Recent Posts

41

Support / Re: Conflicts when committing changes to construction model

« Last post by roger on April 18, 2016, 04:54:11 PM »

Usually this warning occurs when NoiseMap thinks that someone else has made a change to the objects since you loaded them - i.e. someone else has been editing the same objects at the same time as you.  If you are the only person working on the model, this must be an error.  We will investigate the issue.

42

Support / How do I used mappping in jpg and jgw format?

« Last post by roger on April 18, 2016, 04:47:50 PM »

Some drawing systems output maps in jpg format rather than bmp (bitmap) format. NoiseMap can't read jpg format, but you can easily convert the maps to bmp.  I open them in Adobe Photoshop elements and then save them as .bmp (bitmap) files.
I don't rescale or do anything - I just select BMP from the format drop-down in Photoshop Elements, and select Windows 24-bit format.

The jgw file is a 'world file' format which tells the mapping software where to locate the map in Ordnance survey co-ordinates. To use it in NoiseMap, change the file extension to bpw and it will now work with the bitmap that you created.  When you ask NoiseMap to open the bitmap, it will tell you that the bpw 'calibration' file is present and ask if you want to use it.  Say yes and the bitmap will open at the correct scale and location.

43

Support / Conflicts when committing changes to construction model

« Last post by ChrisC on April 13, 2016, 10:16:47 AM »

Hello

When I commit changes to some construction models I get an error message saying there are conflicts and the change will not be committed - see attachment for details. This happens quite frequently but am not sure why. I am able to fix it by coming out and going back into the database and re-selecting the plant for each activity.

Thanks
Chris

44

Support / SiteNoise - how to get the octave band results in a Live calculation

« Last post by roger on March 16, 2016, 10:07:42 AM »

SiteNoise BS5228 option lets you calculate individual octave band levels, but how do you display/output them?
If you calculate DATABASE RECEIVERS, the octave band results are stored in the database.  When you download the result set from the database, you have the option of choosing which 'Headline Result' to display. A 'drop-down' lets you select the A-weighed level or any octave band.  And the Receiver object properties has a drop-down that shows each octave value.

But what if you are doing a LIVE calculation (the term we use when you choose to calculate ALL RECEIVERS (or Selected Receivers).  For this option, the results are only kept temporarily in memory, but it is useful for a quick result or when you want to see the individual components of the calculation.

NoiseMap can still give you the octave band calculations, but you need to do it in a particular way as follows:
Select BS5228 LAeq (Octaves) as the Calculation Method
Select BS5228 LAeq (Octaves) as the Result
Run the calculation

The Results/Output Screen will show the summary output, one-line per segment output or full output for the A-weighted result. BUT if you now click Calculate>Display Receiver Results, you will get the full 9 octaves and the A-weighted result AND you will get the octave results in the Receiver Properties screen.

NOTE THAT if you select one of the ocatave bands as the Result BEFORE you do the calculation, eg
Select BS5228 LAeq (Octaves) as the Calculation Method
Select BS5228 Leq (63 Hz Band) as the Result
This produces NULL results.  This is because SiteNoise cannot display the individual components of the calculation for a particular octave band.

45

Support / Null results - the COALESCE function

« Last post by roger on March 15, 2016, 11:31:08 AM »

An earlier topic in this forum explained that a noise level of -99 is used to indicate a NULL result, which can arise in many ways.  Basically, it means that no noise level was calculated for that situation.  A null result can be a problem when you want to include a particular receiver or contour point in a calculation.  For example, you can't add or subtract the noise levels for two scenarios if one of the results is null. 

NoiseMap 5.2 (currently in Beta) has functions that allow you to define how to treat a null result.  In essence, an operation like:
60 dB + NULL = NULL; but
LOGSUM(R1,NULL) = R1

But the new COALESCE function lets you avoid NULL results: for example you can replace the NULL by an alternative result or by a defined value.

The Beta version is available for testing by established clients - please contact us for details.

46

Support / My client has asked me to use his own grid which is different from the base maps

« Last post by roger on February 12, 2016, 10:57:01 AM »

It is not uncommon for projects to use a local grid which may not be correspond exactly with the OS grid. One reason for this is that modern GPS surveying techniques reveal errors in the original OS work and adjustments made to fix alignment problems*, so for consistency, the new design may be based on new GPS surveys.  However, noise spreads way beyond the immediate confines of the project and you need to use existing surveys to extend the study area. How do you make the two join up?

NoiseMap contains functions to 'Edit Object co-ordinates'.  These allow you to shift (move) the selected objects in the X (east-west) and/or Y (north-south) directions by a given amount.  Heights can also be shifted (increased or reduced) by a given amount.  You can also rotate the axes to change the north-south direction and you can scale (stretch or shrink) the map in the east-west and north-south directions.

You will need to do some careful measurements using the co-ordinates of reference points to work out exactly what change is required. Of course, you can select and drag objects to a new position, and perform a rotation on-screen, but you cannot re-scale objects on-screen.

Beware that only selected objects will be moved, so ensure that you have selected the whole area that you need to move, otherwise the map could get into a mess.  It is probably best to set up a temporary model on which to test your work before doing it for real.

Also note that no objects are permitted in the negative co-ordinate region. If you inadvertently move objects into this area, they will not be saved to the database.

(it is debatable whether it's best to move the new scheme to the main grid or the other way round - this will depend on the project)
* alignment problems are inevitable when projecting a curved earth onto a flat map

47

Support / Creating a new database from an archive file which is 26 Megabytes in size

« Last post by roger on January 27, 2016, 09:12:41 AM »

We were able to load and save this archive to a new 'standalone' database without any problems, although it did take five minutes to execute.  You model is vast - 45 km long and 20 km wide. It covers an area of 393 square kilometres and occupies 1572 tiles.  It has over 220,000 ground countour segments, nearly 5000 road segments, 55,000 building outlines and over 17,000 receiver points, with nearly 400 barrier segments.  So this is a large model and much larger than we envisaged when we devised the archive system.

When you 'commit' a model to a new database, the database server (which is still there in a standalone database, but hidden 'under the bonnet') has to do a lot of work to create and populate the tables and indexes needed for its operation.  It is possible, especially if you are saving over a network, that the operating system times out the save operation if it seems to be taking too long.  Make sure that you are saving to a drive on your own machine and not across a network. 

Don't worry if the system shows that NoiseMap is 'not repsonding' - this just means that it has not communicated with Windows, but this happen when it is locked in a communication with the database, and it will respond in due course.

This model successfully proves that the archive system and the 'standalone' database system can work well with this size of model.  However, if you do need to work over a network, you should consider using the 'remote database' system.

As a further test, the archive was committed to our cloud server over a broadband connection.  This took two hours starting at 9.30 am - quite a long time - but downloading the whole model (all 393 square kilometres) over the same broadband connection then took 2 minutes. A test calculation on 4 tiles with a 10m contour resolution and 2 tile surround then took a total of 2 minutes. If your server is on your local network, much quicker processing can be expected.

Loading the same model from the standalone database took 50 seconds. Calculating the same contour using the standalone database took 1.5 minutes, the difference being due to the time to download the tiles  and save the results.  The calculation times were very similar, as would be expected.

Thus, although the initial creation of the model database takes longer on the remote server, once this has been done, there is little time penalty for sunsequent working.  Thereafter the ability to share work and to distribute calculations on the remote server, plus the proven capability to manage vast models (of a size that makes the present model seem rather small) confirms our recommendation to use the remote server system for very large schemes.

48

Support / I know SiteNoise Enterprise - where do I start with NoiseMap five?

« Last post by roger on January 09, 2016, 12:44:35 PM »

You are experienced with SiteNoise in NoiseMap Enterprise, which is a great help.  There are many manuals and guides for NoiseMap five: you can get these from the Start Menu NoiseMap shortcut, under 'Documents'. We appreciate that this looks rather daunting, but hopefully much of it will come naturally, so you should not find the transition too difficult.

We suggest that it is worth reading most of Chapter 2 of the NoiseMap five User Guide (User Reference Manual), especially the 'Introduction to NoiseMap five' and 'Changing from NoiseMap Enterprise to NoiseMap five'.  You will be familiar with the structure of a SiteNoise model - so we suggest that you then skip to Chapter 4 which tells you how to start NoiseMap and to create the stand-alone or 'flat-file' database that you will need for storing your model.  Since you are experienced with SiteNoise Enterprise, the next step is probably to import one of your old models - the procedure is also described in Chapter 4 of the manual.

Then skip to Chapter 7 'Getting a SiteNoise Model started' to understand how the plant manager and activity manager work. 
For making calculations, look at Chapters 10 and 11.

You can then look at the various SiteNoise Guides which suggest ways of modelling the different types of noise source.

Do not be afraid to try out all the features - there are many more than in Enterprise - including the way that results are stored in the database.  Remember that you can click on the Help or '?' button on any dialogue box (window) or press F1 to open the electronic manual at the relevant page.  The electronic manual is searchable and has a useful index.

If you get really stuck, then contact NoiseMap for advice.

49

Support / Why is NoiseMap showing 'no noise' from some of the busiest road segments?

« Last post by roger on December 08, 2015, 10:04:28 AM »

You have used automatic segmentation to generate the road segments and you have set the tolerance to a low value - maybe 0.1 metre - so the segments are very short on curved sections of the road.

But you have also left the cut-off angle at COA=1.0, that is, 1 degree.  The cut-off angle causes NoiseMap to ignore segments of road that subtend a small angle at the receiver. This helps to speed up calculation by ignoring segments where the angle of view correction is a large (negative) value and so the amount of noise from the segment would be small.  However, if all your segments are short, this results in a large proportion of the road being ignored. In such a case, you should reduce the cut-off angle, perhaps to the lowest value of 0.1 degree, so that only the very shortest segments would be ignored.

You can check the effect of cut-off angle by using Calculate>Show Source Contribution.  This will show you the segments that giving no contribution at a given receiver point.

Digitising with a low tolerance gives segments that follow the curvature of the road beautifully but CRTN was originally intended to be used with a small number of long segments, and there is little evidence that a low tolerance (following the road alignment precisely) produces a significantly better result.  Remember that NoiseMap automatically sub-divides segments according to the way that multiple barriers affect the screening, and in cases with many buildings or noise barriers, this can result in thousands of further sub-divisions, which are not affected by the cut-off angle. 

50

Support / The NoiseMap Setup just hangs and won't complete

« Last post by roger on December 05, 2015, 12:14:37 AM »

Normally the installation take no more than a minute or two. If is taking much longer, there would seem to be a problem.  This could be due to your anti-virus software. The unzipped size of the installation is around 100 MBytes and some anti-virus packages will scan all of this for a large number of virus signatures.  This may cause the installation to appear to hang, although it will probably complete in time.  It is possible that NoiseMap could bring up a false positive during the scan (but we are not aware of any such cases) although the AV software should report this to you.

NoiseMap has been carefully checked to avoid any malware and it does not contain any hidden payload, as long as you have downloaded it directly from our official web address.  You may therefore turn off virus scanning during the installation. You should, of course, guard against any intrusion from the internet whilst the virus scanning/firewall is turned off.

Setup can also fail if the installation was corrupted during download.  If you think this has happened, download another copy and completely uninstall NoiseMap before trying a new installation.  Remember that you need administrator privileges during the installation, but not once this has been done.  Note also that sometimes the dongle driver may not install automatically and you may need to do this manually. You will know there is a problem if you get the message that the dongle has not been found.