1999 has been another terrific year for Power Line Systems and 2000 is off to a great start with the release of our new PLS-POLE program. We also have an improved version of PLS-CADD with many new features. The rest of our programs have also benefited from a number of enhancements.
PLS-POLE is a new program for the analysis and design of wood, steel and concrete poles and frames and latticed modular mast structures. It can include all of the capabilities previously found in our WPOLE, WFRAME, SPOLE, SFRAME, CPOLE, CFRAME and G-MAST programs as well as significant new functionality. A partial list of the new features includes: EIA/TIA 222-F for steel poles, automatic generation of interaction diagrams between allowable wind and weight spans, support for structures made of more than three poles (A-Frames), undo and a graphical "click to edit" interface. For more information on PLS-POLE please see the PLS-POLE web page.
Work on PLS-CADD has focused on improving the graphics and DXF support. The rendered 3-d view now does hidden line removal so that structures behind hills are hidden and it also draws PLS-POLE structures as three dimensional surfaces instead of lines. Graphical pan-to and zoom-to commands have been added which pan or zoom all open views to a clicked upon point. DXF attachments now support blocks and drawing in the color specified in the DXF file. Additionally, 3D surfaces such as the TIN or PLS-POLE structures can now be exported to DXF in color. Thanks to the cooperation of John Chance Land Surveys, PLS-CADD can now display FLIMAP videos on lines when those videos are available. Finally, PLS-CADD has a new leg and guy extension report, a project specific parts file and faster opening and importing of large terrain files.
We currently have three formal training events scheduled for 2000. All three are the "Advanced Structural Analysis and Design Methods For Electric Power Lines" course offered in cooperation with EPRI at their Haslet, Texas facility. These will be held on March 6-10, July 17-21, and November 6-10. We will schedule additional training sessions taught through the University of Wisconsin or other organizations in the near future.
Miscellany: We are happy to announce that the latest versions of our programs are Windows 2000 compatible. A new technical note that clarifies the modeling of bolts in TOWER is now available on our web site.
The current shipping versions of our software are as follows:
If you are interested in obtaining the current shipping release of any of our applications, please send us email at info@powline.com. As always, we welcome your suggestions and comments on our software.
Last, but certainly not least, we would like to welcome the following PLS-CADD clients who have joined the PLS family in 1999. We appreciate your confidence and look forward to working with all of you in the New Year.
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
India
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
United Arab Emirates
United States
Venezuela
Best Regards,
Staff of Power Line Systems, Inc.
