I'm working on a large earthworks project made up of a number of phases . The site is large and the phases I've referred to are individual mini-projects spread out over the entire site plan. Each phase needs to be dealt with individually, even though ultimately, of course, they overlap. As a result my Kubla project now has a lot of tabs dealing with the construction phases. This is now making navigating cumbersome. The ability to be able to hide tabs would be useful.

For example the work to measure the remodeling of an existing berm is now complete and by the time I was done I had created 23 individual tabs. As I don't have to do anything more with those tabs (at least for now) it would be great to be able to hide them.

By the way, just in case anyone suggests that I should create an entirely new Kubla Project for the next phase; I thought about that. It doesn't work. This is because I have work elements in the new phase that overlap with the berm remodeling phase - Asphalt paving is a very good example.

Feature Request:

I'm working on a complicated ground works project in the sense that the overall scheme (on a large site) is made up of a number of sub-projects. In order to make sense of the work, particularly for payment purposes I've created a lot of tabs. Having to click on a tab to reveal the "move left" and "move right" option is a right royal pain...particularly when you can only move it one step at a time. I'd like to request drag and drop functionality aka Excel. Also the ability to be able to copy a tab would be very useful.

Thanks

Kevin

Can you tell that I'm a new user?  

I have an existing site plan of a large car park where the levels are defined by points set out on a grid, not contours. No problem.

However, within the site I have a number of raised features (e.g. berms) bounded by 6" high curbs.

Obviously the levels within these raised features are higher than the surrounding asphalt.

As part of the design these raised features are being remodeled.

If I apply the remodeled surface over the existing levels I get some strange results where the old raised features used to be, presumably because the software is triangulating over the area because it doesn't know there is a 6" curb at the outline of these features.

I thought the solution would be an easy one - break lines. However, in creating a break line I am only give two options for defining that line. The first is to input the level at each point  I click on. The second is "By Crossings". However, I don't have any lines crossing my break line because (I assume) the existing levels are based on points not contours. In theory, because point levels have been provided along, or very close to the outline of the features I could use the manual method, but it turns out that I can't, because crucially levels have not been provided at corners or where the curb line I am following for my break is curved. Particularly for the curved sections I have no idea what the point levels are at each point I have to click on in order to draw the break line around the curve.

I'm sure this is not a unique challenge and so I'd be grateful if someone can confirm how they create break lines in circumstance like this.

Thanks

Kevin

Please see attached.

One moment all was good. Then suddenly, having completed a 'strip" layer, the existing layer went black obscuring the drawing within the surface outline (see cature1)

Where I have worked on cut and fill areas those areas then show up, But around that area you can see nothing of the baseline drawing (see capture2)


I've tried rebooting my PC - made no difference. I'd like to know what has caused this. What I can do to prevent it happening again and how to correct it.

Thanks

Why is this happening?

I have a PDF showing proposed works that I want to import and overlay on top of the overall site plan. The PDF has two details showing proposed works in two separate locations on the site. In order to be able to overlay both details in their correct locations I have cropped the PDF to create two drawings, which i have saved as Detail1 and Detail 2.

However, when I import Detail 1 it doesn't just bring in the part I want. Somehow the software is loading the uncropped file. I've no idea how this is happening. I've even tried shutting Kubla Cubed down and restarting - didn't work. I've restarted explorer - that didn't work. Somehow Kubla Cubed seems to be able to put the cropped PDF back together again.

Please explain

Thanks

Kevin

Hi Ted,

I try to import a designed finished surface in dxf file format (which was produced by Microstation software by our client) into Kubla Cubed, but not successful. The Kubla prompt that the dxf is not a valid file. Could you please help to resolve this problem. (This is the 1st time I encountered this type of problem) Your early respond will be appreciated. FYI, the dxf file can be opened by Autocad program.

The screen shot is attached herein for your reference.


Thanks and regards,
Bernard

I have a cistern excavation to calculate. The excavation has to go down to a level of -3ft below grade and I then have to place 12" of fill in the bottom of the pit. How do I establish a zero batter for the cut and fill. If I simply change the batters for the cut and fill to zero a red border pops up around the respective boxes, which I assume means there is an error.

Why is there no batter? - because firstly the Contractor will not get paid for over dig and we've agreed a rate on that basis. Secondly the ground is very stable, meaning that there's very little risk of collapse, hence the reason why the contractor will not get paid for over digging the size of the pit needed.


Thanks

Kevin

I can't find a quick way to do this; I've used the 'Feature Surface' option and inputted spot levels to establish the cut/fill needed to establish the formation level for the construction of a car park. I now want to calculate the fill required to bring the level up to underside of the asphalt. My idea was to use the 'Spread' option to do this because this fill is specified at a constant 6" thick. My issue is that this fill will cover the same area as the cut/fill calculation, but I can find no way of copying the boundary I created when using the 'Feature Surface' option. Obviously i can copy the 'Feature Surface' to a new Construction Phase; but I can't then edit it to use with the 'Spread' option.

Of course, the simple solution is simply to use a calculator to multiply the 2D area of the cut/fill by 6" to generate the volume of fill needed. But I was hoping to be able to show the client a 3D Kubla Cubed model which would show this fill

All answers on a post card please :-)

Thanks in advance

Kevin

When I try to export the existing ground conditions to produce and image, I get 'Image export failed.  Error details:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object'.  I don't think this has happened before but Windows recently carried out an upgrade which may have a bearing on this.

This is the biggest update to the program since Kubla Cubed 2017 was launched with a lot of new features that many users have requested.  The biggest changes are :


A) Support for direct import of triangulations (from CAD or LandXML).

B) Big Improvements to CAD Export and new LandXML export (for potential use in machine control systems).

B) Enhanced visualisations with a 'skirt' around the model and vertical exaggeration slider.

C) Improved export of project data with new spreadsheet export and export of 'user input' data including boundary areas, perimeters etc... (this information is often required by quantity surveyors).


Tip : To calculate an area create a spread element with 0 depth and export user input data to find it's boundary area.  The same trick can be done with paths with 

Full list of updates below : 
___________________________________________
14:00 22/05/2018 - Kubla Cubed Version 4.6
___________________________________________

New Features

+ Added a presentation mode that can be used when presenting Kubla Cubed projects to a group on a big screen or projector.
+ Created a spreadsheet export of user input data and estimation summary. 
+ Added a new element 'Triangle Surface' which can be used to add triangulated meshes into the program.  Supports Kubla project files as well as .DXF and LandXML files.
+ Added new 'Export to LandXML' option which can be used to export project data into machine control systems and CAD programs when .DXF is not supported. LandXML is widely supported by machine control systems as an import.  
+ Added ability to export labelled gridded data in the CAD export.  This can be used to analyse the cut\fill details especially by site teams accustomed to working with gridded data plans than CAD files.  It also can provide a good way to import surfaces into programs that do not support TIN import.
+ Enhanced the visualisation with a new 'vertical exaggeration' control which allows users to exaggerate the visualisation of their project in the Z-axis.  Vertical exaggeration is useful for viewing sites that have fairly minor elevation changes over a large area and is widely used in topography modelling programs.

Improvements 

+ Improved behavior of slope when switching between different options ensuring all options have more meaningful starting values.
+ Amended disturbance area calculations to remove areas that had been returned to their original elevations by subsequent elevation adjustments within the same phase.
+ Added 'User Input Data' to the report and the new spreadsheet export.  This is useful to validate user inputs and for creating bill of quantity (BOQ) reports.  Importantly element boundary areas and perimeters are calculated which can be useful for estimating material and curbing costs using the area and perimeter of strips that have been used to adjust for construction thickness.
+ Included an offset option for the existing element.  This can be useful for analysing volumes at different depths.
+ Achieved significant performance improvements in general and especially with projects many construction phases and projects with feature surfaces with automatic outline levels.  Average load time improvement across all test files is over 4x faster compared with 4.5 release.
+ Improvements to calculation of automatic outline levels to resolve unrealistic levels in certain unusual scenarios.
+ Added 'back a step' feature into take-off form and element boundary creation.  This allows users to correct mistakes by pressing back space if they make a mistake whilst creating (contours, outlines, platforms, strips etc...)
+ Updated triangulation code to only include elevation features within an outline.  This aids with clarity and allows for validation to only take place within the outline.
+ Added labels to the generated contours in the CAD export.
+ Added 'skirts' around 3D models to give them a more solid appearance and to give a greater awareness of depth with elevation colours now running down the sides of the model.

Fixes

+ Resolved activation issue caused by the license file being saved into the users roaming profile which could then overwrote the license file with incorrect information on their second device.
+ Fixed issue which was causing the varying levels outline elevations to display as vertical bars '|' in the take-off form.
+ Resolved issue whereby a feature surface boundary would only display the outline of the first island.  Also fixed rendering issue where the outline was rendered with many different line segments rather than as a smooth path.
+ Resolved issue with the image exporter that was showing the wrong range in the colour key when 'absolute shading' was selected as an option.
+ Resolved problem with image exporter which was causing the level shading to shade incorrectly as a single colour.
+ Resolved a bug which caused PDF's to fail to load when computers were set to language cultures that use a comma as a decimal point. Swedish users reported this problem.
+ Resolved minor bugs in phases tab control.  This included improvements to the selection of tabs.  Previously tabs were selected only when you clicked on the text, rather than the tab itself.  Also included ensuring that the selected tab was scrolled into view when a file is loaded with one of the later tabs selected.


Please post any feedback below.