Perpetual product updates
Northstar CAD + Field
Current product versions: Northstar CAD v1.0.2 for Windows and Northstar Field v1.1.3 for Android. These releases remain part of the C$850 one-time bundle and are covered by the Northstar perpetual-update entitlement for licensed users.
Windows desktop
The v1 desktop line consolidates Northstar's survey/CAD, terrain, drone and LiDAR workflows and adds the expanded professional prompt engine, advanced terrain-derived drainage tools, application integrations and responsive UI work for compact/high-DPI displays.
- Professional prompts for CAD, COGO, alignments, surfaces, display control, drainage and exports.
- Advanced drainage paths, contributing area, low points, watershed delineation and probable alignment-crossing suggestions.
- Connections / Integrations panel for AutoCAD/Civil 3D, Agisoft Metashape Professional, OpenDroneMap/Docker and Litchi handoff.
- Direct
.nscadproject launch from Windows file associations. - Adaptive workflow panel and terrain-toolbar fixes for narrow/high-DPI screens.
Autosave, feature coding + reference search
Field 1.1.3 turns the Android companion into a more persistent day-to-day collector: the active job restores automatically, feature coding autocompletes from a large offline catalogue, and coordinate/vertical-reference setup is searchable instead of limited to a short preset list.
- Autosave + restore: project mutations are written to an app-private atomic working copy, debounced during rapid edits and flushed on pause/stop; the last active project restores on startup.
- Portable backup remains explicit: manual
.nscadexport is still available for backup, sharing and desktop transfer. Android app-data clearing or uninstalling can remove the internal autosave. - Feature/code library: 781 built-in codes across 30 capture categories, searchable by code, feature, category, geometry, aliases and suggested attributes. GNSS Capture, manual point editing and Collector autocomplete as the user types; custom codes remain valid and recent codes are remembered.
- CRS catalogue: 11,090 horizontal/compound coordinate-reference entries from the bundled registry snapshot, searchable by authority/code, name, projection, UTM zone and area of use.
- Vertical references: 1,107 vertical CRS/datum/special-state entries with Canadian references such as NAD83(CSRS), CGVD2013 and CGVD28 surfaced prominently.
- Transform safety: selection/storage is broader than live transformation support. WGS84 GNSS is natively transformed only to WGS84 UTM
EPSG:326xx/327xx; unsupported CRSs are stored without silent approximation, and selecting a vertical reference does not itself apply a geoid model. - Collector retained: imported geometry, project-extents fit, Pan to Feature, point/line/alignment stakeout, Android GPS, Bluetooth RTK/NMEA + NTRIP, Live Terrain, Surface Snap, design cut/fill and mobile drainage/watershed tools remain available.