Today you will see Release Package 5.0 of the RPS Command Library. This one has some fantastic updates, new commands and a host of great improvements. We recommend that to upgrade your system to v5.0 that you download and install the full release package from our website when it posts later today.
We think that you are going to love the new Multi-Offset Line and License Cruise Through functionality as well as easy access to Rockpile Support, Community, Library and Website from the Tool Box menu.
Happy Modeling!
Alan
New Commands
RPS Multi-Offset Lines Command
Multi-Offset Line is a template driven command that can create multiple offset lines from one or multiple source lines in a single step using offset / slope, offset / delta elevation and offset / elevation instructions. The command leverages the linestring optimizer, point creator and slope designer technologies released in other commands to create multiple lines on target layers that can be automatically combined into any number of surfaces.
The command is ideal for creating curb and gutter, site roads, barriers, trenches, foundations and footings and other similar surface elements for both finished grade and multiple subgrade surfaces.
RPS Resource Center On RPS Tool Box Menu
Support, Training, Purchasing and Renewals are just one click away from the RPS Tool Shed menu.
As we progress as a company and provide more and more services to our user base, we feel that it is really important to make it easy for you to connect with us for support, training, sales and daily information feeds to keep you updated. We are pleased to introduce new TBC commands on the RPS Tool Shed menu that facilitate fast and easy communication between us and our growing user community.
Support, Training, Purchasing and Renewals are just one click away from the RPS Tool Shed menu.
These commands will be added to the RPS Menus shortly and include
Getting Started
This is a shortcut to our getting started installation guide and video that walks you through the installation and configuration process for the RPS All Tools commands, Community Forum and Training Library
Rockpile Website
This is a shortcut to the RockpileSolutions.com website where you can order our toolboxes, training season passes, technical support agreements and combo deals. You can also access your license administration portal, where you can review your license use statistics and assign / reassign license seats to other users in your user group.
MyRockpile Community
This is a shortcut to the MyRockpile Community Forum website where you can post questions, read responses, find help and support on the entire TBC product and our RPS Tracker software solution.
MyRockpile Library
This is a shortcut to the MyRockpile Library website where you can access all of our Training Classes that cover pretty much every aspect of TBC for Construction applications. The live classes that we deliver every week are recorded, transcribed to make them searchable and indexed for fast and easy navigation and then they are posted here for our Mini Pass, Season Pass and Class Ticket holders.
MyRockpile Training
This is a shortcut to our current and upcoming training class program guide - this details the classes, class dates, class agenda and purchasing information.
Rockpile LinkedIn
This is a shortcut to our Rockpile Solutions Linked In page - here you can find daily posts covering our latest news and helpful tips and tricks. When you get there don’t forget to Follow Us so that you get notifications in your email when new information is posted.
Rockpile YouTube
This is a shortcut to our YouTube page - Here you can find many videos of our products and tools in action and general overview information that may assist you with purchasing or deployment decisions. When you get there don’t forget to Subscribe so that you get notifications in your email when new information is posted.
Rockpile Instagram
This is a shortcut to our Instagram page Here you can find daily posts covering our latest news and helpful tips and tricks. When you get there don’t forget to Follow Us so that you get notifications in your email when new information is posted.
Rockpile Support (Coming Soon)
This will allow you to generate a Support Ticket directly from inside TBC. Hit a snag, need advice or just want to provide feedback, click Rockpile Support and provide your information, request or comments, links to files on your share system and submit your ticket (for ongoing support you will require a Technical Support Agreement - contact us for more information).
Contact Rockpile (Coming Soon)
Need to purchase another seat, renew your subscription or make your first purchase, want an RPS person to call you or need our contact information click Contact Rockpile, fill in the form and submit your request.
License System Improvements
We have been steadily improving the RPS licensing system to improve your working life in the world of spotty, poor or non existent internet and also to address the ongoing Trimble ID issues that we have been seeing. The RPS licensing system now allows you to “Cruise Through” Internet outages and dropped Trimble ID recognition. The cruise through currently initiates a 24 hour window license each time that you hit the RPS server for a license. The license runs for 24 hours locally allowing you to work in the absence of Internet connection and or a Trimble ID absence.
This means that each day when you sign in at the start of day, you are getting a new local license that allows you to keep going no matter what happens - you can now jump in your truck, on a plane or disappear into a Black Hole and you can still keep working with your RPS commands.
Note: The off line operation still captures all of your usage data and it uploads that to the RPS system at your next connection, we are tracking usage of licenses so while this does open opportunities for “license abuse” we will see that and can revoke your offline use capability or sell you additional licenses to cover your requirements.
Our goal in the next phase is to create a new license type that also provides you with the ability to check out your license and work offline for an extended period of up to 30 days - we hope that this may get released in Q2/3 this year.
Command Updates and Improvements
Update to Convert To Linestring Command
In response to requests to help improve the export capabilities of TBC to VCL format for use in Trimble field systems as well as to further enhance our ability to copy and paste information between TBC projects we have updated the Convert to Linestring command to facilitate the breaking of object dependency between surface contours and surface models.
The current field data support in TBC that exports VCL files to Works Manager or to Siteworks or Earthworks allows you to pick objects of any type. In the first versions of the exporters, if you selected a surface model it would select the surface and all its dependent objects (points and lines and boundaries that make up the surface). In recent versions of TBC that functionality has been improved to allow the dependent objects to be eliminated from the exported data, however that workflow currently doesn’t support the contour objects which are dependent on the surface model. If contours are selected, the contours, contour labels, surface model and surface model dependent objects are all selected regardless of the property settings on the job site in the Project Explorer.
When you use the RPS Copy to Clipboard and RPS Paste commands to move data between TBC projects, we use the virtual VCL format to facilitate that, in the transfer we copy and paste all of the dependent objects, unless the dependency has first been broken using commands like Convert to Linestring.
The link below takes you to the command documentation and video tutorials that cover the improvements to the command and shows tips on how to get the best out of the changes.
Update to Affix Name Command
This command has been updated so that you can effectively Search and Replace characters - for example if you have a set of Station Labels on imported PDF sections in the form of IH35 STA: XX+XX.XX and you want to strip off the IH35 STA: from the start of each label, you can now do that using this command. Simply set the Remove Prefix to IH35 STA: and leave all of the other fields blank and process the selected labels and you have achieved what you just set out to do.
Takeoff Lines Improvement
If you select the 3D Auto mode of line entry and you click a 2D location, the command prompts you to provide an Elevation. The auto advance sticky button if enabled, now allows you to click a 2D location and for the command to not stop and ask for an elevation which is the correct behavior.
In addition, each time the process records a location, the coordinate field is now highlighted allowing you to accept the location, use relative coordinate entry i.e. enter @5,@5 type values or simply click the next location with your mouse.
Small changes but both trigger enhanced productivity.
Slope Designer Improvement
We updated Slope Designer so that it supports both CAD 3D Polylines as well as Linestrings as source lines. The sorting of Slope Designer Styles has also been improved for consistency in alphabetic sorting of names in the list.
Point Detail Report Improvement
We updated this command to add the ability to report points based on which boundary or boundaries that they are in. The report definition can now have a boundary record, and when boundary is added to the definition, you can select any number of boundaries against which to report. The Excel file output will now have a boundary column that displays the names of all boundaries in which the points are found.
Explode Solids Command
We updated this command to add the ability to create 3D polygon linestrings around each face of the exploded solid as an additional layer output from the process. The linestrings will be closed and filled with the selected color, providing a “solid” like graphical representation. The closed lines generated can be used in conjunction with some new commands to be released shortly.
Optimize Linestrings Command
As we deepen the use of the linestring optimizer in new commands like Slope Designer and Multi-Offset Lines, it requires work to improve the optimizer engine so that it can be more readily called and used in different use cases.
The command has been improved to support the needs of the new Multi-offset Lines command. In addition we have improved the command by adding a Line and Arc tolerance to the horizontal optimization settings. This allows you to set the tolerances for straight and arc segments - this is helpful when trying to optimize surveyed line features e.g. for paving operations to match Curb & Gutter that has already been constructed.
Adjust Linestring Elevation
We have updated this command to better handle some situations that were reported to us by adding two check boxes into the dialog that allow you to
Hold elevation at the beginning of the station range
Hold elevation at the ending of the station range
These check boxes force the creation of a new VPI on the lines that locks the elevation at the start and end points of the section of the line being adjusted. This improves the results especially when the source line is closed.