Query re Electronic copies of Plans - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel. As part of the 1APP project there is/will be an embedded PDF measuring tool (Adobe scale measuiring tool) in the documents received via the Portal - Although here in Bury we are live with 1APP this is not fully working yet - a work in progress. This same tool can also be downloaded for general use on PDF's although it does seem very clunky and does not considerable improvement. This will then be avaiable for web based access to documents (public access). In our backoffice EDRM system (Anite) there will be some documents in TIF (those we have scanned via Docs on Line) which we then publish to the web as PDFs (we will soon be embedding these published documents with the PDF measuring tool). There will also be PDFs (received via the Portal and other sources) which will not be converted to TIF. We will therefore then have a PDF measuring tool for documents received via the Portal and published on the web, and the Anite measuring tool (Trapeze) for use on TIFs in the back office. I am advised that the technology is there to achieve what we need but that we are not quite there yet. Tom mitchell

Tom, Thanks for the valuable information. Kind regards, John

Just checking what the state of play is with the measuring tool, Do the applications from the portal have the measuring attachment yet? I installed our Adobe Reader extension licence from the Deputy PMs office on a PC and can measure in Adobe Professional but not in Adobe Reader. Are there any any instructions on installing the measuring tool? Paul Woolley Camden

Paul, The embedded PDF measuring tool on documents submitted via the Portal is not there yet. I can't seem to customise the tool bar to show the measuring facility in Adobe Reader, the option isn't there. I can see that the option is there in Professional though. Regards, John

It may be beneficial for you to contact your Planning Portal Account Manager in relation to this item as there is a possibility that you may be able to obtain a free Adobe Lifecycle licence. This product will enable you to embed measuring tools into all pdf files and the tool is accessible via Adobe Reader. The benefit of embedding the tool in the pdf file is that measuring facilities travel with the files which mean that customers can use this via your web sites/public access. Most local authorities still receive applications via the post and scan themselves. In this scenario, the tool provided by the Portal web site, (when available), will not really help. Lifecycle is therefore the way to go. We have not actually got around to installing Lifecycle within Barnsley but colleagues within Wakefield Council have successfully achieved this with some assistance from a company called ROCC. Please get in touch if you would like me to provide you with some contact details at Wakefield who can provide you with costs/benefits around this.

Does anyone have any updates to this problem or can advise on best practice. Cambridge City has IDOX for both DMS and have recently upgraded to New Public Access. IDOX DMS has Trapeze as its measuring tool for internal use. The one thing that is missing for us is an integrated tool for PDF's (non portal submitted) to allow measuring/scaling which would complete the customer experience. I understand that a few authorities have gone down the route of Adobe Lifecycle but its expensive/additional server required etc. Thanks for any assistance.

Hi all, At Solihull we have the measuring tool up and running with enabled PDF documents available on large 40" LCD screens in our main receptions. If anyone wants a chat about how to use them then please feel free to call me. Regards, Andy. 01217046384 abyron@solihull.gov.uk

John, To see the measuring tools first the PDF must have been run through the extensions tool. Assuming that this has happened and that you are using Acrobat Reader v.9, place your mouse on the grey area where tool bars normally are. Right click and check the Analysis tool bar. This should then show three tools: - 1.Object data tool 2.Measuring tool 3.Geospatial Measuring Tool. Clicking on the measuring tool shows an additional "floating" tool bar that has distance, perimeter and area tools as well as some that can be used with CAD generated drawings. One thing to note is that if you save as a copy in Acrobat Standard or Professional, you will loose the extensions. The Geospatial tool is really useful if you export maps to PDF from ESRI ArcGIS. You can have the location of the mouse pointer displayed as easting and Northings. Wakefield provided instructions to Solihull for Acrobat Reader 8 and they can be found here: - http://www.solihull.gov.uk/Attachments/Measuring_Tool_Guide.pdf Andy.