Power Line Systems, Inc.


Power Line Systems June 1999 Newsletter:

Power Line Systems has a number of new features, training announcements and even a new product for you in this edition of our newsletter. We have significantly improved our PLS-CADD, SAGSEC and TOWER programs in recent months. Improvements to these programs are described below. Our new product is called SFOOTING, a program for the design and analysis of spread footing foundations. This program is the result of a collaborative effort between GAI consultants and Power Line Systems. We are currently completing testing on SFOOTING but expect to finish soon. For more information about the program please visit our web site at http://www.powline.com/products/sfooting.html.

A number of improvements have been made to PLS-CADD since our last newsletter. The first of these improvements is in the insulator model. The new insulator model allows you to set limits on the v-string or 2-part insulator load angles and it improves the consistency between the different insulator types. PLS-CADD's modeling of crossing spans and taps has been improved through the use of a revised wind direction scheme and a ruling span override which lets you key in the ruling span for selected spans. The PLS-CADD export to SAGSEC/SAPS now gives you control of the stiffness used for clamp, post and 2-part insulators for even more flexible modeling. Many other changes have also been made to make the program more flexible and easier to use: addition of tool-tips, more long axis plot options, temperature ranges for offset clipping...

SAGSEC has seen a surge in popularity now that PLS-CADD automatically links to it. To reflect this increase in popularity, we have made major enhancements. Version 5 includes significant new features like undo, graphical editing and our new finite element engine. This new engine is twice as fast as the old one while delivering additional precision and better convergence. The new SAGSEC can also handle twice as many spans as older versions. If you don't have version 5 of SAGSEC, you should.

The EIA option in TOWER has also experienced tremendous growth in popularity. To better handle large complicated communication towers we have created a new "huge" version of TOWER that allows for more members and joints to be modeled. We have also added a pattern copy/fill feature that makes it easier to create large models. Additionally, we have added new checks and warnings to help you quickly find common modeling errors.

We have four separate week long training opportunities scheduled during the next six months. The international training will be held in Bilboa, Spain during the week of October 18th. The class will be taught in English with Spanish translation. Questions will be taken in Spanish, French and English. The next two classes will be held at the EPRI facility in Haslet, Texas July 12-15, and November 8-11. The final class will be a University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee short course November 15-19 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Completion of the short course will provide the participant with three continuing education credits. As additional information about these classes becomes available, it will be posted at http://www.powline.com/news.html. Several of you have asked us to put together a TOWER training class that would cover the EIA code. If you would be interested in attending a one to three day class please send email to info@powline.com.

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.

Best Regards,

Staff of Power Line Systems, Inc.


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Power Line Systems, Inc.

610 N. Whitney Way, Suite 160, Madison, WI 53705, U.S.A.
Phone: (608) 238-2171, Fax: (608) 238-9241
Email: info@powline.com

© 2000 Power Line Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.