If you are preparing plots for clients, it is often a good idea to keep a copy for yourself in case of any question later. You may not want to use the paper or time to plot it now. Or you may not have access to the plotter directly from your computer. The best solution is to create a plot file. This can be used to plot the file now, and to keep an electronic copy for later. How best to plot the file after you have created it? If you are working in Windows, whether it is Windows95, WindowsNT, or Windows3.1, the best way is to create a batch file, put it on your desktop, and drag and drop files from Explorer or File Manager on to the icon. The plot will be sent to your plot device. Start Notepad or another ASCII editor to create your batch file. The batch file only needs one line:

COPY %1 XXXX/b/v

XXXX is the name of the device to which you are plotting. This name can be LPT1:, COM3: or the network direction such as \\othercom-puter\@plotter.

In Windows3.1, copy the batch file to the desktop by selecting it in Filemanager with the mouse, hold the the control key and mouse button down while you drag it to an open program group.

In Windows95 or WindowsNT, create a shortcut to the batch file and place it on the desktop. In all cases you can change the properties and select an icon for this file. You can now drag and drop to plot your files.

Tip from: Glenn Posca,CDTC; Albany, NY. Running the Windows batch version of TMODEL (TM3DNA.exe) in Windows 95; when DOS executes a batch file, it executes one line at a time, until execution of that line is completed, and then it executes the next line.

On the other hand, Windows 95 is a multi-tasking operating system which defauts to running things in batch files simultaneously instead of sequentially. This is also true when using a DOS window in Windows 95 to run batch files containing programs written for Windows 95, such as TM3DNA.

So if you run TM3DNA from a batch file in a DOS window, with the line "TM3DNA", TMODEL will start executing, but the batch file will resume execution, starting with the next line immediately.

This is alright if the lines in your batch file are independent of each other. But, when a line depends on execution of a previous line being completed prior to it's own execution, this simultaneous execution becomes a problem.

The solution is to use the start command in your batch file, with the following sytax:

start /w "program_name" arguments

It's important that the quotes be placed as shown, around the program name, but not including the arguments for the program. For those of you with the "Windows95 Resource Kit", documentation for this can be found on page 1123. But, note that Microsoft made a mistake in it's syntax either in that documentation or in the start command itself. They put the second quote after the arguemnts instead of before them.

Thus, the proper way to run the TM3DNA program sequentially in batch mode is with the statement:

start /w "tm3dna" filename.DNA

Tip From: Steve Cook, The Genesee Transportation Council; Rochester, NY. We often do site specific analyses in which TAZ's are "split" to provide more detail to the base model. Splitting TAZs sounds easy, but there are many steps which must be remembered so you don't split hairs too. Our base model has four "Dummy TAZs" built in (the highest numbered internal TAZs prior to the externals), thus to split an existing TAZ we do the following:

1. In the Graphic Editor, delete the Dummy TAZ connecting link, and move the node to its new location. Attach the node to the network with a proper link(s).

2. Adjust node capacities if needed (traffic signal, stop sign, SDLs, etc.)

3. Adjust Land Use File and/or .OND file. Appropriate the desired splits of data from the original TAZ to the new split TAZs.

4. Don't Forget to Run a "Dummy" Assignment (or D&A) with the revised network with the new TAZ location. This must be done to create a new .TTY file with the proper travel times reflecting the location of the TAZ which was moved. (Otherwise there will be a large number of trips going from the new split-TAZ location to TAZs adjacent to the former Dummy TAZ location. Got it?)

5. The revised travel time, .TTY, file can then be used in the revised base model distribution to create a new trip table.

Also, if users want a quick way to calculate Total Delay Time (in minutes) we use a specialized link formula equation as follows which basically subtracts the free flow time from the operating time for each link:

For Formula # 10:    (J*(M-(H/(I/60))))/100

Print Format             ##### #####

Heading Line 1         TDELAY MINS

Heading Line 2         TDELAY MIN

We can then do systemwide sums to calculate the reduction in total delay (in a spreadsheet, convert from minutes to hours) to compare benefits of alternative network changes.

Tip from: Meher P. Malakapalli, Earth Tech; Bellevue, WA. You can overlay any AutoCad file onto the TMODEL2 network, or build a new network using an AutoCad file of the street network. Just save the AutoCad file in a ".dxf" format (ASCII) and then import it using TMODEL2 conversion utilities. Don't forget to register the DXF file to the coordinate system.

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