n4ce 4.40e May 2026 Release Notes

Note these date between May2026 and April 2025.

General

New:

• When defining annotation leaders, you can now define a pull-back value so that the arrow stops short of the point
• Hatching shape features will now hatch shapes whose points have been added to the list
• New option on the tree and list view menus to allow the saving of the current folders as defaults for new projects
• When reading Xpad RAW files, if shapes are used, these are reassigned to new code prefixes creating them if needed
• New option to export grid models to LandXML files.
• New option when exporting DTMs to LandXML to export groups as separate surfaces with an attached colour
• The GG951 Highways transform now allows you to apply a Z-offset at the same time
• A new option in groups allows you to Pick the current group and then lock all existing groups
• When exporting to DWG, a new option allows you to define a line width for all line features
• New option for Height, Number and Code annotation to only display on first and last points
• New options when comparing points to add dimensions for angle and bearing
• New option for auto bend of drop lines where you can define an offset (mm) from the datum of the section
• New option for shape and symbol line styles to add a simple line as a centre line
• New dialog for selecting pens when using the "…" buttons using palettes of colours
• When selecting backcloth colours, there is now a "…" button to perform this as well
• New options in a Model view called "Auto Scroll" under the Query Object menu or tab to force the spreadsheet view to scroll to an indicate point, line, symbol or shape
• New option when viewing a Model spreadsheet view called "Pan to Point" to Pan to the Model 2d view to the location of the clicked point.
• New option when calculating Prism volumes using Groups to place individual group volumes at the centroid of each group
• New buttons in the feature legend dialog allow you to set the selections to plot or not plot
• New option in near neighbour heights to copy dimensions to the new point
• New option in settings for section profiles to not plot the annotation boxes for "empty" profiles
• When inserting points by chain and offset, the entered values are stored as dimensions
• New option to place a symbol by 2 points and a width, needs to use a 3 point symbol to scale the width
• New accelerator for File Save As, Ctrl+Shift+S,  added to main window
• New option to create a Lock File in the Project Manager when opening files, necessary for use with OneDrive so others know you have it open.
• The snake grid options have been expanded to allow for transformations to and from Irish grid or TM
• New buttons in the transformations dialog to load and save transformations to a separate file
• When creating tunnel sections, a new option allows for the section points to not be sorted around a centre point, so their order is preserved.
• New option in sections to merge the profiles from one section data base into another
• New option to allow the 1-Pt Commit of 3-Pt circular and 4-pt polygon shapes in code table, new Check button
• Updates to Section Select dialog to specify Select All for multiple sections by default
• New options when right clicking in the Dimensions column in the spread sheet view to allow Dimension to be multiplied by a given factor
• Changes to the transform survey option to specify unique numbers have been used
• New option in the Codes dialog to Exchange the code prefix with the transfer prefix if it is set or different
• New options in the section viewer to delete the current element or delete empty ones
• New option in point projection to always make the offset dimension positive
• New option in Viewport settings which allow the top model, including shading etc, to overwrite the others
• When exporting drawings to DWG, if there are multiple models, you can suffix layer names with the model name
• New option in a Model view to create a sequence of numeric groups using sequential colours
• New option when importing models from DWG to force the import of vertical faces or not
• When importing DTMs from DWG, 3d solid objects can now be imported
• New option when plotting section annotation to plot a point prefix description
• New dimension, LPW to give line pen width for line features in real world units
• New options in Points List to select points inside or outside a reference DTM boundary
• New option when right clicking a CAD model to create filters for reading DWG files with 3d line information into a model translating layers to codes
• When importing 3d DWG with Polylines, an option now exists to import strings from CAD data using a pre defined filter.
• New option when inserting points to allow pressing of CDTP & N keys to add curving comma codes
• When densifying to chainages, you are given the option to densify by slope chainages and add the chainage dimensions
• When using the CDTNP comma code interrupts, these are now displayed in the prompt at the bottom
• New list option for segment intersect which will add all intersections between features on the list
• To clear the buffer of most recently used options, you can now use Shift+Esc.
• A new option has been added under Settings in the Project Manager to Merge settings from another SDB into the current one.
• A new option allows you to select polygons using the pick mode and ensure that they are clockwise
• New option to control whether a .BAK file is created on saving or not
• New option in section profiles to remove all profiles from a model from the current section model
• When moving the mouse over a model with a backcloth, the backcloth height is now displayed as bZ:
• New option in section profiles to add new profiles from DTMs to sections
• New option to override and ignore the line weight setting in v4 sdb files, as they will be on by default otherwise and cause fat lines to be drawn.
• New hot keys Z and X for moving up and down sections in multiple sections
• New defaults in drawings for the creation of CAD elements to show key plans on drawings
• New option for viewports to create to a key plan of other viewports on the current drawing
• New option to create a viewport on a drawing by sketching out a rectangle
• Option to display other viewports in the current viewport has been changed to plotting selected viewports
• Viewports on drawings can now be named and these will be plotted on keyplans
• New option in viewports to adopt one or more viewports from another drawing
• The speed of checking for duplicate triangles when importing LandXML DTMs has been hugely improved
• Ensured that all polygons in the Union tools are anti-clockwise so that the Clipper2 algorithm works
• When importing from JXL for Trimble Access, curve continuities are now supported
• When shape codes created on Xpad RAW import, they're set to not upload and have better descriptions
• The GG951 Highways transform now allows you to choose the Z band to use

Improvements:

• The import of JXL files using extended codes has been improved for comma codes on selected points
• The import of JXL files using extended codes has been improved for different dimensions on multi-codes
• If the import of JXL files using extended codes is used, this now overrides the Coding Convention
• When taking sections, if the ignore feature in sections is set, the code will not be applied to the profile
• When exporting code list to Leica XML files, a check is made so that an empty option is not exported
• When plotting multiple single sections, profile changes are transferred through all sections
• When using the properties of images, you can now adjust the image coords if it is not and ECW, SID or GeoTIFF
• When ECW files are embedded in a DWG, they are now read in as backcloth models
• When using the pen settings dialog, the colour swatches and buttons to select colours have been merged
• When querying a CAD element in ribbon view, you can now use the colour picker to change its colour
• When deleting large numbers of points, if "islands" are found, you are given the option to reform the DTM
• Improvement to region control where if a group border cannot be formed, a warning message is displayed
• Joining lines where the end points have the same coordinates does not create a duplicate vertex
• If ,Y is added to or removed from an observation, it is automatically reduced to remove the Z value
• When reading constructed rectangle features from Leica XML, all shape points are now correctly coded
• When creating tunnel sections, the title of the section is used for elevation models rather than the base line code
• The comma code and dimension dialog has had NS=, NX= and NY= added for Number of Steps, Columns and Rows for Shapes
• Export of annotation using Mtext now the same as AutoCAD.  The option of Legacy Hz Justification for multi-line text in Styles dialog
• When exporting to DXF/DWG, group fills are now exported to the same layer as the triangles
• When transforming points and loading from coord, warnings are issued if match not found and given option to remove
• When smoothing a DTM, you are now given a prompt to ensure it has not been unintentionally selected
• You can now set the number of decimal places for the offsets when doing a design compare
• You can now change the coordinates for CAD elements in the CAD Element Properties window
• The size of the text in tooltips now scales according the screen scale in windows
• Control readings will now have the prism constant added when reading from JXL
• Checking for a point prefix in tunnel sections is a line feature now ignores the Default code if it is a line
• When defining DTM heights for extend etc, you can always enter the DTM select dialog if the reference is a cloud
• When extracting tunnel sections, sectioning will take place though both facets and strings in other DTMs
• When generating heights from CAD text, commas are now treated as decimal points (continental)
• The Save As option is now available when opening a project already in use
• When deleting points using rectangle or list mode, N comma codes are now added to the following point if necessary
• If the layer for a grid on a viewport has not been created in the drawing, the default name is added to the list
• When saving codes, layers and line styles, the ini files are written out using the much faster writer
• The dimension coordinates tool allows you to place the text using a leader line to the indicated location
• When creating an intersection between line feature segments, curves are now honoured
• When adding chainages to a line feature, you are given the option to add slope chainages rather than plan if it's 3D
• Improvement to the query feature dialog to allow hovering over points in the section view
• When using the menu of most recently used commands, there are additional, fixed commands at the top of the menu
• When creating a formation model, a check is made for very thin inlets and peninsulas on the group boundaries
• When using end point lock, points which have style None will no longer be locked to
• The Wide Lines and Default width settings for pens are now used for RGB lines (Height shaded contours)
• New check box when filtering design string chainages to only remove the chainage dimension, not delete points
• When drawing RGB coloured lines, such as shaded contours, the default pen thickness is assumed if line weights are on
• When using the right click in a drawing view, if no viewport is selected, it displays the most recent commands menu
• When simplifying line features, a filter is run for duplicate points on the line before it is simplified
• When highlighting an element in the CAD window and showing properties, the select mode (dotted) is used in display
• When picking elements by a left click in ribbon bars, if it's a polyline, the picked segment data is shown in the window
• When importing JXL files, only the last of multiple NoteRecords for a point was remembered
• When placing tables, the must lock setting is no longer used
• Huge improvement to the speed of reading in large 3DFACE models from a DWG file
• Huge improvement to the speed of filtering a large number of points
• Huge improvement to the speed of resetting the adjacencies for triangle DTMs
• Filtering of points in DTM spreadsheet now gives options to delete or add to the list
• Import of OdDbGeoMap images now supported when reading from DWG
• When densifying with vertical curve heights, the first and last segments of a line used linear height interpolation
• When aligning points to features, exporting the model in a rotated viewport did not align correctly
• Exporting 1-point end symbols on the ends of line features to DWG did not work
• When exporting MText to DWG, the horizontal justification was not set correctly
• Importing new Xpad RAW format, OFY attribute, will now read the first offset and create a parallel dimension

Bug Fixes:

• When exporting Mtext annotation to DWG, the offsets were not used
• When renaming a model in the list view, n4ce may have ended up displaying 2 with the new name
• When exporting elevations to DWG, n4ce now follows the option to annotate height as the northing
• When importing deleted JXL extended, the ignore comma code was not there for multiple code points
• When exporting to DWG, bulges were not exported to lightweight polylines
• When saving codes to the ini file, the parallel and perpendicular auto options were not save correctly
• When importing from extended JXL, dimensions not added on join or sometimes added to wrong point
• When exporting SEC files from EACSD, if multi-segment and no section points in a segment, crash
• Problem with comma code flags not being set correctly after survey data loaded
• When insertting data in CAD, the extents were not updating themselves correctly
• The option Lines -> Curve -> Tangent -> Point applied a C comma code to the point rather than a T
• Use of the Ctrl key to mirror copy line features and points was not working
• The axis-lock draw mode had no effect with the Move Line Vertex option
• Fix for hachuring where the colour of the elements was not set to symbol colour
• The stations from a JXL file would not be imported if it was only stations
• When transforming from GG591 to OS, the height bands were not set correctly
• When selecting the pen for contour defaults, it was not remembered if the colour picker was used
• When creating an annotation leader, the arrow part of the leader was always not the same as the line
• When creating new layers in the main layer settings and asserting them into models, layer status was carried through
• When setting the layer of a CAD object, the height of the object was also set if the Height Set was ticked
• The option to transform point coordinate blocks using the Irish transformations did not work
• The setting for the version of DWG file created for PDF export was not being remembered
• Rotated backcloth images are now correctly exported to AutoCAD DWG files
• When importing observations, images were not attached to the observations
• When reading RAW files, some of the free station observations were not read in
• Group boundaries may not have been created when there was more than 2 uses of the same point
• Parallel line feature between through an indicated point did not work correctly
• Bug in the Hatch Settings dialog which does not save the hatching mode after it is changed
• Right clicking over the a folder in the list view would have displayed the wrong menu
• When importing RAW files, changing the status of a set up meant that readings were ignored
• Check made to ensure that fill styles have valid foreground and background colours
• When creating parallel features using gradients, if the left side of the string was indicated, the gradient was reversed
• When exporting shapes to DWG, if extrusions are exported, any parallel shapes are not
• When creating Gap -> Extrude, the extents of the CAD were not reset to include the extruded line
• When querying a triangle, if the triangle was not in a group, a crash will have occurred accessing the group depth
• When changing the comma codes by typing them into the survey point properties, the comma code flags were not set
• When using the Lock file, if you opened a file when one was already open, the lock file was not deleted on close
• When trying to access a cloud licence with no internet, it would sometimes ask for an authorisation code
• Moving number annotation moved it but then did not subsequently display the text at the correct position
• When editing element coordinates in the properties window, some objects did not update to the new coordinates
• The option to adopt groups by projection to another model did not work
• Fix for for the import of comments from RAW files where comments are always before points/readings
• When exporting 2-pt text to DWG, the wrong point was being exported as the position
• When importing lines with a width, the import units were not taken into account
• When exporting to DWG, the lines in tables were not exported in the correct place
• When toggling survey radials on and off, the logic didn't allow the correct settings
• When a fill pattern was set with a Solid fill, the background colour was set to -1
• The annotation options for flip, perpendicular and parallel were not creating the correct overrides
• The contour curve chord and offset values were not filled in the Display Options dialog box
• The 2 superscript for area dimensions was garbled when creating the text
• When importing from XML files and using string numbers, the comma codes were not correctly set
• Fix a crash when trying to read a JXL containing no readings or points
• The DI option for exporting diameter pipes into DWG was not working
• The option to extend a Line feature until it hits a DTM was not working
• When adding an angle dimension between 2 lines, the units and decimals in the dialog were ignored
• When importing a DWG file with Xrefs, a crash may have occurred as imported data was deleted but needed
• Import of a JXL file that is created directly by Trimble Business Centre crashed if Fieldbook entity was empty
• When changing the name of a pen, the change was not reflected correctly in any open CAD windows
• When annotating contours in the grid model, the always readable option was not followed
• Locking to the intersections of polylines ran into problems when curves were simple arcs rather than polylines
• Importing DWG line styles with 2 negative spacings for text styles caused incorrect line styles
• ,Y being treated as ,XZ was removed when the comma code system was updated
• When exporting line styles to DWG, the text in line styles went off when made readable
• When exporting text to DWG, the stretch factor had an effect on text made readable with right justification
• When curved contours are exported to DWG, the end segments sometimes contain an extra but of curving
• The Hatch Styles button, …, in DTM hatch dialogs caused a crash if <Solid> was the current hatch pattern
• When exporting to DWG in mm, some symbols were sent out 1000.0 too large
• When projecting points onto bulged polylines, the last segment was not taken into consideration
• When displaying line weights, the weight was always used however far zoomed in or out you were
• Exporting 2 point threaded contour lines to DWG will have caused a crash
• Line Feature Segment Intersect sometimes created a point on the wrong segment of one of the lines
• When importing images from CSV files, if slashes used instead of back slashes, problems caused
• When pasting a model into a new SDB, any reference to the models folder is removed
• When using the OSGB36 transformation option, the combo boxes were not populated
• If a line feature was closed using Auto Close, parallel annotation was not aligned correctly
• When generating points with no code, if string numbers set, the code was a string number
• Cant values are now correctly loaded from LandXML files and can also be interpolated
• Export to DWG of width scalable features using text line styles made the text too small
• Calculating intersections between 2 line feature segments sometimes did not work.
• Importing of point information from Magnet XML files set the heights to null if no GeoidHeight object found
• When importing mirrored arcs from DWG, very long lines were created

3d Viewer/Point Cloud Engine

New:

• Histogram option added for point cloud group colour key to report on deviation to design.
• Distance to mesh tool automatic groups and colour options.
• Only import images within clipping box (checkbox option).
• New measure tool to measure perpendicular to a plane.
• Create a Section From Listed Points.
• Keep XY option when generating normal model points over a point cloud to preserve the actual points xy and z location.
• Point cloud data can now be classified based on it's 2d distance to CAD polylines.
• Apex Insert and Append editing Tools for linework added to the Editing tab.
• Line Extend Tool for linework added to the Editing tab.
• CAD Text now displayed in 3D Viewer.
• 3D space mouse is now supported.
• A new Point cloud density query tool added so the density of the points can be measured.
• Rectangles can now be auto found as well as Circles using the Shape fitting tool.
• Export Grid models to TIFF - Needs to be done in the 2d View.  Export to Lidar, set the Format to TIFF
• Riegl Mobile Mapping Image format now supported for 360 panorama images. 

Improvements:

• Option to copy measurements to clipboard added.
• Added draw polygon option to ICP to restrict search area.
• Use simple template for ICP mesh to reduce triangle count.
• Add Xgrids option for 360 images.
• New CHCNAV 360 image format.
• Move "Point Cloud Grids" to a new ribbon tab.
• Remember units for imported point clouds (feet, metres, etc.)
• Variable radius can now be set for string shapes.  Just change the R= or D= values where needed.
• Backspace to undo editing tools.
• Allow both No Model and No Height Text
• Fix join points tool to recode second string if necessary.
• Use .prj files for TIFF geo coordinates.
• Sped up grid interpolation over point clouds.
• When grouping via a single closed line, a new option allows the inverse, so data is grouped when it's outside the closed feature.
• Feature lines can now also be used in the Distance to Model tool to group points cloud data based on 2d distances to the lines. If the lines are closed, then the Signed mode will be used.
• ICP Templates can now be committed, as opposed to committing the mesh.

Bug Fixes:

• Grade XY not working on last point
• Chainage was not correct for rail envelope tool
• RGB TIFF to ECW creates a blank image
• CAD not showing in section view with Clip Data turned off
• Group key blank in screenshots
• 3D model editing (translation and rotation) not working
• Show labels not toggling for 3D models
• Won't pick properly with two overlapping point clouds
• LGSX ref images not loading
• Extend not working in 3D (height not changed)
• Auto update not working for line force in DTM
• Importing of GeoTIFFs feet units was not working properly.
• LGSX images missing then blur the main image
• 3D pipe joins wrong when vertical to horizontal
• Wrong units in transformation dialog
• Plane estimation digitising wrong point
• XRay and points to model images not working
• Models with DTMs not showing when going into 3d in CAD