the unrotated principal point value is shown and is not changed when the camera file is re-saved.

3. The automatic loading of adjacent models failed on digital camera projects if imagery was rotated in increments of 90 degrees. The next model would load when moving in one direction, but not the opposite direction. This was fixed.

4. The “View->Show 4^th Band” option to toggle between RGB and the 4^th band in DAT/EM’s Image Viewer (OrthoViewer.exe) caused the cursor to jump back to the center of the image. Now the cursor retains the current coordinate.

5. The ability to export model bounds to a *.DXF file was added. Select File->Export to open the dialog.

The text size relates to text displayed in the *.DXF file noting the image names.

A sample as it would appear in AutoCAD follows.

6. *.BIL/*.HDR and *.ASC file formats were added to the point translator (LandscapePointTrans.exe). For more details on this program, please refer to Release 4.0 Product Notes or contact our support department.

7. PCI projects have crashed when opened in Summit after at least one model has been open. If you experience similar problems using PCI project and images in Summit, please contact support for more information. Please remember you must have a PCI hardware lock on the computer to use .pix images or to open PCI version 10.0 projects. At this time DAT/EM is not supporting version 10.1 projects from PCI.

8. Generate images from LiDAR data, and create stereo image pairs, using GenLidarImageUI.exe. This program is included with a Summit Evolution installation and is located in the …\Program Files\Datem Software folder.

Make a list of all of the LiDAR data files by selecting the “Add…” button. The files may be of several types.

Once the desired files have been selected you have the option of storing the images in a separate folder, or in the same folder as the original image. Various image types can be created using Intensity, histogram equalization, color by elevation, or both color by elevation and intensity.

To create a mate to the generated LiDAR image, check on “Create Mate’ in the “Stereo Mate Generation” section of the dialog. The image created will be automatically named as <filename>_mate.tif. The pixel shift value will determine the range of movement to accommodate the maximum elevation change. This may need adjustment if the stereo view is too limited or appears stretched. Click “Process” to create both the LiDAR image and its stereo mate when the “Create Mate” box is checked.

The “Create Mate” button on the far right side of the dialog opens another dialog for generating only the stereo mate of an existing image. Therefore, you can use this option if you do not like the stereo results from the first image pair to create a new stereo mate of the original (left) image.

Using the image created from the LiDAR file(s) for the Image, and its DTM file(s), you can adjust the pixel shift and also apply a default elevation to fill in gaps in the DTM. This will generate a new stereo mate. It only generates the image mate.

Create a new LiDAR project by selecting from the File->New Project list in Summit. Add the two images – the LiDAR image and its stereo mate. Viewing them as a stereo pair or model, you can then map vectors and objects in 3D with Capture.

9. A variation in the ADS40 *.SUP file entry for determining camera data was discovered which prevented the camera data from being included in the Summit project upon setup. The alternate format was added and the problem was resolved when applying the “Add Multi Using Sup” option in the Project Editor for ADS40 project setup.

10. An embedded zoomed view was added, similar to the embedded bird’s-eye view. The close-up stereo view window used to be a separate OpenGL window of its own. This is still available, but the default is to use the embedded view to conserve computer resources. Also, some secondary video displays have trouble with OpenGL windows, so embedding the zoomed view ensures its correct display. When the mouse is placed within the zoomed view, a slider bar appears, allowing the user to adjust the zoom level. Both the embedded bird’s-eye and the embedded zoom views can be displayed in Full Screen mode.

11. Terrain Visualization, along with other popular functions as described in the menu below, are available by clicking the right mouse button within the Summit window. The menu is also available in full screen mode. Tip: try moving the mouse to the top of the full screen mode window – you’ll see the Summit pulldown menus are available for selection.

12. Terrain Z Offset is a new option available from the Terrain pull-down menu in Summit.

Terrain Z Offset is the elevation offset to apply to the loaded terrain surface during Terrain Following. When Terrain Following is on, the returned Z value is modified by this offset. The units are ground units.

For example, if Terrain Following’s points file indicates Z=10 at a certain XY coordinate, and “Z Offset from DTM” is set to 5, then Terrain Following will set the cursor to Z=15. It also sends Z=15 to AutoCAD, MicroStation, or ArcGIS.

Another option from the Terrain menu is “DTM File Information. It will display the following details from the DTM file(s) loaded for the Terrain Mode.

13. Terrain Processing and Terrain Following toolbars provide quick links to Summit topography tools.

Terrain Processing includes Terrain Visualization, Contour Creator, and Point Translator/Distributor. The Terrain Following toolbar contains options for automatically tracking the cursor to the ground. Terrain Processing was added to the “Terrain” pull-down menu of Summit to accompany the popular Terrain Following tools.

14. The Terrain Visualization tool now uses specific selected CAD/GIS layers, and ignores all other superimposed layers in the main view. “Layers” refers to AutoCAD and ArcGIS layers and MicroStation levels.

a. Select “Layers to use” from the Contour tab of the Terrain Visualization dialog, or select “Layer Manager” from the SI pull-down menu or toolbar. Click on the “Terrain Visualization” list. Check only those layers to use as data for creating temporary contours, and which contain objects you want to edit or create that will modify those contours. Use LAYER MANAGER again any time the AutoCAD, MicroStation, or ArcMap file changes or when layers are added or subtracted from the current file. The LAYER MANAGER is described in detail below in the Super Imposition section of Product Notes for Release 4.1.

b. The icon quickly toggles the display of the temporary contours on or off.

c. Terrain Visualization is faster and more efficient in performance.

d. Terrain Visualization has a new Breakline Filter setting. Points are ignored within the filter distance of breakline vectors. Breakline Filter gives priority to the elevations along breaklines. To disable, set to zero.

15. CONTOUR CREATOR creates and stores permanent contours into .DXF or CAD drawings. The CONTOUR CREATOR is available only with Summit Evolution Professional, and is not available with Summit Lite or Feature Collection.

The Contour Creator dialog consists of five tabs of options. The “Generate” button is for creating the permanent contours according to the settings in the Output tab. Settings may be saved to a *.REG file and re-used with the “Save Settings File” and the “Open Settings File” buttons on the lower right of the dialog next to “Close”.

The Input tab defines layers or levels according to type Points, Breaklines, Soft Breaklines, Borders, and Exclusions. Depending on the selection available in the drawing open in CAD at the time Contour Creator is used, various layers and levels may be chosen. Exclusion area objects should not contain arcs. The “Last” button recalls the most recent settings for Input items from the current user section of the computer registry.

Next is the Contour tab. This looks very much like the Contour tab in Terrain Visualization. The most significant difference is the section defining options after contours have been generated.

Check on “Display Completion Dialog” to display statistics after contours are completed. “CAD Zoom Extents” fits the drawing to the CAD window after processing.

Depression contours are defined in the next tab of Contour Creator.

No depression contours will be generated unless the “Mark depressions” checkbox is checked. Tiny depression contours are minimized by entering a “Maximum Area”. The depressions are determined by the remaining optional settings.

The CAD Info tab displays the Layers, Vectors and Points it reads from the open CAD drawing. If you don’t see reasonable numbers displayed, click the “SI Update” button or restart Contour Creator to refresh the display. If no CAD information is read the contours will not generate correctly.

The last tab is to define how you want the contours stored – in the open drawing or in a *.DXF file.

From this tab you can clear out existing contours, create new layer or level definitions for contours, select existing ones, and assign colors.

16. The “Point Translator and Distributor” was introduced in Release 3.10. Since then some changes have been made and additional functions have been added. The Point Translator is a very useful tool to combine many different types of point data files, extract or bomgine point coverage areas, redistribute points, and output to various other file formats.

Here is a list of potential files that can be loaded into the Point Translator. Any combination of files is permitted.

In support of these various file formats there are options for defining different *.XYZ formats with the “Change Text Format” button, and for defining and applying LiDAR file filters. To edit and define LiDAR filters, click . The available point filters appear in the dropdown list next to this “Edit LiDAR filter” button, which can then be applied.

The Grid tab takes the input files and creates multiple files from them based on the desired area. In this way, millions of points can be divided into manageable file sizes. A boundary file option will create a separate file from each polyline shape. The shape in turn defines the area and the input files are divided according to these boundaries.

Some files may need to be converted so all of the data is in the same coordinate system before the data is output or further manipulated. The Conversion tab provides the ability to convert from one coordinate system to another.

Points may be redistributed using options on the Distribute tab. The grid size is in ground units. Points may be “smoothed” for denser grids to get the best fit point from a larger grid file. The newly distributed points may be rotated for most file types. The user is restricted from converting coordinates during the same run as redistribution.

The Output tab defines the final output format, where the files are stored, and a merge option.

17. You can pan now when editing seam lines in Project Viewer mosaic process.

18. During the import of SSK projects into Summit the project name defaulted to “project.smtprj”. The ability to give the project a name during the import process was added.

19. The Project Viewer automatically applies the rotation to match the Summit window.

20. Button #8 of the custom CAD toolbar in Summit was not working, and was corrected. In addition, the CAD toolbar buttons use DATDRAW commands when appropriate.

21. Multiple camera support was added for Aerosys AT export files, *.REF and *.CAL.

22. Summit Viewer is now SUMMIT LITE. It is a stereo viewing tool with no ability to measure or modify orientations. One can import SSK, Socet Set and DiAP projects and open existing Summit Evolution projects. The input device is a system mouse. Standard stereo viewing hardware is required to view stereo. Summit Lite does not include Terrain Visualization, Contour Creator, or orthophoto/mosaic tools.

Summit Lite has the following new features, not previously available in Summit Viewer.

Summit Lite has the ability to use elevations with Terrain Mode activated and pass those coordinates into CAD. The digitizing and editing tools of the supported CAD packages, AutoCAD, MicroStation, or ArcGIS, are available for use in Summit Lite. No additional editing or capture software is included, but if needed, MapEditor and Capture tools may be purchased separately.

Summit Lite includes commands to measure heights and slopes, and has view management tools such as automatic panning and zooming.

23. The Button Manager changed the way registry settings are imported. A new “Reset” button will delete the entire registry entry in the DAT/EM Systems International tree struction within HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and restore all values to defaults.

SuperImposition

1. There is a new SI pull-down menu in Summit.

Accompanying the pull-down menu is a new SI toolbar. Additional Super Imposition settings remain in the Tools->Options->SI tab. Notice there is a new tool, LAYER MANAGER. A description is included below.

2. LAYER MANAGER was created to save and manage display of vectors based on layers (or levels) from the CAD within Summit. When you don’t want to use CAD’s layer management tools, this is another option useful in controlling the amount of data in the stereo view window. The LAYER MANAGER also allows you to set separate layer lists for main view superimposition and for Terrain Visualization input.

Using LAYER MANAGER, you can set up groups of layers from CAD projects for display in Summit if you don’t want everything from the CAD drawing onscreen. Separate settings can be saved for Summit’s main stereo view and when Terrain Visualization is active. A *.REG file is created and can be accessed anywhere on the computer or connected network.

NOTE: If you use more than one CAD package and define layers that do not exist in a drawing opened at a later time, LAYER MANAGER will ignore them, but there may be no Super Imposition displayed at all until the “All Layers” option is re-assigned in the LAYER MANAGER. Use the LAYER MANAGER any time the AutoCAD, MicroStation, or ArcMap file changes or when layers are added or subtracted from the current file.

A link to LEVEL MANAGER is also available from the “Contour” tab of the Terrain Visualization dialog.

3. Super Imposition Clipping tips for Terrain Visualization and various bounds settings. The CAD’s SI SETTINGS dialog controls the vectors sent over for display in SI from the CAD drawing. So, you can limit the amount of data actually getting sent over for display in a stereo window. (Remember, this would also apply to mechanical analytical or analog stereoplotters fitted with Super Imposition, as well as Summit.) The bounds applied are either User Bounds (Summit only), or model bounds. When this is off, Super Imposition displays everything in a drawing, even if it extends beyond a model area. Check this on, and data is displayed based on model bounds. Define User Bounds, and these will be used instead of model bounds.

After making a decision whether or not to set User Bounds vs. model bounds, Terrain Visualization offers some additional options for managing the display of data in the stereo window. First is the “Set bounds” button. This defines an area where contours will be generated based on the stereo window size at the time the “Set bounds” button is selected. As long as this area is within any S/I bounds defined (model or User Bounds), you will see contours updating.

The second option in Terrain Visualization for display is a “Clip SI to bounds” checkbox on the Bounds tab of the Terrain Visualization dialog. This causes all SI to be clipped to the Terrain Visualization bounds. The setting is off by default, and it is NOT recommended to activate it unless you have a very large SI dataset that is maximizing the CPU usage on your computer. When the checkbox is unchecked, contours are still limited to the Terrain Visualization bounds, but other SI objects will still display outside of this boundary. Checking on “Clip SI to bounds” causes everything to be clipped to the Terrain Visualization bounds.

Since User Bounds and CAD SI SETTINGS clipping are independent of Terrain Visualization’s “Clip SI to bounds”, there is still some control of SI data displayed in the stereo window, and using the “Clip SI to bounds” option is therefore usually not necessary. With the addition of LEVEL MANAGER, you have many options for controlling what is displayed as SI in the stereo view for maximum efficiency.

Capture for ArcGIS

NOTE: Compatible with versions of ArcGIS 9.1 and 9.2.

1. SI ON/OFF was not working for ArcGIS from the keypad. This was fixed.

2. An updated ArcGIS Summit manual is included on installation CD’s.

3. A new option allows “Apply” to be sent as a command through User CAD button assignments in the Button Manager, or as an option from a keypad key with output text set to “Apply”. This is only available for ArcGIS Capture interfaces and not for AutoCAD or MicroStation Capture interfaces. It works in FieldUpdate and LineOffsets. There is no need to switch to the system mouse to click an “Apply” button in a dialog using this option.

4. The ability to store slope data as a percentage was added to FieldUpdate. Select “MeasureSlopePercent” to populate the field.

Capture for AutoCAD

NOTE: All changes apply to AutoCAD 2000-2008 versions unless stated otherwise. This is the first release supporting AutoCAD 2008.

1. DTMIT was not working unless the DAT/EM template file was used. This has been fixed.

2. LINESLOPE creates a 2-point line object with text defining the percent slope.

Click on “Start”->

Define the layer for the Line object. The Label will be offset by user-defined X and Y distances (left justified) at the precision selected, and on the layer defined in the text box. To change text size, use DAT/EM’s SETUP dialog and modify the “Text size” field. Label placement options include “Rotate to Kappa” and “Label End of Line”. If “Label End of Line” is checked, the label is placed in reference to the last vertex. If the checkbox is left off the label is offset from the first vertex.

Checked “Label End of Line” box -> Unchecked “Label End of Line” box ->

3. MEASUREHEIGHT is a new command used for placing a point or block with a text label indicating its height. MeasureHeight is available in all Summit Evolutions – Lite, Feature Collection, and Professional. It is not recommended to have Terrain Mode active when using MeasureHeight.

Use Tools->Load Applications to load the Measure2004.arx program in AutoCAD.

Click on “Start” ->

Points or blocks may be inserted into the drawing using MeasureHeight. To scale the blocks when they are inserted, enter a scale multiplier into the text field “Scale”. The checkbox “Place At Top” indicates that the point or block will be inserted at the highest elevation of the measurement. Use the “Layer” field to select the appropriate layer for placement.

Labels are inserted at user-defined X and Y offset distances (left justified) from the insertion position of the point or block. Select the precision, or number of decimal places from the “Precision” listbox. Once again, “Place At Top” determines the elevation at which the text is inserted and, if checked, the text is placed at the highest elevation of the measurement. Labels may also be rotated to the orientation’s kappa angle at the time of placement. Use the selection listbox for “Layer” to define the layer for the label. Label text size can be changed from DAT/EM’s SETUP dialog.

4. TINPOLYGONS will create “TIN” lines inside of shapes. This is useful for defining roof planes.

Check on the desired layers containing target objects or check on “Use Selected” to interactively pick the objects for processing. For selected polygons that are nested, check “Join selected polygons” to create a TIN from the outside polygon to the inside polygon as well as within the inside polygon. Resulting TIN polylines will be generated on the layer defined in the “TIN Layer” field. There are cases where the TIN generation fails. Please contact support or watch for changes in future releases related to this command.

Capture for MicroStation

Changes apply to Capture for MicroStation V8/2004 Edition series only. MicroStation V8 version should be 08.05.00.64 or higher.

This is the first release to install for MicroStation XM. However, testing has not been completed and it is considered a beta release right now. You are welcome to use Capture for MicroStation XM and report any problems to support@datem.com. However, at this time DAT/EM cannot recommend Capture for XM for map production. (Note: Bentley recommends that hyperthreading be off in the PC BIOS for best performance.)

1. DATDRAW’s ZSEQUENCE option dropped points when they should have been restricted. This was fixed.

2. TOUCH was improved to restore original MicroStation ACCUSNAP settings. Since ACCUSNAP is required for the command, it is automatically activated.

3. XYZIN now places cells that are defined. The “Text field” of the input file must contain a valid cellname in the attached cell library. If no cellname exists as a text field, the cell chosen in the drop-down list of the XYZIN dialog is used. Shared files will be created. There are plans to redesign XYZIN in future releases.

4. The ability to process shared cells was added to BREAKLINEFILTER. When modifying shared cells the level may be changed, but not other symbology.

5. CHANGE ATTRIBUTES INTERIOR changed the level to “default” in addition to color if only color was selected. This was fixed.

6. XYZOUT exports tags so that the tag name of the first attached tag is placed in the “tag” column of the output file.

7. MEASUREHEIGHT is a new command active for Summit Evolution Lite, Summit Evolution Feature Collection, and Summit Evolution Professional. Placement of a cell along with text representing the height between two measured points is performed using the following options.

Precision, text offset, the cell for placement and its scale, and the level assignment are user-defined. Click “OK” to run MeasureHeight or “Cancel” to exit without activating the command. The command is repetitive until another MicroStation command is activated. Click on “Default” to reset the fields in the dialog to original default settings.

MEASUREHEIGHT SETTINGS is the command to re-activate the settings dialog.

8. LINESLOPE creates a 2-point line labeled with text for percent slope.

LINESLOPE SETTINGS calls the dialog to update the settings. Activate the command using LINESLOPE.

LineSlope is provided with Summit Evolution Lite, Summit Evolution Feature Collection, and Summit Evolution Professional.

9. CLEARLEVEL and CLEARLEVEL <levelname> are new key-in commands that delete all objects from a level. Use these commands with extreme caution; they are NOT undoable. Their main purpose is to be used by Summit Evolution's Contour Creator when replacing contours. For the ability to delete based on attributes or a selection set, DAT/EM recommends using the DATEMDELETE command instead.