Feature Friday – March 2021
We have made it our mission to make digital surveying available to every field worker out there. To create the best possible personalized surveying experience for all of them, with handy tips and tricks, connections with other apps or software, and new feature releases frequently.
We’re going to combine these releases and updates and how they’ll improve your digital surveying experience in monthly updates: these Feature Friday blogs. This first blog is dedicated to the fact that your projects are now visible in the cloud!
New menu structure in the UNI-Cloud
You’ll see the change immediately once you’ve opened your internet browser. UNI-Cloud has a new menu structure with corresponding icons, as you see in this print screen. With these new menu items, you’re even faster ready to go, since you have access to your current projects and settings. Import less, survey more, and have a better overview of your data and projects. This new update provides you with just that
All your projects in the cloud, just like in UNI-Connect
With this new release, all your proj
ects can be visible in the (UNI-)Cloud. A comprehensive synopsis of all projects you have surveyed are currently extending, reviewing, or are saving for another time.
When you open your project overview, there’s even a way to ‘view more’, so you can see the whole map and all your work, just like in UNI-Connect. By choosing this possibility, you can see all surveyed points, lines, and polygons from the work you have just done, before opening in external software. And, adding more depth to your surveyed data, we have added a 3D map feature for your project overview in the UNI-Cloud. This is a preview of the direction we are heading in general ?.
We have also started the groundworks for exporting from this project overview and importing to UNI-Connect from the UNI-Cloud. So you never have to hit export anymore after you have surveyed your work, nor import in a windy field. In a couple of weeks, you’ll see ‘import’ or ‘export’ pop up as a possibility, feel free to check that out if you’re feeling curious. Its actual release comes shortly after that, but even checking it out gives you a sense of the benefits you’re about to profit from.
Cloud syncing and sharing
With this new release, project syncing becomes much easier. Whatever projects are stored on the UNI-GR1/UNI-Connect, are synced to the UNI-Cloud. This means that for every synced project in the UNI-Cloud, all new added points, lines, and polygons in a specific project can be seen on every UNI receiver.
We highly suggest the colleague who oversees all surveying work within your team, to give viewing and surveying rights per project and per user.
By syncing projects, you can use UNI-Cloud to create defaults to improve productivity and reduce the chances of faulty data. Creating attributes, layers, and settings in the cloud, means they can be used by all UNI’s that have been synced both ways. When you make changes in a certain layer, they will be implemented throughout the company. How convenient is that?
This is the perfect time to clean up the projects you have currently saved. Existing projects will not be synchronized automatically, which gives you the chance to decide which ones are worth keeping. Older projects can be used and extended, but we suggest you migrate those by hand when you are back at the office. All future projects will be synced automatically. You’re on to improving user management in the cloud next.
Improved user management in the cloud
The first step of improving user management is the synchronizing of projects, as mentioned above. Another step is assigning certain projects to a UNI-GR1 and/or user, e.g. making colleagues responsible for surveying tasks on a certain location or area. Other users cannot see these projects (anymore), which saves them time scrolling through their project overview to find the one they actually need.
You can have colleagues working from the (home) office preparing the whole project, while field workers drive to the surveying location. Add new layers? Yes! Install new settings for this job? Consider it done! Create project-specific attributes? Why not? You are able to align all tasks and the corresponding team members better than ever. Personnel and equipment planning becomes much easier to oversee and control.
Furthermore, this whole new set-up and possibilities make the UNI-Cloud a much better and more clear management tool, without actually paying for new software or subscriptions.
But what about your workflow and UNI-Connect?
We have spent quite some time and efforts working under the hood of UNI-Connect and bettering your workflow as well, but you will not notice most improvements immediately in the front end. We have prepared UNI-Connect in such a way, it’s ready for further feature releases this year, while you can now still work the way you are used to. You just get extra’s.
What steps do you need to take?
Lucky for you, very few. We suggest you make an inventory of existing projects and users and decide on which projects need to be migrated and who should have access. While you’re at it, do the same for all future projects you know are coming up. Then actually migrate the existing projects you want to keep.
Set all project settings in the UNI-Cloud and let ‘m spread out over your UNI(‘s) like ice cream melts over its cone during a nice spring afternoon. Saving time and making sure they are exactly as needed with every digital receiver you have. It really is as easy as that.
More releases coming up
We have more releases coming up this year, including exporting and importing in the cloud, archiving of projects, and using you UNI-GR1 as a base station.
So make sure you come back to marXact.com/news to read all about our upcoming features and updates!
