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- Administrative Unit: In some implementations analyses are restricted by administrative unit. For these implementations, this field is included in the Setup tab and shows what unit "owns" the displayed analysis. For example, if the field shows Headquarters, then only users who select the Headquarters administrative unit when logging on can see and run the analysis.
- Analysis Length: This is the number of years in the optimization period.
- Analysis Scope: This read-only field shows the data elements that are included in the optimization. The scope is set with the Edit Scope command.
Analysis Type: This field determines what optimization routine will be performed. See Optimization Analysis Type for more information.
Note Note: If you select the Ranking analysis type, the system will rank projects until the constraint is reached: and then add one more project into the ranking list. - Analysis Weight Groovy Script: This field shows the name of the Groovy script that determines the weighting used to calculate Benefit. If a Groovy script is not used and this field is null, the value is taken from the Calculated Expression window where the drop-down list at the top of the window is set to Analysis Index Weight Factor.
- Benefit: The Benefit column selected in this field defines the index to be used to calculate the benefits during a scenario run. This is effective only when the objective function selected in the Constraint pane is Benefits.
- Budget Relaxation (%): This value is used for multi-year optimization analysis only when 'minimize budget' is used as the objective. When you use this type of objective, you include a value in this field that sets a boundary for how much the budget can vary in a particular year compared to the total budget specified for the scenario. This constraint limits the amount an individual year's budget can vary compared to the average budget over the analysis period. For example, if you were running a ten year analysis with a budget of $1,000,000 per year, then entering 0.1 (10%) for budget relaxation would allow the total budget in any year to vary between $900,000 and $1,100,000 (10% above or below the yearly amount specified).
- Comments: Optionally, you can include information in this field to describe the optimization.
- Decision Tree Set: This field determines what Decision Trees set will be used in the analysis.
- Decompose: When this check box is selected, the analysis engine will attempt to break the analysis into simpler, more quickly solved sub-analyses. A sub-analysis is performed for each independent constraint. (If the constraints are not independent of each other, then the analysis will not be broken down.)
- General Strategy Type: The entries that appear in this list are created and maintained in the Setup General Strategy Types window.
- Has Results: This check box indicates if the optimization has already been run. When a check mark is not displayed, then the results information shown in the other tabs is irrelevant.
- Is Template: If this check box is selected, then no modifications can be made to the settings for the scenario. The scenario is in effect a template for creating a new scenario. To create a new scenario from the template, right-click in the Scenarios pane and select Copy Scenario. The system then creates a copy of the template and you can modify it as needed.
- Is Trade-off Scenario: When this check box is selected, the results of the reporting functions are available in the Trade-off module. All state-wide scenarios should be marked as Trade-off Scenarios.
- Make LP File: When this check box is selected, an LP optimization definition file is generated and will be available for inspection after the analysis is run. This file format is somewhat easier to read than the standard MPS file format. Note: The LP-format file is only generated for user inspection; the MPS-format file is always passed to the solver. This check box must be selected if you want to use the Download LP File command.
- Max Sec for Solver: This field sets the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that the optimization analysis will be allowed to run before settling on a solution. (In some optimization analyses, many optimal solutions are available and the routine will "hunt" between each solution without settling on one and ending. Since these solutions are only marginally different than one another, forcing the routine to finish by setting the maximum amount of time that it can "hunt" is necessary and appropriate.)
- MWP Scope: This read-only field shows what work plans are included in the optimization. The plans are included by using the Edit MWP Scope command.
- Number of Nodes in Solution: This field sets the maximum number of decision nodes passed into the Integer Solver. This is accomplished by running a heuristic search algorithm prior to running the solver that eliminates decision nodes that are unlikely to change during the actual Integer Programming optimization. A value of 0 passes all nodes to the solver. See How 'Number of Nodes' Works0 for further information.
- % Gap: When a percentage is entered in this field (as a decimal value), the solver will stop when the integer solution is within the defined percentage of the linear solution (that is, the "perfect solution"). The bigger this number, the faster the solver will find a solution; however, this selected solution can be very rough and is not guaranteed to be the "best" solution. When left null or defined as 0, the solver will find the best integer solution (as close to the linear solution as possible).
- Priority Groovy Script: This field shows the name of the Groovy script that determines how analysis factors are prioritized against one another when the analysis type is Prioritization. If a Groovy script is not used and this field is null, the value is taken from the Calculated Expression window where the drop-down list at the top of the window is set to Analysis Priority.
- Project Cost Threshold: When performing a priority analysis with a budget constraint, this field determines the amount of a project's cost that must be within budget to be included. The value can range from 0.0 to 1.0 (corresponding to 0% to 100% of the budget), with 0.5 (50%) being the default value. A setting of 0.0 will always result in the budget constraint being reached or exceeded; a setting of 1.0 will result in the budget constraint never being exceeded. See Project Cost Threshold for more information on how the setting of this field affects what projects are included in a ranking.
- Round Cost: This field causes the system to round the cost of projects to the selected rounding value before submitting the project to the solver engine. The greater the rounding, the faster the solver will converge on a solution.
- Save Details: This check box determines whether the system saves the details of the optimization. When it is checked, the details from the analysis are saved and can be viewed in the Detailed Optimization Results window. When it is not checked, the details are not saved, although the overall results of the analysis will still be available in the Results tab.
- Scenario Name: This is a short description of the scenario. This description should be informative to other users.
Scenario Number: This is a sequential number automatically assigned to identify the scenario. It cannot be edited.
Note Note: To find a particular scenario, enter the scenario number in the field at the top of the pane and select the Find Scenario button. - Segmentation Type: This field defines which "set" of segmentation from Network Master will be used in running analysis. Similar to Year of Condition Data field, this field acts a filter for Network Master using Segmentation Type column when selecting sections into optimization engine.
Scheduled: When this check box is selected, the system job Run All Scheduled Optimization Scenarios will execute this scenario. This system job allows all scheduled scenarios to run during off-hours to reduce the impact of the optimization analysis on the performance of the system. When several scenarios are scheduled, the system job will executed them sequentially.
Note Note: You must execute the Schedule All Tradeoff Scenarios command before running the system job or the scenarios will not run. - Send Email Notifications?: When this check box is selected, the system will send an email when the scenario finishes. The system sends the email to the email address of the logged-on user as configured in the User Names and Access window.
- Skip Initial Deterioration: By default, the system performs a one-year deterioration of the network before beginning the analysis of treatment options. When this check box is selected, the system does not perform this initial one-year deterioration.
- Work Plan Type: This field provides a drop-down list of all available work plans (which are defined in the Setup Work Plan Type window). When you select a work plan from the drop-down list, then the projects and costs from this work plan are first included in the optimization and then remaining rehabilitation recommendations are taken from decision tree results. If you do not select a work plan, then the optimization is run without consideration of a pre-defined work plan; it gets its rehabilitation recommendations entirely from decision tree results. (Note: To remove a work plan from the Work Plan Type field so no plan is selected, highlight the displayed work plan and then press the Delete key.)
- Year of Condition Data: The year you enter in this field is the year when condition data was collected, which sets the first year of optimization as this year plus one. (In most cases, the Network Master File contains only a single year's data and the value in this field sets the year of that data. For those cases where the Network Master File contains data from multiple years, the year in this field configures what records will be used for optimization.)
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