NEWSLETTER - 02 FEBRUARY 2005

COMPANY INFO

KNOWLEDGE BASE RESPONDS TO TSUNAMI CALL FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING AID

The Tsunami crisis on 26 December 2004 caused large-scale destruction never seen in the history of natural disasters. Many countries in the North Indian Oceans were affected, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without food, shelter and clothing. Towns and villages they called home were erased from the map.

After liaising with the Tsunami Global Relief co-ordinators in Johannesburg, Knowledge Base Software have made a very special offer that will lend assistance to the South African Engineers who have volunteered their services and expertise in the infrastructural rehabilitation and redevelopment of affected countries.

We have targeted over a million rands worth of support that we would like to contribute to Tsunami Relief. After years of developing Civil Designer and AllyCAD, both world-class packages used by thousands of long-standing clients around the globe, we are very pleased to be offering our software at no charge to assist with the reconstruction process.

Our decision to supply completely integrated Civil Engineering software will be backed by our Support Centre who will assist the Tsunami Relief Project Engineers to resolve software related queries and also assist in technical problem solving. In this way our qualified and highly skilled professionals will work alongside the Tsunami Engineering team to resolve critical issues, but will operate from our offices in South Africa.

Knowledge Base Managing Director, Vincent Bester has met with Dawie Botha, Executive Director of the South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) on 13 January 2005 to formalise the arrangement.

PRODUCT INFO

TURN MODULE ADD ON FOR ALLYCAD

The Turn module is a special add on feature that runs in AllyCAD. It simulates the low speed turning manoeuvres of a range of vehicles from cars through to trailers and semi-trailers, as well as user-defined vehicles along a specified tracking path.

This module has been created for optimum ease of use and is used extensively in a number of projects to design roundabouts, intersections, parking areas, loading bays and warehouses. You simply draw or select the vehicle path, choose the vehicle for simulation, and then specify either a forward or a reverse run to create the track or swept path envelope.
 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The program is equipped with fully user configurable vehicle libraries. These include the TRH 17 vehicle library, an aircraft library and a custom vehicle library. The custom vehicle library offers many options such as the new minibus taxi, refuse vehicles as well as forklifts. In addition to the existing options, you can also create new libraries and add your own vehicles to the library by simply entering the dimensions for the new vehicle into a graphical vehicle dimension dialog.

You can create minimum turning envelopes by indicating a start position and the initial direction of movement. You then drag the entire envelope to check critical sections of intersections, traffic circles and parking areas.

Besides simulating the swept or track path of a vehicle in a forward or reverse direction, additional points within or beyond the vehicle’s body can also be tracked using the Cargo Point Tracking function. This function allows you to track the position of cranes, side mirrors or cargo extremes along a track path.

Once the simulation is run, you can place a vehicle profile, complete with dimensions, by selecting a toolbar button and indicating the position of the profile graphically. Output graphs, which are displayed for every simulation, can then be used to determine how close the design vehicle is to any point along the path at its maximum steering angles.

Look out for subsequent Tech Tips for more information on this exciting feature.
 

ALLYCAD SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT

HOW TO USE DIFFERENT DRAWING SCALES IN A DRAWING

This Tech Tip explains how to use different drawing scales in a drawing. AllyCAD has a drawing scale that is set via the Settings Menu ► Drawing Settings. All scales in the drawing are based on this scale. To create different scales, a magnification factor is applied to the layer...

Read Tech Tip
 

DO YOU WANT TO SEND IN A REQUEST FOR A TECH TIP?

If there is a specific area in AllyCAD that you would like us to provide a Tech Tip on, then please let us know. Send your request to support@knowbase.co.za and indicate the subject heading as "Tech Tip Request".

Note: We will attempt to create Tech Tips for all responses, but this may be a timeous process depending on the amount of requests that we receive. Should you require an immediate response, then please liaise with our Support Centre telephonically or via e-mail.

LATEST UPDATES FROM THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Here are the latest downloads available on the updates page:

• AllyCAD v3.4 PRO & SME
  Build 15 (28/01/2005)
• AllyCAD v3.4 Micro
  Build 15 (28/01/2005)
• AllyCAD v3.4 Freeware
  Build 15 (28/01/2005)
• AllyCAD Help file Update
  (14/05/2004)
• AllyCAD v3.3 PRO & SME
  Build 33 (31/05/2004)

TRAINING AND VISITS

ALLYCAD TRAINING CONTACT DETAILS

www.knowbase.co.za

This is not unsolicited email. It is a service provided to users of Knowledge Base software and other interested parties. If you do not wish to receive future copies of this newsletter unsubscribe here.