Letter from HYPACK® President Pat Sanders:
My thanks to everybody who participated in our recent HYPACK® User Survey. It gave us a good opportunity to get feedback from you on what you like and don’t like about the software, along with some good ideas on the future direction of the
package. Some of the more interesting results:
• Purchase Criteria: When asked what the deciding factors when purchasing HYPACK®
were, “Price” was in 5th place, behind Support Equipment, Customer Support, Multiple
Uses and User-friendly. As the lowest cost option amongst the hydrographic software
packages, it was interesting to me that price wasn’t that important a factor. (Although it
was for the 2% who complained that the price was too damn high!)
• Version Upgrade Trends: Only about half of the users are using the HYPACK® 2014
version to collect data. The other half are using HYPACK® 2013 and HYPACK® 2012
with a smattering of users in even older versions. I know the Corps of Engineers is usually
delayed in updating new versions, as ACE-IT has to go through an approval process.
Many other users have the philosophy, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” A larger percentage of
users use HYPACK® 2014 for their data processing and final products.
• RTK Tides: Almost half of our users use RTK Tide methods. I knew it was widely in use
in the USA, but didn’t expect the number to be so high.
• Volumes: 75% of our clients have performed volume computations! The majority (about
half) use the TIN MODEL, while 25% use CROSS SECTIONS and another 25% use
CAD/GIS. This one kind of drove home a point I have been trying to make for the last
several years: there are many more agencies/companies involved in dredging and
channel maintenance than there are in cartographic activities.
• Bottom Classification: Only 12% of our users had tried the bottom classification
routines in GEOCODER™.
• Highest Rated HYPACK® Program: The highest rated program was HYPACK®
SURVEY! It was closely followed by MBMAX-64, SBMAX and GEODETIC
PARAMETERS.
• Lowest Rated HYPACK® program was GEOCODER™, followed by HYPLOT and the
ENC EDITOR.
• Multibeam Sonar: We asked users what kind of multibeam sonars they were using.
Reson was the most prevalent (39%), followed by R2Sonic (34%) and then Teledyne
Odom (22%). In a short amount of time, R2Sonic has almost caught up to Reson
amongst HYPACK® users.
• Water Column Data: Over 70% of the users were either “Very Interested” or “A Little Bit
Interested” in water column data. I had thought that water column data was the love child
of academicians. I guess I was wrong!
• Topographic Lasers: 15% of our users had used topographic lasers (LIDAR) and
another 15% were planning on it.
• Maintenance Plan: Almost 90% of the respondents are on the HYPACK® Maintenance
Plan. 15% had contacted our Tech. Support group more than 10 times last year. (Perhaps
I should buy them our competitor’s product….)
• Technical Support: Tech. Support got glowing reviews, with 35% reporting they were
Extremely Satisfied, 32% were Very Satisfied and 20% were “Satisfied”. Only 2% were
not satisfied. You can’t please all of the people all of the time…
Vector-Based Soundings in HYPACK® SHELL and HYPLOT:
When we first came out with HYPACK® for Windows®, we elected to allow the user toselect the font and style of the text when writing soundings. It caused problems when zooming in/out, as the soundings always remained the same size on the screen. If you zoomed out to cover a large area, the soundings quickly became a big ink blot. This happened in both the HYPACK® SHELL and HYPLOT.
Several years ago, John Marinuzzi adapted the EXPORT program to write vector-based soundings. Instead of writing text in a particular font and style, the digits of each sounding were now output as a polyline. Users could then make universal changes to fonts and styles in the CAD/GIS packages without impacting the soundings. Joseph Adamski of HYPACK has been moving the same logic into HYPLOT and the HYPACK® SHELL. You’ll be able to specify the height of a soundings (default = 2mm). As you zoom in/out, the vector-mapped sounding will be adjusted. Now, it will truly represent a WYSIWYG view and you’ll be able to verify your soundings aren’t overwriting visually before exporting them to CAD/GIS or plotting them.
US HYDRO 2015: The Hydrographic Society of America (THSOA) has made plans to host the US HYDRO 2015 event in National Harbor, MD (close to D.C.) from March 16-19 2015. For details, you can visit the www.ushydro.org/2015 web site.
HYPACK 2015: San Antonio, TX! January 5-8, 2015 at The Hyatt Regency. We’ll have the on-line registration up-and-running shortly. See you there!
NEW ANCHOR HANDLING ROUTINE IN HYPACK®
HYPACK, Inc. announces the release of a new anchor handling routine for the offshore construction market.As a world leader in hydrographic and survey software, HYPACK, Inc. has used its significant in-house expertise and input from a world leading survey company, to design and develop the new anchor handling routine.
The new anchor handling routine allows both rig and anchor handling vessel (tug) operators to graphically display the status and location of anchors and their cables, track their movement and deployment, and send the anchor locations to the anchor handling vessel operators.The new routine is ideal for offshore construction applications where anchor handling is one of the most demanding and inherently dangerous tasks performed. Moving the rig into the location before and after drilling can also be a substantial cost item. The new anchor handling routine will help improve the efficiency and safety of the operation.