A. No, The Crash Zone contains all of the accident reconstruction features that you would find in The Crime Zone diagram program. To switch to the Crime symbol set, just open the Symbol Manager from the left-hand toolbox. Click the "Symbols Group" drop-down arrow at the top of the symbol manager and choose "Crime Symbols" from the drop-down menu. The crash symbol categories will now be displayed in the Symbol Manager.

You can also find many of the accident reconstruction line styles on the Line Types bin on the left hand menu. The Crash Zone also contains hatch patterns and line styles for creating fire investigation diagrams!

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Q. Can I import my crash scene photos into my diagrams?

A. Yes! Use the Import Images command found on the File pull-down menu. It will allow you to import digital images in .BMP, .JPG, or .WMF formats.

To import an image:

Choose the Import Images command from the File pull-down menu.
Click (or snap) to place two diagonal points in the diagram where you want to place the image.
A dialog box appears that allows you to select the desired image file.Using standard Windows methods, select the proper drive and folder, and then select the desired image file.
The image is inserted into the diagram at the location specified earlier.

Once the image is loaded it can be printed out along with the rest of the diagram or you can trace over the top of it using the various drawing commands in the program.

Refer to the "Experts Corner" documents located in your Learning Center (found on the Help menu) for additional documents dealing with digital and scanned images.

A. All you need to do is click on the color palette icon on the symbol manager. Select the desired color from the menu, and when the symbol is placed it is now in the color that you selected. Remember that any symbol that you place will remain in the color that you selected until you select a different color or until you deselect the color palette icon, setting the symbols back to their default placement color. When viewed in 3D the symbols will appear in the same color they were placed in on the 2D view.

A. Yes! If you scale a symbol in 2D the 3D symbol should be scaled to match the 2D scaling (X and Y). To change the height of the 3D symbol you must select it in 2D and use the 3D Builder feature to set Symbol Height.

A. There are several different Line Styles that you can use on the Line Types menu. Simply choose a line type from the menu and then draw in the skid mark using any of the drawing tools (curve, arc, line, etc.) You can even use them to draw between points that have a 3D elevation to show direction of travel up slopes and hills!

A. The number one item to be used is Points. Think of them as Dot-to Dots from the old color books. Place the points or markers at exact distances and angles using the Easy Lines feature.

Once the points are placed, use the 3D Builder to add the desired elevation to the points.

Now you have two choices:

1) Use any of the Draw commands to snap a line, curve, arc, etc, to the points. The Draw commands will follow the 3D value of the points and take on the x,y and z values. This is a neat feature as you can change the line type to a guardrail barrier and have it follow the slope of the points placed.

2) Use the Easy Surface command and following the commands prompts, snap to three consecutive 3D points (the TIN process again) to build a 3D surface that follows the 3D values of the points you are snapping to. (Then you could go back and place the special line types mentioned above so you create an object on top of a sloped roadway).

Next, use the 3D Align to Plane commands to place vehicles and other symbols that match the angle and elevation of the 3D surface section.

A. The drawings can be exported in several different ways. In a CAD based environment they can be exported to AutoCAD DWG, and DXF format (as well as many other CAD formats). In a "picture" or "Word Document" environment they can be exported as JPEG, Bitmap (BMP), and Windows Metafile (WMF). If you have the complete Adobe Acrobat suite (not just the reader) you can save the diagrams out as PDF documents.

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