Category Archives: Civil Pro News

Civil Pro has a new home!

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TLDR; go to https://www.civilpro.com

Since our humble beginnings last century (yes it has been that long), Civil Pro has been under continuous development with 10 major releases, and over 200 minor releases. 5 years ago in 2016 we released our mobile QA integration. Three years ago we started to work on our Cloud application, and for the last two years have been working on the biggest ever update, Version 11.  Both of these products are now in production.  

The focus of the latest versions has been to refine our paperless workflows and improve efficiencies in the contractor-client interface. We have hit recent milestones adding subcontractor access and contract notices to the Cloud app. We will be adding POs and Site Diary in Aug/Sep releases to provide 100% coverage of features from the old mobile app (as well as all the new Cloud features that are already there of course).

Many of you may be aware that in delivering the Cloud application we have been partnered with Australia and New Zealand’s Trimble distributors, Herga group (BuildingPoint, SITECH Construction Systems, UPG & Information Alignment). This has given us access to essential additional resources and defines the future direction of our application. You can see this in our development which sees us address key pinch points around collection of compliance data through equipment and machine integrations, and integrations with construction design models. 

Following the success of the partnership in the development of the Cloud application, we are pleased to announce that we have agreed to extend the relationship. The Civilpro desktop and Cloud applications will be serviced through a new company, Civilpro Software Pty Ltd. Check out the new website – www.civilpro.com. This new business is a joint partnership between Blue Sky Contracting and the Herga Group. 

For our customers, this essentially means additional resources for a rapidly evolving product focusing on efficiencies in the management of Quality Assurance. Our mission is to take Quality Assurance beyond paperless to effortless.This is a big target, but every step we take towards this goal saves time, resources, and costs on construction projects across the country.  Beyond the opportunities additional resources provide for the application, this also addresses the question I am often asked ‘what happens if you get hit by a bus?’ 

I will continue to be a key part of the team as a co-owner and managing director of this new business and will continue with the application development and strategy. Most of you have my number anyway, and I will continue to do my best to avoid buses. From my perspective, little will change except that I now get a hand! 

If you want to discuss our new features and/or migration to the new versions, please proceed to our new online presence at www.civilpro.com. Here you can find information on the new products, support for the new versions, and access to our Zendesk ticketing system. 

As always, thank you for your business and in supporting 100% Australian owned and operated companies. Boutique software development is not an easy gig, and we could not do it without your feedback and support. 

Civil Pro version 9.41.1.85 released

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Civil pro version 9.41.1.85 has been released to all users.   V85 is not currently installed as part of the auto-update, it will be added to autoupdate in about a week. If you want a copy before that, please email us directly.

Changelog from previous version 9.41.1.74

New features

  • Dashboards – summary status graphs for lots, NCRs and test requests showing total status, status by user, status at end of each month to date and monthly activity.
  • Dashboard reports – reports for the dashboard screen

Changes/Improvements

  • Added newITP function to ITP
  • Added approval reports to folio
  • Added approvals and manual approvals to checklists
  • New forecast report
  • Added earned revenue report
  • Added approval register report
  • Rename forecast budget variance report
  • Capability to require ITPs to be approved prior to adding to lots
  • Fixed approval request HTML formatting and aligned with mobile templating
  • Test result register – tests can now be marked complete, not just an automatic field requiring individual tests to be marked
  • Test results register now synchs with test requests
  • Tidied up deleting of checklists and lots when approvals and manual approvals are involved.
  • Added a function to ensure that any manually approved checklist items have an approveddate
  • Changed default labelling of exported reports for attachments
  • Double click on approval and related lot item now redirects to the clicked record
  • Added receipt selected for PO
  • Checklist now updates automatically after link to approval view and then code entry
  • Treelist now expands after double click and drag/drop
  • Test if CCs before issuing call to send
  • Forecasts now respect forecast method when forecast estimate present
  • Test Request with compliance – now shows compliance for individual tests

Bugs

  • BUGFIX: Fixed Lot=>Pdf for lot docs
  • BUGFIX:  Editvaluechanged trigger meant contact could not be changed for purchase order with a supplier value
  • BUGFIX:  invoice import for simple imports directly into a report period.
  • BUGFIX – Coalesce added for receiptall purchase order
  • BUGFIX: DJC columns in schedule now respect heading in customformatter
  • BUGFIX: RequestLink in approval request now properly coded for userid and roleid
  • BUGFIX: Fixed numbering for heading lines in checklist template and lotITP Reports
  • BUGFIX: ProgressClaim at completion values for sell and DJC (wrong way around)
  • BUGFIX: recalc function in production
  • BUGFIX: Fixed lot import
  • BUGFIX: Fixes to photocontroller code
  • BUGFIX: Fixed editability glitch on ITPs when first ITP is approved
  • BUGFIX: Fixed ordering on copy/paste ITP detail
  • BUGFIX: Fix on length of lot doc file name.
  • BUGFIX: Added code to detect termserv environment and paint differently -to fix menu issue
  • BUGFIX: Added override to grid background painter to support text background

Civil Pro Version 9 nearing completion

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We are happy to announce that we are nearly ready to begin testing Civil Pro version 9. This release builds on the recent introduction of the mobile platform (v8.10.73), custom reports and custom views to bring a swag of new features. As is always the case with Civil Pro, we do not publish a major release without good reason. This time its as much as what happens under the covers as what you see in the application. We have totally rewritten the data layer behind Civil Pro to make it WAY faster and easier to extend. This means the new features in the first v9 release are only the beginning!

Our current testing release with selected projects begins in November 2016.

Full project daily costs, docket, progress claim and invoice reconciliation management

Our daily cost and production management engine has been rewritten and extended. By the time you know your costs from head office, it can be as much as 6 weeks since they were incurred! Most engineers deal with this by monitoring their daily costs with some kind of spreadsheet. Then they have another one for checking dockets, and possibly another for invoices. Rack up more for checking against progress claims. These spreadsheets are hacked and copied, are inefficient and inevitably introduce mistakes.

Now you can manage it all within Civil Pro.

For smaller businesses, match our cost and revenue management with accounting in packages like MYOB and your projects will be as tight as a drum. For big projects and businesses, Civil Pro is the bridge between your everyday site work and your enterprise resource systems. On release we will have videos of how Civil Project can provide the best systems without all of the high level ERP overhead.

New registers

Civil Pro now supports the generation of risk assessments. These are most typically seen in OH&S documentation such as the Job Safety and Environmental Analysis (JSEA) of Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) but will work for any kind of risk analysis. We expect to be including additional non-QA checklists (for example pre-start checklists and punchlists), but are not sure whether they will make the first v9 release or not.

New data layer

You will notice the changes from the first log in which occurs in a fraction of the time of previous versions. You will see some other changes too – for example, you log in to your database first, then choose a project. This means changing projects is a breeze without having to create a new connection for each one. If all your projects are on the same database, you just use the same connection and choose your project. Easy.

Multiple projects in standalone

Standalone files now support multiple projects. This makes is easier for users who run lots of smaller projects and don’t want to have to be hanging files all of the time. You can also store all of your template data in the same file with our repository projects…

Repository Projects

You can now assign any project as a repository project. This can just be a dummy project you use to hold your ITPs, work types, test methods etc so that you can import into new jobs quickly, or it can be a job you just finished that you use as the data source for your next job. Data can be imported easily from repository project on the same database with a couple of clicks from the context menu.

Interface

Extended functionality in related items and linking

The related items engine has also been rewritten and now supports double click to add in every linking interface (as well as the good old drag and drop). Double click to navigate has also been tidied up to apply to all records.

Less clicks

Wizards such as the import wizard and the new project wizard have been streamlined to minimise the clicks. If we can figure out how to reduce complexity, then that’s what we have done.

More reports and improved customization

We have also changed the reporting engine and are in the process of rewriting reports so they are easier to customize and there is greater control during customization! Some of the reports to have the facelift include the checklist, ITP, NCR and Lot Conformance Report. Of course, the new reports for the Risk Analysis and Cost Management are in the new format.

More customizable view support, and more pre-baked views

Our customizable views have proven very popular with users. Version 9 now supports customization in more registers (the checklist for example) and we have written more pre-baked views that work out of the box!

Civil Pro Version 8.10.73 released

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Civil Pro Version 8.10.73 has been released. This is a minor update to 8.10.68, 8.10.67, 8.10.65, 8.10.64 or 8.10.62, and a major update to older versions. Refer to updating Civil Pro

This version adds a couple of small improvements and fixes some minor bugs

Changes and Improvements

  • Added a ‘change project’ option in the main Project menu. This allows users to change between projects (to which they have authority) on an SQL server based civil pro install without creating additional connections
  • New project creation streamlined to remove user assignation when only one user exists
  • Added pdf compression – this reduces the size of Civil Pro generated pdfs (in functions such as emailing reports and approvals) by as much as 95%
  • Upgrade to new v 2016 UI libraries
  • Added Approvals to related items list in NCR register
  • Approval requests can now be manually approved or edited
  • Added report for approvals
  • Standalone file connections – added link for new database to avoid confusion. Uses save dialog instead of open dialog

Bug Fixes

  • Approval request – two copies were addressed to the recipient instead of the cc going to the sender
  • Additional validation to prevent incorrect user roles
  • Exception caused during customizing ATP report
  • Approval closeout – could not delete closeout text
  • QtyApproval role not previously recognized during init
  • AddUserToRole function – added persistence for Unitofwork
  • Issue with status selector in Progress claim introduced in 8.10.65
  • New database dialog now has REGEX mask to avoid invalid input for database name

Civil Pro Version 8.10.62

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Civil Pro Version 8.10.62 has been released. This is a major update requiring an update to your database (see Updating Civil Pro)

This version brings in a stack of changes, updates and new features

New Features

Changes and Improvements

  • Custom lot numbers are now easier to create and more flexible with the addition of Primary Tags
  • New checklist reports to support electronic completion of checklists using mobile or desktop platforms and approval request system
  • Complete rewrite of the reporting module to improve output layout and performance
  • Printing large numbers of records could take a long time due to queries to update each record and associated data. This has been changed to use the current data – a manual update can be triggered by using the refresh button prior to printing
  • Project transfer wizard updated to account for new database schema
  • User email now a compulsory field in user registration
  • Improvements to the cost and production module – new reports, forecasting etc.

Bug Fixes

  • In some situations adding a work type by double click could result in duplicate relationships
  • Changed focusedrowevent to improve updating of related item lists and ensure related items are updated on grid filter and search
  • Rewrite functions for translation of claim tree to report for faster rendering
  • Fixed fringe case denying access (hasadminforproject error)
  • Fixed lot qty report error in GeometryString
  • Radio groups removed from Test Request report
  • Text on import of resources module corrected
  • Cascade delete added to testrequest, user collections and cost forecast
  • Schedule tree code changed to improve multi drag and drop performance

NCRs added to Civil Pro Mobile

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We have just added the NCRs to Civil Pro Mobile. This allows users to view, add, approve and closeout NCRs from their mobile device.

The NCR module uses Civil Pro’s Request/Response methodology which was first used in the Checklists section of our mobile app. When your NCR is ready, simply send a request and the receiver is sent a link where they can directly interface with your NCR and approve or otherwise advise regarding your NCR.

For more details, read the support page on the NCR Register

ncrreg

 

 

Output your project information to a folio

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As part of our complete overhaul of the reporting module to facilitate our custom reports, we have introduced the Build Conformance Folio function.

This allows the user to select one or more lots, and create a repository of all of the civil pro documentation relevant to those lots. At the end of the project, simply select all the lots, build the folio and forward the result to the client, or store it in your document management system.

folioOutput

Civil Pro new release includes fully designable reports

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While Civil Pro has allowed certain customisations in its reporting, the format has generally been fixed. This was an early design decision to minimise the amount of administration end users could tie themselves up in, rather than getting on with everyday use. In the last couple of years however, tools have become available which make this far less onerous on users, so we have completely redesigned our reports module to allow user customization.

If you don’t want or need this functionality, then don’t worry – Civil Pro’s standard reports are all still there – and a few new ones as well.

CustomReport

Read more about the End User Design (EUD) here.