Pathfinder projects¶
Login¶
To get started, enter your username and password in the Pathfinder login window.
If you have enabled Two Factor Authentication, an additional step will require you to enter the 6-digit code generated at this time by the registered authentication app:
Note
Depending on your user profile, you may have different permissions in Pathfinder.
Automatic logout¶
To improve Pahfinder security, an automatic logout is performed when the user has been inactive for a long period (30 minutes). This prevents inappropriate accesses if you leave a session open.
When you return to Pathfinder after a long period of inactivity you will briefly see a notification of token expiration and then the application will show the login page.
Note
Inactivity means that the user does not perform any read or write operation in Pathfinder, such as opening a project, adding data, change the visibility of a result or data element, changing any properties, running processes… Simply selecting the Pathfinder tab in the web browser or navigating in the map do not count as activity.
Contact Gilytics if you want to change the default inactivity period.
Note
If you see a refresh loop in the login page after the automatic logout, just close the web browser tab and open a new one to log in.
Open a project¶
Once logged in, you will see the list of existing projects in the Pathfinder account. In free trial accounts, you will find here the predefined projects to test the application. In other cases, this list may be initially empty.
Each company can choose a default permission system based on roles (in this case all company users have access to all projects) or a per-project permission system. Gilytics will configure the system your company prefers.
If a per-project mode is configured, company administrators decide which users have access to each project.
Note
Projects which are not accessible to a user will not be visible in the project list.
To open an existing project, just click on the tile with its name.
Create a new project¶
Note
Users who are not administrators can’t create new projects. Ask your administrator to do so.
For this section, you can follow the first of our tutorial videos:
To create a project, use the New Project button on the page, or the menu command with the same name under the top Projects menu. In both cases, the New Project Wizard will open.
Basic properties¶
In the first step of the wizard, users must set these project properties:
The name of the project.
An optional description of the project, which will be displayed in the Project Information dialog.
Initial project categories. Each project must have at least one category. A default one (“General”) will already be created. The user can create more by typing category names and clicking on the Add category button.
Categories are used for grouping layers with similar attributes or themes (for example, protected areas, existing infrastructures, physical medium, social data, etc.). Later, you can create new categories or move layers from one category to another.
Once you have set all the properties, click on Next to go to the next step.
Project area, resolution and points¶
In this step, users define the Project Area. This is the region where the simulations are performed. You can set it in two ways:
Drawing the area by hand.
Importing the area from a file.
Draw the project area¶
If you want to draw the project area by hand, click on the Draw Area tile. The map view will appear.
Click on the Draw Area button and select which geometry you want to draw (Circle, Rectangle or Polygon). For Circle and Rectangle areas, you need to click first, drag the mouse and click a second time. For the Polygon area, click on multiple locations to define the area and then double-click to enter the last point.
You also have the specify the project resolution. This resolution will be used to build the resistance map and the corridors, and affect the precision of the optimized route points. Depending on the size of the project area, there might be a limit on how small the resolution can be.
Note
You might get a warning message stating that the size is too large for the given resolution. You will also see a message below the resolution value. In this case, draw a smaller area or increase the resolution size in meters until the error message disappears.
Import the project area¶
If the project area is already defined in a file containing geographic coordinates in longitude and latitude (WGS84 or EPSG:3426 coordinate system), you can import this file by clicking on the Import Area tile or in the Import button next to the Draw Area button:
In both cases, a dialog will open where you can drag the file from a file browser, or click and browse to select it from your computer. The accepted formats are GeoJSON, KML and Shapefile (compressed as .zip).
Project points¶
After the project area is defined, you can also specify the Start and End points for the routing calculations. These can also be set or changed later for the project, using the Project/Edit Project Points menu option.
Start and End points can be changed for each scenario as well.
Like the project area, Start and End points can be specified manually on the map, or imported from a file containing a single point in WGS84 coordinates. You can choose these options by clicking on the named button or in the cloud import button.
After the points are drawn or imported, they appear as pins on the map.
Finally, click on Save and Exit to finish the editing and return to the wizard.
Adding initial layers¶
In the next page of the wizard, the user can add some layers to the project based on datasets shared by all Pathfinder users (like OpenStreetMap data) or by the company members.
If you user has administration permission, he/she can add more datasets later. We can also add layers to the project after it is created, so this step is optional. If you want to add some initial layers now, see how to define them.
Users can also bring layers, their rings and categories from an existing project by using the corresponding button:
After clicking this button, the user can choose an existing project to copy the layers, rings and categories from:
An information dialog will appear then to confirm:
When the process is completed, a dialog will show the list of the copied categories and layers:
After selecting some layers (or none), press the Process button. The Project Viewer will appear.
Data may need some time to be processed. You can track the data preparation progress in the Process Log.
After this, you can explore or add more data to your Pathfinder project.
Default raster layers¶
When a project is created, a digital elevation model and a slope map are automatically created for your study area from open data sources and added to the project as default layers.
The default Slope Map provides slope in degrees.
These layers use public data providing a 30m resolution elevation model for the whole globe. If you wish, you can upload your own DEM and slope raster data for the project.
Project information¶
The project information can be accessed from the Project menu:
The Project Information dialog shows:
The project’s owner: the user who created the project (it can also be assigned by a company admininistrator).
The project’s creation date
The number of layers and scenarios used by the project. Its layers are the same for all users, but the scenarios may vary.
Raster width, height, resolution and area. These parameters give information about the extent, size and scale of the project. The larger the raster width and height of the project, the longer its layers and results will take to process.
Internal coordinate system name and ID. All data in Pathfinder is internally projected to a UTM coordinate system. Its UTM zone and EPSG ID are provided here. When the path results are exported, a copy is saved in this coordinate system.
The project thumbnail, which is also shown in the Projects page of Pathfinder.
The project description, if entered when it was created, appears below the thumbnail.
To change the thumbnail from the default map, hover the mouse on the image and click on the button to select a new one from your local disk.
Delete a project¶
Some Pathfinder licenses may have a limit on the number of projects, or a limit on the data storage used. You can remove projects from the cloud by using the Delete project menu option:
A warning will be displayed before deleting the project.
Keep in mind that, if you delete the project, its simulations results will also be removed. It is advisable to export the project results before deleting it.
Note
Users who are not administrators can’t delete projects. Ask your administrator to do so.
Disclaimer: the scenarios depicted in this manual do not represent actual customer projects or infrastructure proposals, and are presented for demonstration purposes only.
For more help, please use the help chat in the application, or contact Gilytics.