Asta Powerproject version 16.0.02 release notes

You can use cutting planes to split an IFC model or IFC group model into two sections, with one section visible and the other hidden, allowing you to view the interior of the model. In effect, you can split a building in half, or remove a wall or roof, to view inside. You can apply more than one cutting plane to an IFC model or IFC group model - up to six at a time - to define very precisely the way the model is 'cut'.

To work with cutting panes, you use the new IFC Cutting Planes pane. You can create cutting planes based on the current orientation of the camera, or based on one side of an IFC product.

If you use the IFC Comparison Model pane to display an alternative view of an IFC model or IFC group model, you can choose whether or not to display cutting planes in the IFC Comparison Model pane. Displaying cutting planes in the IFC Model pane but omitting them from the IFC Comparison Model pane enables you to view an IFC model both with and without cutting planes at the same time.

You now have more flexibility when positioning site objects that you have added to IFC group models: as well as being able to move them horizontally and vertically, and rotate them around an axis, you can now tilt them around an axis of your choice and make them 'snap' to a surface of your choice. These new options are available on the Site Object Positioning dialog.

Both of these new options are useful when positioning site objects on non-horizontal surfaces such as sloping ground or a pitched roof. The Snap to surface option is also useful if you have moved, rotated or tilted a site object and want to revert it to a position at which it is sitting squarely on the ground.

You can now make IFC properties, taken from IFC models, available for use in Asta Powerproject. You do this by mapping user-defined fields to specific IFC properties. For example, you can:

• Display IFC properties in the spreadsheet.
• Filter bars and tasks according to IFC properties.
• Sort/group bars and tasks according to IFC properties.
• Display IFC properties in the bar chart.
• Use IFC properties to construct formulae.
• Export IFC properties as Business Intelligence data - this enables you to access the information in Asta Vision.

You can now convert IFC product searches into IFC product selections. You may want to do this for a number of reasons. For example:

• If you receive a revision of an IFC model in which some changes have been made to IFC categories that would 'break' your IFC product searches, you could convert the IFC product searches into selections so that they will still work with the new revision.
• If you use IFC product searches to associate products in an IFC model with tasks and you want to be able to hand the project to someone else without revealing the search criteria you have used, you could convert the IFC product searches into selections before passing the project on.

Before this release, if you wanted to set up a hierarchical structure of IFC product searches in which all of the IFC product searches in a folder shared the search criteria of the parent folder, you had to duplicate the search criteria of the parent folder in each individual IFC product search within the folder.

Now, you can now configure IFC product searches to include the criteria of their parent folders, so that products are included in an IFC product search only if they meet the search criteria of the IFC product search and the criteria of the parent folder. This means that you can build up a hierarchical structure of IFC product searches in which the parent folders are configured with a 'broad brush' set of search criteria, and individual IFC product searches are configured with search criteria at a finer level of detail, without having to duplicate the search criteria of the parent folder in each individual IFC product search within the folder.

For example, you could set up an IFC product search folder that included door-related products on a particular floor of a building, with IFC product searches within the folder that included all products related to individual doors on that floor.

Before this release, it could be difficult to identify Asta Powerproject 4D-related controls when customising the Ribbon. To make it easier to locate BIM-related controls, a new 'All BIM Commands' option has been added to the Choose commands from field, on the Ribbon tab of the Ribbon Customisation dialog. If you select 'All BIM Commands' in the Choose commands from field, the command list displays only Asta Powerproject 4D-related controls.

An 'All BIM Commands' option has also been added to the corresponding fields on the Quick Access Toolbar, Object Edit Toolbar and Keyboard tabs of the Ribbon Customisation dialog, making it easier to locate Asta Powerproject 4D-related controls when customising the Quick Access and Object Edit toolbars, and when customising keyboard shortcuts.

Two new buttons have been added to the Timeline group of controls on the BIM tab of the Ribbon, and to the dockable Timeline Controls pane:

• - When a timeline simulation is running, click this control to halve the speed of the simulation; each time you click the control, the simulation speed halves. When a timeline simulation is running in reverse, click this control to double the speed of the simulation; each time you click the control, the simulation speed doubles.
• - When a timeline simulation is running, click this control to double the speed of the simulation; each time you click the control, the simulation speed doubles. When a timeline simulation is running in reverse, click this control to halve the speed of the simulation; each time you click the control, the simulation speed halves.

In addition, the and buttons are now available when a timeline simulation is running. If you click one of these buttons when a timeline simulation is running and you have altered its speed by clicking or , the simulation will be reset to the default speed.

The following methods have been implemented in OLE. This is to enable the production of bespoke macros which use information from IFC models that have been linked to Asta Powerproject projects:

• GetAllProperties - Retrieves all available product properties for the IFC model.
• GetAllPropertyValues - Retrieves all available values for a product property; note that 'GetAllProducts' can be achieved by calling GetAllPropertyValues("ID").
• GetProductPropertyValue - Retrieves the property value of a product in this IFC model.
• ActiveModel - Retrieves the selected IFC model in the active pane.
• GetSelectedViewerProducts - Retrieves an array of all selected IFC products in the active pane.
• GetVisibleViewerProducts - Retrieves an array of all visible IFC products in the active pane.
• GetProductModel - Retrieves the IFC model from a group that contains the given product GUID (globally unique identifier).
• GetProductSiteObject - Retrieves the IFC site object from a group that contains the given product GUID.

When you record a comment against an Asta Vision programme, you can now specify that users should indicate when the comment has been incorporated into the programme - or that it has been dealt with in some other way. For example, if you record a comment to ask a planner to revise part of a programme, you may want the planner to indicate when the programme has been revised. You do this using the new Display comment completion check box check box that has been added to the Add Programme Comment dialog.

If one or more of a programme's comments has Display comment completion check box selected, a Completed column appears on the Programme Comments page in Asta Vision, and users can select the check boxes in this column to indicate that they have incorporated a comment into the programme.

Before this release, if you logged into Asta Vision or Asta Site Progress from the Backstage view of Asta Powerproject, your log in details were lost each time you closed Asta Powerproject, which meant that you had to log in again each time you restarted Asta Powerproject.

Now, if you log into Asta Vision or Asta Site Progress from the Backstage view of Asta Powerproject, your log in details are remembered, so you do not need to re-enter your email address and password to log in again if you close and restart Asta Powerproject. If you log into Asta Vision, you are logged into Asta Site Progress automatically, and vice-versa.

It is now possible to remove holding pins from progressed tasks using the right-click menu and the Ribbon controls.

The customer also reported that when 100% progress was applied to a task, its holding pin moved from the start of the task to its finish. This is correct behaviour, as the holding pin 'pins' the remaining duration of a task - which in this case is zero - so when progress is applied to a task, keeping the holding pin at the start of the task would be wrong.

Now, if you import a Microsoft Project project containing a Finish-to-Start link with 10d lead time, the resulting link still has 10d lead time after the import.

If you want to revert to using the previous behaviour - in which links with lead time are turned into links with negative lag - edit the registry and create a DWORD value called 'MSPImportLinksBehaviourFixedDuration' at the following key - 'Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Asta\Powerproject Teamplan\1.0\client' - and set it to '0'. If this DWORD value is set to any other value, or if it is not present at all, the new behaviour is used.

Summary and expanded tasks were incorrectly being assigned the rolled up duration of their subordinate tasks during export; they now retain the correct duration and dates when they are exported.

The export routine creates a task for a summary or expanded task in the following circumstances:

• One or more cost or resource allocations have been assigned to the summary or expanded task.
• One or more codes have been assigned to the summary or expanded task, or to the bar on which the task is located.

The export routine was creating tasks for the summary tasks in the customer's project because codes had been assigned to the bars on which the summary tasks were located. If you do not wish the export routine to create a task for each summary or expanded task, ensure that your summary and expanded tasks have no cost or resource allocations, and that no codes are assigned to the summary or expanded tasks, or to the bars on which they are created.

Now, the Browse button, on the Details tab of the Print dialog, has a dropdown arrow to the right of it. If you click the dropdown and select Vision, a new Download From Asta Vision dialog appears, which you can use to download borders that have been uploaded using Asta Vision's Global Files page.

In addition to this, if you are signed into Asta Vision and the border file that is specified in a project is not available locally, but is available as one of Asta Vision's global files, a message now appears to inform you that the border is available in Asta Vision, asking if you want to download it.

The critical path integrity check works by temporarily increasing the duration of each incomplete task on the critical path to 600d in turn, then checking that the finish date of the project has moved into the future by the same amount. The check incorrectly assumed that each day would comprise 7.5 working hours, which was not the case here; in this project, each day comprised 8 working hours. This meant that in projects with working days other than 7.5 hours, the critical path integrity check would not work correctly.

The critical path integrity check now uses the project's 'Working Days' time unit to calculate the 600d by which to increase the duration of tasks. This means that the critical path integrity check now works in all projects, regardless of the duration of a working day in the project.

Alt IDs are now handled consistently when data is copied and pasted:

• When objects are copied and pasted into the same project, all Alt IDs are retained.
• When objects are copied and pasted into a different project, all Alt IDs are retained, unless an Alt ID already exists for the relevant object type in the destination project - in which case the Alt ID that would cause a duplicate is zeroed.

When objects are cut and pasted, all Alt IDs are still retained.

A change to the Asta Powerproject activation code meant that when a new licence was acquired, the relevant key in the registry was not being set correctly to indicate that Asta Powerproject was activated; it is not possible to move a licence unless this key is set correctly.

The relevant key in the registry is now set correctly when Asta Powerproject is activated, so it is now possible to move licences.