Exchange Data with Trimble Novapoint

Novapoint supports the exchange of the elevation values: Road and land heights as well as quantities for later activity planning. Volumes are exported for the different earth types such as cut and fill as well as for the different layers: Filter course, base course ...

The data are exported in a free definable station number. When you do export we recommend to use 50 or 100 meters. This is enough precision for scheduling and does not overload the system with too many slices. For each slice a part activity will be created in Tilos.

A Tilos template is already prepared into which the data can be imported. In this template there are already prepared views containing diagrams as well as activity templates for planning Activities referring to the imported quantities.

Use the imported quantities for activity planning the section-based quantities turn the linear activities into curves depending on the quantity between 2 station points.

Create a new project

1. 1. Start Tilos and use the function: File New to create a new project.

   2. Select NovapointTemplate to create a new project.

   3. Enter the coordinates: Distance should be from -50 to 700. Duration should be about 5 months.

   4. Press the apply button and save your project.

Import data

1. 5. Select the File Import menu.

   6. Select the option Import XML Data. Dialog - Import/Export Step 1

   7. Select in Step2 of import Wizard the file: "NovapointData.Xml". You can find it in "C:\ProgramData\Tilos\Tilos91-Data\Exchange\Data\'' the data section of your installation in the folder "Exchange\Data''. This is the default directory after installation. This can be changed in Tools \ Options.

   8. In Step3 the profile has to be set (Dialog - Import/Export Step 3). If not you can select a profile from the installed files. This is called "...Exchange\Profiles\Trimble Alignment Profile.Xml"

   9. click Finish and the data gets imported.

   10. Press F5 to refresh your view.

   11.  You should now see the picture above with the diagram filled.

   12. Troubleshooting: No diagrams are visible. What can be the reason:

   13. Check if you have used the right template or view. In the road sample view, you should see the 3 diagrams visible. If not, redo Step1 and Step2 with the right template.

   14. No data got imported. Check in explorer if there are entries listed for the profile with the ID Masses1.

   15. Check the distance coordinates of mass areas. They should be in the range in which you have created your projects. Please note that the data are imported with the format of the default distance unit set in Dialog - Options - Distance. Maybe data got imported with the wrong distance unit. For XML formatted imports there is a special distance unit in the template called XML Format. This has as a decimal separator a dot. It might help if you use this unit as the default unit during import. However, the profile has this unit already assigned.

Create activities

1. 16. Create activities using the activity Insert Tool. In the file, there are special Activity templates prepared that are directly connected with the imported quantities in the step before.

All the templates listed under _Tekla templates are calculated based on a profile. This means that the quantity is taken from the data in the imported profile. The straight Activity line is cut into small pieces of 10 m, for which the duration is calculated based on the quantity and the work rate assigned to the template. This can be changed for each Activity individually.

The curved line can be turned into a straight line by checking the option: "Apply only total quantity". If this is unchecked, then for each slice a part activity is created and this may slow down the system if there are too many slices within a long activity.