Tutorial 3: The Webinterface
The Webinterface is the most used workspace for creating, managing, and analyzing scenarios. This tutorial provides a guided tour of its main features, tools, and controls.
Time required: about 20 minutes
Prerequisites: An approved account and knowledge of how to operate the Portal
Learning objectives
- How to navigate the map
- How to open and resize the control panel
- How to open map layers, such as traffic intensities
- How to open and arrange graphs, such as modal split per district
- How to save and reuse views
- How to read the connection status and reconnect if needed
- How to switch scenarios, and what stays scenario specific
- How to read and clear notifications
- How to start, monitor, and close calculation modules
- How to link two screens using lead and follow
- How to close the Webinterface
- How to change the background map and open data layers, such as buildings
- How to read object properties, including network direction and dimensions
- How to select multiple data elements, and filter what is visible
Step 1: Log in and open a project
With an approved account, log in and open a project in the portal, as covered in Tutorial 1: Account and Tutorial 2: The Portal.
Step 2: Watch the tour
The video below walks through every element of the Webinterface covered in this tutorial.
If you prefere to read, the video and steps 3 to 16 cover the same ground. Watch the video for a guided overview, or use the steps as a reference to look something up later.
Step 3: Navigate the map
- Pan: click and hold the left mouse button on the map, then drag to the desired position. The arrow keys on the keyboard do the same.
- Zoom: use the scroll wheel, the plus and minus keys, or the plus and minus icons in the interface.
Step 4: The results panel
The results panel is opened from the menu located in the top left of the webinterface. This will open a panel with three tabs: Maps, Charts, and Views.
The size of the control panel can be adjusted by holding down the left mouse button on the icon at the bottom right of the panel.
Step 5: Maps
The Maps tab contains map layers, such as the traffic intensity map and the noise map.
- Click on a layer to open it. Its legend appears on the left side of the screen.
- Hold Ctrl while selecting a layer to open several layers at once, shown transparently on top of each other. The legend shown is always for the layer most recently selected. Double-click another open layer to close all transparent layers at once.
Step 6: Charts
The Charts tab contains graphs. Selecting a graph opens it in a grid.
- Move a graph by holding the left mouse button on it and dragging it to a new position in the grid.
- Resize a graph by holding the left mouse button on the icon at the bottom right. Once resized, the graph can be placed freely, independent of the grid.
- Read values by hovering over an element in the graph. Select an element in the legend to show or hide it.
- Use the pin icon to return the graph to its selected grid position, or the screen icon to return it to its selected free position.
- Close a graph with the cross icon.
Step 7: Views
A view saves a position on the map together with whichever layers and elements were visible at the time, so it can be recalled later.
- Activate the map layers to include, for example the cycling intensity layer, and navigate to the desired position, for example Vondelpark in Amsterdam.
- Open Views and select the tile to create a new view.
- Give the view a recognisable name and select Apply to save it.
Selecting the saved view at any later point automatically navigates back to that position with the same layers visible. Selecting the same view button again returns to the default position.
Step 8: Connection status
Next to the control panel menu is a plug icon, showing the connection status.
- A green plug means connected.
- Selecting the icon disconnects the session; the icon turns red and a notification appears at the top right.
- Selecting it again reconnects the session, turning the icon green with a confirming notification.
Step 9: Scenarios
Next to the plug icon, the project name is shown, followed by the scenario panel icon.
The scenario panel lists every scenario in the project, each with a unique ID, name, type, and year.
- Active and Ref select which scenario is used as the active scenario or the reference scenario.
- Copy creates a copy of a scenario.
- Scenarios can be filtered by name, type, and year.
The active scenario is dominant
Its important to check the active scenario selected is indeed the one you want to create your scenario in. Calculation modules for example only respond to changes in, and write results to, the active scenario. Switching the active scenario does not stop a running module, since the platform's asynchronous design lets it keep calculating in the scenario it started in. See Step 11.
Step 10: Notifications
The notification icon in the top right corner opens and closes the notifications panel. Select Clear all to remove all notifications.
Step 11: Calculation modules
Next to notifications is the modules panel, listing every calculation module and its status.
- A module with no status shown is disabled.
- Select the icon next to a module to start it. After a few seconds the module state will change to busy.
- Busy means the module is calculating. While collapsed, the modules panel icon shows a blue circle whenever any module is calculating, so this remains visible even when the panel itself is closed.
- Ready means the module has finished calculating and is waiting for a change in its input data.
- Close a running module with the icon next to the module.
Step 12: Lead and follow
Next to the modules icon is the lead and follow icon, which links multiple open interfaces together. When one interface selects Lead, any interface with Follow selected mirrors its screen position. This is most useful across multiple screens during an interactive session, for example keeping one map layer permanently visible on one screen while switching between other interfaces on another.
Step 13: Closing the Webinterface
Next to the lead and follow icon is the login profile, currently still under development. Next to it is the close button, which closes the Webinterface entirely, including all running calculation modules. This allows other users to use the setup.
Closing the browser does not stop the session
When closing the browser, the project will not close and remain locked for other users. In the portal you can Resume the session. Leaving a project open in edit mode, even idle, keeps its calculation modules running and prevents other users from starting their own edit session.
Step 14: Background and data layers
Hovering over the layers box at the bottom left reveals the background maps and data layers; moving the mouse away collapses it again automatically. Select the layers box to pin it open.
- Background layers can be switched between street, grayscale, satellite, and dark.
- Data layers, such as Buildings are opened the same way as map layers: select an item to visualize it.
Step 15: Object properties and network direction
When a datalayer, such as Buildings, is opened the data elements on screen can be selected with the left mouse button. Selected items are highlighhted in pink. Right-click an data element to open for an on screen menu with additional options.
Select Object properties in this on screen menu to see the values of a selected item for the active and reference scenarios, along with the difference between them, since data is always tied to a scenario.
Some options only appear after a reload
Not every option is available immediately. If an expected option is missing, reload the data layer and right-click the element again. We're working on resolving this bug.
Network elements such as roads have a left and a right side, corresponding to direction of the geometry. Clicking just next to a network element, on either side, selects the direction for that side, shown with a half arrow. Important to know is that each side can have its own charecteristics, for example:
- A one-way road has speed and capacity on one side only; the other side shows zero.
- A two-way road has speed and capacity on both sides, and each side can carry a different intensity, for example more vehicles travelling west to east than east to west. These intensity values typically come from the traffic assignment calculation module.
Large data sets load faster the second time
Loading a large network layer for the first time can take a few seconds. After that, it is held in memory and loads almost instantly for the rest of the session.
Step 16: Selecting and filtering multiple elements
Hold Ctrl and select elements with the left mouse button to select several at once; selecting an already selected element deselects it. The object properties panel lists everything currently selected, though values are only shown if four or fewer elements are selected.
Located in the bottom right corner, the selection tools can be opened:
- Polygon selection lets you draw a custom shape, one corner per click, closing the shape by clicking the first corner again.
- Square selection let you draw a selection area within a square. Click and hold in one corner and drag to the opposite corner.
- Circle selection let you draw a selection area within a circle. Click to set the center and move the mouse to set the radius.
- Quary selection let you select elements matching a condition, for example all roads with a speed greater than 80.
To filter datalayers, click on located to the bottom right of the screen. Not all datalayers have filter set, but for the once that do you'll see all filter presets in this list. For example by road type or speed, which is useful for focusing on one part of a network. Select No filter to show all elements again.
Missing items in your dataset?
Most likely a filter is set on default, click on located to the bottom right of the screen and select No filter to show all elements.
Summary
At this point, you should be able to:
- Navigate the Webinterface and its control panel
- Show result layers, such as maps and graphs, and save views to return to later
- Show and interact with data layers, such as buildings and roads
- Start, monitor, and close a calculation module, such as traffic assignment
- Select, filter, and inspect the properties of data elements