We have just returned from the 2000 CIGRE exhibition in Paris. We had a wonderful time meeting many current and prospective clients and want to thank everyone who stopped by our booth. If you missed us at CIGRE, you will still have several opportunities to meet with us this year as we have two users group meetings and several classes scheduled. This newsletter also details the most recent improvements made to our software and some updates to the web site that you should know about.
First, the long awaited users group meetings. On November 16th and 17th, Power Line Systems will hold the first in a series of regional users group meetings. This meeting is being hosted by Georgia Transmission Corporation in their facilities just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Click here for more details on the Atlanta users group. We are also evaluating interest in users group meetings in Texas, the Northwest and the Midwest. On October 16th and 17th, Paul Rice of Innovative Engineering Solutions will be holding his third annual PLS-CADD meeting. This meeting will be at the offices of Consumers Power in Jackson, Michigan. In addition to presentations by other PLS-CADD users, Eric Peyrot of Power Line Systems will be present to demonstrate new program features and answer questions. For more information about this meeting please contact Paul Rice at iesengr@dmci.net.
The University of Wisconsin and Power Line Systems will once again be offering the "Design of Transmission Line Structures & Foundations" class. Class dates and locations are as follows: October 9-13 2000 in Seattle, January 15-19 2001 in Las Vegas, and April 23-27 2001 in Milwaukee. We will also be offering the "Computerized Transmission Line Design-PLS-CADD and Tower Hands-On Training" class on January 29-February 2 2001 in Las Vegas and May 7-11 2001 in Milwaukee. Finally, EPRI and Power Line Systems will offer joint training in software for the structural assessment and upgrading of transmission lines on Novemeber 6-10, 2000: "Advanced Structural Analysis and Design Methods For Electric Power Lines"
TOWER version 5 has completed alpha testing and is nearing the end of beta testing as well. To date, feedback has been uniformly positive with the most appreciated improvements being undo, the ability to cancel an analysis and view the model in a non-equilibrium condition as well as a new section copy/paste feature which allows rapid duplication of portions of a structure. This week we shipped PLS-POLE version 5.21 which includes improved stability, a structure preview feature, more control over the output and a host of other improvements. We strongly encourage everyone to upgrade to version 5.21.
We recently added a new Technical Note which describes how to use USGS data in PLS-CADD. Even if you do not intend to use USGS data we recommend you take a look at the graphics on this page to see what PLS-CADD is capable of doing when given a suitable terrain model and aerial photography.
The current shipping versions of our software are as follows:
If you are interested in obtaining the current shipping release of any of our applications, please send us email at info@powline.com. The rate at which suggestions are made has tapered off recently. Most of the features you use in our programs are there because someone suggested them. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have an idea on how to improve our software.
Best Regards,
Staff of Power Line Systems, Inc.
