TechnoCAD has recently launched the latest release of its PipeMate software for the design of gravity reticulation systems, such as sewer and stormwater networks. The software allows civil engineering designers to design and analyse both small and large reticulation systems.

"An urban development of 10 000 stands" is well within the capability of the software. The ability to have the design software automatically design all of the pipe branches in a network in one pass drastically reduces design time," says Peter Webb, Director of TechnoCAD. "In addition, the software automatically creates fully detailed plan and longitudinal section drawings."

TechnoCAD believes that PipeMate 2000 is one of the leading software design tools for urban engineering. The software is its largest release to date, sporting many new features and enhancements to existing features. "One of the advantages of having a large installed base is that we have great feedback from our users", says Webb. "We are proud to say that the top 10 wish-list requests from our users have been incorporated in this new release.

"We have now increased the life of the design data by building in an industry standard GIS database. This means that when a design is complete, all the design data can be carried forward into a GIS environment. This is automatically linked directly back to the drawing without the need for any manual data capture. Users can also undertake realtime queries on the data; click on a pipe in the drawing and have all the design information displayed for that pipe. Identify a record in the database and have PipeMate automatically zoom to the pipe or manhole in the drawing."

With regard to new features for design engineers, these include multisurface digital terrain model capability, automated sewer house-connection design, network clash detection and the automatic display of existing utilities on longitudinal sections, directly from plan information. Piping, trenching and manhole quantities are automatically produced in formatted Microsoft Excel worksheets, simplifying costing and measurement.

PipeMate 2000 has been designed to run totally integrated with AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 2000i software. The software will also run seamlessly with AutoCAD Map 2000. The excellent features of AutoCAD 2000i such as Multiple Document Interface, 'Page Layouts' with new irregular viewports, sharing of data on Internet portals and many more advances, makes this the most powerful design and project management environment available for civil engineering designers today.

TechnoCAD's users have benefited from this integrated approach for over a decade now and the continued enhancements have improved productivity even further and serve as an aid in advancing the provision of housing and infrastructure for the people of southern Africa.

TechnoCAD

(011) 803 8834

peter@technocad.co.za

www.technocad.co.za