software maintenance

Geo-Database

The noise and air pollution models are built into the Geo-Database. Both simulation types require the real world be abstracted into a computer model. The computer model consists of objects with pre-defined capabilities and functions. Objects in the Geo-Database are created either by importing them, by digitizing the data on top of bitmaps, or by using digitizer hardware. A multitude of different object types are available to describe roads, railways, industrial sources, buildings, etc. For drawing purposes, user defined objects can be created. Objects are stored in Geo-Files. One or multiple Geo-Files are collected in a directory called Situations. The objects can be organized to reflect planning variations or to reflect a single object type.

When opening the Geo-Database, the Situation Manager also opens so you can select the Situations and Geo-Files you want to edit. Situations and Geo-Files can be duplicated by simply clicking one button. Files can be exchanged in a Situation by using simple drag and drop actions. These capabililties make it quick and easy to create duplicates of a situation where the base geometry is the same, but the traffic volume encapsulated in one Geo-File will be updated to a different forecasting year. Building variants of a study is also very easy because the user simply combines different building blocks. There is no need for writing scripts explaining which object identifier shall be included in which variant. These SoundPLAN features save the user a lot of time and make such tasks easy to accomplish.

After making the selections, the data are loaded and the information is graphically displayed. The Geo-Database screen has different parts to help you keep focused on creating the model. The top part of the window is dedicated to the menu. The region below is for the Geo-File that will host the new objects. Choose the desired Geo-File from the Geo-File list. The icons to the right of the actived Geo-File let you open a Geo-File not currently loaded, create new Geo-Files, or deselect a Geo-File from the list of open files. The right side shows the object currently selected . Alternatively, you can make the selections from the icon bar. You can choose to have the icon bar with all icons in one row or with the icons organized according to topics.

The Graphics window header features the view port selection and zoom and rotation options. When zooming and moving the view on screen has created a section of the map which will be used often, you can store this view as a view port and recall it any time by selecting it from the list of view ports. If the project was made from bitmaps, use the bitmap selection box to designate a bitmap to become a background picture. The initial bitmap selection and calibration is done through the FUNDAMENTALS menu.

To the left of the graphics picture are two different digitizing cursors and the zoom tools. Use the black digitizing cursor for digitizing and editing existing objects, and use the red cursor for digitizing new objects.

The status bar below the map indicates the current world-coordinates of the cursor. When the cursor is moved over an object, you will see certain details concerning that object.

SoundPLAN 6.2 has new, powerfull controls to change the appearance of objects (color them a certain way, highlight them, use normal drawing width...). You can choose to display an object or hide it. On the level of the Geo-Files, it is also possible to load data as read only. You can see the data, but it is safeguarded against overwriting.

If you cannot import data from outside sources and have to build the model from scratch, it is advisable to first build a rudimentary model with elevation information only, using elevation lines and spot heights. After storing this model in a Geo-file, run a Digital Ground Model (DGM) calculation to generate a 3D wire mesh. Clicking on a coordinate will enlarge that area of the bitmap so you can position your cursor more exactly. After clicking on the coordinate a second time in the enlarged area, the coordinates and the ground elevations extrapolated from the DGM become the new coordinates of the object. The coordinates can still be corrected by hand if needed.

An alternative to digitizing the model using 3D elevations, is to leave the model "flat" as a 2D model and declare the elevations as relative elevations - relative to the DGM which will be loaded for the calculations.

Most objects consist of coordinates and attributes (point sources obviously have only a single coordinate). Line type objects consist of many coordinates with many different attributes that can change at any given coordinate without needing to define a new object. This feature is exclusive to SoundPLAN and is a great advantage for data organization. A single road, for example, can have speed changes, traffic volume changes, road surface and road width changes at many places. By leaving the object in one piece it is possible to extract the results from the single road without the need to tally partial results from multiple objects. The attributes for the section of the road pictured below, were opened by left clicking the attribute change marker on the road. By right clicking on any coordinate, a numerical coordinate editing window and many additional editing functions become available.

For accurate noise barriers, it is paramount that the height of the barrier can change along the length of the wall. This is one of the beneficial features only available in SoundPLAN. Please refer to the information on Wall Design for details.

Click on the small calculator button to open the LME (Level Mean Emission) calculations. Emission values are calculated from traffic parameters such as traffic volume, percentage of trucks and speed. Please see the section on roads to learn about how the data for the L_den are managed and how abstract traffic models
are created.

Pictured below are the different views available for looking at a model. Choose from the top-view site map, or projections (front elevation and side elevation) or a 3D wire frame model. The wire frame model can be zoomed, rotated and tilted. Solid 3D modeling with higher resolution than the screen allows is also available in the Graphics. Please see the 3D Graphics section.

Line and area objects can be marked and further processed with the built-in advanced editing functions. Here is a list of functions:

Poly line operations	Filter excessive coordinates along a poly line	The function marks coordinates that are within a band around the existing line. Coordinates can be deleted later
	Interpolation of coordinates along a line	The new polygon will follow a spline. This function has sub-functions to: Create n-points for each segment
		Create segments with a constant distance in [m]
		Create a point with a constant distance from the start point of the line
	Smooth Height	Function to smooth the 3rd dimension for example of a road
	Divide section	To subdivide a line element by inserting a coordinate in the middle
	Calculate right angle	To convert buildings into right angle buildings
Create parallel object	Creates a new object of another object type parallel to the existing object in a user selected distance
Divide and select	Divides a polyline in the middle
Insert intersections and split	Insert intersections with another line or area and split the line in two (to eliminate elevation lines in a cutting..)
Create buffer	Create a buffer around a line. For example a buffer around a proposed road to mark and eliminate existing elevation lines in the area.
Connect lines	Connects line segments that are individual objects into a single object. Useful when importing data that is inconsistent
Create Areas	Creates a single area out of lines and poly lines that are looking like an area but internally are multiple objects
Transform coordinates	Starts a coordinate transformation to move, rotate etc. existing objects
Calculate object height from DGM	Inserts the height of objects (buildings, walls) from the difference between the objects elevation and a loaded DGM
Relative -> absolute height	Converts coordinates that are defined as relative elevations into an absolute elevation, requires a DGM to be loaded
Absolute -> relative height	Converts the absolute elevation of coordinates to coordinates relative to a DGM
Assign text to buildings	Assigns street names, house numbers etc as a text to a building
Reassign receivers to buildings	If receivers are placed on a building and the building changed this function reestablishes the connection
Arcades	Calculation algorithms for the noise in arcades
Select objects with elevation <=[m]	Select objects without elevations (when 2D and 3D data was imported)
Select objects with length <=[m]	Select sections of line elements shorter than n meters
Select Objects with area <=[m*m]	Select areas that are smaller than n square meters (to define them as garages etc)

You can use the Edit menu or you can right click an object to access additional editing functions.

Several features in SoundPLAN make visual editing of models very easy. Two of these are the ability to hide all objects not fitting an object filter, and the possibility to view objects Geo-File by Geo-File.

If data is available, flexible interfaces allow you to import either the geometry only or complete sets of data with coordinates and attributes. See the chapter about Data Exchange for details.

Last modification: 14 January 2004