RPS Command Library Version 5.7 Releases Today (June 21st 2022)
In line with the Trimble Business Center v5.70 release earlier this month, we are pleased to announce the release of the RPS Command Library v5.70. I would like to thank Wyn and Peter for their stellar work bringing this release to market, and to the RPS team for helping to get the testing and documentation completed - awesome work and a fantastic release I believe!
From now on, at each release of Trimble Business Center, we will be releasing a full update of the RPS Command library to match up with the TBC release. All commands in the library will have a revision number update to reflect their correlation with the TBC release. This does not mean that they are not backwards compatible, just that they were updated and validated with the latest TBC release. Once released, the command versions will change to e.g. 5.71, 5.72 as they are updated or improved. The minor command updates will be available to our users through the TMLStatus command from the Tool Shed menu.
Release Overview
In this update, you will find new commands, enhanced commands, a few bug fixes and command updates that line up with the latest TBC functionality. Here are the highlights.
New Commands
A number of new or significantly improved commands have been added to the Command Library with this release
PDF Vectors on Demand Command
PDF Vectors on Demand CommandThe new Vectors on Demand provides another set of tools for PDF based Takeoff processes and builds on the PDF Snap Points functionality added in TBC v5.70 by Trimble.
Now you can extract vector linework from the PDF as and when you need it, you can elevate the lines and direct them to the Layer / Layer Group and Takeoff Category directly as you extract them. These tools provide an alternative approach to PDF Takeoff allowing an automated workflow that increases productivity through elimination of separate process steps.
The normal Vector PDF approach is the import the PDF, Georeference the PDG page(s) and then extract the vectors. Once extracted you sort out the data into your target layers, join the lines together and then elevate the lines to make them 3D.
With the new approach, you import the PDF page(s), Georeference them and then extract only the linework that you need, the lines are joined and elevated automatically and are placed on the correct layers for Takeoff. This creates a 100% constructive work process, and eliminates the need to wade through a lot of unnecessary data that is typically extracted from the PDF pages (Hatch Patterns, bold lines that you cannot use, polyline text annotation, additional sheet data including titleboxes, borders, insets and diagrams, call outs and data tables etc.).
For full details and a video demonstration - Click Here
Face Analyzer Command
Face Analyzer CommandThe new Face Analyzer command has been written to provide a complete workflow process for the production of QA reports and drawings that allow the comparison of measured points or point cloud data to 3D face polygons extracted from solids / IFC Shells in TBC.
The analysis creates a “color coded Pin Cushion” model of error vectors drawn between the points (or “bin points” computed from the point cloud) and selected faces / polygons from the model to provide a 3D visualization of the in / out of tolerance errors of the constructed objects.
In addition, each face creates a drawing that shows the face, the color coded points, a QA table of results plus a color legend in the plan view that is ready for plotting. The projected points are 3D and can be modeled and contoured using standard TBC tools for further enhancement as required. These tools supplement the Scan Inspection functionality introduced by Trimble in the TBC 5.70 release.
For full details and a video demonstration - Click Here
This development has created some great new technologies that we can now use to build future commands and update current commands. New technologies include
- A new color mapping control that can be used in a variety of ways, in this case it is used to map QA colors for the analysis and to produce the color legend for the drawings, but it has many other potential applications
- A new Table Style creator that provides the developers with the ability to quickly create tables of information for drawings that include simple or complex nested tables of data. In this example we are using the tables for the QA reports
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Point Cloud “Binning” - in this use case, we are analyzing the point cloud region against a 3D polygonal face (or faces) and determining the worst case error in each of the defined grids (defined by a grid cell size) to generate the “Pin Cushion” objects. This technology has again many use cases.
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Projection Engine - In this use case we are determining the 3D points position in relation to the 3D polygon face and then projecting those points into the plan view for drawing production and further analysis. The projection engine has been developed to allow computation from surfaces and using reference alignments also so we are excited about the potential downstream uses of this capability.
Name by Layer / Layer by Name Command
Name by Layer / Layer by Name CommandMany of you have been using the Name by Layer functionality of this command, we have extended the command to have a second work process to Layer / Layer Group named data based on the object names.
The request for the changes came from users that were carrying out utility pick ups pre construction for relocation purposes. They were struggling with using the feature coding capabilities to map captured data to the layers that they required, due to the complexity of the feature coding that they were using which included Utility Type, Utility Size, Utility Material, Utility Owner and Measurement Quality components in the same code. They also wanted to be able to group the relayered information into pre-defined layer groups in order to manage the data efficiently.
Remove Duplicates Command
Remove Duplicates CommandThe remove duplicates command currently supports the elimination of multiple instances of duplicate text. You can provide a “duplicate text position tolerance”, and control case sensitivity and also use matching properties like Color and Layer to determine what is a duplicate text item. Identified duplicates can be relayered or deleted as required.
RPS Command Library Improvements - System Level
We continue to develop new and improved system level functions that are applied to all of the commands in the RPS Command Library.
New Layer Control / New Layer Command
The New Layer command / Control used in all commands has been enhanced to include support for the tagging of layers containing surface boundaries for takeoff purposes. This is a new feature in TBC v5.7 so it will only show up when you upgrade to TBC v5.70.
The control has also been enhanced to support the new Layer Group Filter control (see below). This allows you to select from a Layer Group list but to rapidly reduce the list of layer groups using a character filter which can be case sensitive (or not).
Layer Selector Control
All RPS Command Library commands have been updated to leverage our new Layer List filter control. This allows you to specify a set of characters that are used to filter your layer list down to just those layers that you are working with at any given time. Type in FG - to find all layers starting with or containing the character sequence FG -. The character match can be case sensitive or not, allowing to to be even more specific in your filters.
The filter control also lets you filter down to layers that have been categorized for Takeoff purposes i.e. your Original, Design, Utilities, Other and Undefined categories of layers.
You can also create a CSV text file in RPS Settings that contains your favorite filters, that way they are always available and match up with your Project template e.g. FG -, EX -, UTIL -, SITE -, SHEET -, CADXS -, etc. can be in your default filters list if you name your layers that way.
The file is called LayerFilters.rps and can be created with Notepad.
Layer Group Selector Control
In the same way that you can filter Layer lists down to a smaller group, you can also do the same with Layer Groups. If you number your layer groups e.g. 00 - for Existing and 01 - for Design and 99 - for Miscellaneous types of Layer Groups then use these characters in this filter to boil down your Layer Group list to just what you need.
File Selector Control
When we use a Map file in a command to automate a process, the Map file can now be selected using the File Selector control, and once selected can be edited in the windows application associated with the file extension of the Map file e.g. Notepad. This means that you can control the file and file update process directly from inside TBC.
Show Line Direction Control
We have been reviewing all of the RPS Commands to see if we had missed any commands where the Show Direction control should have been implemented. Ethan our new Wizard Intern has been fixing these as a part of his learning process under the expert guidance of Peter Kistler. These updates will be rolled out over the coming weeks.
Specialist / Custom Commands
The following commands have been added in line with the development of the RPS Earthworks application for a mining customer in Africa.
These commands connect to the RPS Earthworks system and allow the creation of Work Orders, the publishing of designs, survey surfaces and map overlay layers including images and linework files.
Earthworks Website Command
RPS Settings allows the definition of the server and login credentials for the RPS Earthworks system. Once defined, running this command automates the connection to RPS Earthworks from inside TBC.
Earthworks Work Orders Command
This command provides three main functions
- The creation of work orders including a starting surface, design surface and optional capping surface for an earthworks operation on site complete with the tolerances required for the acceptance / completion of the task.
- The creation and upload of Survey Surfaces from periodic surveys carried out using Total Station, GPS, Scanner or Drone Flight. The surveyed surfaces provide data that supplements the data generated by the machine control systems on the project to provide real time burndown of target quantities, elevation por Cut Fill maps and Volumetric analysis.
- The creation and upload of high resolution georeferenced imagery to be used as a map overlay in the RPS Earthworks system as can be seen in the above images.
- The creation and upload of linework to be used as a map overlay in the RPS Earthworks system as can be seen in the above images.
Command Updates
Explode Solids
The command has been updated to extract “Faces” i.e. polygonal faces that are filled to give the appearance of a solid face as an alternative to 3D linework. The faces are used in the Face Analyzer command as described earlier.
3D Face shown in red, original solid shown in green
Smart Join
The command has been updated to provide additional controls that limit how lines can be joined using the smart join technology. The new controls include
- Join lines that have the same elevation only
- Join lines that are on the same layer only
- Join lines that have the same name only
These can be used in any combination and with the other line joining controls.
Label Points
The command has been updated to provide the ability
- To apply a vertical offset to the selected reference line and or reference surface e.g. so you can dial down a Finished Grade surface to subgrade or a Finished Grade line to a Subgrade Line e.g. at Edge of Pavement.
- The color coding setup described for the face analyzer command has also been implemented here to provide In, Near and Out of Tolerance color bands for the nominated check (Point to Surface, Point to Surface with Vertical Offset, Point to Line or Point to Line with Vertical Offset etc.). The color bands are applied to the labels that are created, so that they clearly show In, Near or Out of tolerance graphically.
- Label options have been expanded to accommodate the vertical offset options for the updated command.
Point Creator
Point creator was updated to correct a reported issue with creating points along some 3D lines.
Slope Designer
Slope Designer was updated to better support the needs of Trimble curb and gutter machine control models with the addition of an Internal Chamfer corner option, allowing cross slope from the source line to be maintained all the way into angular corners.
Multi-Offset Lines
Multi-Offset Lines was updated to better support the needs of Trimble curb and gutter machine control models with the addition of an Internal Chamfer corner option, allowing cross slope from the source line to be maintained all the way into angular corners. One process can automate the creation of all of the 3D lines and surfaces required to build the machine control model, saving hours of work on every model while creating a better model for the machine with little user effort.
Plan view showing automated chamfer corners with corner angle lines that assure accurate surface triangulation every time.
3D view showing chamfer corners and perfect slopes into angular corners
Command Enhancements / Bug Fixes
Geometric Selection
The aspect ratio selection for horizontal and vertical lines was not functioning correctly so we have rewritten the way that works to make a significant improvement to geometric selection of vertical objects like grid lines in cross section takeoff.