04/24/2023
We are very pleased to announce the release of the newest version of EarthWorks, version 5.15a!
1. Added a Find Function
A Find function has been added to the Edit menu.
This function can search by:
Any objects with the specified elevation.
Any objects with elevations between a high and low elevation.
Any objects with elevations less than the specified elevation.
Any objects with elevations greater than the specified elevation.
Any object with a particular name or part of a name.
Any object with a particular Assembly name or part of the name.
Any object with a particular Component name or part of the name.
Any found objects are shown as "selected" and can be edited using right-click editing.
Press the "Esc" key to clear the selected objects.
2. User Set Line Colors, Weights and Styles
Colors, line weights and line styles can now be set by the user. This is primarily to help our users who have trouble seeing the default line colors.
This option is available on the Options menu as "Colors & Linestyles" and allows many objects in EarthWorks to be set to any desired color, weight or dot patterns. Lines weights/patterns can be set to:
Solid, 1 pixel wide
Solid, 2 pixel wide
Solid, 3 pixel wide
Dot (1 pixel wide)
Dash (1 pixel wide)
DashDot (1 pixel wide)
DashDotDot (1 pixel wide)
Line colors, weights and styles are stored locally in the INI file and are specific to that installation of EarthWorks.
3. PDF Page Controls Added to the Toolbar
The PDF Page controls have been added to the Toolbar. You can now use the Toolbar buttons to go to the First, Previous, Next and Last page in the PDF. You can also access the "Jump To PDF Page" option as well. These options are only available when a multi-page PDF has been loaded.
4. Proposed Area Can Have an OX Margin or a Trench
The Proposed Areas can now can have either an OX Margin as in older versions of EarthWorks or it can have Trenching as in recent versions.
To specify that the Overexcavation type currently selected in the interior of the building extends past the boundary of the building, click the "Overexcavate" radio button and enter a number in FT or Meters to extend the Overexcavation.
To specify that they boundary of the building is surrounded by a foundation trench, select the "Trench" radio button and enter the trench depth, trench width, layback, etc the same as you did in previous versions.
5. Entry of Trench Inverts by Depth
Normally, Trench Inverts are entered as elevations. You can now enter an Invert as a depth below the proposed or subgrade elevation at the invert location by entering either a "P" (for proposed) or "S" (for subgrade) then a negative depth. This will then subtract that depth from the calculated proposed/subgrade elevation at that point to calculate the Invert elevation.
For example, to enter an invert 10FT below subgrade, enter "S-10" and the Invert elevation 10FT below the subgrade at the location you digitize will be used as the Invert elevation.
The drawing must have been calculated before this option can be used.
If you change the Proposed elevations in an area, you will need to edit all the affected Inverts elevations.
This option also works on the "Edit Invert" dialog available from the right-click menu for Trenches.
6. Setting All Trench Inverts to a Depth
Normally, Trench inverts are entered as elevations. You can now set all the Inverts on a Trench to a single depth below the proposed or subgrade elevation. This will use the calculated proposed/subgrade elevation at each Invert to calculate the Invert elevation.
This option is available on the on right-click menu for Trenches.
At the "Set All Inverts to Depths" dialog, enter the depth in FT or M as well as whether the depths are from Subgrade or Proposed.
Clicking [Ok] will then set all Inverts to the desired depth.
The drawing must have been calculated before this option can be used.
If you change the Proposed elevations in an area, you will need to edit all the affected Inverts elevations or set them all again to a constant depth.
7. Timed Backup is faster
The Timed Backup option is now faster as it skips vector data while saving. This reduces backup times by over 90% when doing vector takeoffs.
8. Warning on New File Version
If you attempt to load an EarthWorks file that is from a newer and non-compatible version, you'll now receive a warning.
To load the file, update your EarthWorks to the same version or newer as the source of the EarthWorks file.
9. Safe Right-Click Screen Drag With Ctrl-Right-mouse
Given that right-click is used for both dragging the screen and for selecting an object to edit, sometimes an object is inadvertently selected while dragging the screen.
Now, holding down either Ctrl key while dragging the screen with the right mouse button will prevent any objects from being selected for editing.
