Marine Survey Reporting System

User Tips & Techniques

NewAge System user tips and techniques are offered for current 3-D users to reduce the time spent on reports, maximize  productivity and or to  take full advantage of the benefits and power of the system. These are not meant to replace the help screens available with the 3-D system.

Office Management:

1. Backups- Be sure to regularly back up your 3-D NewAge files data located under Office Management> File>Backup All Files.
2. Starting a New Survey- Always start a new survey with the Office Management function >Add New Job. This allows you to set up the client information (New or previous) as well as assign the survey file # (Job Name) and establish the client or refer to a previous client information as well as establish the inspection requests (Survey, sea trial, oil analysis, mileage etc). From there you will begin a new survey with the Report Writer or create a Pocket 3-D file for your Pocket PC (PDA).

Document Editor:

1. Cover Page- You can fully edit the cover page, remove the cover page photo, change the size of the cover page photo or use two side by side photos if you prefer. (See 3-D help).

Report Writer:

1. File Open- If you do not see the file you want to open use File>Open to see a list of all previous survey files or click the Existing Inspection button at the bottom of the page.
2. Table of contents- The Index Document is the Table of Contents page following the cover page or your Introduction page. You can change the title or layout of this page if desired.
3. Report Layout- Report headers/footers, margins, headings and sub headings, frames, fonts, colors etc can be designed the way you would like.

Custom Form Studio:

1. Forms in Selected Groups: The sequence of the forms listed is the same sequence that the report will be prepared as well as the sequence of the survey inspection areas using the Pocket 3-D. If you prefer a different order, simply drag and drop them in the order you prefer.

Survey Documents:

1. Changing Documents- All documents can be changed to whatever format, fonts,  colors or layout you prefer using the document editor. 
2. Attaching Documents- Complete all your changes, spell checks etc in Report Writer before attaching your documents to be sure all changes are reflected in the attachments. If additional changes are made in the Report Writer, the affected document should be removed (right click on the attachment and remove) then re attach to get all latest changes reflected in the document.
3. Attaching Documents in order- Any attached document will be placed ahead of the one previously attached so I found that attaching documents in reverse order ie last page first will keep then in the correct order. If they get out of order, you can still re-sequence them using the blue arrows to the right of the document name while in Report Writer.
4. Creating New Documents- New documents cannot be created in the NewAge  program since a word processor is not included with the Focus edition. A document editor is included in the Focus edition accessed thru the Actions Panel which allows you to change any document provided with the system. If you want to create your own documents from scratch, you would need to upgrade or purchase the regular edition of the 3D Inspection Software and the NewAge  forms for surveying separately.

Survey Forms:

1. All surveying forms are completely customizable using the Custom Form Studio or you can make permanent or temporary changes on the fly while in Report Writer saving you time on the next survey.

Survey Letters:

1. You can change the Thank You letters that are provided to use for a different purpose if you want using the built in document editor when you open them.

Using Pocket 3-D:

1. Multiple Surveyors- If there are two or more surveyors assisting on a large vessel survey, the survey data collected on their PDA's can all be merged into one report. (See 3-D Help-Not available for all versions)
2. Shortcuts- Use Shortcuts for frequently used words (or multiple words). For example: ST for "Starboard" or PO for "Powers up OK". Shortcuts are easily created using the far left icon when in transcriber mode. After a shortcut is established, any characters written or printed that match the shortcut characters will automatically bring up the translated words saving you time.