Measures tutorial
Prerequisites
The following prerequisites should be met before starting this tutorial:
- This tutorial relies on base knowledge about the editor interface. It is also recommended to have completed the tutorial(s) related to importing Geo Data. If you have not yet followed the tutorials related to those subjects please do so first.
- This tutorial can be followed with your own Project, for which an urban plan geodata file is available. If such a plan is absent, the Demo Dxf Import Project can be used instead.
- A Geo Data file with information regarding a plan for future urban development. If such a plan is absent, the demo-data of the Demo Dxf Import Project can be used instead.
- Ideally, such a plan is as a 2D Geo Data file format. 3D formats are also possible, but are more complex and are not considered in detail in this tutorial.
Preparations
Take the following steps as preparation for following this tutorial:
- If you have your own Project and urban plan file for that location available, open that Project. If you do not have your own Project or urban plan file available, open the Demo Dxf Import Project.
- Ensure a Heat Stress Overlay is present in the Project. This is not inherently required for Measures, but will be used in this tutorial for demonstrating effects of Measures. It does not need to be specifically configured.
- Ensure the urban plan file to be used is available as a local file on your computer. If you do not have your own urban plan file available, download the dxf file of the Demo Dxf Import Project from the Public Share, or via this direct link: https://geo.tygron.com/share/public/demo_projects/demo_dxf_import/dxf_data/dxf_plan_with_water.dxf.
Introduction to Measures
Measures are the data type in the Tygron Platform most closely alligned with the concept of urban development plans. Measures are a data type which form a definition for a future plan, potentially consisting of a variety of geographical and non-geographical elements.
Creating a Measure manually
To practise with the first principles of a Measure, a simple Measure can be created manually.
Add a new Measure. It will be listed in the left panel, and selected with its individual details in the right panel.
By default, a Measure is empty. It must always be provided some definition of what the Measure entails.
Add a Building to the Measure.
The definition of a Building is now added to the Measure, in a sub-heading of the Measure. In the right panel, the information of the Building is displayed.
At the bottom of the right panel, click on "Draw Area", and use the brush tool to select a geographical location for the Building. It does not matter if the location is realistic, it is just for the sake of experimentation.
When a selection is made, apply it.
Now, in the left panel, select the main entry for the Measure again.
In the right panel, click on "Activate Measure".
The following things will happen in short order:
- The Editor will enter a Test Run mode. This means that anything and everything that defined the base of the Project (the features in the 3D world, the calculation models, the options available, etc), are now fixed in place. All options in the Editor related to parts of the "Current Situation" are disabled.
- A second version of the 3D world is loaded into memory in the Tygron Platform. The original situation is kept as the "current" or "original" view. This will represent the situation of the location "now", without any additional future actions taken. A second view is the "maquette" or "planned", which represents the state of the same location after actions and interventions have taken place, such as the development of urban plans.
- The Measure will be set to active. It is the request to activate the Measure that also instructed the Tygron Platform to start the Test Run, as Measures can only be activated as part of a future perspective, in a Test Run. Because the Measure is now active, its effects are applied and any geographical features are visualized.
- All calculation models are rerun, and take the effects of the Measure into account.
Activate the Heat Stress Overlay.
Notice that the effects of the added Building are taken into account in the spatial calculation of the Heat Stress Overlay.
In the top bar of the Viewer interface, an option has appeared which allows switching between the "original" and "planned" states of the Project. Click on the "Original" option to see the base situation.
Ensure the Heat Stress Overlay is active again, and see how the presence of the new Building now also affects the calculation.
Stop the Test Run.
Notice all effects of the Measure have been reverted, and the Editor has reverted to the state it was in before starting the Test Run.
The future state of the Project has been cleared. The Tygron Platform now displays only the base situation again.
An important primary benefit of using Measures over other editing options for testing future scenario's is the fact that while it is persistently stored as data in a Project (and therefor need not be recreated whenever it is to be tested), it is not stored as part of the base set of Buildings. This means that plans can be created or loaded in or modified, while leaving the base situation intact.
An additional important benefit of Measures is their reproducability. While it is possible to, with adequate preparation, provide Actions as on-the-fly tools to sketch future situations, future modifications made using Actions are not persistently saveable. This means that if the same plan has to be recalculated or demonstrated, it is very difficult to reconstruct as it would have to be reconstructed manually. In contract, any created Measure can be activated or deactivated in full, at will, yielding the exact same future plan every time.
Loading in a Measure
Manually creating a Measure and manually drawing in its various features is technically an option, but rarely the best way to create or use the Measures functionality. In most cases, the term "Measure" is used interchangabily with "urban plan". This is because they are mostly used to set up and calculate entire future plans of urban developments. The Tygron Platform makes it possible to load in Geo Data files of urban development plans.
Before loading in such a file, it is important to emphasize the requirements such a file is subject to be loaded in properly.
Verifying an urban plan file
A number of Geo Data file formats are supported. Conventionally, most urban plans are available as 2D data.
Important note: It is also a very common occurence that plans are provided not as a Geo Data file, but as an image, pdf, or other non-data format. To load in an urban plan, it must be provided in a data-format which clearly defines features, related meta data, coordinate systems, etc.
GeoJSON
A GeoJSON file is an open-standard, text-based, JSON-structured geo data file format. Most GIS packages can convert 2D vector data to a GeoJSON format.
For a plan to be loaded in from a GeoJSON file, it should meet the following requirements:
- A single file, of GeoJSON format and with the extension .json or .geojson.
- Individual spatial features are also individual geo data features in the file.
- All features have at least 1 common Attribute which through its value indicates the kind of feature it is.
- All features should be drawn as polygons. (lines and points are also possible, but will be automatically buffered)
- All features are actual features which are a physical part of the intended plan. (No texts, icons, diagrams, etc)
- All Attributes which should be loaded in into the Project should be numerical.
- E.g. a tree height of 6 meters should be in an Attribute named, for example, "TREE_HEIGHT", with a value of "6". This in contrast to "6m", "6-12", or "six", which are all strings. Those will not be imported.
- The features should have "complete coverage". Any location not covered by a feature will remain unaffected when used in the Tygron Platform.
- If any location currently has a built feature but should be explicitly demolished, it is recommended to specify a specific Function to indicate the empty lot, such as "grass fields" or "vacant lot".
DXF
A DXF file is an open exchange format of commonly used .dwg autoCAD files. Most CAD packages which can export a .dwg file, can also export the same data as a .dxf file.
For completeness' sake: a DXF file can be formatted with either 2D or 3D data. The Tygron Platform only supports 2D fata from DXF files.
For a plan to be loaded in from a DXF file, it should meet the following requirements:
- A single file, of DXF format and with the extention .dxf.
- A geo location has been set, to relate it to a real world location
- All features are grouped into layers. The layer a feature is in indicates the kind of feature it is.
- All features should be drawn as hatches, so that their polygons can be interpreted drectly.
- All features are actual features which are a physical part of the intended plan. (No texts, icons, diagrams, etc)
- All features should have additional attributes should be set up as BLOCKs with attributes.
- All Attributes which should be loaded in into the Project should be numerical.
- E.g. a tree height of 6 meters should be in an Attribute named, for example, "TREE_HEIGHT", with a value of "6". This in contrast to "6m", "6-12", or "six", which are all strings. Those will not be imported.
- The features should have "complete coverage". Any location not covered by a feature will remain unaffected when used in the Tygron Platform.
- If any location currently has a built feature but should be explicitly demolished, it is recommended to specify a specific Function to indicate the empty lot, such as "grass fields" or "vacant lot".
Other file formats
Most proper data formats can be converted to a format which the Tygron Platform also supports. If the plan is available in a different format, use a GIS application to convert it to one of the supported formats.
The most important part of any geo data set is that it is actual geo data. It must contain a representation of 2D (or 3D) features (not just a visual representation). The features must contain associated data to indicate what the features are intended to be. Then, depending on the format, applications and/or plugins are available to convert the data into a format supported by the Tygron Platform. This can be a manual set of operations, but can also be an automated workflow depending on the formats normally in use in your organisation.
Importing the Measure
When an urban plan file is available, it can be imported into a Project as a Measure.
Open the Geo Data Wizard.
The Geo Data Wizard will facilitate the import of data in a number of steps. The steps which are of relevance and/or require specific settings will be described in detail. Steps missing or skipped over briefly are of lesser importance and can be left on their default option.
Select Type
A variety of geographical data types can be imported, each with their own intended applications. Opt to import a Measure.
Select Measure Type
When import Measures, it's possible to create a new Measure with the data, or to add additional data to an existing Measure. In addition, it is possible to add a variety of data to a Measure (not just Buildings). Ensure "New Measure", and "Buildings" are selected, as the intent is to create a new Measure with the data as Buildings.
Select Import Method
A variety of data formats and data sources is supported by the Tygron Platform. Select the file type in which your urban plan is available. (If it's a GeoJSON file, select "GeoJSON". If it's a DXF file, select "AutoCAD DXF").
Select File
A file can be selected from the Geo Share or Public Share, or from the local machine. Click on "Select local File", and in the file selection window navigate to the file and select it.
For DXF files, the next step is selecting the layers of the file to import. Select all files which are relevant/geographical/physical Building parts of the plan.
View features
This is a verification step where you can see the location of the features to be imported, relative to the full project area.
For DXF files, if there are features missing, or incorrectly added, it is possible to go back to the previous step and change which layers to include.
Filter features
When importing a file, but with the intent of only importing a subset of the included features, it is possible to apply a filter on the features. The filter functions as a whiletlist. I.e. when a filter is applied, the features matching the filter are imported. A common occurence can be that the plan also includes Water, which should not be imported as a Building. If this is the case, set up a filter which checks the attribute indicating whether or not a feature has water, and ensure that the filter matches features which are not water.
If a filter is applied, the next step is another opportunity to view the resulting features. If there are features missing, or incorrectly added, it is possible to go back to previous steps and make changes.
Naming Scheme
When importing data, all resulting Items will have a name. In most cases, the data being imported has some attribute which has a name or sensible human identifier for the data. In the case of Buildings (or Building's for a Measure), it is also possible to base it on the resulting function type. In the case of DXF files, the "LAYER" Attribute is commonly a good choice. The name has no effect computationally and is entirely for readability. Select the option you find most apropriate.
Select Attributes
Features being imported in most cases have Attributes specifying additional data for those features. Numerical attributes can be imported with the features into the Project, and optionally used later for further calculations. Generally, all Attributes can be imported, unless they are specifically known to "collide" with specific Attribute names in the Tygron Platform. You can also opt to have them renamed as part of the import process. This can be done by, for any Attribute entry, finding the text field next to it and changing the intended Attribute Name.
If you have any of the following kinds of information in your data, rename them as follows:
- Amount of floors a building has: Rename to DEFAULT_FLOORS
- Height of floors: Rename to FLOOR_HEIGHT_M
- Height of loose objects such as trees: Rename to FLOOR_HEIGHT_M
Select Functions
This is the most important step of the import process, as this is where the translation is defined between what data is in the urban plan file, and how that data should be interpreted into specific types of Buildings. Building types are known as Functions in the Tygron Platform.
There are a number of options available, described here for clarity:
- One Function
- When the dataset only contains one kind of feature, such as a dataset of trees, a single "Default Function" can be selected.
- Function Custom Mapping
- This option allows for creating a number of on-the-fly rules for importing the data, based on the values of Attributes attached to the Feature. When a feature matches one of those rules, that rule defines which Function the Building becomes. When a feature dioes not match any of the rules, a default Function is applied.
- Function Name Mapping
- This option is applicable when the features in the data have an Attribute which has a value which exactly matches the name of a Function in the Tygron Platform. This allows the Tygron Platform to directly match the imported features to the Functions in the Tygron Platform.
- Function GeoPlugin Matching
- Geoplugins are a more advanced but most preferred route for importing data. They are a separate type of Item which are specifically a collection of rules to match/translate incoming data to specific Items in the Tygron Platform.
For now, select "Fuction Custom Mapping". This option will allow you to create a few import rules on-the-fly.
At the bottom, ensure the dropdown is set to "TEXT", and click "Add" to add a rule.
A "Function Filter" appears. It consists of a number of options to help define the rule.
For the first dropdown, select the Attribute the rule should look at. (In the case of DXF files, this is basically always the "LAYER" Attribute. For the GeoJSON file the exact Attribute name can vary.
Ensure the second dropdown is set to "EQUALS".
The third input is a text input field. You can type here directly, or click on "Values" for a listing of values found for this Attribute in the data. Click on "Values", and select and confirm one of the values.
This has set up the test-part of the rule. Next, the effect can be defined. Click on "Select", and use the Function selection window to select an intended Function.
As it stands now, when the features are processed, any feature with that Attribute, and that value for that Attribute, will become that function.
Add an additional rule by clicking on "Add" at the bottom of the window again, and repeat the configuration steps. Repeat this process a few times so the most important features are mapped. (For the purpose of practice, it is not required right now to map all the features. A few is sufficient to see the effects further on.)
When a few rules have been defined, continue to the next step.
Assign Stakeholders
When importing Buildings, an owner can be assigned directly. For the purposes of most calculations, the owner is not directly relevant. In the case of Measures, the owner is automatically reassigned when the Measure is activated, so this selection has no significant effect.
Finalize
All the steps in the wizard so far have taken place locally. The client application has read, filtered, and prepared the data for you based on the choices made over the course of the wizard. In the final step, all required preparations are completed, and the data is ready to be imported.
Click on "Finish" to send the data to the Tygron Platform for the actual import to take place.
Inspecting the imported measure
When the Measure has been imported, there is again no directly visible effect in the 3D world. This is because like the manually created Measure, the imported Measure is a definition for a potential future development, and not part of the initial situation.
Selecting the newly imported Measure will highlight its location in the 3D world.
In the left panel, open the Measure to reveal the Buildings subheader, and open the subheader to reveal the full list of Buildings part of the Measure.
Note that these Buildings' names follow the naming convention selected during the Geo Data Wizard.
Also note that the source for the Buildings is recorded as being the imported file.
Select the Measure's main entry again.
After importing an urban plan as a Measure, the name of the Measure is still the default name. Rename the Measure to something more descriptive of the plan.
Activate the Measure.
The Editor will again go into Test Run mode, the new developments will be added to the 3D world, and the calculation models will recalculate to take the changes into account.
Assignments
- (Optional): Re-do the steps in the Geo Data Wizard to import the Measure. In the step for Function mapping, create a list of rules such that all values in the relevant Attribute are mapped. In other words, ensure all features are mapped explicitly to Functions in the Tygron Platform. Complete the import, and see the results after activating that new Measure.
Geo Plugins
Due to the complexity which full urban plans can represent, it is not desirable to rely indefinitely on a working process which require manually setting up individual mapping rules for each import action.
There are 2 main ways to ensure imported data is directly compatible with the Tygron Platform without the need for further manual definitions. One way is to ensure the data, when it is imported, has an Attribute the value of which exactly matches the name of a Function in the Tygron Platform, and selecting the "Name Mapping" option in the wizard to use this commonality. While easy, this does require that the data to be imported is "prepared" with these Tygron Platform-specific values.
The second, and more powerful option, is the use of Geo Plugins. These are Items in a Project which define a mapping of external data to Tygron Platform-data.
As a quick way to get acquainted with this functionality, the Demo Dxf Import Project has a working example of a Geo Plugin defined.
If you have not been working in the Demo Dxf Import Project so far, exit your current Project Session. While exiting, opt to save it if desired, and opt to Keep Alive if desired. Restart the Tygron Client, and start the Demo Dxf Import Project.
Open the Geo Data Wizard, and import a new Measure as follows:
As source type, select "AutoCAD DXF File"
When selecting the actual file, rather than selecting a "Local File", use the GeoShare screen.
Switch to the Public Share.
Navigate to Demo Projects → Demo Dxf Import → dxf_data, and select dxf_plan_with_water.dxf
For the layers, select all layers.
Continue forward all the way to the Function mapping step.
For the mapping, select the "Function Geoplugin Matching" option.
In the associated dropdown, select the "DXF Matcher".
Continue to the last step and finalize the import.
Activate the newly imported Measure.
The result is the urban plan loaded in, mapped by the definition of the Geo Plugin. This means that without having to select or configure anything specificly for this plan, the plan has been loaded in with all the intended detail.
Assignments
- Expand the imported Measure with water, features for which are also defined in the DXF. Use:
- the Geo Import Wizard,
- the "Update existing Measure" option,
- the "Terrains" type,
- and a filter to select only the features in the applicable layer (indicated by the LAYER Attribute).
- (Optional): Go to Tools → Geo Plugins. In the left panel, select the "DXF Matcher" Geo Plugin, and in the right panel select the "GeoLinks" tab. Select some of the Geo Links and explore their configurations.
Composite spatial features for Measures
Measures can be composed of a variety of Item types. During this tutorial the focus has been on the importing of Buildings, which form the largest part of the majority of urban development plans. However, many plans also contain additional information on aspects of development which are not strictly new Buildings, and related to that, elements other than Buildings which can affect the results of calculation models.
Buildings
- Building
- Buildings are the main feature of a Measure. They're most-all built elements in a project area, ranging from appartment complexes to roads to trees.
- Any place where Buildings are placed, pre-exisitng Buildings are removed, considered demolished. New Buildings are placed regardless of the ownership situation currently in place.
- Upgrade
- Upgrades are defined areas in which Buildings are changed from one Function to another, based on a predefined mapping. This is useful for transformations on an administrative level, such as enacting renovations, placing solar panels, or converting vacant offices to houses.
- The area where an upgrade is applied can be coarse. Any (part of a) Building within its polygon will have the Upgrade applied to it. However, this only affects Buildings which are actually defined in the Upgrade Type. So for example: when drawing the "green roofs" upgrade over a road, the road will be unaffected.
Terrain and height polygons
- Terrain
- Terrain Types define the terrain, both on the surface and under the ground, which affect some calculation models, and provides default values when a location is not occupied by a Building. The most important Terrain Type is Water, in the forms of waterway and waterbody.
- Where Water (be it a waterway or a waterbody) is the relevant Terrain Type for water, Open Land is the relevant default Terrain Type for normal land. This terrain type can be placed in locations where water currently exists to turn it into land.
- Terrains can also be set to increase or decrease the terrain height in preset ways. A height (either relative or absolute) can be defined, as well as a second, inner polygon drawn, allowing for a smooth include between the outer and inner polygon.
- Levee
- Levee Types are predefined terrain modifications intended as a shorthand for the definition of levees, which are terrain barriers generally intended to protect areas from flooding and other excess water events. When Levee Types are defined, they can be added by polygon to the Measure. When the Measure is activated, the Levee Type's definition can affect the Terrain height, and the Buildings on both the slope and the top of the levee.
Height grids
- GeoTIFF
- For the best pre-defined control over the height map effect of a Measure, a grid of new terrain heights can be added to a Measure in the form of a GeoTIFF. This is a geodata filetype which can provide exact values at a sufficiently high resolution for spatial calculation models. A GeoTIFF can be established as part of the original data of the urban development plan, and then be included in the Measure.
- Using a GeoTIFF, locations with NO_DATA values remain unaffected. Any locations which do have a value have their height, and optionally their Terrain Type, changed.
- Grid
- Besides a (manually or specially prepared) GeoTIFF, it is also possible to obtain or calculate a grid through other means. When that grid is made available through a Grid Overlay, that grid can also be referenced by the Measure as a definition for a new terrain height.
- Using a grid, locations with NO_DATA values remain unaffected. Any locations which do have a value have their height, and optionally their Terrain Type, changed.
Final notes
Although not part of the general explanation provided in this tutorial, the following notes are important to keep in mind:
- Multiple Measures can be activated simultaneously, but only if they do not conflict spatially. Measures cannot be activated at the same time if they overlap in any capacity.
- For more insight and guidance on using Geo Plugins specifically, consider following up with the Geo Plugins tutorial.
Tutorial completed
Congratulations. You have now completed this tutorial. In it, you have learned how to import urban development plans into a Project..