Matrix Building

The maps that LogiX uses contain a number of pre-determined, fixed locations called Matrix

Points. There are thousands of these matrix points in every map and they are used to

calculate times and distances between two locations. It is these time and distance calculations

that are used to build your routes during manual planning and when using Auto Schedule and

it’s these calculations that you see when viewing the details of a route. The standard set of

matrix points that are supplied with the map is called the Global Matrix.

Matrix Building gives you the chance to create you own matrix points based solely on the data

in your workarea. This means you can create a matrix point for every order, depot and call

point which can greatly improve the accuracy of the time and distance calculations. This

customised set of matrix points is called a Local Matrix.

There are two types of Matrix Builder available to you, the version on your computer will

depend on whether your company has purchased Street Level Mapping or not. For this

reason the chapter is split into two main sections. The first deals with the Non-Street Level

Mapping Matrix builder, the second deals with the Street Level Mapping Matrix Builder known

as Morpheus 2.

To access your version of Matrix Builder click on Schedule in the Function Bar and then the

Matrix Building icon shown below:

Non Street Level Matrix Builder

This version of Matrix builder looks like the following:

Vehicle Specification

Here the roads are divided into three categories; Rural, Urban and City Centre. The type of

road within each category has a standardised road speed that is used when calculating the

time and distances between locations (orders, depots and call points). The speeds displayed

in the screenshot above are the default values, these can be altered using the up/down arrows

or by clicking in the numeric boxes and typing the required speed. It is highly recommended

that you use the default road speeds while building your local matrix.

Point Data

This lists the location of the file that is being used to build you local matrix. By default it will

be the TASK.DBF file within your active workarea. The task.dbf file contains the address

information for all your orders, depots and call points. This section doesn’t need to be

altered.

Bans File

When building a local matrix you can choose to include data that lists any roads that you

don’t want LogiX to use when scheduling. You can ban whole roads (e.g. the M6 Toll) or

specific sections of a road (e.g. the A45 between Daventry and Northampton). You can also

reduce the efficiency of a road so that LogiX will only use it if there is no other alternative

(useful when you want your vehicles to avoid known road works).

This bans file needs to be created using Route LogiX so if you have purchased this software

refer to the Route LogiX manual for full details on creating your bans file. To add a bans file

left click on the word ‘None’ within the Bans File section and an Open window displays

allowing you to browse to where the file is saved. The full path to the file then displays once

added.

Which Data To Include

Here you need to decide what data types you want to use to create your new set of matrix

points. By default the Orders and Depots checkboxes will be ticked. You can also choose to

include Call Points, Existing Points, Existing Avoids and Existing Bans.

Matrix Type

This allows you to define whether you want the matrix calculations between two points to be

based on the fastest speed or the shortest distance. It is highly recommended that you leave

this set to its default type of Quickest.

Which Matrix to TEST

When you want to test a matrix, you can choose to test the Global Matrix or the Local Matrix

(once one has been build).

Size Constraints

When building a Local Matrix you can attach access restrictions for HGV and/or 32 tonne

vehicles.

Build

Click on the button once you have defined your settings and are ready to build the Local

Matrix. Once the process starts a progress bar will display along the bottom of the window.

The time remaining till the process is complete is displayed to the right of the progress bar as

shown below:

A dialog box will display once matrix building is complete. Click OK to close this.

Stop

Click on the button if you want to end the Local matrix building process at any point. A

dialog box will appear to confirm that the process has been cancelled.

Test

The button allows you to test the accuracy of your matrix. Use this initially to test the

accuracy of the global matrix in relation to your imported orders, depots and call points. If

the results suggest you should build a local matrix then you can also run the test again after

this has been built. Click on the Test button and a progress bar appears. Once the test is

complete a separate Matrix Test window opens:

The results take the form of a traffic light report using red, amber and green to indicate the

quality of the current matrix points. The test in the above screenshot shows that the call

points and depots are not well represented using a global matrix and therefore building a

local matrix is recommended.

Click on Details to display more information regarding the test results:

This assesses how close your orders, depots and call points are to the nearest matrix point.

The screenshot above shows that for some orders the nearest matrix point is over 2km away.

Naturally you want the matrix points to be as close as possible to your orders, the further the

distance between them the less accurate the time and distance calculations will be. Once you

have reviewed the test statistics click on the green tick to close and then click on OK to exit

the test window. Repeat the test process after the local matrix has been built to compare the

results.

Close

Click on the button to close the Matrix Builder once the local matrix has been built and

tested.

Street Level Matrix Builder (Morpheus 2)

After clicking on the Matrix Building icon the Morpheus 2 window displays as shown below:

The Morpheus 2 window is divided in half; to the left are the various functions and settings

that are accessed via the section buttons. To the right is an interactive Mini map that allows

you to zoom in to an area using the vertical zoom bar. The ‘box zoom’ function available on

the main Plan LogiX screen can also be used here. As you move the cursor around the map

the co-ordinates are displayed in brackets at the bottom of the window.

Profile

This displays statistics of the active workarea similar to the main view with the Profile

Manager. The radio buttons at the bottom allow you to switch between the global matrix and

the local matrix (once one has been built). This is the same as using the enable/disable

button on the main Plan LogiX screen.

Vehicle

This section lists the different road speeds the matrix will use along with the different available

vehicle types and dimensions:

Although it is not recommended that you alter the road speeds, you can do so by using the

up/down arrows or by typing the required speed into the numeric box.

The Vehicle Type section allows you to define what types of vehicle the matrix should be built

to include. If you have a vehicle that may be restricted in its access to certain roads due to its

size or weight then this can be defined on the right hand side. Click on the Save button to

save any changes you make. If you wish to use the default Matrix Speeds then tick the

Maintain Existing Matrix Speeds checkbox and this will make the Road speeds un-editable.

Points

In this section you must load the points you want to be included in the local matrix build:

Check the Maintain Existing Matrix Points if you want to include the global matrix points in

your local matrix. A progress bar then displays as these are loaded.

With the ‘Load Points From Profile’ radio button selected choose whether to include the

Orders, Call Points and Depots in the build. By default the Orders and Depots checkboxes are

ticked, change as appropriate.

If you don’t want to base your local matrix on the orders, depots and call points in the active

workarea select the ‘Load Points From File’ option. This opens a browse window allowing you

to select the file that you want the points to be taken from.

Once you have made your choice click on the Load button and the selected points will be

loaded into Morpheus 2. A progress bar will display to show the percentage completion of

the load process. Once complete the loaded points will display in the text box and on the

map:

Points can also be added manually using the map by clicking on the Map button. You can

then use the zoom bar and the box zoom functions to find the location you want to add a

point at and then right click the mouse. This adds a new red cross to the map and the

latitude, longitude and location of this is added to the list on the left. Once you’re finished

adding points from the map click on the red Cancel button.

Matrix points can also be deleted from the list by clicking on the matrix point to highlight it

and then click on the Delete button. You will be prompted to confirm deletion, click Yes to

continue or No to cancel deletion. To delete multiple points click on the first point you wish

to delete, then hold the Shift key down and click on the last point you wish to delete. All

points in-between these two will then become highlighted, click on delete to confirm deletion

of all selected matrix points.

Ban/Avoid

The main function of this section is to ban the use of specific roads and to force certain areas

to be avoided. These are then built into the local matrix meaning they aren’t used during the

scheduling process. You can also define efficiencies of roads and add height, weight and

width restrictions. The Bans/Avoid section displays as follows and is split into two tabs; Road

Bans and Avoid Points:

If a ban file has already been created then you can load it into Morpheus 2 by clicking on the

Load button and browsing to the location of the journey file (.JNY). The road bans in the file

are then displayed in the list.

The Map button allows you to create your road bans from the Morpheus 2 map. Click on this

and use the map zoom bar and box zoom to locate the road you wish to ban in some way.

Right click on the road and the Edit section appears on the left as shown in the example

below:

In the Edit section on the left the road name displays at the top, beneath this you must define

whether to ban the whole road or just a single section via the radio buttons. The whole road

in this screenshot would be all of the A1096. A ‘section’ is defined as the road between two

junctions.

The Ban Options drop down menu has the following options:

Complete Block: This means the road is never to be used under any circumstance.

The ban applies for all lanes in both directions. The Complete Block of a Single

Section is identified by the use of a ‘No Entry’ symbol. The complete Block of a

Whole Road is identified by a red and white striped line on the road.

Percent Efficiency: This means that the efficiency of a road can be reduced below the

100% of the defined road speed. The Ban Efficiency numeric box becomes active

allowing you to use the up/down arrows to set the efficiency between 1 and 99%.

This displays on the map as a percentage in black and white.

Preferred Route: This means the selected road becomes the preferred road to be used

when a vehicle is serving in the vicinity. Selecting this option changes the Ban

Efficiency setting to 999% and a preferred route is identified by a blue circular sign

with a white line across the middle.

Size Restriction(s) only: This allows you to set the Weight, Height and Width

restrictions for the highlighted road via the three numeric boxes. Use the up/down

arrows to define any restrictions.

With the edit options defined for your chosen road click on Save to confirm and store the

Road Ban or click Cancel to back up without saving the ban to file. Once saved Morpheus 2

remains in Map mode so click on Cancel to stop creating road bans from the map.

To add your Avoid Points to the local matrix first click on the Avoid Points tab:

As with the Road Bans you can choose to load pre-existing avoid points from a file by clicking

on the Load button and browsing to the file. The avoid points will then display in the list. If

avoid points already exist in the matrix (this will only occur once a local matrix has been built

for the first time and you return to Morpheus 2 to build another) and you want to keep these

then tick the Maintain Existing Avoid Points check box.

To create avoid points from scratch click on the Map button. As with the Road bans, use the

zoom bar and box zoom functions to find the area you want to avoid and right click the

mouse cursor (which has now become a crosshair). Clicking on the map will bring up the

Avoid Point Edit section as shown below:

The location of your avoid point is listed at the top of the Edit section. You must then define

the area you want the avoid point to cover. This is done by creating a circle by setting the

radius of the circle using the location above as the centre of what will essentially become an

avoid circle. You must then also set the Efficiency of that area which will impact how LogiX

chooses to use that area during the scheduling process.

When the radius and efficiency are defined click on Save to create the Avoid Point. The avoid

point will then display in the list on the left and on the map as an orange circle. While in Map

mode you can switch between tabs and choose to add more Road Bans and/or Avoid Points.

Once you are finished creating them click on the red Cancel button. You are now ready to

build the local matrix.

Build

Click on the Build section and the display changes to that shown below:

Statistics are displayed in the Matrix Build Info section at the top. At the bottom are details of

the spec of the computer you are using. The screenshot above shows enough disk space,

memory and process memory to complete the matrix build. If however your machine is low

on any of these there will be less blue fill in each bar and the green background of each bar

will be red indicating that your computer may have trouble building the matrix. If this is the

case it is recommended that you close down any other open programs, such as Internet

Explorer and MS Excel, while the matrix is being built.

Click on the Start Matrix Build button to begin building the local matrix. The Build section in

the middle then becomes active as shown below:

The progress bar fills up as the points are built with the percentage complete displayed to the

right. Below the ratio of built points to total number of points is listed and beneath this is the

time left till completion. While the matrix is being built the Pause and Stop buttons become

active. You can pause the matrix building at any time and then click the play button to

resume. To cancel the matrix building process at any time, click on the Stop button.

When the matrix has been built a dialog box appears to confirm it was successful, click OK to

close this. You should now test the suitability of the matrix.

Test

This function tests the quality of the local matrix by assessing the closeness between the

matrix points and the orders, depots and call points in the workarea. When you click on the

Test button the following displays:

Click on the Test Matrix button to begin. The results are then displayed in the form of a traffic

light report:

Green means the matrix is good, amber means the matrix is average and red means the

matrix for that type of data is poor and therefore needs to be re-built. A Matrix Statistics tab

is created once the test has been ran, click on this to view the results in more detail.

The Morpheus 2 matrix builder allows matrix points to exactly match the location of the order,

therefore it is suggested that any points that do not match exactly should result in you re-

building the matrix. Exact matches make for the most accurate time and distance calculations

during the scheduling process.

Exit

Click on this to close Morpheus 2 once the local matrix has been built. A dialog box appears

requiring you to confirm your decision to exit, choose Yes or No as required.