TechnoCAD recently announced its civil engineering application series software running inside Autodesk's 2005 platform technology. TechnoCAD has had a long-standing relationship with Autodesk, going back some 15 years and has won numerous awards for its infrastructure software technology. The Autodesk product AutoCAD, is the most popular platform technology used by civil engineers all over the world.

The newly released TechnoCAD products include the popular Civil Engineering Services Series software, as well as the Structural and Survey series.

The Civil Engineering Services 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 triangulation and contouring based on user defined parameters," says Peter Webb, director at TechnoCAD. "This DTM is then used by RoadMate, PipeMate and WaterMate - all seamlessly in one graphics environment - AutoCAD. The SurfMate software is particularly fast, and we have thrown some very large data sets at it!" SurfMate also has some easy-to-use functions, such as automatic terrace (platform) design, where the software aids designers with selecting the optimum terrace elevation to optimise their earthworks designs.

RoadMate allows the civil engineering designer to undertake both horizontal and vertical road alignments, as well as produce cross-sections automatically. The drawings produced by the software are very detailed and reflect southern African drawing presentation and design standards. "We can also present earthworks quantities and setting out information in a variety of useful formats," adds Webb. In a recent survey amongst TechnoCAD software users, it was found that RoadMate has been used to design over 6 500 km of roads in South Africa alone in the past 10 years, - and that data was from just one company that makes extensive use of the TechnoCAD software. "We knew our software was used extensively, but when we started adding up the numbers, even we were surprised at the extensive use!" says Webb.

When it comes to the 'wet' services, PipeMate is used for the design of the sewage and stormwater reticulation and WaterMate for the design of the potable water reticulation. PipeMate is particularly powerful, in that it looks at the whole gravity reticulation system rather than individual network branches. In this way, the software can help designers to match pipe inverts at joining pipes, automatically. Another useful feature is the ability to display house sewer connections on the longitudinal sections of the main pipe branches. All quantities for the whole sewage network are presented in a formatted Microsoft Excel worksheet; these include piping quantities, manhole quantities and trenching quantities, all split into user-customisable depth categories. "PipeMate also has the ability to perform services clash detection, which is particularly useful on large projects where there are sewage and stormwater pipes in close proximity," says Webb.

WaterMate is the software for the design of potable water reticulation schemes. It also has the facility 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 in AutoCAD, 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 the designer to check pipe classes against predicted pressures. In addition, WaterMate will calculate the positions along the pipeline at which it is necessary to place air release valves and scour valves, saving the designer time. "Our new WaterMate software release has a very short computational time and can analyse thousands of pipes in a matter of seconds," adds Webb. In addition, the software has full simulation capabilities, allowing a designer to compute pipe flows, pressures, control device states and tank/reservoir states at intervals over a period of time, such as a week. This is proving particularly useful to those companies involved in the current upgrading of water supply schemes in South Africa.

The TechnoCAD software makes use of object technology. "Object technology has become almost a buzz-word," says Webb. "It is easy to talk about, but the real challenge lies in producing software that uses this technology in a meaningful and useful way to design engineers." An example that Webb gave was the ability to have a sewer longitudinal section automatically update when data in a dialog box was updated. Alternatively, the designer can edit the longitudinal section graphically in AutoCAD and have the updated design data reflected in a dialogue box - basically a two-way link. Another example was to have a reinforcement bar call-off label automatically update when a reinforcing bar was stretched in drawing, such as in the TechnoCAD RebarMate software for reinforced concrete detailing and scheduling.

In conclusion, Webb notes "Consulting engineers are moving away from purely being consultants - they are becoming solution providers and TechnoCAD is pleased to be able to assist them by providing a relevant software technology solution."

For more information contact Peter Webb, TechnoCAD, 011 803 8834, sales@technocad.co.za