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CONGRATULATIONS!
In minutes, you have calculated driving directions, maps and mileages for
several routes. As you
can see, PC MILER is fast and easy to use.
Now that you have completed the basic Guided Tour, continue on to
Import Your
Own Custom
Places and Change the Trip Parameters to take a look at some additional features
of PC MILER!
Change the Trip Parameters
NOTE: Do not change trip parameters the first time you take the Guided Tour,
EXCEPT WHEN
PROMPTED. Changed parameters alter generated routes and calculations, and may
make the tour
hard to follow. Parameters should only be adjusted once you are familiar with
the basic operations of
PC MILER.
The routes that you generated in the Guided Tour were mostly calculated using
default trip
parameters. However, you can choose from a variety of criteria that will give
your routes much more
flexibility and efficiency. Please take this opportunity to fully examine the
options listed below. We
suggest that you generate some sample routes with modified parameters, so that
you can see for
yourself how these changes will affect driving directions and calculations.
To change a trip’s parameters, first click on the Options button in the route
entry window. Then click
on the appropriate tab (General Options, Costs and Time, or Road Speeds).
General Options:
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Assign your trip a name by typing it in the Route Name field.
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Change the route type by selecting Practical or Shortest. Either of these route
types can be
combined with Toll Discouraged and\or National Network or 53' Trailer. (Note
that
National Network and 53’ Trailer routes are mutually exclusive, you must pick
one or the
other.)
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Activate routing between countries by checking Borders Open, or keep routing
within a
country by deselecting it.
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As you have already seen in the Tour, clicking on Use Custom Roads tells
PC MILER to
include avoid and favor preferences in route calculations. (Open the Custom
Roads Manager
from the Tools menu to view all the currently designated preferences. Remember
that Enable
State Avoid/Favors must be checked in the State tab for state preferences to be
active.)
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Designate how the order of states appears in the State/Country Distance report
by selecting
Alphabetical or Route.
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Change the distance calculations by selecting Miles or
Km.
Costs and Time:
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Assign costs for empty and loaded miles by clicking on the appropriate field
under Trip Costs, and enter your own cost per mile.
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Under Stop Costs, change a trip leg from loaded to empty by clicking the mouse
on the check box next to Loaded.
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Assign costs per stop by typing an amount in the $/Stop field, and designate
stop time by typing stop duration in the Hours/Stop field. If the stop is counted as on-duty,
check the On-Duty check box.
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Designate stop time by typing stop duration in the Hours/Stop field.
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Specify the stop time by selecting On-Duty with the mouse, and type in the
number of driving hours allowed before a break is required. (This facilitates drivers’ compliance
with DOT Hours of Service Regulations.)
-
Type in the length of the break time in the for _____ hours field. (This
facilitates drivers’ compliance with DOT Hours of Service Regulations.)
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Add a Border Wait time for expected delays at international borders.
Road Speeds:
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To set new road speeds by state, select a state or province from the pick list
(use the up and
down arrow keys to scroll to the state) and type new speeds in the appropriate
field.
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Click OK in the Options dialog to save any changes you make. Cancel will close
the dialog without
saving changes.
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To generate a route with new parameters, click on the Run button in the route
entry window.
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To change PC MILER’s defaults for these parameters, select Default Options… from
the Route
menu.
Import Your Own Custom Places
NOTE: For a more detailed description of this process, see “Importing Sets of
Custom Places” in the
PC MILER User’s Guide or on-line Help.
Earlier in the Guided Tour, you learned how to create your own custom places in
PC MILER. Using
the Import Custom Place Wizard, you can also import custom places from a
delimited text file or a
Microsoft® Excel® file. For importing, an Excel file must be saved in Excel
Version 4 (or
earlier) format. If you have such a file available, let’s import a set of custom
places:
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Select Import Custom Places from the Tools menu.
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In the Open file dialog box that appears, select the file that contains your
custom place data. (Don’t forget to specify the type of file you are importing in the
Files of type
field.)
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The Geocode File window will appear. Your data should appear in the table at the
bottom of the screen. If the first row of data is comprised of column headings rather than
custom place information, check off First row contains column headings.
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If the data in your file was separated by a delimiter, specify in the
Delimiter
area whether it was by Tab, Comma, Semicolon, or Space.
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Now you will label each of the columns that contain data, so that PC MILER can
identify what type of information is there. With your left mouse button, click on the
heading labeled “Skip” above each data column. Select the proper category for each column
heading from the list that appears. You must provide at least a Name column and a location
(either City and State, Lat\Long, or ZIP).
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Click on the Options button to open the Geocoding Options window. Under
Records
to Process, choose “Selected”, and enter “1 to 50” in the two fields beside it
(it’s okay if you have fewer than 50 places in your file). Then click OK at the bottom of this
window. You will be returned to the Geocode File window.
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You have prepared your file for PC MILER to read and compare with its own
database, so click OK in the Geocode File window. The Wizard will begin to process your data.
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As your custom place information is being processed, a Results window is
visible. This window displays the data matching as it progresses. The statistics are updated
in real-time. They tell you if your custom places were matched with a location in the PC MILER
database or not, and if the matches were exact or inexact.
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When processing is finished, an expanded Results dialog appears that tells you
how many and which records were matched with the database.
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Next to Add selected places to near the bottom of the dialog, check both
Custom
Place Manager and Route Entry Window. When both are selected, your custom places will
be sent to the Custom Place Manager, and will also be added to a route entry window
as a set of stops on a route.
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Click on the Options button to activate the Custom Place Manager Options dialog
box. Under Adding places to route entry window, select Create a new window.
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To finish importing your custom places into PC MILER, click
Add. In this case,
the custom places that will be imported will be the ones marked as “Accepted” -- database
matches, labeled with a “+”. (This window also allows you to alter each data record, and
change the places to be added to PC MILER. But to keep this tour simple, we’ll only add
Accepted stops. See your PC MILER User’s Guide for more information.)
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The Custom Place Manager will appear with your imported places now displayed as
custom places. Click OK to accept the additions.
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Now that you are done importing your custom places, click
OK in the Import
Custom Places Wizard to close it. You will be returned to the PC MILER desktop. Notice that
you have added a new route entry window, with your imported places listed as stops! If
you like, you can run a route.
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