Frequently Asked Questions
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How can I be sure that the reports produced by the system are correct? |
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There are many conditions which could lead to incorrect results. For this reason, Pro/Bridge Engineering could not guarantee the accuracy of the results produced for your problem; (please read the disclaimer statement in the manual and program). We have, however spent a great deal of effort to calibrate the system using real examples and also insert many checks to verify that the input data makes reasonable engineering sense. Almost all what the system can produce is viewable by tabular and graphical reports and hence can be verified by any experienced user. Your confidence in the system’s accuracy will grow gradually as you use the system and by having its results occasionally verified by other means. If you are a new user and before using the system for your first project, we strongly recommend that you first practice by using the system to solve a variety of old problems which you already have verified solutions. The following are however some of the many ways to verify if the results produced by the program are accurate;
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How do I submit a report on a technical problem and how do I speed my learning curve? |
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Please refer to the User’s Guide section on “Technical Support” on the process required to submit a request for technical support. Most of the problems that were reported to us could have been avoided if the user has followed the correct sequence described in the manual to construct the problem at hand. Attempts to jump steps and force the program to do what it is not designed to do may lead to the corruption of the database and possibly crashing the system. |
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What is the minimum display resolution setting that I can use to run the system without running into the problems with dialogs running off the screen? |
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We have designed the dialog system to work with a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768; however with this resolution you may find that some dialogs cover the entire screen, leaving little space to view other window applications. We strongly recommend using a higher resolution screen of 1280x1024 or higher. To assist users who have a higher resolution display, we have designed those dialogs with complex graphic fields or dense tabular data to be scalable to maximize the ease of viewing of complex graphic displays and/or large tabular data such as screed elevation table etc. |
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Why doesn’t the system process my input data unless I remove the cursor and place it somewhere else on another field in the dialog? |
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Your system is always watching your input and is ready to respond to it. Some fields are continually monitored by the system for any change that will affect the behavior of the system. After you finished editing the field; to indicate that data entry is complete and to make sure that the program has accepted changes to a data field, you must click on any other field (other than a push button). |
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Can I change the name of the directory which holds the project data file (.pr1)? |
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No; The directory name in which the project file is located is stored in the database of the project file. It has been created by the system and is maintained by the system. You can however, place that directory anywhere you want. The only way to change the directory name is to save the project using “Save As” in the file menu. Note that the “Save As” will not delete your current directory; It simply creates another a copy of the project with a different name. |
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What will happen to my project file if the system crashed while the project file is open? |
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While the project is active, the system is using the temporary project file (.prt); Your permanent project file is only update when you save the project using the “Save” in the File Menu. So, if your system crashes for one reason or another, your last saved project file will not be affected. Your temporary project file “.prt” which is normally deleted at exit will be corrupted and will stay in the project directory until it is deleted by the system the next time you open the project file. |
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What will happen if I deleted, changed or moved the location the ground file “.xyz” which I have already made reference to in my earlier run of the project? |
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This may lead to serious error if you open the project file and go directly to use features that uses that file. If that happens, you must access the “Ground” dialog the first thing after you open the project; For each ground plate that uses the old file, you must update it to point to your new file; if necessary, edit the attributes of the ground plate and then save it. |
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What should I do before starting a new project? |
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Do I need to define the Global co-ordinate system for a new project? |
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No, the Global Cartesian System #1 is defaulted by the system. |
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When do we need to define datum points? |
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The ability of the system to generate 3-D co-ordinates for point sets that are offset from alignment or offset from any other point in any co-ordinate system is a useful feature which can be utilized by the user at will. The following are examples of its use:
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How is ground data being collected and how is it used to define bridge geometry? |
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Ground point is obtained from ground survey and is normally input in road software to plan road alignment and its cross sections. The section “Ground Plates” in the User’s Guide describes how this data is imported into the system and how to extract from it a subset (ground plate) that depicts the ground data at certain domain such as a bridge site. The ground data is used in the system to:
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If I don’t have ground point data, could I define the footing elevations without it? |
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Yes, the top of footing elevations is input by the user and is not estimated by the system. |