tru-traffic.com

Hello,

I am currently working on a signal timing improvement for a 19 intersection corridor. The arterial was modeled in Synchro by an outside party, and then I verified the geometry, entered volumes, created a signal plan, etc, all within Synchro.

Separately, our field team did GPS trip logs and imported them into Tru-Traffic. These show up in the arterial diagram, and the intersections appear to be placed accurately since they were gathered by the GPS device when this was done several months ago.

Now, I am trying to import all of the Synchro data (volumes, most importantly signal plan) into this T-T file that contains accurate trip logs and intersections by using the combined UTDF transfer. But I am unable to get everything into one place accurately...the UTDF transfer is simple, but I am forced to create a completely new file when I do this, as opposed to bringing this UTDF data into the file already containing the trips and locations. When I try to simply import the trip logs into this data-filled TT file, they do not show up.

After failing here, I tried starting from the new UTDF-based T-T file, and then imported the accurate intersection locations into this new file (by first exporting the intersection locations into a text file). This seems to be working, as I work around the various kinks, but the trip logs are still not visible on my diagram (trip logs that were exported/imported from the original gps data).

At this point, I am not sure where to go. All I really need is for these trip logs to show up on the UTDF-based file originating from Synchro. My coordinates match up with those from the original trip logs TT file, but they will not show up.

I hope I explained this well enough--Is there an easy way to get these trip logs into the same file that I place all the Synchro data in?

Thanks,
Charlie

Sorry for the trouble, Charlie.

I can think of two options, either of which should work:

1. Open in Tru-Traffic the UTDF saved from Synchro, then import separately the trip logs and the geodetic positions (longitude & latitude) of the nodes, or
2. With the Tru-Traffic file already open (including the trip logs and the geodetic positions), use File: Import/Export UTDF 2.1: Merge to merge data from the older, 5-file format of UTDF.

If you can either upload here or email to me your set of files (including at least the *.Dgm file and the UTDF file(s), and possibly also your trip logs and geodetic coordinates), I may be able to give more specific suggestions or spot some subtle source of trouble.

Regards.
Greg

Sure Greg, and thanks for your time.

I have attached a few files here in the zip, a few are described below:

GPS version 2: these are the exported long/lat values, coming from the file with the trip logs (Route 21 SAT).

Saturday_Mid Optimization.dgm: this is my working file, where I have been experimenting. It has all the UTDF data, and I imported the coordinates (In network view, however, the path is discontinuous and looks like there still might be an issue with the location data. I also just noticed that this file adjusted the arterial to go northwest, and it actually goes northeast. This must have happened as I added/adjusted the coordinates. Additionally, I took 3 coordinates from googlemaps because they were not included in the trip logs but are part of our synchro model. This may be an issue but is not my biggest concern at this point). If this needs to be started over, it is simply the .DGM version of the synchro utdf.

Route 21 SAT.Dgm: This is the TT file containing the trip logs. This is the origin (for my purposes) of all the trip and location info.

Saturday_Mid Optimization.csv: here is the combined export from synchro.

Thanks again for the help.

Thank you, Charlie. Indeed that helps.

You're most of the way there. There's one error you probably made upon importing the geographic coordinates, but even accounting for that there'll be a few tweaks to make anyway.

For starters:

1. Open the UTDF file into Tru-Traffic.
2. Navigate to one of the Intersection Properties for one of the intersections -- any intersection.
3. Click Coordinates, then (in the left panel) Import Coordinates.
4. Select your file "GPS version 2 (Walden).Txt" and click Open.
5. Using the controls at the top, specify 0 header lines and Comma (as the separator).
6. Click the column header buttons to specify N. Latitude (deg), E. Longitude (deg), ID Number, and Name. Note that those longitudes are given as East longitude, not West longitude, since they're negative and you're in the western hemisphere. This is the error that you probably made, and it accounts for why the artery switched to NW instead of NE.
7. Click OK.
8. Not sure (yet) why, but one of the sets of coordinates doesn't get automatically assigned to the corresponding node. Select the first waypoint (Gravois | Artery #1) to highlight it, then use the controls at the bottom to assign it to MO 21: Rt. 30 (#19).
9. Click OK, then click Yes (it should be harmless and possibly even helpful to let the software reset the travel distances, as needed, using the straight-line assumption).
10. Click OK and click OK.
11. Import all your trip logs. Or alternatively, open your "Route 21 SAT.Dgm" file in a separate instance of Tru-Traffic, and in the GPS View: Trip Logs, use click and shift-click to select all the trip logs, copy them to the clip board, then paste them into the GPS View: Trip Logs page of our working file.

At this point, you're most of the way there. Perhaps the only remaining issue is that two of the nodes (three if you count the West Bend Dr artery) don't yet have geographic coordinates assigned to them:

• Wells Rd (#68) of MO 21
• Lindbergh Blvd. (#144) of MO 21

If you trust the coordinates in your "Route 21 SAT.Dgm" file, then you can use Edit: Copy: Geographic Coordinates: Geographic Coordinates as Google KML from that file, and paste the results into your working file (into, say, the Network View or the time-space diagram). You'll have to assign the coordinates manually, because the source file "Route 21 SAT.Dgm" doesn't have any intersection ID numbers in it, so the software doesn't make any automatic, preliminary assignments. You can assign just the ones for those two nodes that are missing coordinates and leave the rest unassigned.

If you don't trust the coordinates in your "Route 21 SAT.Dgm" file, then you can use Edit: Copy: Geographic Coordinates: Geographic Coordinates as Google KML from that file, and paste the results into Google Earth. There, select the newly pasted folder under My Places, then drop a pair of yellow pins on each of the two intersections that are missing coordinates. Add intersection ID numbers (e.g, #68 or #144) to the names or descriptions of the yellow pins, then copy to the clipboard the folder under My Places and paste into your working file (into, say, the Network View or the time-space diagram).

If that doesn't resolve everything, or if you have further questions, please let me know.

Regards.
Greg

Just to clarify: The reason that I chose
Option 1: Open in Tru-Traffic the UTDF saved from Synchro, then import separately the trip logs and the geodetic positions (longitude & latitude) of the nodes.

instead of
Option 2: With the Tru-Traffic file already open (including the trip logs and the geodetic positions), use File: Import/Export UTDF 2.1: Merge to merge data from the older, 5-file format of UTDF.

is that it turns out that your Tru-Traffic file doesn't yet have any node ID numbers assigned, so to use Option 2, we'd have to first work through the intersections in Tru-Traffic and assign each its node ID number to correspond with your Synchro file. This seemed like more effort than just using Option 1.