SoftWright TAP Tips


Terrain Analysis Package - Technical Information Publication
TAP Tips
Volume 14 - Number 1 - Summer 2002

Russian Engineers use the new SoftWright Conference Center
New Quarterly Engineering Seminars
Release of OverSite Software Announced
New Software Subscriptions
New Product Support Options
New One Second Terrain Database Soon Available for ALL of US
Frequently Asked Support Question


Russian Engineers use the new SoftWright Conference Center

SoftWright has expanded their office space in their Colorado headquarters to include a newly installed conference center. The SoftWright Conference Center is equipped with hotel-like conference training facilities and video projection. It is used to provide instruction on how to use all the SoftWright radio design software products in classes throughout the year. The inaugural training in the new SoftWright Conference Center was provided to a group of Russian Engineers who recently came to Denver for a week long training on the use of TAP. The group had the benefit of two English/Russian translators who worked both during the engineering sessions as well as on several field trips to nearby centers of RF technology. These Russian engineers are responsible for the design of radio communication systems that are part of the security systems that protect nuclear weapons against terrorist attack there. Here are a few photographs of that training.












New Quarterly Engineering Seminars

Since 1990 SoftWright has held an annual engineering seminar for our customers to teach how to use our software for RF system design as well as how to provide a sound engineering basis to form the necessary judgments for good engineering design. For several years, we have been requested to have more than one per year, because certain persons cannot attend in the early fall, when we have traditionally held our seminar. We have completely redesigned our instructional program. Now four times each year we host a two day engineering conference for training customers in how to operate the Terrain Analysis Package(tm) software to perform rf system design. We also hold a one-day conference in how to use OverSite(tm) to help with the engineering management of radio transmitter sites. Training is done in the SoftWright Conference Center at our offices located in the metropolitan Denver area. The dates for the next four seminars are:

September 16-17, 2002 (TAP Engineering Seminar) September 18, 2002 (OverSite Enginneering Seminar) December 9-10, 2002 (TAP Engineering Seminar) December 11, 2002 (OverSite Engineering Seminar) March 3-4, 2003 (TAP Engineering Seminar) March 5, 2003 (OverSite Engineering Seminar) June 9-10, 2003 (TAP Engineering Seminar) June 11, 2003 (OverSite Engineering Seminar)

These engineering seminars in no way resemble a trade show. There are two agendas for the seminars. First of all we conduct engineering sessions on many areas of RF system design. The faculty is selected from the support staff of SoftWright and sometimes also includes academic and industry professionals. Secondly, we have hands-on training where you will see the TAP and OverSite software demonstrated, as well as run the software under the direction of our support staff, to make certain that you know how to operate the TAP system with confidence. We encourage you to bring your notebook computer, with TAP and OverSite installed to use during your instruction. If you do, when you return home, you will have all the seminar examples on your computer to review as you desire.

The informal environment will allow you to meet many engineers throughout the world, who are also using SoftWright tools for their RF system design and radio site administration. A broad scope of industries will be represented. We can accommodate 20-25 users in our new conference facility. This smaller class size permits more direct interaction with our staff than was possible in the hotel setting with much larger groups held only once per year.

Click here for details of our next Quarterly TAP Engineering Seminar and fill out an on-line form to register. We have already had persons register for the September and December seminars.

Release of OverSite Software Announced

SoftWright has released a new suite of software that is designed to help those responsible for managing radio transmitter sites. OverSite has two modules available, Asset Manager and Intermodultion Products

Asset Manager will help you manage all the administrative details about your radio equipment site within one database. You can archive and retrieve digital graphics such as photographs or scanned drawings. You can include complete frequency databases of sites, space lease information, equipment maintenance logs and a great deal of other critical information that is not conveniently recorded elsewhere.

With our Intermodulation Products Module, you can create and use a database of transmitted and protected (received) frequencies and transmitter and receiver specifications to prepare different types of intermodulation products studies in house. These studies can be important for resolving existing site interference problems as well as preventative by examining potential problems should a particular new frequency be added to an existing radio site.



New Software Subscriptions

For many years SoftWright has developed and released the annual software upgrade in its products. The prices for the upgrade varied quite a bit from year to year. Waiting for the release of new major features was necessary pending the new software release. We have now changed our policy to no longer be once a year for upgrades. We have instituted a software maintenance subscription policy. All new major and minor change enhancements will be released into use by all customers, who are on one of the two software maintenance subscription programs as soon as development and beta testing are completed. You no longer have to wait for the next year's verison to be released to have access to these capabilities. You are never obligated to subscribe to either plan, but should you wish to always have access to the latest enhancements and new technology that we include in the software, there will be no delay in having access to these new capabilities.

There are two options for those who wish this service. You can subscribe to only minor changes or to all changes including all version increases. You can, of course, continue to download bug fixes from our web site at anytime at no charge. Details for these plans can be found on our web site at http://www.softwright.com/softwaremaintenance.html. his subscription has replaced our historic annual software upgrade. If you are not on the current version of TAP, you will need to purchase and upgrade to that version at the time you start your subscription. In addition to the ongoing upgrades that will now be available by downloading from our web site, you will automatically receive periodic CDs throughout the year with the latest version of TAP and Oversite as well as updated documentation.

New Product Support Options

We have also implemented three levels of product support. We are continually expanding our on-line support with FAQs and technical articles. These can be browsed from your hard disk or on our web site at www.softwright.com. We have an extensive site search engine that will assist you find all documents that contain any key words that you use, searching from the home page or other locations on the site. For those who prefer this level of support, there is no fee. However, individual access to our support department will no longer be available without an annual subscription to receive this personalized support. Again, we do have two fee-based levels from which you may choose.

Details about these options can be found at http://www.softwright.com/usersupport.html. For each person who has received training by SoftWright within the past two years, the fee-based support will be extended a discount, when you select the support option desired. For an overview of how SoftWright can assist you please check out http://www.softwright.com/assistyou.html on our web site.

New One Second Terrain Database Soon Available for ALL of US

The release by SoftWright of the a new 1-sec topography data set is expected late this summer. This is an entirely new topography database. The National Elevation Dataset (NED) is a seamless raster product produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The NED provides elevation data coverage of the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the island territories in a seamless format with consistent projection, resolution, elevation units, and horizontal and vertical datums. The USGS has significantly slowed down the development of the 30 meter DEMs, unfortunately leaving some areas where there is no high-resolution digital elevation data. In these regions one must presently rely on the 3" database, which has much lower density of data points and was also generated using much larger scaled and less-detailed paper maps. This new data set will be of major benefit to those customers needing better topographic data for Alaska and these diverse regions throughout the US where no 30 meter data will be produced. This new database will be the best of all databases throughout the county. This NED data set has been developed by merging the highest-resolution, best-quality elevation data available across the United States into a seamless raster format. NED is the result of the maturation of the USGS effort to provide 1:24,000-scale Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data for the conterminous US and 1:63,360-scale DEM data for Alaska. The 1-sec database will be on grids that are similar to the 30 meter files, but the coordinate system is completely different.

We are finalizing the modifications of all our software to incorporate the benefit of easy use of this new data set. In addition we are greatly simplifying the configuration of multiple data resolutions that TAP already supports. At the same time we are authoring master data files for the entire US in this new resolution. They will be released once the required changes in TAP are complete and tested. When this is completed, this capability to read the new data format will be automatically added to those TAP systems who are on the Gold Maintenance Subscription plan.

If you would like to be notified by SoftWright when this new data set is available, please let us know. For any questions about any of these items, please contact Mr. Curt Alway at sales@softwright.com who can respond with detailed answers.

Frequently Asked Support Question


Question: How can I improve the presentation of the coverage studies I compute in TAP?
Answer: Click here.



This TAP Technical Information Publications (TIPs) provides suggestions and updated information to users of SoftWright's Terrain Analysis Package (TAP)tm software. Questions should be sent to SoftWright by fax or email.

This information in TAP TIPs provides a valuable supplement to the TAP User's Manual. Please print a permanent copy for your records.

Terrain Analysis Package and TAP are trademarks of SoftWright LLC.


P.O. Box 370390
Denver, Colorado 80237USA

303-344-5486 - sales - sales@softwright.com
support - support@softwright.com
303-265-9399 - fax
http://www.softwright.com