Holding the shift key down allows you to pan using the mouse.

Holding the control key down in a 3d view allows you to change longitude and
latitude using the mouse.
The autosize option in the right click menu of a report will automatically format a
report so that no lines wrap.
Our web site, www.powline.com, has a technical notes section with information on
the use of our products.
You can visit our web site and sign up for our email mailing list to be notified
about new versions and features in our programs.
You can view helpful YouTube videos demonstrating features and commands in the
software by going to http://www.youtube.com/user/PowerLineSystems
The File/Backup command allows you to create a single file containing all the
information about your project. This single file makes it easy to transfer your
project to another computer or email it to someone. The File/Restore Backup
command is used to recreate the file created by File/Backup. It also allows you to
move your project to a different directory.
The mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and out in graphics views and can also be
used to page up and down in report views. You can also use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to
quickly jump to next and previous sections of reports.
Cells in our spreadsheet tables can be cut, copied or pasted. To select cells for
these operations simply drag the mouse over the desired cells and then select the
desired operation from the menu which pops up. You can also select entire rows or
columns by dragging over the row or column numbers.
Our spreadsheets support 'fill' and 'pattern fill down'. The fill command simply
does as many paste operations as needed to fill the selected area with exact copies
of the clipboard contents. The pattern fill command is similar except that it
duplicates the pattern established in the clipboard rather than using exact copies.
If you right click in reports you can select a table view, and in the table view
you can select columns and sort or filter the data. You can also right click in
reports and choose the XML export option and import the XML output file into other
programs like Excel for additional processing and formatting.
Our spreadsheets have a find command initiated with Ctrl-F. Hitting the F3 key
repeats the last find.
Time consuming operations can usually be aborted by hitting the Esc key or by right
clicking the mouse.
You can create multiple custom toolbars and assign icons or text to commands by
going to View/Edit Customizations/Custom Toolbar...
Reports can be detached from the main application window and sent to another
monitor by right clicking inside the report and selecting to option to detach to
another monitor.
Many dialogs and tables have a question mark in the upper right corner that when
clicked will take you to the corresponding section in the manual discussing that
menu or command.
The quick search tool bar is a fast way to find commands, sections of the manual,
technotes, or online videos.
You can change the unit system by navigating to File\Preferences�
You can change the rendering of steel from galvanized to weathering in
File\Preferences�
Most numeric input fields allow entry of expressions in addition to numeric input.
Expressions are evaluated when you tab out of the field. All expressions must
begin with "=" for example: "=4/pi" or "=sin(45)*(1.23*4/5)"
Right clicking in reports will give you a Go To option that allows you to jump to
various sections of the report.
Pressing the Z key will synchronize all views to the point at your mouse cursor.
If you center click in a view you can toggle the display of sections or structures.
The Sections/Swap Attachments command can be used to quickly change to what
insulators sections connect to at structures. You can also use it remove a
connection at a structure clicking the attachment and dragging it to the base of
the structure. And you can connect a span to a structure by clicking in the midspan
and dragging to another structure�s insulator.
The Sections/Table� has many commands to apply to all sections at once like the
Graphical Sag command which makes it easy to sag a conductor to match a surveyed
wire shot. You can also use the create points along wire command to add xyz points
along the currently displayed sections.
When printing or displaying large bitmaps such as aerial photos you can fine tune
bitmap output for your particular display driver or printer using the Bitmap
Drawing Options command in the F1 menu (accessible by hitting the F1 key in a
graphics view).
A procedure for measuring clearances to crossing spans is accessible through the
www.powline.com/news.html page on our web site.
PLS-CADD can download parts information from ODBC compliant databases such as
Oracle, Access, Informix, DB2... & PLS-CADD can export any of its spreadsheet
tables to ODBC compliant databases.
XYZ survey data can be brought into PLS-CADD by keying it in manually
(Terrain/Edit/Edit XYZ), importing it from an ASCII file (Terrain/Edit/Merge Points
from External File/Merge Points from XYZ Files...), importing it from a DXF file
(Terrain/Edit/Merge Points from External File/Create XYZ or PFL Points from DXF or
SHP Attachment...), or importing it from a .LAS file (Terrain/Edit/Merge Points
from External File/Merge Points from LAS Files...)
PFL survey data can be brought into PLS-CADD by keying it in manually
(Terrain/Edit/Edit PFL), importing it from an ASCII file (File/Import/User Defined
PFL), importing it from a DXF file (Terrain/Edit/Merge Points from External
File/Create XYZ or PFL Points from DXF or SHP Attachment...) or by digitizing
points from a CAD drawing or scanned plan & profile sheet (Terrain/Edit/Add PFL
Point...).
The View/Toolbars command lets you control which toolbars are displayed and also
lets you organize your tool bars with 'arrange all toolbars'.
You can attach raster or vector CAD drawings to any view - this can be used to
digitize old P&P sheets.
You can copy any geometry view to the clipboard using the Edit/Copy command (or
press Ctrl+C) and then paste the picture into any graphics capable program (Word
for example).
Cable files for use with PLS-CADD can be found in our online library which you can
reach with the Help/Visit the PLS Online Library command.
You can create additional sheets before and after the drawing sheets in sheets view
for things like title pages, notes pages, and appendix pages in Drafting/Plan
Profile Sheet Configuration/Pages and Station Range...
Pressing the 'S' will bring up the entity info dialog allowing you to choose what
entities the mouse snaps to. And pressing the 'O' key while an entity is selected
in the 3D view will center the rotation around that entity.
Graphic windows can be detached to separate monitors by center clicking and
selecting the detach to which monitor you'd like option. Also, graphic views and
reports can be dragged and snapped to window edges in the same fashion as Windows
7.
The File/Export/XML... command will output an XML report of many reports within a
project. After exporting the report once you can navigate to File/Export/XML
Settings... to view the various reports that you want included or excluded in the
XML output.
The quick search toolbar can be used as a calculator. All expressions must begin
with "=" for example: "=4/pi" or "=sin(45)*(1.23*4/5)". You can also calculate
ruling spans using the expressions "=RSC(HorizProj1,HorizProj2...)" or
"RSI(HorizProj1,Chord1,HorizProj2,Chord2...)"
You can create and display multiple line models in a single PLS-CADD project by
navigating to Lines/Edit...
You can download aerial imagery from many different free web servers by clicking on
the WMS button in the Drafting/Attachments (Raster and Vector)/Attachment
Manager...
You can create an annotation that measures distances between entities using
Drafting/Lines and Annotation/Add/Dimension... You can also change what entities to
snap to using Drafting/Lines and Annotation/Snap Mode
You can view your project inside Google Earth and Google Earth Street View by
navigating to File/Export/KMZ (Google Earth) ... while in the 3D view. You can also
view locations in Google Earth or Bing Maps by center clicking on entities and
selecting the desired option.
You can create a cross section view by pressing the �C� key.
You can attach photos taken with a smart phone with location services on to PLS-
CADD as a plan view vertical plane and PLS-CADD will scale, rotate, and position
them in the location and direction you took them.
You can choose what view types you�d like section or structures displayed in
Sections/Display Options...
You can make guy wires for structures intersect the ground TIN while keeping their
same slope by navigating to Structures/Customize Structure/Move Guy Anchor/Slope
Intersect with TIN/All Guys for Range of Structures
Some reports like the PI Report, Construction Staking Report, & the Summary report
can have xyz points imported into the project by right clicking inside the report
and selecting the option to import in project as XYZ points.
You can store surveyed wire temps in the weather case ***Surveyed Wire Temp.***.
The wire temps can be populated into this weather case manually in Sections\Modify�
or automatically using Sections/Thermal Calculations (IEEE 738 - CIGRE Brochure
207)/Batch Thermal Calculator...
In Criteria/Structure Loads (methods 3,4)... you can create custom structure groups
so load cases only apply to desired groups of structures.
You can shift, scale, or rotate a xyz project by pressing the F1 key and navigating
to F1/Survey/Terrain Features/Shift/Scale/Rotate XYZ coordinate system (XYZ files
only)...
You can select a MAX wind direction for structure loading which will incrementally
analyze global wind directions and report the controlling wind direction.