CartoPac Field Solutions Releases Version 3.1 to Provide Even Greater Ease of Use and Time Savings

New Features in CartoPac 3.1 Include Increased In-Field Capabilities to Speed and Simplify Creation of As-Built Drawings for Gas Distribution and other Industries

Fort Collins, Colo. – August 10, 2010 – CartoPac Field Solutions (http://www.cartopac.com), today announced the release of CartoPac 3.1, an enhanced edition of the company’s flagship suite of custom mobile GIS field data collection solutions for efficient data capture and integration with enterprise asset systems. Fueled by the evolving needs of CartoPac gas distribution clients, expanded in-field capabilities and native support for Oracle and SQL Server 2008 Spatial Types are among the top enhancements to the CartoPac Mobile software. For CartoPac clients in a wide range of industries including oil and gas, natural resource management, federal agencies, and state and local municipalities and utilities, the new features further reduce project time by increasing support for effective in-field decision-making. 

CartoPac Field Solutions is continually developing enhancements to maximize process efficiency, and gas distribution clients had asked for features to speed and simplify the creation of as-builts in the field. CartoPac 3.1 provides these solutions with in-field capabilities including auto measure/linear referencing, projected measure queries, and embedded data collection.

Native support for SQL Server 2008 and Oracle Spatial Types enables direct communication between the database and CartoPac 3.1. This new capability eliminates the need for intermediate software and increases speed and ease of implementation, stability and performance.  By allowing validated data to move directly into the database without any help from office staff, the new capability also reduces time and effort on the back-end.

A highly intuitive interface for embedded data collection in CartoPac 3.1 provides a simple process to continue adding vertices after pausing to collect separate features. Users can now collect different data types simultaneously (e.g. continue collecting line or polygon features after collecting points along the way). A “new” button speeds and simplifies repetitive data collection. These features result in a significant productivity increase by enabling workflows that closely match field personnel’s actual processes.

“At CartoPac, our goal is to help our clients save time and reduce project costs by providing powerful decision-making capabilities to field personnel, and CartoPac 3.1 offers a number of significant enhancements for not only for our gas distribution clients but others as well,” said Glenn Vlass, president of CartoPac Field Solutions. “CartoPac 3.1 greatly speeds up the data collection and enhances accuracy in situations where there may be online/offline features.

Other key new features and functionality in CartoPac 3.1 include:
Auto-measure calculation of polyline-m features.
• The new auto-measure calculation capability enables CartoPac users to capture linear reference information in the field. 
• Automatic population of measure and distance along linear features and related point features increases efficiency, accuracy, and in-field decision making capability.
• An option enables oil and gas users to show labels in standard stationing format.

Projected measure queries for point-m along line-m features.
• In addition to the new auto measure/linear referencing capability, CartoPac now offers additional query capability for in-field decision making. 
• Users can spatially relate a point to a linear feature without specifying the related measure.    
• This feature greatly speeds data collection and enhances accuracy in situations where there may be online/offline features.

Aggregate queries.
CartoPac users can now calculate values based on multiple attributes collected during the field data collection process, enabling greater control for the developer to design complex solutions and relate data.

See a Demo of the New 3.1 CartoPac Mobile technology
CartoPac Field Solutions will be attending the Geogathering Conference, Thursday, August 26, 2010 in The Woodlands, Texas. For a web demo and more information about the enhanced edition of the CartoPac Field Solutions flagship suite of custom mobile GIS/GPS field data collection solutions, go to info@cartopac.com or call us at 970-692-5183.

About CartoPac Field Solutions
CartoPac Field Solutions is a leading provider of fully integrated mobile solutions that increase field-to-office workflow efficiency by integrating and enhancing a wide range of devices including GPS units, lasers, cameras and other external devices. CartoPac software is ideal for oil and gas, municipalities, railroads, electric or water/wastewater utilities, natural resources, or anyone interested in collecting and managing large amounts of field data. CartoPac Field Solutions is an authorized ESRI and Trimble Business Partner, and is an authorized Strategic Business Partner to Cityworks.