
ILEX Computing - Survey, Certification & Geodetic
Strategic Software for the Offshore Survey, Geophysical, Diving, Construction and Renewables Industries
Precis - Pipeline & Cable Routing and Route Analysis
Pipeline route calculation generally involves a combination of disparate elements and several packages are used to view, refine and finalize a route. XYZ data for profile calculations is often provided in a HUGE file e.g. 1.5gB, an unworkable size on most computers. “Precis” removes this problem by only importing the data you need.
When planning a route - whether for Pipeline or Cable - decision making typically includes …
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Regional Bathymetric Surveys
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Seabed Features
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Cable/Pipeline Crossings
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Shipping lanes
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Aggregate Areas
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Restricted Areas
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Detailed Swathe Bathymetry
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Geotechnical Investigations
Typical Process

This software will help in optimising the process of route selection. Typically several individual packages are used to process the survey data, compute an initial route involving overlaying the route on the survey data, adjusting the route and then a HUGE data file of XYZ data has to be used to extract a series of potential profiles. This is typically an iterative process and can be very time consuming to achieve a preliminary route prior to cutting a centre-line profile enabling a Bottom Roughness computation to be made, should the bottom roughness not be optimal the cycle starts again.
With “Precis” we have combined several key stages …
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Import GIS layers such as DXF, GeoTIF, and SHP files in the background to illustrate Infrastructure, Seabed Features, Bathymetry, Vibrocore/CPT locations etc. and create a basic route by selecting IPs with the mouse.
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Fine tuning the IPs using the mouse on screen, IPs are dragged to new locations, IPs, curves and corridor automatically update to show the revised route in relation to the background data.
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View profiles on screen by simply dragging the mouse, the profiles are displayed dynamically to ensure the optimum route has been achieved.
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Pipeline diameter, Max span length & height and embedment can be assigned and the profile will provide and overview of where spans are anomalous.
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Exporting the centreline profile as XYZ file for Bottom Roughness computation or DXF profile for incorporation into engineering chart boxes.
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Selection of seabed features inside the specified corridor.
Attaching events to particular features and linking so a more detailed report, image or photo can be viewed directly to assist routing.
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