Name: Brian Arthur

Company: BigenAfrica Consulting Engineers

Telephone: 012 803 7444

Product details

Vendor: TechnoCAD

Product name: Civil Engineering Services Series (SurfMate, RoadMate, PipeMate and WaterMate)

Telephone: 011 803 8834

e-mail: sales@technocad.co.za

General

1. What industry is the software being applied in?

The software is predominantly used in the civil engineering discipline.

2. Describe the application where the software was utilised.

We use the software for the design of civil engineering services, such as for low cost housing. This includes road design, stormwater and sewage reticulation design, water reticulation design, as well as earthworks design.

3. List the features of this particular software package.

The software series consists of four modules. SurfMate is the digital terrain modelling (DTM) module. Using this we can import survey data from a variety of sources and produce a triangulation. This DTM is then used by RoadMate, PipeMate and WaterMate - all seamlessly in one environment. We have found SurfMate particularly fast, and we have thrown some large data sets at it. SurfMate also has some easy-to-use functions, such as automatic terrace (platform) design, where the software will aid us with selecting the optimum terrace elevation to optimise our earthworks.

RoadMate allows us to do both horizontal and vertical road alignments, as well as produce cross-sections automatically. The drawings produced by the software are very detailed and reflect local drawing presentation and design standards. We can also obtain earthworks quantities and setting out information.

When it comes to the 'wet' services, we use PipeMate for the design of the sewage reticulation and WaterMate for the design of the potable water reticulation. PipeMate is particularly powerful, in that it looks at the whole reticulation system rather than individual network branches. In this way, the software can help us to match pipe inverts at joining pipes. Another useful feature is the ability to automatically display house sewer connections on the longitudinal sections of the main pipe branches. All quantities for the whole sewage network are given to us in a nicely formatted Microsoft Excel worksheet; these include piping quantities, manhole quantities and trenching quantities, all split into customisable depth categories.

WaterMate is the software that we use for the design of our potable water reticulation schemes. We can also use it for the design of overland distribution pipelines. As with the other modules, there is seamless integration with the DTM; in this case, node levels can be extracted automatically. The results of an hydraulic analysis can be displayed graphically, enabling you to obtain a clear picture of the hydraulic regime. As with the other modules, full quantities are given. When designing a distribution pipeline, WaterMate produces a fully detailed longitudinal section automatically, enabling us to check pipe classes against predicted pressures.

4. Does the software allow for upgrades?

The software is upgradeable with major upgrades being released about every 18 months, but sometimes enhancements are made available prior to a major upgrade. Also, each time there is a new release of AutoCAD, the software is ported to that release. We will soon be testing the next release called WaterMate 2004.

5. How is the after-sales support handled?

We can obtain support via email and by telephone. E-mail is good for conveying electronic design data. If we have a particular problem with a project, it is very easy for us to email the project data files to a support engineer who will help us to sort the problem out. Our company also makes use of the training courses that are available from TechnoCAD, as we find this is a good way to keep abreast of new technologies.

6. What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular software?

Licensing is controlled by a software protection device, which needs to be attached to the computer on which you wish to work. This gives us complete flexibility, allowing people to work from home if they wish.

7. What impressed you the most about the software?

We were looking for software that would improve our productivity and increase our profitability. We found this with the TechnoCAD software. The tight, seamless integration with AutoCAD and Autodesk Map software means that there is very little editing required on our design drawings. All the products automatically produce much of the design drawings; what traditionally was two distinct processes, the design process and the drawing process, are now really one process. The software also supports South African design standards and it inherently understands the South African co-ordinate system.

8. What was the pre-dominant feature (or features) that made you decide on this particular software package?

The intelligent linking with the drawing database is a major feature, along with being able to work in one environment, without having to load up different pieces of software to do a task. Determining the quantities required for a project, and hence the cost of the project, has always been a laborious job. Now, we have a lot of that done for us, be it earthworks volumes for a road, trenching excavation for a water pipeline, or length of piping and manhole depths for a sewage reticulation system.