Land F/X version 6.30 available

[Jeremiah Farmer]

Land F/X version 6.30 is available for installation from the Check for Updates feature.

In terms of big projects, an important feature is a revised licensing system, allowing installation of licenses that are only able to access the Details and Reference Notes modules of software. We will soon begin marketing this product as Design F/X, and are currently offering free licenses to our multi-discipline clients.
This update also comprises two months worth of work, a result of spreading out ten major updates over a year. So there is a tremendous amount of work in this release. Our tech support load of late has been very light, averaging 5 - 10 calls a day. So we've had the luxury of treating each tech support case as a chance to improve the software. The vast majority of these update items came about as a result of a question or problem a user was having.
The pending large new projects, of a Runtime Schedule for Irrigation Controller programming, a Revit Connection, and new Grading and Lighting tools are moving along, and should make it into the next release.

The entire update list is as follows:

Set Scale, dialog box renamed to Viewport Scale; attempts to automatically decipher existing viewport scale.

Concept Plants, changing the width for a block that is not defined in drawing will not generate error.

Detail Builder, Leader with Text, Dimstyle is created with correct text height.

Plant Mirror, compatible with UCS.

Mainline Size, archiving of Flow Zones, additional error handling to avoid error for missing valve data.

SketchUp Connection, automatically downloads Groundcover patterns.

SketchUp Connection, Assign 3D Components, View button, improved handling of updated component assignment; downloads component on demand.

HotFix: Editing Concept Plants in a blank drawing with a Visual FoxPro database will not generate missing block messages.

RefNote Schedule, Length items are tallied by Work Area.

Place Irrigation Equipment, if drawing has a non-standard block with attributes named the same as the intended block, will not generate an error.

Mainline Size, assembling of Flow Zones, custom POC without attributes will not generate error.

Plant Schedule, with Symbols, Tree maximum symbol size reduced slightly.

RefNotes, Area and Volumes allow selecting a Detail or Groundcover hatch.

Common Place Hatch function, if hatch pattern is missing, attempts to download it.

Common View Web Page function, improved Bricscad support, uses standardized call for spawning default web browser.

Irrigation Manager, some Auxiliary equipment types renamed.

Irrigation Manager, adding Controller, loops on selecting Controller Accessories.

HotFix: Copy Plant Along Arc, toggles Orthomode as necessary rather than adjusting zero bulge factor.

HotFix: Placing groundcovers, symbol previews and dialog confirmation are not erroneously displayed by corrupt symbol checking.

Detail Builder, Bubble Callout, initial operating capability.

OpenDCL library integrated into update system, loader function created.

Preferences, Fonts, changing a font style that is already defined in the current drawing will redefine it.

Common Detail Boundary Detection function, automatically selects boundary if it encompasses center of screen.

Plant Schedule, output to Spreadsheet, Template selection, additional flow control to avoid error when no template is active.

Drag and Drop Photo placement, caption is scaled correctly.

SketchUp Connection, Import Design, placing of undefined blocks compatible with Visual FoxPro database.

Plant Schedule, output to Table, Symbols at Plan Size option, table rows are dynamically sized.

Change Text, prompts and flow changed to allow easier editing of all text objects; support Mtext and Dimension objects.

Common Block Layer Check function, flow control to avoid error from non-standard blocks.

Detail Report, includes detail references.

Plant Schedule, user symbols are not mistakenly scaled twice.

Common Text to Attribute function, does not use command line calls to create attribute.

RefNotes, editing a RefNote to a number requiring a different sized block will change existing callouts.

HotFix: Common Text to Attribute function reverted from intermediary testing version.

Common Quantity Display, additional logic for Canadian display of numbers.

Place Plants, Plant Info, additional flow control to avoid error when plant has corrupt symbol data.

Detail Callout, with Title and RefNote, RefNote block is placed beneath titles that wrap to more than 2 lines.

Copy Plants Along Line/Arc, revised logic of reporting number of plants copied to avoid error when no plants copied.

Add Plants to Project, if default container size is not defined, will not generate error.

Copy Plants Along Arc, flow control to avoid divide by zero error when arc midpoint is collinear to endpoint.

Update, legacy support of downloading menu files removed.

Welcome screen, opening of Getting Started uses direct automation for better compatibility with 64bit systems.

Help file switched to open in default web browser.

Licensing system updated to support revolving encryption key, and prevent common hacking tactics.

Design F/X licensing system created.

Common XML List retrieval functions upgraded for SSL capability.

HotFix: PRG function disabled for AutoCAD 2010 pending upgrade of pipe intersections.

Match Properties, locks license appropriately.

Plant Mirror, locks license appropriately.

Critical Analysis, output to Paperspace is correctly scaled.

Mainline Size, toggles to Modelspace if necessary.

Irrigation Schedule, Pipe Distance calculation improved to avoid errors from missing connected entities.

Verify Plant Labels, flow control to avoid error when labels are on a locked layer.

Plant Label, flow control to avoid error when labeling more than 1,600 plants at once.

HotFix: rebuilding of General Preferences will not generate error.

HotFix: RefNote Schedule, logic for processing Xrefs will not cause all entities in drawing to be included when only running for a single work area.

General Preferences re-engineered; accounted for Visual FoxPro character matching bug duplicating preferences; Color change status saved with super global preferences; removes extraneous preferences and re-creates preferences as necessary.

RefNote Schedule, Length total supports legacy 2D polylines.

Irrigation Manager, allows Adding or Importing equipment when viewing All.

Plant Schedule, Concept Schedule, ignore plants on off/frozen layers.

Sheet Callout, margin calculation, used in determining drop shadow location, revised.

Match Properties, updates plant labels upon completion.

RefNote Schedule, processing of Xref, compatible with first entity on the Defpoints layer.

Place Head, if target radius block is defined, but layer has been turned off, it is turned on automatically.

Pulldown menus renamed with F/X prefix, Land F/X toolbar renamed to FX_Admin.

RefNotes, placing into Paperspace for a Metric plan, drop shadow is scaled correctly.

Irrigation Manager, Auxiliary categories slightly reorganized, Well Pump removed, Filtration added.

New Plant, auto-translates double quote character.

HotFix: Toggling of leader style when none was previously set will not generate error.

Export Details, reports how many details were copied.

HotFix: Setting of Preference Set number trimmed for legacy compatibility with Visual FoxPro databases.

HotFix: Auto-migration of preferences to Preference Set, will not result in cascading addition of general preferences.

HotFix: Leaders with arrow types that have not yet been defined in drawing will not generate error.

Pipe Hop, logic for determining direction of arc improved.

SketchUp, Import, auto-download of components compatible with non-English installations.

Setting of Preference project number, no longer string trimmed.

Export Details, correctly exports standard details with four levels of hierarchy.

RefNote Schedule, output to Table object with User Field Widths, for a Metric plan, several fixes.

Stipple, command call internationalized.

View/Edit Hatch pattern, correctly displays preview in non-English versions.

Stipple, only reports unable to offset polyline for the outermost polyline.

SketchUp Connection, minor changes to processing of components for download on demand.

HotFix: SketchUp Connection, determining of Z axis for first component corrected.

Update Details, error handling for detail file being corrupted, wrong file version, or self-referential.

RefNote Schedule, running a schedule with items that have user fields that have subsequently been deleted will not generate an error.

Valve Callout, sets dimstyle arrow without using QLeader command.

HotFix: Lighting Manager, correctly assigns unique key number to new light fixtures.

Detail Callouts, with Pline archtick style arrow, if default dimstyle is also set to Pline arrow, dimstyle is correctly created without error.

HotFix: Changing a Concept Plant symbol will not generate error.