Creating a Thematic Map

Objectives

            This lab introduces you to TransCAD. After this lab, you should get familiar with the general design of TransCAD GUI (graphic user interface), and be able to create a variety of maps.

TransCAD

TransCAD is a special GIS which is designed to facilitate modeling and analyses of transportation data.

TransCAD is a GIS: TransCAD provides all the tools available in GIS such as creating maps, editing geographic data, and performing spaTIAl analyses.

** We will work on this on the first three labs. Remainders deal with ITS functionalities specific to transportation applications.

TransCAD is a special GIS for transportation applications:

[1] Extended data model

TransCAD provides some special data models required to represent the static/dynamic phenomenon specific to transportation applications such as matrices (Origin-Destination data), route system (eg. bus route), linear referencing system (eg. location of accident along highway), special topological network (eg. one-way street system, overpass/underpass), turning restriction (eg. necessary for finding the best route), and so on.

[2] Special operations for transportation applications

With TransCAD, you can input (eg. reading GPS data, address matching), process (eg. editing network topology), manipulate (eg. conflation), and analyze transportation data, Besides, TransCAD provides a complete application suite for transportation planning, vehicle routing, and distribution logistics (available in Standard Version only).

User interface of TransCAD

Open TransCAD (click Cancel button in Quick Start window), and browse for its interfaces – Menu, Toolbar, and Toolbox. Toolbox will not be shown. Toolbox pops up depending on what types of windows (eg. Maps, Layouts) are open.

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Maps, Dataviews, and Layouts

TransCAD displays information on your computer screen in different types of windows: maps, dataviews, and layouts. Each one is displayed in a separate window on your screen, and each one can be saved for future use in files stored on your computer’s hard disk.

Maps show geographic features and their characteristics in an electric version of a paper map. (similar to views in ArcView)

Dataviews display information from geographic files, databases, or spreadsheets in tabular format. (similar to tables in ArcView)

Layouts bring together any number of maps, dataviews, and charts in a single presentation. (similar to layout in ArcView)

Workspace, Layers, and Geographic files

All your open windows (Maps, Dataviews, and Layouts) can be saved into a single file using a workspace. Workspaces are similar to projects in ArcView

Maps are composed of many different layers of information. For example, the sample road map for the Boston area contains state and county boundaries, highways, cities, and airports.

Geographic files are own geographic file formats of TransCAD like