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Modificaciones a fecha miércoles, 3 de Julio de 2002

• Se han traducido los ficheros de alemán y portugués con las últimas modificaciones. Gracias a J.C. y a Herndtl :).

Modificaciones a fecha lunes, 1 de Julio de 2002

• Hoy presentamos la traducción del programa al Vasco o Euskera, gracias a nuestro amigo Javier, (aris en el foro de mipcdebolsillo). Descárgatelo aquí.

Modifications at date Thursday, June 13 of 2002

• It's compiled and created ProCadGPS v1.2 with the new improves developed in 'GenGisCad v1.6', (old ProCad). To see these improves go to the GenGisCad v1.6 page.

Modifications at Date Monday, May 27 of 2002

• Thanks to our friend Fernando Calvo Herranz, German resident, today we can present a new update of ProCad's program with the languages file translated to german. Thanks Fernando.

Modifications at Date Saturday, May 18 of 2002

• We did not think in developing this program until a few months, but I have found some time and I have developed a modification, which I think will improve the performance of many users. Set the screen's background colour in the wanted colour. Specially black colour, so you can view in better conditions the draw. I think it was necessary, because even I had problems to recognize entities. I hope you enjoy it, and you must thank people as boqueron, aris and gatch ;). If you have time have a look at the forum,My Pocket PC, and vote for a engineering forum dedicated to the pockets pc, in the suggestions section. Thanks.

• You can now modify the screen's background colour, and the colour of the "selection box". As you view on the next images.

  

  Enjoy it!

Modifications at Date Thursday, May 2 of 2002

• Thanks to Patrick EMIN's unselfishly help, in whose page we can find a lot of interesting information for CAD users, http://www.afitec.com. We have a new language file "English -> French", for the ProCadGPS program.

Modifications at date saturday, April 20 of 2002

• When you activate the second device, as echosound, the program registered not in continuous mode.

Modifications at Date Thursday, April 11 of 2002

• We have corrected a problem there was when polylines with elevation were exported to autocad. The Z was not taken in consideration, and they were always given as LWPOLYLINES with one only Z. Now those that have different Zs on the veretexes will be converted in 3D polylines, and the polylines having the same Z on all their vertexes will be exported as LWPOLYLINES.

• When we worked with echosound, the program took the echosound's Z and added it or operated with the GPS's Z. In the moment that data was not being reiceived by the echosound due to some problem, or that just did noy change the Z, the program applied the same Z to all the calculated points. Now the program will not register the point if the Z coming from the echosound is not updated.

Modifications at Date, March 18 of 2002

• When we configure the GPS's options, in "Conf/Configure GPS" in the "File/Course" page, now we can activate a new box of "save postprocess file", and after select an ASCII file's name, (we have put "ppc" extension of postprocess), which will contain all the messages that are being received by the serial port configured for the GPS. Obtaining the file with, more or less, the following data:

  
  $GPRMC,235839.618,A,2827.8508,N,01616.2161,W,0.00,,130202,,*0A
  $GPGGA,235840.618,2827.8508,N,01616.2161,W,1,06,1.8,176.3,M,,,,0000*18
  $GPGSA,A,3,27,04,08,01,13,24,,,,,,,3.1,1.8,2.5*32
  $GPRMC,235840.618,A,2827.8508,N,01616.2161,W,0.00,,130202,,*04
  $GPGGA,235841.617,2827.8508,N,01616.2160,W,1,06,1.8,176.2,M,,,,0000*16
  $GPGSA,A,3,27,04,08,01,13,24,,,,,,,3.1,1.8,2.5*32
  $GPRMC,235841.617,A,2827.8508,N,01616.2160,W,0.00,,130202,,*0B
  $GPGGA,235842.617,2827.8508,N,01616.2160,W,1,06,1.8,176.1,M,,,,0000*16
  $GPGSA,A,3,27,04,08,01,13,24,,,,,,,3.1,1.8,2.5*32
  $GPRMC,235842.617,A,2827.8508,N,01616.2160,W,0.00,,130202,,*08
  $GPGGA,235843.617,2827.8507,N,01616.2159,W,1,06,1.8,176.3,M,,,,0000*10
  $GPGSA,A,3,27,04,08,01,13,24,,,,,,,3.1,1.8,2.5*32
  $GPRMC,235843.617,A,2827.8507,N,01616.2159,W,0.00,,130202,,*0C
  $GPGGA,235844.617,2827.8507,N,01616.2159,W,1,06,1.8,176.6,M,,,,0000*12
  .............................................................

  The utility of creating an ASCII file of this type, in field, is that when you arrive to office you can copy it on the PC, and with Window's terminal you configure a COM port, and "send ASCII file" to the pocket PC, so that the pocket will think that information is coming from a gps, and it processes it the same way, so you can filter the information or perform the job again, selecting new points.

  

  All of this was done to have a GPS emulator while we were Programming , so it was not necessary to go out on field and make the tests, but we think it can have another type of utility for the customer, as the postprocess or taking points that were not taken in field, or routes creation, etc. You must know that the file that is being generated is in ASCII, and it is being saved in the pocket, and that is why you must be careful with the space you have. Don't worry about the speed, you will not notice.

  Naming this file of "postprocess" does not look the better option, because this is the name that the files you use after to develop corrections receive, respect some antenna, but we've left it this way because it is also a program's objective, in the future.

• We've put two filters, for data take, in the "Register page", in the "conf/configure gps" menu. These points make reference to the minimum number of satellites to register points and the maximum precision to register

  

  In the case of maximum number of satellites to register, the objective is clear, but in the precision case it will depend of the register's type that you have. So if registering points in autonomous or differential makes reference to the PDOP value, coming with the GGA message, that the smaller it is, more precision has the calculated point, and in the case of float and fix RTK, it makes reference to the precision, in meters that comes in the RTK corresponding messages.

  These filters can only be used, in the case of developing a "Continually" register, for surveying marines or routes. If you register the point when it's fixed, it will not be taken in consideration, and in fact, it can not be activated.

• Another of the included options, when GPS's configuration, is the option making reference to the "zone's force". To understand it better, lets suposse , a city like Sevilla, where the division between the zone 30 and 29 is exactly in the middle, and we want to take XYZ UTM coordinates to develop projects, we will have many problems, if we have to keep on changing of zone, and that is why normally the zone is forced to an specific one. This means we can suposse all of Sevilla in the zone 30, so the calculated coordinates will make reference to that zone

  

  So, if we suposse, the last X coordinate, from the 30 zone's the left edge is 300000.0, we must know that for the 29 zone it will be 299999.9, the coordinate more to the right side. (it is more complicated than this, but it is a way of explaining it to understand it).

• We have taken off the possible message to take time, I mean, day and hour, because this is directly done from the position messages.

• Due to the great results that the program is having, in the market (we've sold 100, due to the reduced price we've put), we are going to put a server only for the program's customers to access the program's updates free. Pay attention at the web page, where we will announce. Right now, everyone can take benefit of the updates, customers and not customers for the product's testing.

Modifications at Date Saturday, February 9 of 2002

• Today the ProcadGPS's manual translation has been finished. It's avalaible in the "Manuals" page.

Modifications at Date Monday, January 21 of 2002

• Today we present a first update of the ProCadGPS program, in where, we have included the pòssibility of conecting by another serial port, another device, as for example a sounder to develop marine surveyings. So, if you have two serial ports in the pocket and you want to develop a marine surveying, you can now do it , setting in one serial port the gps, dgps, or rtk, and in the other serial port the sounder that will be giving us the depth.

  

• As we apreciate now, we have the possibility to activate or not a serial port for the data reception. This means you will not have any problem working with one, the other or both devices at the same time, gps and/or sonda.

• When we decide to work with a sounder, there are two systems to do it, and one of them is to take the depth's Z as true, with which you are indicating the program that you only want to take in consideration the gps's XY, and to take the z from the sounder. The other system would be to take the XY and the z from the gps, and take away from this gps's z the depth with positive sign, what is normally done when we are talking about precision systems, as float and fix RTK.

  If we decide to work with the first system, the z is the depth, what means that later, you will have to correct these tide's and wave's Zs from that day and hour, for what we have included a system in the program, so that the hour and the day at what that point was taken can be putted, so that you can take away or add the corresponding value to the tides and waves correction.

  So, when a point is going to be fixed in the CAD, the program will verify if in its "Code" field, one of the four variables &DATE,&TIME,&DGPS,&TGPS, exists, and if they exist they will be substituted by its value, being &DATE and &TIME the variables corresponding the date and hour that the pocket has,and &DGPS and &TGPS, the varaiables corresponding the date and hour of any of the NMEA messages that are being read. The result can be appreciated in the next images.

  

  So, you will have to go to the "Conf/Points/general page" menu, to configure, by defect, these varaiables. Each time a point is created in the draw, the program will set, in the position where these variables are , its corresponding value.

  To correct tides and waves, it can be done in office, transferring these points to Protopo's PPoints, and after creating a coordinates file with which you develop the corresponding operation of add or take away of the corresponding value for that hour and day. I suppose that soon a system will be included to perform these operations directly in the pocket.

• With the devices that have been included, we have the same as in the GPSat program, depth by NMEA messages and depth of the NAVISOUND sounder, and also we have included a new device; the DISTO, that measures distances. It has not been activated yet, but it will activated in a near future.

• When you press in "Data received from the GPS" in the "View" popup menu, you will see the received lines from the GPS and the received lines from the sounder. This is very useful to know if you are receiving data or not.

• The program has been tried in a pocket PC with a PCMCIA QUATECH DP-100, that has two serial ports, and works very well. I can't be objective, but I have always developed marine surveyings with desktop and GPSat, having many problems, in vessel, of space, confort, cables, screen, electric current, autocad, etc, and with this new system it has been much easier. And the direct compatibility with autocad and Protopo, perfect. You will be impressed about the confort, flexibility and speed in which you finish the marine surveying. Obviously, this is with out being objective ;).

Modifications at Date Saturday, January 5 of 2002

• Today we have finished the program we were working on sense few months ago, and that I hope you will like. ProCadGPS is presented with an unprecedented price of 99 euros, with which anybody can have it, but not only that, also the program you download is the final program, and will work correctly from 16'00 hours to 16'30 hours according the Greenwich meridian, so you will have the possibility to try the program before you decide to buy it.

  

• We have taken some time to finish the program, because we wanted to try it in field, what has taken us to make some last hour modifications to facilitate the management as well as optimize the taking data processes.

• The most important, is we have developed the program's manual, at the same time we created it, and not only in Spanish, but also in English, and we hope that the effort we have made pleasures everybody, because we have worked hard to have the final product, as better as possible; ) esfuerzo que hemos realizado sea del agrado de todos, ya que hemos trabajado a destajo para dejar el producto final, lo más fino posible ;)

• With the most important characteristics, I want you to read the manual's "Introduction" that I copy here for those that don't want to download it:

  This program was developed when we asked ourselves the next question, Why should we limit only, on a navigation application with GPS, being able to have a CAD/GIS, at the same time? And once seen the immense possibilities of having a CAD and a navigator, we have enlarged the possibilities as much as possible.

  The meaning of the words "target's point", "control's point", etc used in any navigator, loose there meaning when we are on an computer aided design system, cause, what can be easier than drawing a point with associated information in a CAD/GIS? So, if we make a correct union between the CAD/GIS and the GPS, we obtain a very powerful tool for any use.

  The most immediately union between a CAD/GIS and a navigator by GPS, is that each time we draw a point, a line, an arch, a block, etc, the GPS capture can be activated, and we view on screen how the cursor moves to the position where the antenna is. So, if you decide to valid the point, you just set it, and if not, you still view how the cursor moves on the screen, according to the movement of the GPS. Also, the speed of refreshment of the calculated point is of 1 second. I comment this, after viewing other GPS applications with an eternal speed of refreshment.

  So, if we unite a CAD/GIS and a navigator by GPS with an good visualisation and georeferentiation of raster images, what we have is "the mother of every tool".

  There can only be a problem in this wonderful reasoning, and the problem is that a navigator by GPS, can reach the cost of 100 to 400 dollars, a powerful CAD/GIS system can reach the cost of 500 to 1000 dollars, and a image manager to georeference can cost 50 or 100 dollars. So, if we unite everything, and supposing that the product has a good quality, we could sell it in 500 to 1000 dollars, more or les. But instead of this, we have decided that anyone can have this product, for a price of 90 dollars, including CAD/GIS, Navigator and management of images.

  This is what we have done with the ProCadGPS program, unit CAD/GIS with navigator and viewer of raster images, obtaining the program we present immediately.

  The program can be totally used from 16 hours to 16,30 hours of the Greenwich's meridian, according the hour that satellites give, to realize the tests you wish, and when it is registered, the limitation will be taken off. (When the message NMEA GGA sent by the GPS is readied, the program verifies the hour of this message, and allows to register, and move with the cursor during this interval of time).

  We have leaned the ProCadGPS v1.0 program on the ProCad v1.4, aided designing system, GIS image's manager which is totally free, and in it's last version, it has resolved speed, viewing and compatibility problems.

  Before explaining this program, we must make a small reflection of the applications we can give to this product:

  • CAD: If the ProCad manual is read, we can find out that the program is thought to be a standard of CAD, and cause the easy way to use it, we will have it in all our pockets. The direction in where we have been going until now, indicates us that the edition tools, that are still missing, will be implemented soon.

  • GIS: We have to see the effort done to create a different entity "Point" to all we understand as a CAD, to see that it's future is the GIS. The data fields that contains it, indicates us clearly.

  • Image`s manager: It is amazing the possibilities we have with the image's manager we have here. Photo's Album, digitalisation of georeferenced plans and transport to autocad, union of all the territory by scale and georeferentation, any town's loiter including monument's photos, restaurants, etc. Direct edition of the topographic plans above their images, etc

  • GPS navigator: Who has not wanted a tool on where you can insert the scanned images of any plan and reference them while you are moving with the GPS. We only have to view the GPS navigator, to see that to create a GPS router, that indicates us the streets and roots more adequate, is a matter of time. This is not our intention, but maybe someone develops this application on the ProCad program, cause it is opened for other programmers

  • Continues register: The program can be configured, to register points continually, each certain meters or seconds. Not only points, lines or polilines in 3D. Just think about the possibilities of generation of digital models, root's definition, etc, and you will have an idea of the power of the product. You only have to move with your antenna and all the points are saved each certain space, with out viewing the screen, and this, for a topographic elevation, is amazing

  

  • Surveying: If we observe with caution the options presented, to manage the NMEA messages, we will notice that it has been taken in consideration the RTK fixed and float messages, and the management of DJPS messages, with differential, (any system. I have tried it with omnistar and it works perfectly). And if its this way, we only have to unite our GPS to the pocket, and take the point on land. We can import them to any topography program, but working better with Protopo, which is our standard program.

• Once you have bought the product, you just have to wait for the "Register code", that will let you work with the program at 100*100 in the pocket PC where you install it.