RELEASE 4.2 Product Notes

October 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 4.2 is compiled specifically for Windows 2000 and XP. Windows VISTA is not supported at this time.

Release 4.2 is compatible with the following CAD versions:

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

MicroStation: MicroStation V8 and 2004 Edition

ArcGIS: ArcMap 9.1 and 9.2

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

Summit Evolution

1. The ability to read more file formats into the mosaic process to define tiles, or boundaries, was added. Boundary names are automatically assigned to any text inside the imported areas, or the user can name the boundaries. Use the ‘?’ icon and click on the “Import TXT…” button to see examples of the two text file formats.

There are two new options for importing mosaic boundaries, “Import Vector File…” and “Import TXT…”. The .TXT option is for ASCII files. Various vector file formats may also be imported. The following is a sample of supported formats.

2. The selection of vector files for input and output is available in this version of Summit Evolution. Blue Marble’s GeoTranslate libraries have been incorporated into reading various vector formats throughout Summit, the Image Viewer, Ortho and mosaic generation, Contour Creator and Point Translator. Instead of requiring a CAD drawing, the file contents can be viewed directly in Summit’s SuperImposition. There are capabilities for selecting layers out of these files.

For example, the Contour Creator can use a range of vector files for input. The sample graphic below shows a Breakline level selection after the file is selected as input for breakline information during contour creation.

Another useful feature is the ability to save the contours directly to a vector file. This is much faster than writing to an open CAD drawing. The option is available from the “Output” tab of Contour Creator. Check on “Quick View” to open the vector file and view the new contours in CAD.

If using large LiDAR files or large vector files for point input during contouring, it is best to break up the files to smaller, more manageable sizes using the Point Translator. Processing contours is much quicker as a result. The number of files does not matter.

3. A few changes were made when using LiDAR images.

a. The models for LiDAR image projects are generated automatically in this version by matching the image “<filename>_mate” with the original image.

b. There was a correction for the *.BIN file format when generating images from LiDAR point data.

c. During the LiDAR image generation process, no stereo mates were being generated when “An image for each LIDAR file” was checked and you chose “Create Mate”. This was corrected. It is required to select an output folder for the new images.

4. The panning and cursor movement were given a performance boost. Cursor movement should be smooth for all input devices. Older computers may need to adjust the Performance to a slower setting if the CPU reaches a maximum while panning. To adjust the performance, open Tools->Options->Main View.

Click and drag the slider bar from one side or the other. A faster setting applies to higher end workstations with more powerful CPU’s, and the slower option would accommodate the performance ability of an older computer or single processor.

5. Summit’s Status Bar has been changed to show the Map Scale of the stereo view. Click on any of the fields displayed to type in specific values. The view can be set to user-defined scale and zoom level. Ground coordinates in X, Y and/or Z may also be hand entered to drive to a specific location in the stereo view.

Project units are taken into consideration. If the setting is not correct in the Project Edit dialog, the calculation will not be correct. The map scale item only appears when the model has ground coordinates. The map scale remains set when changing models, but not when changing projects. The value is not saved in the project file, and must be reset when opening a project.

The dimension of the monitor, as well as its resolution, affect map scale. Currently, only the primary monitor is considered in the calculation.

6. The Tie Point Overview has been enhanced for resizing text and viewing measurements based on a wider variety of orientations. If an image rotations was applied, the image frame now reflects that rotation and the points fit correctly into the Overview window. First introduced in Release 3.9, the Tie Point Overview dialog can assist in identifying areas where additional points may be needed, or simply for verifying overlap.

7. Enhancements to the feathering process during mosaic creation improve results within triple and quadruple image overlap areas. A second change involved correcting “stair-stepped” pixels along seam lines when processing was repeated without exiting the program.

8. A new API COM utility is available for developing Visual Basic tools to interface with Summit.

9. Summit Evolution Lite uses the system mouse. When the right button was hit twice in a row it stopped controlling Summit’s cursor, but the mouse wheel still affected the Z coordinate. This was changed to affect zooming instead.

10. A new “Densify Breaklines” option was added to the “Contour” tab for both Contour Creator and Terrain Visualization. The densification process can create smoother contours that are more tightly affected by breakline elevations.

Also new is the “Breakline Filter” field. This works similarly to the BreakLineFilter command in Capture. A distance in ground units is defined by the user. Points within this distance from the breakline will be ignored for purposes of influencing the contours created. This option is included in Terrain Visualization as well.

11. There is a new Rotate button in the Tie Points dialog . The rotate option allows you to view strip overlap images in left/right stereo by applying an angle, typically 90 or 270, to the imagery.

Any angle may be user-defined using the text field at the bottom of the dialog. When the Tie Points dialog is closed, the stereo rotation is automatically reset to normal.

12. The Topography tab of the Generate Orthophotos dialog has new options for selecting “Features in Use”.

S/I items may only be used as True Ortho objects and should be closed polygons. A drawing must be open in CAD to be able to check this checkbox.

Other True ortho polygons are included through the vector file import option. This used to be the DXF file import option, but since Blue Marble’s GeoTranslate was added, Summit can ingest many types of vector files, including DXF. The count totals for all features are obtained from imported DTM point files, vector files imported, and drawing S/I object options.

13. Intergraph’s Z/I Mouse is now supported on Summit softcopy systems as a valid input device. There is a new tab in the Button Manager dialog displaying the button layout and a picture of the device.

Activate the Z/I Mouse in the Tools->Options->Input Devices tab. The “Swap sticks” checkbox exchanges the Z and XY thumb buttons on the Z/I Mouse. Using the “Settings” button requires that the ZiInput Tester.exe file be available on the PC.

14. Another new feature in Release 4.2 is the ability to minimize, or hide, other Summit windows. For example, the Project View window containing Images, models and strips, may be reduced to a status bar button. Move the mouse cursor to the button to expand the window to a normal size for viewing.

Click on the pushpin icon to

Shrink or hide the window. Note the position of the pushpin icon.

Drag the cursor over the button tab to expand and view the window.

To restore the window click the pushpin again.

Notice that the position of the pushpin can indicate whether or not

a window is in a state of being reduced.

Any Summit “window” listed in the View pull-down menu may be minimized in this way.

15. Images containing a 4^th band alpha format (strip tile .tif) are supported now in Summit. The sample data was 4-band digital orthophotos.

16. A close range project error was fixed. The Z movement was not correct in model coordinates for cameras with large distortions.

17. Sometimes the Project Viewer would not open and lock up Summit if images were set to automatically load. The Project Viewer failed to display and accept a rotated image with a non-rotated camera. The view and the orthophoto generation would fail. Both items are corrected.

18. Contour Creator’s “Last”, “Load” or “Save” buttons did not work properly when reloading settings. It was possible that contours would stop generating if an error occurred once, and they would not generate again unless the program was restarted. This was fixed.

19. A four foot pedal configuration for DiAP hardware was added to the Button Manager.

To access the configuration, set the Tools->Options->Input Device to “ISM Handwheels”. Open the Button Manager’s Foot Pedals tab. Configure the foot pedals as desired.

20. If you find Summit’s window boring and want to give it some holiday color, try using the new View->Change Look option.

21. There were problems importing ISM projects, which was fixed in Release 4.2 build 11/8/07. If you downloaded the release prior to that date, please download the latest release or request a CD from support.

SuperImposition

1. S/I objects outside the calculated model bounds could cause an application crash. To avoid this, a validation check is made and the object is not displayed if it falls outside the bounds range. For ADS40 projects there can be valid S/I objects well beyond the actual model bounds due to the unique nature of ADS40 imagery and its management. Coordinate conversions may also have an effect. Therefore, the model extents were increased well beyond the normal limits for these types of projects to prevent unexpected program failure.

2. Vector files may now be opened for SuperImposition without a file open in AutoCAD, MicroStation, or ArcMap. Use the “Open Vector Files” options in the View pull-down menu.

Capture for ArcGIS

NOTE: Compatible with versions of ArcGIS 9.1 and 9.2.

1. There is a new user command called ToggleDatemCursor. This command is useful from the keypad to switch between the Datem cursor and the ArcMap cursor action within ArcMap. ToggleDatemCursor can also be programmed as a UserCAD button on the mouse.

2. If the system mouse is the input device for DAT/EM’s ArcMap interface, the default configuration for the right mouse button was changed. It used to be set to “Generic CAD – Cancel”. This caused a problem when using the right system mouse button to stop panning.

3. If a coordinate conversion was performed on data from the ESRI side to match the coordinate system Summit was using, the coordinates passed between the two applications were incorrect. A correction was made to the ESRI interface with Summit to correct the problem. So it will now be possible to use ESRI coordinate conversion within ArcMap. (The work-around was to perform the coordinate conversion in Summit and not ESRI.)

4. If you have a lock for ArcGIS and are updating to Release 4.2, please select “Yes” during the Sentinel driver update or installation about whether to support parallel locks. This applies to both USB and parallel ArcGIS locks.

The symptoms of having answered "No" during DAT/EM-Sentinel installation are:

Before DAT/EM installation, ArcMap works. But immediately after DAT/EM installation, when you log on, ArcGIS produces a hardware lock error message about the lock missing:

When you try to start ArcMap, it gives a license error.

The ArcGIS lock reader utiltiy sees the lock and can report its serial number and details, so it's a bit difficult to guess why it isn't working.

It's easy to fix it:

Windows -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs.

Select Sentinel Protection Installer and select Change.

Next -> Modify -> Sentinel Systems Driver -> Parallel Driver > This feature, and all subfeatures, will be installed on local hard drive.

Capture for AutoCAD

NOTE: All changes apply to AutoCAD 2000-2008 versions unless stated otherwise.

1. Autodesk Map 3D 2006 has a fatal error using the CUI if both 1.1 and 2.0 .NET are installed side by side. Autodesk’s fix is to use only 1.1 .NET. The new API COM available as of DAT/EM’s Release 4.2 is not compatible with 1.1 .NET. Also, newer Map3D versions use 2.0 .NET. Therefore, it is not recommended that you have both Autodesk Map 3D 2006 installed at the same time as Autodesk Map 3D 2007/2008 versions. Although this is an Autodesk issue, it may be useful knowledge if you don’t already know about the restrictions for Autodesk Map 3D 2006.

2. There are new menu files for the AutoCAD interface for Summit Lite. You may load these files as you would any other menu to provide drop-down menu access from the AutoCAD menu bar. Files include DatemLite2000.mnu, DatemLite2004.mnu, DatemLite2006.cui or DatemLite2007.cui. Please load the file located in your <autodesk>\Datem folder for the appropriate AutoCAD version. Additional *.cui files are provided for the latest AutoCAD versions to replace older *.mnu files.

For older AutoCAD versions, the DAT/EM Capture *.mnu files for displaying the Datem pull-down menu have been updated to include recent command additions such as MeasureHeight. These files remain as *.mnu for AutoCAD versions 2000, 2000i, 2002, 2004 and 2005. None of these versions support *.cui files. Release 4.2 installs new customization files for AutoCAD 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Note that you may need to delete any pre-existing compiled menu files and reload the menu files to refresh the display. Instructions are provided in DAT/EM Capture documentation. If you have additional questions, please contact support for assistance.

3. Civil 3D 2007/2008 had problems communicating with Summit. This was fixed.

4. The AutoCAD SuperImposition link to automatically update the S/I display after an automatic model change was re-activated.

5. UNDO would not work in AutoCAD 2000/2002 interfaces for lower case commands. This was fixed. Other AutoCAD versions did not have this problem.

6. A client’s external LISP routine failed after several picks if S/I was loaded. Highlighted objects in S/I would not appear. This was fixed by clearing one of AutoCAD’s buffers to reset the display.

7. WINTAB32.DLL was modified. Orthophoto projects in Summit were losing the cursor position in AutoCAD 2007/2008 when moving from one orthophoto to another. The problem resulted from a change made to open in Single Document Interface mode (SDI). Having multiple drawings open at the same time slowed AutoCAD down. Now it is back to Multiple Document Interface (MDI).

8. AutoCAD’s view would not remain in a new pan view after Summit was closed until DatPan was turned off. This was fixed. Now a check is made to see if a stereoplotter is running. If it is NOT, DatPan is turned off automatically.

9. The LINESLOPE command has been changed to include start and end blocks, slope and distance text. Use OSnap if you wish to connect the new line to a previous line. The scale, text, and block factors in SETUP affect the text and block sizes in LINESLOPE.

10. The OK button in SETUP now saves the settings correctly to the registry.

11. 3DOFFSET no longer changes the current OSNAP settings.

12. CLIPIT has been renamed to DATCLIP to prevent a conflict with other third-party software with the same command name.

13. CROSSCHECK now marks crossings when a polyline crosses itself.

14. The command GRAIL is mis-named to GRAI. This only applies to clients using AutoCAD 2002 and 2004. It will be fixed in the next release. As a work-around for now, please edit your keypad overlays or menus to use GRAI to activate this veteran command.

15. Capture for AutoCAD 2007/2008 must be in single document mode. If Multiple Document Interface is active (SDI = 0), a lock violation may occur when Capture inserts an object into the drawing using a dialog. Options include using command line or changing to Single Document Interface in AutoCAD.

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.

Testing has not been completed for MicroStation XM compatibility, and Release 4.2 is considered a beta release. 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. BREAKLINEFILTER was modified to accept shared cells. It was also added to the list of commands used in the parameter file builder for batch processing in the MapEditor.

2. TOUCH BATCH was fixed to prevent the deletion of shapes. Shapes are now accepted for objects to be “extended to”. Other corrections to improve performance were also made.

3. CHANGE ATTRIBUTES INTERIOR is faster and more efficient. Additional improvements are scheduled for the next release.

4. The first point to which the cursor was driven with DTMEDIT was not changed. This was fixed. If X, Y, and Z are checked for editing, DTMIT failed to change the first point while moving to the second point and altering the first point’s position to the second point’s position. A chain reaction followed, displacing the points as they were visited. Level and shape processing was also improved.

5. Cell library and cell selection options now support cell names longer than 7 characters.

6. A link to DAT/EM Command Reference Help was added to the “Datem” pull-down menu in MicroStation. The command reference briefly reviews available DAT/EM commands for quick reference. More detailed information is available in the manual.

7. StrokeElement changed circles and ellipses into zero-area shapes with all vertices at the same XYZ. This was corrected to preserve the appearance and approximate area of the original element. If this is not possible, the object is not processed. The command was added to the interactive pull-down menu for MapEditor. StrokeElement was also improved for both curves and Bspline objects.

8. XYZIN created unnecessary levels. Now it only creates levels after the user selects the OK button to start processing, and only for those objects imported if the level does not already exist in the drawing. A level for imported text failed to be created or to be recognized as valid. This was also fixed.

9. CLIP was modified to accept complex shapes as boundaries.

10. There is a new Datem menu for Summit Lite interfaces. For documentation, please refer to “DATEM Capture for MicroStation With SELiteEdition 4.1.pdf”.

11. An incremental labeling option was added to LABELIT.

12. The Selection Set editor was not finding curves and arcs successfully. This has been fixed.