Transmodeler Traffic Simulation

What is Transmodeler Traffic Simulation?

TransModeler Software is a powerful and versatile traffic simulation package applicable to a wide range of traffic planning and modeling tasks. The TransModeler can simulate all types of road networks, from roads to downtown areas, and can analyze multimodal networks of large area in great detail and with high fidelity. You can model and visualize the behavior of complex traffic systems in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional GIS environment to illustrate and evaluate traffic flow dynamics, traffic signal, AND STI operations, and overall network performance.

TransModeler opens new paths in ease of use for complex simulation applications and integrates with TransCAD, the most popular travel demand forecasting software in the U.S., to provide a complete solution for assessing traffic impacts from future planning scenarios. In addition, TransModeler's mapping, simulation, and animation tools allow you to present the study results to decision makers clearly and convincingly.

Based on the latest research, TransModeler employs advanced methodological techniques and software technology to bring traffic simulation into a new era. TransModeler models driver dynamic route options based on time-dependent historical or simulated travel times, and also models trips based on source destination travel tables or by returning movement volumes at intersections. Simulates public transportation as well as car and truck traffic, and handles a wide variety of STI features such as electronic toll collection, route guidance, and traffic detection and surveillance. TransModeler works with travel demand forecasting software to provide an integrated capability to perform operational analysis of projects and transportation plans. Traffic simulation results can also be returned for use in forecasting travel demand.

Easy to use

Caliper Corporation, the world leader in transportation and GIS software, designed the TransModeler for ease of use by traffic engineers and planners. TransModeler has an intuitive user interface and is the only simulation software that fully supports Windows standards. TransModeler allows you to create and manage multiple projects, networks, demand profiles, and traffic signal control strategies for alternative analysis. With TransModeler you can:

• Import simulation data from Corsim and SimTraffic;
• Manage a variety of input files for various scenarios;
• Share project databases, traffic signal synchronization plans, and other input data across multiple projects;
• Export subareas from larger networks to simulate traffic operations on a more localized scale;
• Compare output results from multiple simulation races;
• Generate well-formatted reports, maps, and charts for inclusion in presentation reports and slides;

System requirements

TransCAD and TransModeler are high-performance technical software products that are often used to perform demanding computational tasks. Consequently, we recommend using the fastest, lowest-priced systems available at any given time.

The recommended hardware is described below. Please feel free to check with us before purchasing a new system as new options become available almost every week.

Operating system:

Windows 10, 8 (including 8.1), 7, XP Professional, and Vista are supported. Older versions of Windows, including Windows 98, ME, and NT, are no longer supported. Server versions of Windows (2003, 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2012 R2) are supported only with a special TransCAD Remote Desktop license. We are now recommending these 64-bit operating systems for all new machines, so they can access more memory with the new 64-bit version of TransCAD.

Processor:

TransCAD/TransModeler benefit from the fastest processors and we recommend 4, 6 or 8 core single processor machines with these chips to run large models. TransCAD and TransModeler have multi-threaded key procedures that automatically detect and leverage multiple cores and multiple CPUs. In particular, the default user balance traffic (EU) assignment will scale almost linearly with the number of cores. The EU will run approximately eight times faster when there are two quadruple CPUs or a single eight-core CPU. The array engine in TransCAD 6 is also multi-threaded and benefits greatly from multi-core hardware. There are also procedures whose performance scales with cpu clock speed, so higher clock speeds are always desirable.

For workstations, we recommend the Intel Haswell and Ivy Bridge processor families (fourth and third generation Core i7 and Xeon E3-1200 and E5-2600), as they offer substantial performance improvements over the old Intel Core 2 processor family. The core i7 and Xeon 3500/3600 and 5500/5600 series of the first or second generation are also acceptable options. Core i5 desktop processors are satisfying, but a bit slower.

For notebooks, we recommend the Core i7s quad-core mobile Haswell faster, since they have a significantly longer battery life and can be almost as fast as a desktop.

Memory:

Because TransModeler is a fully 64-bit application, we recommend 16 GB of RAM and 64-bit Windows 7, although 4-6 GB is sufficient for many users and is also sufficient for the 32-bit version of TransModeler. If you want to run models with more than 5,000 zones or more, you'll want to have even more RAM available. The maximum memory supported by Windows 7 Professional is 192GB.

Hard disk:

200 GB or more of disk storage space is recommended. If you are working with many large datasets, you will want much more hard disk storage. The 7200 rpm SATA units are a good choice for high performance at a cheap price. The use of two hard drives can improve performance when separate drives are used for input and output for procedures. This improvement can be achieved more generally by using two units with RAID 0 level 0 (striping) in software or hardware. One cost-effective solution we can recommend is the use of 2 SATA drives with a RAID controller. It's always wise to back up your important data frequently, but this is especially true for RAID 0, which seems to fail more often.

Many of the new solid state drives (SSD) are very fast. These units can be used with good advantage for some of the intensive I/O tasks in model racing. We were impressed with the Intel 520, Samsung 840 and Crucial M500 units. For best performance, it is important to look at the recording speed of the SSD.

DVD:

• A DVD-ROM drive is recommended, as TransCAD and TransModeler are physically supplied on DVD; a download option is also available.
• We recommend for archiving purposes by purchasing a drive that can also burn DVD discs.

Video adapter:

For TransModeler, a good graphics card is critical to the animation of the simulation. TransModeler has full 3D animation that requires hardware-based OpenGL acceleration. For the best 3D performance, we recommend the nVidia Fermi GTX400, GTX500, GTX600 and GTX700 (consumer) cards.

Fermi processor-based nVidia Quadro cards should also work, but cost significantly more.

The old nVidia 200 series and THE ATI Radeon HD 5800+ graphics cards should also work well. We can't recommend older ATI graphics cards for the 3D Transmodeler, since their OpenGL drivers seem much slower than nVidia drivers.

Many older nVidia and ATI Radion cards also work, but with lower performance in 3D. It takes a minimum of 128 MB of video memory, but it is recommended 512MB.

For good 3D animation with TransModeler on a notebook, we recommend a state-of-the-art nVidia graphics card. Many older laptops cannot animate complex 3D simulations.

For TransCAD, any of the video adapters mentioned above will provide good 2D performance and will have OpenGL to 3D acceleration. Avoid nvs frame nVidia cards as they do not provide 3D acceleration.

Monitor:

This is very dependent on user preferences. A monitor of 20" or larger that can display at least 1280×1024 is recommended. We like 24" big screen panels that can display 1920×1080. We bought Samsung and Dell UltraSharp LCDs. Dual monitors can be very useful for intense interactive use.

Network adapter:

That depends on the site. Gigabit Ethernet is a good choice for new installations.

Printers:

TransModeler should work with printers that work well with Microsoft Windows. We were very lucky with high-resolution Epson printers (e.g. 1440 x 720) in small and medium formats, as well as with large HP inkjet printers (plotters). Caliper produces large format maps and displays graphics using a Hewlett Packard DesignJet 790. We also use HP Color Laserjets CP6015 and 500 M551 for smaller maps.

Laptops:

Many of our suggestions above also apply to laptops. We recommend the Hasad (fourth generation) quad-core Mobile Core 7s. We recommend a fast SSD or a 7200 rpm drive, now available in configurations up to 1 TB. It is also important to have a good video processor with nVidia graphics (for TransModeler).

Virtual computing environments:

We do not recommend running large TransCAD models or TransModeler simulations in a virtual computing environment (VMWare, Windows Terminal Server, etc.). Our computer-intensive engineering applications sometimes make use of all the resources available to them.

This is especially true for CPU and GPU Transmodeler resources. While key components are multi-threaded, other parts are not and benefit from the fastest clock speeds available.

Typical virtualized servers have no more CPU capacity than high-end engineering workstations, so you can't replace multiple workstations with a single server and makes little financial sense to do so.