App Divides up Tree Stem for Loggers

Corvallis Microtechnology, Inc., has released its Virtual Tree Bucking application software for use on an iPAD, iPhone or iPod touch device.

When segmenting a tree stem into log products, the important question to ask is how to maximize the income from the stem, the company explained. In some cases, it will be more profitable to divide the tree into a saw log segment and a pulpwood segment. In other cases, it may make more sense to sell the entire stem as pulpwood and not bother cutting it up. The logger will usually rely on past experience and also do some calculations to figure out the best way to utilize the tree stem for the current market. When there is the possibility of getting three different log products out of the same stem, the decision can be difficult to make.

The Virtual Tree Bucking app will help remove some of the guesswork. It will let the user set up the log merchandise grades, conversion factors and prices by volume or by weight. Before actually cutting up the stem, the user can divide up the stem on the screen of this app and try various scenarios to view the yield of wood quantity and potential revenue for each case. The user may enter up to three products per stem and the app will report the volume/weight and value for each log as well as the sum total for the stem.

The app provides the option to save the reported results to a PDF file for later review. It will work with both Metric and English units.

Also included are functions for precisely adding points, lines and areas to the screen, the ability to measure distances and areas as well as the ability to locate a point by address or by coordinates.

The app comes with a detailed built-in help document. It is available at the Apple App Store.

Photos: Corvallis Microtechnology, Inc.