Open File

This function loads one or more files into Graphics. You can select multiple files in the file chooser (provided they all use the same plugin), or in the case of Surpac files, enter the location and a range of file ID's. This function also allows you to specify options appropriate for the plugin that you are using to load the data.

To run this function: Choose File > Open > String/DTM file, or...

• In the Function Chooser, type OPEN FILE, and press ENTER.

Open File form

Layer

Enter the layer name into which the data are to be recalled. This layer name may be the name of an existing layer or it may be the name of a new layer. If you are recalling a file into an existing layer then you must decide whether to append or replace the data already in that layer. If the layer does not exist, it will be created and you can use the LAYER function to view or alter the layer settings. It is common to give the layer the same name as the string file location.

Location

Enter the location of the file(s) you wish to load. If you enter the full file name (including extension), then the software will choose the appripriate plugin to load the file. If you just enter the "Location" with no extension, the software will try to use the Surpac plugins to load the file. If you wish to use a string range to open multiple files, please enter the file location without an extension. Multiple files for a plugin can be loaded by separating the file names with a ";".

Load file as

This field defines the plugins that Surpac has found possibly appropriate for the file(s) you have entered. Usually, there will only be one item in this list, but if there is more than one you can choose the most appropriate plugin for your data. Different plugins have different options, and only the plugin listed in this field will be used when loading the file(s) specified.

Drawing styles file

Enter the name of the drawing styles file which is to be used to determine the colours and other attributes when drawing strings and DTM's. The default file is taken from the 'draw styles file' specifier in the defaults.ssi file.

Replace current data

If you are recalling a file into a GRAPHICS Layer which already contains some data then you must decide whether to: replace the old data with the new file in the specified layer, or whether the new data will be appended to the existing data. If you choose to replace the existing data, then any changes made to the existing data which have not been saved will be lost.

Rescale display

Check this box if you wish the current screen view to be rescaled to fit all of the data after a file is opened or leave unchecked for the view to remain the same. This can be important if you have found a good 3D view by rotating existing data and you now want to recall more data by appending into the active layer or loading into another layer without changing the view.

Options for Plugins

Surpac	ID Range Enter the ID Range of the file or files which are to be recalled into the GRAPHICS module. If more than one file is defined by the range, then they will be recalled and appended together, making this an easy way to combine files with the same Location Name. You can then use the SAVE FILE function to create a new file containing all of the data from each recalled file. String/Trisolation Range Enter the range of strings which are to be saved to the file. You should only use this range for .STR files, not .DTM files. Retain descriptions Enter 'Y' if you want the descriptions loaded from the files or 'N' if the descriptions are not to be loaded. If the descriptions are not loaded and the data are subsequently saved back to the same file, then the original description values will be permanently lost. The only time you may not want to load the descriptions is when recalling very large files that have a lot of data in the description fields as this will slow the recalling process.
AutoCAD	Import text Select this option if you want the plug-in to import all AutoCAD text into Surpac. Unselecting this option will prevent the plug-in from importing any text, speed up the performance of the plug-in, and reduce the amount of memory the plug-in uses. Import styles Select this option if you want the plug-in to preserve all of the AutoCAD text colour, line colour, line pattern and line thickness information. Unselecting this will cause the plug-in to ignore all style information and to import AutoCAD objects into Surpac using the same colour, line pattern and line thickness. If there is a lot of style information then this will increase the performance of the plug-in and greatly and reduce the amount of memory required. Break segments Select this option if you want the plug-in to import all AutoCAD lines as separate Surpac strings. Unselecting this will cause the plug-in to import all AutoCAD lines as a single Surpac string. This increases the performance of the plug-in and is useful if you are only interested in getting the actual data into Surpac.
MEDS MineSight	Use integer file name as string and triobject number Select this option if you want to use the file name of your .msr file as the string and triobject number for data in the file. This will work if the file name is an integer. Use integer element name as trisolation number Select this option if you want to use the element names of triangulated objects in your .msr file as the trisolation number for objects in the file. This will work if the element name is an integer.