The September and October work went into files, surfaces, and speed. If you run ClamVision on large surveys or you move a lot of data between your survey software and the dredge, this release is for you.
Import a channel file as your target
A channel file can now be imported directly as the design target, drawings included. That removes a conversion step between the engineer’s deliverable and the operator’s screen.
DXF surfaces as the current work surface
Previously the current work surface came from bites, soundings, and XYZ point files. It can now be built from a DXF surface as well, and we taught the work surface to handle the larger triangles that DXF and other CAD surfaces use.
For surveys that have wide gaps between points, a new smart gridding step fills the surface sensibly instead of stretching triangles across the voids.
Telling design from survey at a glance
The design surface is now drawn in greyscale, so it is instantly distinguishable from the colored survey surface sitting on top of it. Survey text also rotates with the view, so labels stay readable as you orbit.
Volumes are now computed exactly
Volume used to be approximated by summing thin slices. ClamVision now computes volume from the exact shape of the work surface. The numbers are more defensible, and the volumes concept inside the program was cleaned up so the same figure appears everywhere it is reported.
Performance
This is the headline for anyone with a big project. Distance-to-design calculation, surface rendering, and file loading all received major optimizations, and large surveys with work surfaces attached are much faster to display. Tests were updated to cover the new code paths.
Positioning and hardware
- Geoid height conversion was added, for projects where GPS ellipsoid heights have to be reduced to the project datum.
- NTRIP networking was tested and added, so RTK corrections can be pulled directly from a caster over the network.
- Depth averaging was corrected.
- Swinging booms are supported again. A customer needed this urgently, and it went in the same week.
- Support for cutters was improved.
- The hardware menu now applies encoder settings correctly. Rotation direction and encoder offset previously did not take effect after being changed.
- Booms taper in the 3D model, so the on-screen machine looks like the real one.
Fixes
- A NOAA water-level feed could stop updating partway through a shift. Fixed.
- DXF files with reversed winding imported incorrectly. Fixed.
- A round of broken tests was repaired and routine code cleanup done.