Experimental Features: Tools for New Pole Design, CUs, and More!

Over time, we’ve created solutions to help our internal engineering team address issues. These are highly specific functions and features built with our internal team’s unique challenges, deliverables, workflow, and clients in mind. 

But this has created a bit of a backlog of things we refer to as “on the shelf.” These tools work, but they don’t have all the teeth of our other, finished features. They lack the breadth, width, and depth of other features that meet the universal, over-arching needs of the rest of the industry. 

Maybe they don’t have unique values or functions, or don’t account for various challenges. They work, but miss user feedback and repetitions to develop a robust value proposition. 

However, in an industry that moves as fast as ours does, the speed at which we get access to new features matters a lot. That means the sooner you get tools, the better work you can do. And if we never give users the opportunity to test out these tools, we’ll never get the feedback to know how to improve them for maximum value. 

So we want to get those software features off the shelf and into the hands of our customers who want access to every tool they can leverage. And we want to hear from you—as you use these tools, let us know what works! How does it help? What’s not working? What does your team need? How does your team use it? 

Experimental Features

With experimental features, companies can choose access to the latest tools. Some of these will remain as opt-in, and others will eventually be released for all users. 

But those who want to stay ahead of the competition with the most cutting-edge tools can turn on experimental features for instant access. These tools are still in development, meaning any and all feedback helps our team keep refining to bring maximum value! 

Two of the features we’re most excited about this month include new pole line design, construction units!

New Pole Line Design in Katapult Pro 

You can now create new pole lines for distribution design in Katapult Pro! 

With known endpoints, conductor size, right-of-way, and MUs you can set up models based on your specific construction units and standards. Then, using ROW tools, map out the allowed building space before adding various poles, lines, and through-lines. 

As new poles are added, nodes are auto-populated with pole specs, load cases, construction specs, and more.

All this is set up in the model editor, but can still be changed if needed.

(Be on the lookout for more info about new pole line design—we’ll be dropping a webinar in mid-June with more details! Claim your spot now!)

Construction Units

New pole design goes hand-in-hand with custom construction units. With CUs in Katapult Pro, you can import and set your specific construction standards and MUs to make sure that all builds follow your designated specifications. 

While there are still finer details to work out, by managing assets from Katapult Pro and importing CUs, you can not only create comprehensive distribution feeders, but also view them in relation to other assets and poles for a complete snapshot of your grid. This makes pole replacements, reliability upgrades, and reaching new customers and areas easier, giving you confidence that your builds are up to spec. 

Main Release Features: 3D Pole Editor

As new experimental features become available, we’ll still have our main release features as well, like our new 3D pole editor! 

When you’re training new staff in the finer details of annotations and engineering, it’s hard to use 2D photos. Poles don’t exist in only two dimensions, and it’s a lot easier to check work when you can view annotations in 3D. 

Now you can access the 3D View in the side panel view on Katapult Pro maps. This makes it all the easier to check your work, especially for staff who are struggling to visualize poles using only flat photos. Turn on 3D View in the pole editor panel for a robust visualization of annotations and designs!

Scalable and customizable tools let you create plans tailored to your specific standards and needs for better designs and builds. Talk to our team to get started today!