The intermediate files

4.5.7 The intermediate files

In this section the intermediate files created by the program that processes the network are briefly described.

Files created in the orienting phase:

active_nodes.txt: in this file each line refers to an active node (i.e., a node which is an extreme of a chain determined in the orienting phase). Each line is organized as follows: “Active node active_node_number = active_node_key, degree = active_node_degree, OD = active_node_direction” in which active_node_number is the index of the active node, active_node_key is the corresponding node key defined in the nodes.txt file,

Organization Code:

UMD and UOB

European Commission

Classification:

Unclassidied

Sixth Framework Programme

active_node_degree is the degree of the node and active_node_direction is the direction to be expanded from the active node. This information can be useful in order to find errors or missing data in the files.

incoherence.txt: in this file each line refers to a possible incoherence detected during the orienting phase. Each line is organized as follows ”INCOHERENCE ARC arc_key, NODE node_key” where arc_key is the identifier of the arc that is going to be ordered from the node identified by node_key. If no error occurs in the orienting phase, this file would be empty, otherwise each line identifies an incoherence between the direction of the arc (that could be defined in the input file or in the orienting phase) and the direction (derived from the node) that the procedure would give to this arc. This file is useful to identify errors in the directions defined by the user in the input file.

arc_nn_ord.txt: this file is generated after the orienting phase. If the file starts with ”Arc arc_key is not oriented!!!”, then in the orienting phase the arc identified by arc_key was not oriented. This means that the input data is incomplete and the direction of one or more arcs is to be defined. After these possible lines, and after some blank lines, there are lines describing the arcs in the arc set (like in the input file), but with the new direction of the arcs that were originally not directed.

Files created after the phase which adds the dummy nodes and the dummy arcs: ArcsNEW.txt and ArcsNEW2.txt: these files describe the arcs in the arc set after the phase in

which dummy nodes and dummy arcs were added, but before the dropping phase. Both files start with “num_nodes num_arcs” where num_nodes is the cardinality of the node set and num_arcs is the cardinality of the arc set just before the dropping phase. The other lines

European Commission UMD and UOB Sixth Framework Programme

Organization Code:

correspond to the arcs and have the form “arc_key arc_bwd_node arc_fwd_node arc_length arc_f_speed arc_axlewgt60 arc_max_length arc_dir arc_type arc_delayed_node”. The two files differ each other because in the second file some arcs were added: in particular, these arcs are the dummy arcs connecting the source node (resp. destination node) to the dummy nodes that have the output (resp. input) degree equal to 2 and the input (resp. output) degree equal to 0. These arcs were added because these nodes could create problems during the execution of the numbering phase in which we want to number the source node as first and the destination node as last.

NodesNEW.txt: this file describes the nodes in the node set after the phase in which dummy nodes and dummy arcs were added, but before the dropping phase. The file starts with num_nodes and max_node_key, where num_nodes is the cardinality of the node set and max_node_key is the maximum value of a node identifier. The other lines correspond to the nodes and have the form “node_key node_proc_time node_parall_capac node_type node_bypass_term”, where node_key is the original identifier of the node, node_proc_time is the processing time for a wagon at the node, node_parall_capac is the number of parallel processing lines of the node, node_type is the node type (i.e. 1 if the node is taken from the original input network, 2 if the node is dummy and added to model the terminal delay, and 3 if the node is the source node or the destination node) and node_bypass_term is the identifier of the bypassed terminal (-1 if the node type is different from 2).

Files created after the dropping phase:

arcs_ph3.txt: this file describes the arcs in the arc set after the dropping phase. The first line is “num_nodes num_arcs” where num_nodes is the cardinality of the node set and num_arcs

Organization Code:

UMD and UOB

European Commission

Classification:

Unclassidied

Sixth Framework Programme

is the cardinality of the arc set. The other lines have the form “arc_key arc_bwd_node arc_fwd_node arc_length arc_f_speed arc_axlewgt60 arc_max_length arc_dir arc_type arc_delayed_node”.

nodes_ph3.txt: this file describes the nodes in the node set after the dropping phase. The structure of this file is the same as that of the NodeNEW.txt file.