WinCan Map Tips
- Steve Peregrine
Page Contents
Introduction
The geo-sensor always provides relative coordinate values, which are based on a point zero (0,0,0).
If the start and endpoints (manholes, connection points or buildings (e.g. pumping stations) have been set manually via a map with an integrated coordinate system (e.g. DXF plot) or a GPS point layer (manhole layer in the SHP format), they automatically get the corresponding coordinate positions.
Use the module WinCan Map (2D visualization of pipe courses) to quickly set manholes and connection points at the desired location. The module WinCan 3D (3D visualization of pipe courses) will be used later on to get an additional three-dimensional view of the pipe course as it would look like in reality.
WinCan Map User Settings
General Settings
Similar to WinCan VX, Map is also a global solution, so again there is no one set of settings that works for everyone. To ensure good results in 3D Measurement projects, please pay attention to these settings in File → Settings options:
It is possible here to set a default coordinate system when Map is launched. This is a good idea as it often saves problems in the future. The option should usually set to the same projection system as defined in WinCan VX.
Node Templates
The node templates defines the data that is sent into the VX project when a node is created and plotted in Map. The default option here is like the current UK inspection standard, simply because the UK market was the first to use this feature maybe 7 years ago.
User can do several things here to suit their chosen inspection standard.
First option is to simply change the Template to a new option from the drop down list, like this:
With this setting, the Isybau Schacht node template will be loaded when the user plots a manhole.
An alternative, more advanced solution is to define several templates here and give your own Captions to Display, maybe like this:
With these settings, when a user plots a manhole, they will now see this pop-up before they get to the node template and after they click an option, the correct template will be loaded for the next step, so they can select which one they wish to use today:
Note - the node templates can be easily and quickly modified by the WinCan Support teams if needed.
Load Measurement Themes
This feature will be loaded automatically in a future update. To make it manually now:
Also, there is a more user friendly ‘Theme for All’ for the other non-measurement layers:
Setting Up a Project
Launch WinCan VX, create the sections to be inspected and fill out all mandatory (yellow) fields. Next run WinCan Map and you will then automatically be asked for the corresponding projection system (e.g. Switzerland= EPSG:21781 or EPSG:2056; Germany= EPSG:4839 or EPSG:5243 etc.) as well as a DXF plot used as a reference layer. The latter one is useful for precisely positioning the manholes:
As soon as the DXF plot appears in the map panel you must proceed as follows to set the manholes on the map layer:
Go to the legend panel, select the layer WinCan_Manholes and hit the command Tools → Draw (1).
This is going to display the drawing panel at the right part of the Map interface (2).
Highlight the desired object from the group of available manholes, activate the function Tool → Snap to nodes and select the DXF-plot as the snapping layer (3):
Next activate the drawing tool Draw point (4), move the mouse pointer at the desired location on the plot and finally click to draw the manhole position. Mind the crosshair icon that clearly indicates which reference line of the plot the manhole is going to snap to.
The manholes now appear on the map and the corresponding coordinate values are saved in the database.
If a manhole does not yet exist in WinCan VX you can draw it in Map at the desired location on the DXF plot as a new point of the layer WinCan_Manholes. Mind that you have selected the DXF plot as the snapping layer.
Next, enter the appropriate manhole name into the dialogue box that pops up and confirm with the green OK button:
In both cases the manhole coordinates are automatically taken from the projection system the DXF plot is based on.
Make sure you placed the camera into the manhole where you want to start the 3D-measurement and switch back to WinCan VX.
Keep the Map interface open as it is going to show you the measurement progress in real time.
WinCan Map Tips
The 3D Measurement Ribbon
The 3D Measurement ribbon bar in WinCan Map offers all of the most useful tools that the user might need in one place while working with 3D Measurements. These tools are also available in other ribbons, but here they are all in together.
Unplotted Assets
A key and important part of working with GIS data is that it is only a collection of point, line or polygon objects that have data attributes attached. Objects that do not have any coordinates cannot be displayed in WinCan Map.
The Draw button in WinCan Map will display an alphabetical list of manholes and nodes that exist in the WinCan VX project but do not have coordinates:
This can be very useful when plotting the coordinates of a node for the first time, because you can highlight select the manhole that you would like to plot, and then when you use the ‘Draw Point’ tool in the Edit ribbon, the correct manhole ID will be entered into the node template without any typing mistakes.
Styling Themes
It should be remembered that GIS data (which is what we are working with here in 3D Measurements) is simply a collection of points, lines or polygons that have attribute data attached and the data itself does not have any particular styling.
This is contrast to CAD data where the lines and objects are heavily styled with colours and fills etc to make the drawing pleasing to the eye and easy to understand. CAD files focus more on styling and GIS data focusses completely on the object data. This is the key difference between the two types of application, and WinCan Map is a GIS application, not a CAD application.
But, we can apply styling themes to layers in Map in any way that we wish and the options are very powerful, but they will not be covered here. This is something for Expert user training in WinCan Map.
There are some predefined styles included in WinCan Map and the default style for Isybau projects is commonly used across the market, but it is not the most user-friendly theme when working with 3D Measurements
Remember - changing the theme does not change the data., it only changes how the data is presented on screen.
The recommended pre-defined Map styling theme for Isybau projects is ‘Isybau 3D Measurement’ and this can be set by the operator with a right-click on any layer in the layers panel and select the ‘Load Themes for All’ option, and then select the ‘Isybau 3D Measurement’ option and green tick to close:
