What’s New in Version 3.4¶
Following customers’ requests, these are the main new features of the latest Pathfinder release:
Previous releases:
Width routing parameter¶
Regular routing optimizes only the resistance along the line itself, so we can find high-resistance areas close to the line and the algorithm will not try to avoid them. This can be addressed by setting up rings around all the objects we need to avoid, but a simpler solution available in 3.4 is to define a path width as a routing parameter in the Explore algorithm configuration.
This width is specified in meters, so it should be a multiple of the project resolution. If the width is smaller, it is considered to be the project resolution.
Typically, this width can be used to find paths leaving a certain safety gap between high-resistance elements like buildings or highly protected areas, so even if there is a shorter route, the algorithm will choose one that requires a certain safety gap defined by the width.
Note that it is not guaranteed that the calculated paths skip narrow gaps completely, because the algorithm optimizes the total resistance. A specific gap may have a small weight in the total resistance and crossing it still might be the best solution overall.
To maximize compliance with the gap constraint, the layers representing areas to avoid should have a very high resistance compared to other areas. Very high resistance values like 100 or 1000 can be more effective than a forbidden (FB) value.
Number of paths option¶
In addition, another parameter has been added to the Explore routing algorithm configuration to select how many paths we want to calculate (from 1 to 8).
Combined overhead and earth cable routing¶
In version 3.3, a new geoprocess to perform combined overhead and tunnel routing was added.
In this new version, a similar geoprocess is available that allows users to find the best overall routes combining overhead and earth cable sections.
Although earth (underground) cabling is more expensive, it might be necessary in certain areas (e.g. populated areas), so a combined route is necessary.
Same as with the tunneling geoprocess, the user needs to create first separate scenarios with the constraints for the overhead and earth cable sections, calculate their resistance maps, and provide some parameters like the number, maximum and minimum length of the earth cable sections.
The results can be seen in the map and 3D views, with the earth cable sections visible as dashed lines.
Single Sign On (SSO)¶
Authentication using SAML 2.0 is now supported in Pathfinder. This enables users to enter Pathfinder through their company’s login.
This feature, as well as the integration of Pathfinder activity log into another company’s own event management system, can be provided upon request by Gilytics if there is a compatible service available.
UI user preferences¶
Users can choose some options in the View menu to customize their UI experience in Pathfinder, for instance:
Change the base map
View/hide the pylons
View the Results in an accordion list or in tabbed panels
With version 3.4, the choice of these settings is persisted, so the user doesn’t need to reset them each new session.
Create scenarios from saved files¶
When creating a new scenario, users have the option to choose a specification file previously saved from another (or the same) scenario.
Together with the company’s scenario catalog, this is another way to easily backup/restore or replicate scenario settings.
Identify access for viewers¶
In addition to displaying project data and results, viewer users can also use the Identify tool and Identify Attributes tool to get detailed information about the constraints affecting the infrastructure.
The Identify tool is used to find the resistance values at a selected location:
On the other hand, the attribute identification tool shows the field values associated to a specific layer feature. In the case of viewers, the user will not be able to change these values, though.
Increased file upload size¶
Users will now be able to upload directly data files up to 200 MB in size (up from 50 MB). Larger files can be split manually with GIS software, or they can be published through a WFS service.
More data admin options¶
Additional options have been added to manage data in the administration site, available to company admins.
Layers for each base layer¶
Administrators can now easily see which layers are using each base dataset and access their properties:
Download data source¶
An important addition in the base layer management is the possibility to download the original data used to create it, both for vector as well as raster datasets.
This option lets company administrators access and recover the data from Pathfinder in case the original has been lost.
Invisible base layers¶
Base layers also have now a flag that can be set to hide them from users. This is used by Pathfinder to make invisible “internal data” like the DEM and Slope maps generated automatically for each project, but it can also be used by company admins.
Invisible base layers will still work in existing projects using them, but users won’t be able to add them as layers into new projects.
Improved sensitivity analysis service¶
Gilytics offers additional data preparation and analysis services to customers. One of these specialized services is the sensitivity analysis.
The goal of this analysis is to find routing corridors which are robust: they don’t change much when different resistance parameters are used in the different layers. The process involves running automatically the routing calculation with different parameter combinations.
A new configuration page let’s Gilytics configure and run this analysis by using two scenarios defining the minimum and maximum resistance values to test for each layer. An optimized parallel processing infrastructure is used to execute all variations in a reasonable time.
The results are provided as a raster map showing all generated paths superimposed, and also as a dataset with all the paths (which can be several thousands) in vector format.
Contact Gilytics if you are interested in this service.