Welcome to the learner onboarding flow. This is designed to provide you with the skills you need to familiarise yourself with the project area and the relevant results, leave inputs and export the relevant information.
Step 1: 🔑 Gain access Optioneer
To access Optioneer, you must be added to a project space by the project admin and verify your email address. This is done via an email that will be sent to you by support@continuum.industries. Please check your spam folder if you cannot find this email. The link in the email expires 24 hours after it is sent. If it times out, get in touch with us.
Step 2: 🌎 Familiarise yourself with the Optioneer environment
Now you are in Optioneer, you will want to familiarise yourself with the interface.
Watch this short video which introduces you to the Optioneer environment.
There are five windows within Optioneer, which roughly resemble a general routing workflow. Depending on your rights, these may not all be visible. For your use of Optioneer, the most relevant will be the Data and Analysis windows.
Step 3: 🧭 Get to know the project area
Map view is the core of Optioneer. You will be in map view when are you in the Data, Setup or Analyze windows. The Map Controls will allow you to:
Review the data in the project area
Learn about the type of constraints that are affecting the project
From the map, you can:
navigate the map,
open the Map Controls panel and
change the Basemap (e.g. satellite),
activate the 3D view,
toggle visibilities of project features (points, lines, polygons and comments) and outputs (heatmaps and options).
NB these are master controls. See the 'Basic Operations' and 'Accessing Results' to toggle the visibility of individual items,
and manage GIS layers.
open the Point Inspection Tool by clicking anywhere on the map. This will allow you to,
understand what results, objects and GIS data layers exist at that location.
view attributes about the data layers at that point in the pop-up window.
We recommend spending 5-10 minutes reviewing the data to understand the project area.
Go to the Map Controls
Toggle on/off the vector datasets or individual layers using the eyeball icon
Click on the features on the map to learn more about the features
Toggle on 3D mode and learn about the topography
Step 4: 💾 Select a saved view
When you first log into Optioneer, the map view will not have any GIS data, project features or results loaded. Saved views will allow you to access a snapshot of Optioneer pre-loaded with GIS data, results and more. If you are reviewing a project, ask the contributors or drivers to create a screenshot with the most relevant information and the latest versions of corridors. The main benefit of this is time-saving but saving a view can also allow you to:
jump straight to the most relevant information in the project area
prepare views or slides to show discussion points ahead of a meeting or presentation
allow you to bring up the most relevant data sets in one click
allow you to pick up where you left off
To access a saved view, expand the 'view' menu in the top right corner and select the view you wish to load.
To create a saved view, toggle on the relevant features and click 'save view' in the top right corner. If you are already in a saved view, expand the 'saved view' menu and click 'save as new'. You will then be prompted to name the view.
Elements of the map that can be saved:
Project features: points, lines and polygons
Raster and vector GIS data.
Your location/perspective on the map - including the topography if you are in 3D mode!
Results, both the visibility and selection of them and metrics
Heatmaps
Elements that cannot be saved:
Metrics (check out the Saved Metrics feature below).
Step 5: 🔢 Access Saved Metrics
Saved metrics work similarly to Saved Views, but apply to metrics provided by Optioneer. This will allow you to:
👷 Save groups of metrics relevant to your role
🔑 Recall the key metrics very quickly
📹 Record the metrics used in reports and presentations
You can access saved metrics via the Results Library or via the parameters table in the Analyse Window by selecting the drop-down menu on the right top-hand corner and selecting the view you wish to use. This view can be overwritten by selecting 'Save metrics'.
To save a group of metrics, select the metrics you wish to save in the metrics tab of the Results Library or via the parameters table in the Analyse Window. Above either table click 'Save Metrics' from the top right-hand corner click 'Save as new' and name it appropriately. Everyone with access to the project area will be able to use this list.
Step 6: 🏷 Provide your input via comments
Comments are useful for tracking changes in a project, logging information that isn't available in GIS format and communicating with team members. Comments can be geo-referenced to 1m accuracy.
You can reply to comments and form threads, search for keywords in comments, and relocate existing comments. In map view, select the comment icon in the left-hand toolbar to view the comments as a list. Hovering over a comment in the list will allow you to select the 'fly to' icon and the menu. The 'fly to' tool takes you to the location of the comment on the map. You can also upload files to a comment using the paper clip icon. The size limit for files is 70MB.
The Comment Menu allows you to carry out three actions:
Show thread
This allows you to view any responses to the comment.
Copy link
This feature creates a URL linked to that comment. When the URL is selected, providing the individual has access to the project, Optioneer will open in Map View at the location of the comment. The URL can be placed in reports or can be used to refer colleagues to a particular comment.
Edit
If the comment is yours and it has not been replied to, you will be able to edit the comment.
All comments in the project may be exported in bulk as a CSV file, allowing easy inclusion in reports or presentations.
Step 7: ⬇️ Export relevant information
You can export many items from Optioneer and integrate the outputs to Optioneer. The full list of export options can be found here. But the key ones are highlighted below.
📈 Exporting Project Features
Description: Points, lines and polygons can be downloaded and added to other GIS apps or software.
Format: single = .geojson // multi = .geojson, shapefile, csv
Action - Single feature: In the Data window go to the list of points, lines or polygons as required. Click the three dots icon next to the line you wish to export and select 'Export'. if the centreline you wish to export only exists as a result, you will need to extract the centreline from the result first. Alternatively, interact with it via the map view and use the three-dot menu to export the .geojson.
Action - Multiple: In the Data window, navigate to the lists of points, lines or polygons. For the objects you wish to export, select the tickbox to the left of the project features and click the download arrow above the list. This will then give you the action to select a format.
.geojson or shapefile (.zip): exports the selected project features in the chosen GIS format.
.csv: exports a table of project features that are visible in your list (i.e. not filtered).
💯 Exporting Option Summary Metrics
Description: An excel sheet (or geojson with data) containing all of the parameters summarising the route. This includes total length, cost, the distance through data layers and minimum distance to constraints.
Format: .xlsx or .geojson
Action - Single: In the Analyze window go to the list of selected options in the Option Selection tile. Click the three dots icon next to the line you wish to export and select 'Export Option'. Select 'Option Metrics Excel Exporter' from the format drop-down menu. Enter a name for the document and click 'Export'.
Action - Multiple: In the Analyze Window, select all of the routes you wish to export the metrics for. Click on the 'Export Selected Options' icon in the top right-hand corner of the Option Selection tile. Select 'Multi Excel Option Metric Exporter' from the format menu and click 'Export'. Or, in the Results Library, select the options you want to export using the tick box and click the 'Export' button at the top of the table. Select 'Export selected options with full metrics'.
See further detail here.
👉 Exporting Option Selected Summary Metrics
Description: A .csv containing the selected parameters summarising the route. This includes total length, cost, the distance through data layers and minimum distance to constraints.
The selected parameters are visible in the Analyze Window in the parameter table and in the Results Library under the Metrics tab.
Selecting the metrics is easiest in the metrics tab, as the metric names are displayed in the first column. They also appear in the order they are selected and exported.
❗️Save your selected metrics via the Saved Metrics functionality so you can recall them quickly. ❗️
Format: .csv
Action - Via the Results Library: Go to the Metrics tab in the Results Library. Select your metrics in your preferred order and click the download arrow under the search bar in the top left-hand corner.
Action - Via the Analyse Window: Go to the Analyse Window. Scroll down on the right-hand side and select the parameters you wish to view in the table. Click the download arrow in the top right-hand corner of the table.