Configure

This command allows you to set up the default settings that are used each time you start a new drawing, or load an existing drawing. These settings are stored in files called Carlson.INI, COGO.INI, SCTPRO.INI, DTM.INI, HYDRO.INI, and MINE.INI in the Carlson USER directory. Configure will restore the current drawing settings to these default settings. These global settings can be saved and loaded on a new computer, or for a new installation of Carlson.

The settings for the modules apply to the commands within those modules. Refer to the associated manual chapters for additional descriptions of these settings. Under General Settings there are options that apply to all modules. Many of these options are only accessed in Configure, and will be described here.

General Settings:

Use Startup Wizard: The Use Startup Wizard controls whether this wizard appears when creating a new drawing.

Generate Report Log: When the Generate Report Log option is on, output from several commands will be accumulated in a report buffer. Commands that output to the report log include Inverse, Traverse, Curve Info, etc. Also any report that is displayed in the standard report viewer is also added to the report log. While activated, the report log resides in the lower left corner of the desktop as a minimized title bar that shows how many lines are in the report buffer. To view the report log, pick on the maximize icon on this title bar. You can also view the report log by running the Display Report Log function in the Misc menu. The report log can be edited, saved to a file or printed. To quickly turn the report log on and off, you can type REPORT at the command prompt. This function toggles the report log on/off.

Save Drawing INI Files: Save Drawing INI Files will create an .INI with the same name as the .dwg file to store the project data files for the drawing.

Ignore Zero Elevs: This option will ignore any entities with a zero elevation. It is used for many commands, such as Triangulate and Contour or Make Grid File.

Use South Azimuth: Turning on this option will use a South Azimuth instead of a North Azimuth which is the default. South Azimuth uses a value of zero for due south and a value of 180 for due north.

Use Dview Twist Angle: This will use the screen Twist Angle defined with the command DVIEW. This is similar to Twist Screen.

Set DIMSCALE to Drawing Scale: This will set the dimension scale system variable to match the drawing scale from the Drawing Setup command.

Set AUNITS to Drawing Angle Mode: This will set the angle units system variable to match the angle mode from the Drawing Setup command

Set PDSIZE to Symbol Size: This will set the PDSIZE scale to match the symbol size defined in Drawing Setup.

Set INSUNITS to Unitless: This will set the INSUNITS (Insertion Units) system variable to Unitless when the drawing is opened.

Set LTSCALE on startup to Drawing Setup: This will set the linetype scale system variable to the value from the Drawings Setup command when the drawing is opened.

Coordinate Report Order: You can choose the traditional north-east format, or reverse these in reports with east-north.

Date Format: You can control the display of dates in Carlson reports with this dropdown menu. The default is ‘Windows Setting’ which allows you to control it with Windows Control Panel. Several other common formats are available.

Report Viewer:  This option chooses between the Carlson Report Viewer, Windows Notepad and Microsoft Word for the viewer to use for reports that the Carlson commands generate.

Formatted Document Type: This setting controls whether to use PDF or DWF documents for formatted reports such as Calculate Total Volumes in Takeoff and the 3D Viewer Window print function.

AutoCAD Menu:  This option chooses which AutoCAD menu to load when picking the AutoCAD menu from the Carlson Menus toolbar or from the Settings->Carlson Menus pull-down menu. When AutoCAD Map is installed, there are different layouts of the Map menu to choose from. When Autodesk LandDesktop is installed, those menus are available.

Object Linking: The Object Linking section contains options for creating reactors to the drawing entities. The Link Points with CRD File option will attach a reactor to the Carlson point entities so that any change to the entities such as MOVE or ROTATE will update the coordinates in the CRD file. The Link Linework with Points option will attach reactors to line and polyline entities that are drawn by point number so that moving the points will automatically move the linework. The Link Labels with Linework applies to bearing/distance annotation. This link with update the annotation when the linework is modified. The Group Point Entities option joins the three entities of a Carlson point (attribute block, symbol, node). For each point, selecting any one of these entities selects all three entities for the point. See the Points Menu Commands and Dynamic Annotation sections of the manual for more information about linking.

Database Format: The Database Format chooses between Microsoft® Access 97 or 2000 (and higher) format. This database format applies to creating new database (.MDB) files in the GIS module, the drillhole database and the Export to Microsoft® Access option in the Report Formatter.

CRD File Pt# Format:
Carlson can run live on any of these coordinate file formats. The CRD File Pt# Format option sets point number format for coordinate files as one of the following. Here are the options:

Digitizer Puck Layout & View: There are two main formats for the digitizer puck. They are numbered 1 and 2. Selecting the View button brings up the window showing the two formats.

Use Mouse: This option allows you to use the mouse instead of the digitizer puck for the digitize commands.
Auto Tablet On for Digitize Commands:
This option will activate the auto tablet when using the digitize commands.

Remove Arcs: Since 3D polylines do not allow true arcs, the program draws arcs in 3D polylines as a series of short chords. The Remove Arcs settings control the spacing of these arcs. The Max Offset method sets the maximum difference between the chords and the original arcs as shown in the graphic here. This method is similar to the Reduce Polyline Vertices command. The Chord Len method sets the length of the chord segments that replace the original arc.

Drawing Setup:
The settings under Drawing Setup are very similar to the AutoCAD Drawing Setup, which is also shown below for comparison. There are a few additions, such as Vertical Scale, Point Prompt-Label Settings, Point Number Settings and Vertical Angle Mode. 

There is also the ability to maintain two different sets of defaults (English and Metric). The user can maintain a comfortable set of settings for either unit system, especially if they constantly switch back and forth. Also added was support for meters/metres, tons/tonnes and various date representation. This dialog is accessed from the Configure menu choice, using the Localization Settings button.

Survey Settings:
CG Survey Menu controls whether to add-on the C&G Survey pulldown menus to the standard Carlson Survey menus. The Compact mode has all the C&G commands in a single pulldown menu. The Expanded mode has all eight C&G pulldown menus that C&G standalone used to have.
Initial Traverse/Sideshot Angle Mode sets the default angle mode for these COGO commands.
Show Occupy and Backsight Points on Status Bar is an option for the COGO Inverse command.
Automatic Raw File On is equivalent to toggling on the COGO->Raw File On/Off automatically when the drawing is opened.
Automatic Line On is equivalent to toggling on the COGO->Line On/Off automatically when the drawing is opened.
Automatic Point Object Snap On is equivalent to toggling on the Settings->Point Object Snap On/Off automatically when the drawing is opened.


Surface Settings:
Most of the Surface commands will remember the settings and parameters used from drawing to drawing. There are some in this screen that will be used for gridding and modeling.

Inverse Distance/LeastSquares Modeling Parameters: The modeling methods of Inverse Distance and Least Squares are similar ways to create a grid from datapoints or drillholes. It is not recommended to use these methods for gridding contour or breaklines. Triangulation is better for that. These methods need a search radius defined. Anything past this distance from one data point to the next will be ignored for influence. The Max Samples are the number of data points that will be used to influence each data point. The area is broken into 4 quadrants. The Min and Max Quadrant are the numbers of data points that will be used in each quadrant.

Specify Grid Resolution As: There are two ways to create a grid file. Once the boundary has been selected, the cells need to be determined. Number of Cells in X and Y will divide the boundary up into the specified number of cells. These will then be odd shaped rectangles, with the size calculated by the boundary dimensions and the number of cells. The Dimensions of Cells is the more commonly used method. This will allow for a set cell size for the X and Y directions. Most of the time the grid cells should be square, where you set the size.

Grid Precision: This is the number of decimals that are stored in the grid file.

Draw Contours Max Number of Rechecks for Crossings: Routines that generate contours check for any crossings that can occur from smoothing or reduction options. When a crossing is found, the smoothing or reduction factors are reduced and then the contours are rechecked in case that adjustment causes a new crossing. This option can be used to decrease the number of rechecks in case your dataset is large and you don't want to take the time for these checks.

Section-Profile Settings:
This configuration box is used mainly for text and drafting settings. Items such as text size scalers and station types are set here and will apply to the current and/or future drawings. These are very self explanatory and are up to the user to set if something other than the defaults is desired.

Hydrology Settings:
This section contains only three configuration settings. The first is the format of the stage-storage capacity file. The second is the location of the HEC program files. The third is the SEDCAD directory location, if it is installed on the computer.

Mine Note Options:
These options are settings for prompting when entering the mine notes. They are simply turned on or off for customized mine note entry. The Spad and Offset symbol sizes are set here for drawing in CAD. The layers for pillars and the Perim for underground mine design are set here. They can be customized so the program will recognize specific layers for commands such as volumes by grid or average, and calculating the extraction ratios.

Mining Settings:
This is the configuration screen for default settings used with the Geology and Mining Modules. Each item is detailed below.

Inverse Distance/Least Squares/Triangulation Search Radius, Samples and Quadrants: The modeling methods of Inverse Distance and Least Squares are similar ways to create a grid from datapoints or drillholes in that they use the same settings. It is not recommended to use these methods for gridding contour or breaklines. Triangulation is better for that. These methods need a search radius defined, while triangulation just uses the search distance to find the next data point to triangulate to. Anything past this distance from one data point to the next will be ignored for influence. The Max Samples are the number of data points that will be used to influence each data point. The area is broken into 4 quadrants. The Min and Max Quadrant are the numbers of data points that will be used in each quadrant.

Fill in Missing Strata Above/Below Existing Strata (Seam Stacking/Conformance): This important setting is used for gridding and modeling from drillholes. It does two things. The first item it controls is to fill in missing strata. For example, if a drillhole does not go deep enough to penetrate a deep seam, or a drillhole is drilled down in a valley or low spot, it will either fill in (carry the seam through the hole) or pinch it out at the hole. NONE will not fill it in, meaning it will pinch the seam out at the shallow or partial hole. ALL will not pinch the seams out at the shallow or partial hole. Seam-Specific will use the Define Strata settings where the marker and target beds are defined. The second modeling concept this controls is conformance. In these same partial holes where certain seams are not encountered, when it fills them in, it controls how it behaves. NONE will let each seam do want they want, independent of any other seam. ALL has all the seams looking at each other and they all conform to each other. Seam-Specific will use the Define Strata settings where the marker and target beds are defined there. The marker bed is the "main" seam and other seams will conform to it. There can be more than one marker seam. There is also a hierarchy for conformance, so if the main marker seam is not present, then the next marker seam in line will prevail. 

Calculate Strata Pinchout and slide bar: This setting determines if the thickness of a seam is pinched out when it does not occur in a drillhole. Turn it on to activate pinchout. If a seam is not present, it will pinch it out using that drillhole. If it is off, it will carry the seam through the hole where the seam is not encountered. The slide bar determines the distance between the drillholes for pinchout. Near zero will pinch the seam closer to the hole where it does not appear. Non-zero will pinch the seam closer to the drillhole where it does appear. Most of the time, the best estimate is to leave it in the middle, where it will pinch the seam half way between the holes. It is also recommended to have the pinchout turned on when making thickness grids. This will model the thickness properly. But, when modeling the bottom elevation of a seam, turn OFF pinchout. If it is on, many times it will bring the elevation of the seam up to the next seam to pinch it out. Turning the off for elevation grids will keep them down where they belong. Then just add the thickness and the bottom elevation to obtain the roof elevation grid.

Pinchout Zero Thickness: This setting will recognize a zero thickness entry in a drillhole and treat it as a pinchout for modeling. Normally, the zero entry is treated as a zero value, and the seam would go to zero just at the hole, and not before. Treating a zero value in a drillhole as a pinchout, will treat it as if it wasn't in the drillhole, and the seam will be pinched out using the pinchout slide bar settings above, instead of just going to zero right at the hole.

Pinchout Key Only: This setting will apply the pinchout settings to just the Key seams in the drillholes. The NonKey seams will model as if the pinchout setting is off.

Restrict Pinchout to Drillhole Elevation Range: This setting provides the option to control where the seam will pinchout. If there is a shallow hole, and a seam is running beneath it, this setting will pinchout the seam if it is off. If it is on, then the seams will only pinchout if they pass through the elevation range of the drillhole. This is useful if it is desired to pinch out a seam that passes above or below the elevation range of the drillholes.

Include Strata Name in Bed Composite: This will add the strata name to the bed name when running the bed composite commands, such as Split Bed by Parameters.
 
Process Only Strata with Beds:
This setting is used mostly when duplicate strata appear in a drillhole. It will only model with strata that have a bed name, ignoring those that don't. This useful in a situation where only the KEY strata have a bed name. It will ignore all the NONKEY strata, and just model the KEY strata. This can be used when modeling geology such as lignite or bentonite, where thin seams have bed names and the overburden, partings and interburdens do not.

Prompt for Advancement Pline for Quantities: When running the quantity routines in the standard mining module, turning this on will prompt for the Advancement pline for quantities.

Composite Bed Qualities by Density: When modeling the quality attributes from drillholes, and they are sampled at multiple intervals, by default, they are averaged by thickness and that one value will be used for gridding. This option will weigh the quality attribute by a Density value instead of thickness. the Density attribute needs to be in each drillhole and the name is entered in the box to the right. It is usually DENSITY, and is in pounds per cu. ft or kg/cu m.

Use Strata Limit Lines: When using Strata Limit Polylines for modeling, this needs to be turned on for the program to use them, even if they are on screen. If just using Strata Limit Polylines for modeling, this needs to be turned on or the program will not use them, even if they are on screen. If just this one setting is on, then you will be prompted to select them for all commands.

Auto Select All Strata Limit Lines: Turning this on will automatically select all the Strata Limit Polylines for all commands that use them. They will not have to be selected each time.

Process Only Strata with Beds: This setting is used mostly when duplicate strata appear in a drillhole. It will only model with strata that have a bed name, ignoring those that don't. This useful in a situation where only the KEY strata have a bed name. It will ignore all the NONKEY strata, and just model the KEY strata. This can be used when modeling geology such as lignite or bentonite, where thin seams have bed names and the overburden, partings and interburdens do not.

Process Only Strata with Definition: This option will process and model only the strata and beds that are defined with the Define Strata command that creates the *.SDF file. If the seam is not on this list, then it will be ignored for processing and modeling.

StrataCalc Drillhole Selection Method: This setting defines how the program will prompt for modeling the geology. If it is set to On-Screen Drillholes, then that will be what the program is looking for when modeling. If this setting is set to StrataCalc File, then the program will prompt for the presaved StrataCalc file with the extension of *.STC. This file is created in the Geology Module, under the StrataCalc menu.

Underground Room/Pillar Settings: The following settings are used for the series of commands for placing coal sections to calculating end of month volumes.

Use 0 Values for Blank Entries in Coal Sections: When using the Coal Sections in the standard mining module, if a value is blank, this option will assign a 0 value instead of a blank or Null value.

Draw Coal Sections Z at Thickness: This option will draw the coal sections symbol at the Z value of the actual thickness. So if the coal section has a thickness of 5 feet. When it draws it in the drawing, it will have a Z value of 5. This is useful for contouring or gridding the coal sections with standard Civil commands.

Prompt for Advancement Pline for Quantities: When running the quantity routines in the standard mining module, turning this on will prompt for the Advancement pline for quantities.

Report Format for Quantities by Avg/Grid Methods: This setting determines the report format from the quantity commands in the standard mining module. Standard is the regular text editor. Column puts them in columns in the editor and Formatter will use the powerful Report Formatter.

Key Material Name: This is the name of the KEY material you are mining. For example, enter in COAL or LIMESTONE or GOLD, or whatever ore you are mining.

Bed Name Suffixes: KEY, TOP, PARTING & BOTTOM: These settings allow for custom naming of the Bed Name extensions the program adds to the bed names when it does the processing and modeling. The default settings are KEY, TOP, PARTING & BOTTOM. These can be customized, such as replacing _TOP with _OB.

SDPS Directory: This is the directory that the SDPS program (Subsidence Deformation Prediction System) is installed in, if it is on the computer.

Use Map Object Data as Properties: This setting will use the AutoCAD Map data as the information stored for the Property and Owner when using those named polylines in the drawing. If this is not set, then the program will use the standard Owner and Property names assigned as normal.

Startup Settings:
These options are used for starting Carlson. Defaults are set here, and will be used at the beginning of each session.

Template Name: This is the drawing template file that will be used when starting a new drawing. The Browse button allows for selecting a new file.

Carlson Launch Folder: This is the folder where Carlson will initially look for, and save a drawing file. The Browse button allows for selecting a new file.

Profile Name: This is the AutoCAD/IntelliCAD Profile that will be used when working in Carlson.

AutoCAD command switches: This turns off the AutoCAD "splash" screen upon launching the program. The /nologo takes the splash screen out of the startup procedure.

AutoCAD product to run: This is the AutoCAD version and flavor (Map or LDT, etc.) that Carlson is installed for, and will run with.

No menu resetting: This controls whether to set the Carlson menu as the main customization file on startup or to keep the current main customization unchanged.

Takeoff/SiteNet Options:
These options are used for the Takeoff module and SiteNet commands in the Civil module.

Automatic Update Colors: This refreshes colors in your drawing as they change: i.e. elevating  entities, setting layers for different Targets, etc. If your drawing is very large and is slow to automatically refresh you may want to toggle this off and use the Update Colors For Set Elevations command under View when you want/need to see the color changes.

Assign Colors By Target
: This option allows you to set the Existing, Design, and Other layers to any color you define.

Assign Colors By Elevation: This option allows you to set the color for entities needing elevations.

Extrapolate Surface To Boundary Perimeter: When this is check ON surfaces are extended and volumes are calculated out to your boundary perimeter. When this is checked OFF surfaces and calculations end at the extents of your design data.

Use Existing Surface To Extrapolate Design: When this is checked ON surfaces and volumes are calculated to the extents of your existing data.

Use Binary Triangulation File Format: This option sets the format for the surface model files as either binary or ASCII. The binary format has a .tin file name extension and loads about twice as fast and has about 50% less file size than ASCII. The ASCII format has a .flt extension and is the legacy format used by other Carlson products and Softdesk.

Minimize Flat Triangles: This option reduces the occurrence of "flat" (or more precisely, horizontal) triangles. Flat triangles often occur when creating surface models from contour data. The Minimize Flat Triangle option will swap triangulation edges when possible to switch flat triangles to sloped triangles.

Reduce Triangulation Surfaces: This causes edges within the selected surface Tin mesh to be collapsed to reduce the number of triangles, edges, and points within the mesh while having a minimal impact on the overall shape of the mesh.

Reduction Offset Distance: This setting is used by the Reduce Triangulation Surfaces command to set the reduction tolerance. Specify the maximum average distance that any point can be moved outside of the plane of any triangle that connects to that point. Values might range from .01 to .1 for most purposes.

Surface File Suffixes: These settings allow you to change the file names for the surfaces generated by the program.
-og: This is the default name for the original ground surface before adjustments.
-ze: This is the default name for the original ground surface after subgrade zone adjustments.
-ex: This is the default name for the original ground surface after subgrade zone and topsoil adjustments.
-bs: This is the default name for the initial design surface before adjustments.
-zn: This is the default name for the design surface after subgrade zone adjustments.
-fn: This is the default name for the design surface after subgrade zone and topsoil adjustments.

Localization Options:
There are literally hundreds of default settings that can be set with this dialog. The categories that can be selected from are:

The Settings for each Category will display all of the items that can be setup for default values. The Default value is set in the Configuration Default Value box. The corresponding Metric or English default values are set here, allowing for easy switching between the two systems.


Pulldown Menu Location: Settings
Keyboard Command: config_scad
Prerequisite: None