Interpine innovation

European Insights into the Use of Harvester Data
27/01/2016 12:52:00 p.m.
Goetz Roth, Interpine's lead for the implementation of mechanised harvester production data has recently returned from Europe. In Europe Goetz attended 48th FORMEC, one of the biggest international Forest Engineering Conferences in the world. Over 300 attendees from around the globe came together to discuss and present their work in engineering. Following FORMEC Goetz visited the AustroFOMA forest machinery exhibition. AUSTROFOMA is the only Austrian forestry machine and device demonstration where all the machines on display are shown performing real-life tasks, unlike standard exhibitions where they are only seen while stationary. After his visit to Austria Goetz continued to Sweden where he met with several parties to learn more about the implementation of mechanised harvester data in the Swedish Forestry. Travel Report:   FORMEC: At FORMEC I was particularly interested in seeing where other countries are at in regards to the use of harvester data. This presentation was hereby of particular interest...

Using Custom Client Tabs and Fields in GeoMaster
7/10/2015 11:21:00 a.m.
In addition to the standard User Fields provided in GeoMaster, Clients may add their own tabs and fields which can be configured in GeoMaster so that they appear within the GeoMaster forms, reports and can be used for querying. These fields are known as Client Fields, and whereas the existing User Fields can only contain string values, Client Fields can be most data types – string, integer, datetime, float etc. Client Fields can have picklists defined, or minimum and maximum values for validation. They are categorised into groups and presented as tabbed panels within relevant forms. The forms that support Client Fields are: Forest, Compartment, Stand, Patch, Event, Block, Harvest Area, Setting and Skid. Client Fields are available in the query module for querying and can be reported on using the Custom Report and can appear in standard reports (Stand Report, Event Preview, Stand Operations or Harvest Area reports).   In...

Industrial Engineering, The Use of Data and Harvesting Performance Improvement
10/09/2015 8:28:13 a.m.
In 2009, a staff member in a large forest management company in the North Island, New Zealand expressed concern over the reduction in piece size of the stems they were processing in to logs. This company used a log merchandising system that captured the piece size of all stems processed and all logs manufactured. As part of their operational management they processed stems as two length types, shorts (<10 metres) and longs (10 -18 metres). Shorts could be thought of as heads that have merchantable logs within them. While the reduced piece size information was compelling (Figure 1), the management company was also certain that there was not a forest based reason for the reduction – the forests being harvested across the years were similar in age and silviculture. It was hypothesised that breakage during the felling and extraction process was one likely cause of the reduction in average piece...

Adding Areas from Landbank into a Stand
23/07/2015 11:25:00 a.m.
In certain instances you may need to add areas from Landbank into a stand (and subsequent events) that have been accidentally left out by mistake; such as when you have created and planted a new stand and the exact boundaries are not known until after the planting event has been checked. If the areas are not yet in Landbank they must first be added (either by converting to Lankbank from Non-Productive or creating a new Patch from a polygon) before you can add them to a Stand. In the example below we want to add the Landbank area into Stand 605/2; being planted in 2014.   Figure 1: Landbank Area should be part of Stand 605/2 Select the appropriate Stand in GeoMaster (the stand will be highlighted in the GIS) and click the Edit Current Item box and then click the Add Patches box (which won't be greyed out once you...

Bulk Importing Assessments in GeoMaster
20/07/2015 2:30:00 p.m.
Interpine has recently worked with the Atlas team to create a new utility for GeoMaster users. This is for bulk loading of assessments and their attributes into GeoMaster via a CSV file. This new feature can be accessed by GeoMaster users from the Utilities menu and has been asked for by many of our existing clients. The generated assessments can either be stand-alone assessments, or associated with existing events – based on a JobNumber of an event being assessed (e.g. a thinning). This is a great way to upload all the assessment details from other software like YTGEN or from an analysis worksheet of lab results. Thus enabling simple updates of the Stockbook without all the manual data entry. When running the importer you are presented with a form through which you allocate columns to corresponding GeoMaster attributes. This process assumes that the first line of the csv contains column headers....

GeoMaster – Keep Your ArcMap MXD in Order with TOC Grouping
20/07/2015 2:05:49 p.m.

Keeping Productive in GeoMaster by Optimising Layer Display in ArcGIS
20/07/2015 11:28:00 a.m.
Keeping productive when using GeoMaster and ArcGIS can be simple, but when overlooked users are often bogged down by the effects of long redraw speeds in GIS systems. This does not have to be the case and takes just a few moments to sort out. Two of the best ways to optimize layer drawing are to draw them only at appropriate scales and use attribute queries to avoid drawing unnecessary features (the latter I will cover in another blog post). This quick tip article will look briefly at this first concept of hiding certain layers and features automatically. If you don't need to display a certain layer when your map is at a certain scale, turn on scale dependency. For example, if you are zoomed out to a regional level, you can use scale dependency to turn off the GeoMaster patch layer and display just the forest boundary layer automatically....

Successful Workshop on Harvester Data Management
30/06/2015 4:33:00 p.m.
Interpine recently hosted a workshop on harvester data management at Waiairki Institute of Technology (WIT). 36 attended from forest companies, consultants, contractor entities, machine manufacturers (SATCO, Woodsman, SouthStar and LogMax) and academia from University of Canterbury, WIT,SCION Research, Future Forest Research and FP Innovations from Canada. The objective of the workshop was to engage and collaborate and share experiences. With the workshop size being larger than expected, a focus was placed on providing a range of presenters to discuss harvester information from different perspectives; from the original source of the data standards (StanForD) to operators wood flow managers log buyers. current research being conducted at University of Canterbury in this area. Figure 1 – Jeremy Gibson (ForestPHD) speaking on use of StanForD data for wood flow management and why software such as STICKS is designed to provide cloud based access to this data. Figure 2 – John Arlinger...

Improving Value Recovery & Production Planning using Harvester Data using STICKS
30/06/2015 3:43:00 p.m.
Recently at HarvestTech 2015, David Herries and Jeremy Gibson spoke on utilising harvester information to improve value recovery and production planning workflows using a recently released Cloud Service called STICKS. STICKS developed by ForestPHD and Interpine provides aggregation and analysis of harvester information from any equipment supporting StanForD data formats. Figure 1 – STICKS Harvester Information Cloud Service for data aggregation and reporting on StanForD datasets. This was put in the context of value recovery. When defining this we consider "value" as the maximum log value projected to exist in the standing forest, and "value recovery" as a measure of the efficiency of the subsequent operations, including harvesting and marketing, to realise that standing log value. The key is our ability to measure this. Using harvester data can change the way we monitor and realise value from our forests. Figure 2 – Methods discussed for utilising Harvester...

Interpine will be at HarvestTech 2015, Rotorua 24-25th June
15/05/2015 1:48:00 p.m.
Interpine will be speaking at the upcoming HarvestTech 2015 conference run by FIEA the 24-25th June 2015. We will be reviewing some case studies of improving value recovery & production planning through near real-time data collection from harvester operations. This is based on the trials and adoption of the STICKS harvester information system from ForestPHD which is hosted by Interpine's cloud service. STICKS is a reporting and woodflow management tool which provides an machine independent solution for forest managers, owners, log customers and harvest contractors for thje management of StanForD data downloaded and uploaded to mechanised harvesting machines. Jeremy Gibson from ForestPHD in Australia, and David Herries, Goetz Roth and Peter Auge from the Interpine team will be at the conference. To date the conference has over 300 registered delegates from around the world (as of 10 May 2015), so the event is being well supported by the forest industry....

Interpine and SATCO Implementing Feller-buncher GPS Tracking of Harvest Progress
16/04/2015 3:46:00 p.m.
Together with SATCO LOGGING ATTACHMENTS, Interpine is able through STICKS to track felling progress using GPS in a full tree harvesting system1 without the need for ANY additional software or hardware. As STICKS the Harvest and Woodflow Solution is constantly increasing its client base within the New Zealand forestry sector we are often challenged with many questions regarding extracting the most value from the collected data. One of the most frequent questions was about the use of the internal GPS unit within the feller-buncher and its capability to monitor harvesting progress. This suits a full tree harvesting system, which is one of the most common setups in the Central North Island. This is whereby one machine is processing on the landing while the other one is felling and delimbing. Full trees are extracted either with ground-base or cable hauler equipment. This arrangement results in limited value of the spatial GPS data...

Make Your Paper Maps Mobile with PDF Maps App
30/03/2015 1:40:00 p.m.
We often get asked; "how can we get our forest maps onto our mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets" As expected there are many ways to do this, but in this article I thought it was worth covering one of the simplest. This being to simply stop pressing the print button and take that PDF map with you directly on your device and simply just view and navigate. This is using an innovative app called PDF Maps by Avenza. This app is available on iOS, Android and has just been released on Windows Phone in beta format, so will soon be available for all Windows Phone users as well. Almost all PDF maps created directly from GIS software are geospatially encoded with their location data. This means all you need to do is open any map provided from software like ArcGIS or GeoMaster and using the GPS and compass...

Manage Your Devices and Data in Real-Time Using Interpine Cloud Service
15/03/2015 1:26:00 p.m.
Interpine has recently made available its device management system for use by our cloud services clients. This allows them to link rugged handhelds computers, tablets and smartphone to our cloud services. These devices can be operating iOS, Android, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone. Interpine have used the system internally for the management of our own devices and are extending this service builds upon our growing list of cloud service applications. So what is it and why? Real-time Data Access / Online-Offline Data Transfer By connecting your company's smart devices this allows the management of these devices just like they are within your own network. Data collection software can be directly downloaded without user interaction and uploaded into backend database systems provide near instant access to data as it is collected. All it needs is an internet connection. No internet connection? Does not matter as when the device is connected it will phone home...

STICKS Harvesting and Woodflow Solution
30/11/2014 8:55:00 p.m.
Interpine Launches STICKS! In co-operation with an Australian based company ForestPHD, Interpine has developed a new cloud based product that improves decision making along the forest supply chain and helps interrogate data collected from mechanized CTL (cut to length) operations. As the forestry sector in New Zealand and Australia is rapidly moving towards mechanized harvesting, driven by production and safety demands, a huge amount of valuable data will have to be managed. The STICKS cloud based solution is currently the only available system to help process and analyse this data, its biggest advantage being machine manufacturer independent, with no need for any software installation and accessible from anywhere. Interpine is working in closely with NZ’s & Australia's leading harvesting head manufacturers.   See Your Wood Flow!                                            Figure 1 - IT Structure                                            Figure 2 - One Solution Woodflow System                                    Supported By:                                            Frequently Asked Questions:   Data Transfer: Most manufacturers offer their custom made solutions for easy transfer to STICKS.   With a simple email with the data files attached information is...

Disestablishing, Deactivating and Deleting Areas in GeoMaster
8/10/2014 10:43:00 a.m.
Managing forest information and operational events in GeoMaster is empowered by the link to ArcMap GIS. This means spatially all land be it productive, or non-productive can have detailed record keeping and more importantly a history. The core to this in GeoMaster is the "Patch Layer". The patch layer is a quilt-network of seamless polygons in two dimensions covering your entire land management area, and it is the smallest patch of ground managed by GeoMaster. A recent query by one of our users is how to manage this patch layer when a mistake is made, being that you want to delete a patch and how does this impact on maintaining history for that patch of ground. To understand this we thought we would touch briefly on workflows relating disestablishing, deactivating and deleting areas in GeoMaster and why you would use each scenario. Figure 1 – The GIS layers making up a...