12d Model Reseller - USA
KODA is excited to announce that it has been approved as a Reseller for 12d Model – Surveying, Civil and Water Engineering software – for the USA.
12d Model is used in over 65 countries, with an ever growing presence in North America. Version 11 of 12d Model has just been released. It brings many enhancements, including 12d Field, and of particular note, some new functionality for underground construction.
KODA will be focusing its efforts on the Texan and broader US markets across multiple sectors. Our experience in tunneling, civil construction, rail and resources places us in a good place to sell, support and offer growth for both 12d and KODA. Highly important to us is the creation of efficient work flows or clients, and pushing the boundaries of what 12d Model and KODA can do together.
12d and KODA’s systems
By tight integration of 12d data types into KODA’s underground navigation solutions (KodaUG) we’re creating a lean, truly integrated workflow for design, survey, excavation, conformance and as-builting.
Designers and surveyors are able to work closely together to develop and refine alignments and profiles. Design data can be assessed by the creation of 3D trimesh or profile string outputs – very useful for assessing the performance of complicated transitions. Preparing data for the navigation system takes only few clicks, which combines a 3D alignment and associated profile data into two small files, ready to be loaded directly onto the navigation system.
Tablet-based 12dField allows surveyors to perform setout and conformance tasks with their total station. Additionally, scan data can be collected as per normal and then loaded directly into 12d Model. Once in 12d Model all that data can be intelligently sliced, decimated and graphical conformance reports can be generated.
For users of KODA underground navigation systems it’s really about an efficient, fully integrated work flow for tunneling and construction projects. The increasing prevalence of WiFi on underground construction projects enhances these workflows even further – allowing reports to be generated at the face and emailed off, or at least immediately beamed to the surface for processing or finalization by office staff. (In fact, one of the biggest benefits might be the elimination of sweaty, warm USB sticks that have been hanging around underground surveyor’s necks all day…)
Taking this one step further, we’re passionately working to make KodaUG an active rather than a passive participant in this workflow. Stay tuned for more on that in the coming months...
Update on Convex Hulls
For those readers avidly following the Convex Hull post there’s been some progress in the last week, with a Concave Hull algorithm developed and operational. It was a bit of a headache inducing exercise in the end. It needs some improvement to make it a bit faster – but it works.
After a few frustrating hours, there came a point where we decided to continue development of the class in a separate test-bed application. This is a really good practice to adopt when you’re programming and we should have done it sooner. (Sometimes you think something is going to be easier than it is...) If developed properly, a test-bed allows rapid, bug-resistant development because you can more closely control the testing without the distractions of the target application, and, (this may be the biggest advantage) you don’t ‘break’ the target application with timing loops, debug messages and disabled features while you are trying to get a painful algorithm to work! And of course, there's nothing worse than a spurious, modal message box popping up for a one in a billion exception. You know it's going to happen at 2am in the morning and that's not a good way to start the day.
The other advantage of the test-bed is that you can call upon it again for enhancements (or debugging) of the class. Simple and obvious advice time: 1) use classes, but use them well, and 2) try to write code that is polymorphic and self-contained, and 3) test, test, test.
So, in signing off, KODA is excited about becoming a 12d Model Reseller in the USA. There’s lots of work in front of us, but we’ve never been afraid of that.
Please like, share, follow and we look forward to comments.
Until next time, KODA