Getting Started

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User Interface

Opening Screen

When SwashSim is started, you will first be presented with the start screen.

Start Screen

Starting New Project

To start a new project, select ‘New Project’. You will then be presented with three facility/network options:

• Custom
• Freeway Quick Editor
• Two-Lane Highway Quick Editor

The Custom option allows any type of roadway network to be created. However, if it is desired to model a single freeway or two-lane highway corridor, specialized input screens are provided for those applications. Select the desired facility/network type, and then click the ‘OK’ button (see Figure below). Alternatively, you can double-click on a facility type with the left mouse button and the main input screen will then be loaded.

New Project Facility Selection

Opening a Project

If you select ‘Open Project’, you will be presented with a dialog (see Figure below) for selecting a project file (*.ssim).

Open Project Selection Screen

Screens/Modules

Once a new project has been started, or an existing one opened, the following screens/modules are utilized with the project:

• Settings
• Map View
• Table View
  • Freeway (Quick Editor only)
  • Two-Lane Highway (Quick Editor only)
• Network File Treeview
• Traffic Control

and are accessed with the buttons on the following toolbar:

Saving a Project

To save your project input values to a file, select ‘Save’ from the ‘File’ menu. In addition to saving the roadway, traffic, and simulation settings, a reference to the signal timing settings file will be saved, if applicable. The name of the saved file will be displayed in the upper-right corner of the main inputs screen (see Figure below). If the full filename is not visible in the textbox, you can click in this box with your mouse and navigate to the right with the keyboard ‘right arrow’ key or ‘End’ key. The default file extension is “.ssim”.

Since file paths are included in the saved file, if you move your project files from one folder location to another, you may have difficulty loading the project from the new location. In this case, you can load the project file into any text editing program and manually revise the file path information. The relevant entries in the *.ssim file will be similar to those shown below.
<FileName>G:\My Documents\SwashSim\Projects\Signal Int 2\SignalExample2.ssim</FileName>
<FileNameDriverParms>DataFiles_ModelParms\DriverParms.xml</FileNameDriverParms>
<FileNameLaneChangeParms>DataFiles_ModelParms\LaneChangeParameters.xml</FileNameLaneChangeParms>
<FileNameVehicleMoveParms>DataFiles_ModelParms\VehicleMovementParms.xml</FileNameVehicleMoveParms>
<FileNameSignalData>G:\My Documents\SwashSim\Projects\Signal Int 2\Six Timing Stages.xml</FileNameSignalData>
<OutputDataFolder>G:\My Documents\SwashSim\Projects\Signal Int 2</OutputDataFolder>

File Structure

The file structure for a SwashSim simulation project consists of the following:

• A project file (*.ssim): This file contains project settings, such as simulation duration and random numbers seeds, and file paths to supporting parameter and data files.
• A network data file (*.nwf): This file contains the information pertaining to the physical definition of the network (links, nodes, etc.).
• A signal data file (*.xml): This file contains the signal phasing and timing information for all signal controllers present in the network.

All of these files are in an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) format. XML is a simple text-based format. Thus, these files can be opened outside of the SwashSim program in any text editor application and manually viewed and edited, if desired. After you have installed the program, double-click on the SwashSim icon on your desktop or within the ‘Start’ menu. Alternatively, you can navigate to the installation folder and double-click on ‘SwashSim.exe’ to start the program.

File paths and various informational items about the project can be specified/revised in the Project Properties dialog, accessed through the Settings screen.

Note that every time you save your project, a backup copy of the *.nwf file will be saved (same filename but with a number appended to the end—higher numbers are more recent). If something should happen to go wrong with one of your project saves and your NWF file gets corrupted, you can use your most recent backup copy to avoid starting from scratch--just remove the number from the filename.

Example Projects

A number of example projects are available on GitHub: https://github.com/swash17/SwashSim/tree/master/Projects