Rutes: Network analysis and identification of the optimal route

This program determines the optimum routes between a set of origin locations and a set of possible destination locations. The optimum route between a pair of origin-destination locations will be the that which minimizes the movement necessary to go from the origin to the destination, whether this be in time, distance or through the numerical field defined by the user that represents any other other variable that calculates the cost of the movement.

The origin locations and the possible destination locations should be connected to the network that defines the set of possible routes. This means that they correspond to nodes of the MiraMon arch/node topology. The type of location is determined by the values of a field of the node database (*N.dbf) that the user must create and fill out (if this information is in a point layer the latter can be transferred to the node layer using the PNT->NOD of the module AtriTop). The values accepted in this field are:

"O", for the origin nodes.
"D", for the destination nodes.
"A", in both cases, in other words, for the origin and destination nodes at the same time.
"", blank for the nodes that neither origin nor destination.

On the other hand, the arches determine the direct connections between nodes and their database (*A.dbf) must include fields that define the costs associated with each connection (e.g. if one wished to apply time optimization, one would need a field that defines the speed at each stage). Regarding distance, the topological field of ellipsoid longitude will be used provided that it exists and the user does not specify an alternative field. If it does not exist, the topological field of planimetric longitude will be used (both are default created by generating line vectors). If, on the other hand, the user provides his/her own field, the validity of its values (numerical values and values above zero) will be verified. If non-valid values are detected, the program will interrupt execution.

The resulting file is a table in DBF format which allows the user to establish a relationship between each origin node and a destination node that optimizes its path (provided there is at least one succession of arches that connects the origin node with the destination node and its accumulated cost is less than the maximum cost specified in the command line). One should bear in mind that the same destination node may be the end of several optimum routes or of none.

The costs of each optimum route found are displayed on the screen and are saved to the DBF table that has been specified. The resulting values are expressed in the same units as the fields involved (e.g. when a speed field is used in km/h the accumulated distances are given in km and the accumulated times in hours. In order to be able to carry out the calculations correctly, the fields involved should have the units described in the metadata and they should be recognized by MiraMon. If the user wishes to use units which are not recognized by MiraMon, s/he should contact the programming team.

Syntax:
Rutes 1 FileArches BDResults NodeTypeField MaximumDistance=[/CAMP_LONG=AlternativeLongField]
Rutes 2 FileArches BDResults NodeTypeField MaximumTime FieldTime
Rutes 3 FileArches BDResults NodeTypeField MaximumDistance SpeedField [/CAMP_LONG=AlternativeLongField] [/MAX_TEMPS=MaximumTime]
Rutes 4 FileArches BDResults NodeTypeField MaximumCost CostField

Optimization criteria
- 1: For minimum accumulated distance
- 2: For minimum accumulated time
- 3: For minimum accumulated time, each stage is obtained as a quotient between longitude and speed
- 4: For minimum accumulated cost, the cost is defined by the user by a field that measures the movement effort.
FileArches is the name of the structured arch file that contains the network of paths
BDResults is the name of the DBF file that establishes the relationship between origin nodes and destination nodes and collects the accumulated values of distance and/or time
NodeTypeField is the alphanumerical field of the database of the node file of FileArches that indicates if a node is origin (value "O"), destination (value "D"), or both at the same time (value "A")
For options 1 and 3
- MaximumDistance: represents the maximum threshold (in meters) which ensures that the routes that exceed it in longitude are discarded
- /CAMP_LONG=AlternativeLongField: if this is specified, it indicates the field of the FileArches database that contains the longitudes of each arch used instead of the topological values that appear by default in the database.
For option 2
- MaximumTime: compulsory in this option, it represents the maximum threshold (in the same temporal units as FieldTime) which ensures that the routes that exceed it in longitude at discarded.
- FieldTime is the field of the FileArches database that contains the route times associated with each arch. The values should be defined in seconds, minutes or hours.
For option 3
- SpeedField is the field of the FileArches database that contains the speeds associated with each arch. These are necessary for calculating the route time of each route. The units of time should be defined in seconds, minutes or in hours
- /MAX_TEMPS=MaximumTime: if specified, this represents the maximum threshold (in the same temporal units as SpeedField) which ensures that the routes that exceed it in route time at discarded
For option 4
- MaximumCost: represents the maximum threshold which ensures that the routes that exceed it in accumulated cost are discarded
- CostField is the field of the FileArches database that will be used to calculate the cost of each route. It is not necessary for the field to have any associated unit of measurement.
/NO_VINCULAR: this parameter eliminates the default behavior that links the resulting DBF table to the associated database of the origin node file.