Is protected software really necessary?

While protected software can be a pain, it does provide several advantages, the most important of which benefits vendor and user alike. As "bugs" are corrected, and new features added, new releases of all Mentor Software retail products are posted on our Web site. Licensed users can obtain the latest revision of licensed products by simply downloading them from the Web site. Installing directly over the previous licensed copy preserves all authorizations. Mentor Software will e-mail notifications of updates to all licensed users. This service is free of charge to all licensed users within any major release level. (There may be an update fee for major release level updates required by, for example, Windows 98 or AutoCAD 15.)

Protected software also enables us to provide Annual Licenses as described below, eliminates most shipping/handling hassles and expenses, enables us to distribute internationally, and to assure that all licenses fairly contribute to the cost of development and maintenance of the software in relation to their use. All of these features combine to enable high quality products and services to be made available at lower cost; while maintaining the financial viability of the vendor. So, while perhaps inconvenient at times, software protection provides significant benefits to both user and vendor. The only real loser is the software pirate who feels that it’s OK for everyone else to pay for the development and maintenance of the software they use.

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What’s an Annual License?

Since technology changes so fast, it has become increasing evident that software users are somewhat reluctant to spend a significant amount of money to license a product which may be technologically out of date in, say, six months. Mentor Software’s annual license is a means by which this problem can be avoided. Using the protection software built into our products, we can provide you with a license to use any of our retail products for 365 days at a substantially lower fee than the traditional perpetual license. At the end of that time period, licensees can decide if the Mentor Software product still represents the best solution to the specific issue which the product addresses. If so, the user can renew for another year at the then current annual license rates. If not, the licensee is not financially committed to using an inferior product. Thus, the annual license provides licensees with lower cost, and vendor with a definite motivation to keep the underlying product up to date; what we feel is a win/win situation. We believe that all software licensing will, in general, move in this direction.

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Tralaine complained that it "couldn’t find the L?S files". What’s wrong?

Accurate conversion between NAD27 and NAD83 requires access to a database of latitude/longitude shift information. This information is distributed by the National Geodetic Survey in files which have the .LAS and .LOS extension. The .LAS file contains the latitude shift values; the .LOS file carries the longitude shift values. Tralaine expects to find these files in its DATA sub-directory.

In total, these files are rather large and seldom change. Thus, Mentor Software does not include them in the downloadable distribution. (in initial releases, we did not include them in the physical distribution either. Our apologies, this has been corrected.) To do so, would require an unnecessary download of 1.8 megabytes of stuff that hasn’t changed each time a user downloaded an update. These data files are available on our FTP/Web site in a file named NAD_HPGN.EXE, located in the DATA directory. Treat the file as if it were named SETUP.EXE. That is, execute the file and use the "Extract To" portion of the screen to extract the contents into the DATA sub-directory of Tralaine.

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What’s the difference between WGS84 and NAD83?

While there are some geodesists who will insist otherwise, essentially there is no difference between these two datums. Both are very precise measurements of the same thing performed by two different organizations. What differences there are stem from the mathematical techniques and the number of observations used. For a detailed analysis of this issue see NOAA Professional Paper NOS 2, Article 22 Relation of NAD 83 TO WGS84 - by Charles R. Schwarz, Page 249.

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Why can’t I use a coordinate system defined using Tralaine inside of Hawkeye?

This is a temporary situation. Our current version of Tralaine is based on the latest release, 8.04, of the coordinate conversion engine which we use in all of our products. Hawkeye releases prior to 14.07 are based on the previous release of the coordinate conversion engine, 7.04. Thus, there is a compatibility issue. Hawkeye, Release 14.07 (due out April 30, 1998), will be based on the same coordinate conversion engine as Tralaine and the two products will be compatible at that time. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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How can I define a new coordinate system for Hawkeye?

Beginning with release 14.10,  you can now use Tralaine to define a coordinate system and use it in Hawkeye. Actual licensing of Tralaine is not necessary as authorization is not required to use the coordinate system editing features of Tralaine. We do intend to include coordinate system editing in future releases of Hawkeye. 

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I couldn’t get Hawkeye to accept UTM-18 as a coordinate system as before. Why not?

The key names for UTM zones have changed to include a reference to the datum in the key names. Thus, those used to providing UTM-18 as a key name will now need to provide UTM27-18. As this implies, there is a corresponding UTM83-18 in the dictionary. In recent releases, there is also a complete set of UTM84’s.

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What’s the difference between the U. S. Survey Foot and the International Foot?

The metric system was originally invented in the early 1800’s. The meter was defined as 1 ten millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. At that time, the official conversion of English units to metric was set at 39.37 inches equals one meter, precisely.

This definition of a meter turned out to be not so hot, as it was realized that the shape of the earth is not a true ellipsoid. In the 1950’s, the definition of the meter was changed to be some many times the wavelength of a certain type of light. The English conversion factor was set to be 2.54 centimeters equals one inch, precisely.

Thus, we have two conversions between metric and English. These are close to being identical, but not quite. A foot based on the older system is referred to as a U. S. Survey Foot; a foot based on the newer definition is referred to as the International Foot. In general, most all surveying and mapping in the US which is done in feet is based on the U. S. Survey Foot. Thus, in all Mentor Software products, the term FOOT refers to the U. S. Survey foot.