The Transportation Analysis Zone Export (TAZExport) function was created to provide support for the conversion of UPlan output into the existing structure of a Transportation Analysis Zone (TAZ) table. TAZExport makes the export of UPlan outputs into a TAZ both simple and repeatable. The TAZExport module enables mapping UPlan output values to fields within a TAZ table including manipulating values through constructing mathematical formulas.
The default export provides a simple export based entirely on computations made using the input values for the UPlan run being exported. A table called “DefTAZExport” is created within the collection of stand alone tables in the run’s data frame. This table can then be exported to .dbf for further conversion to excel or for import into another procedure.
The custom export function begins with creating the DefTAZExport table identically to the default export. Then the structure from an existing TAZ table is imported. The final output will maintain the same fields and field types as this input.
After importing the TAZ table structure, the user can then establish a "mapping" that links the values in DefTAZExport to their TAZ table's fields. Both values from the imported TAZ table and the DefTAZExport can be used in creating a final value to be exported in the final exported table. These functions are then applied to all of the TAZs that are not specified as exceptions (see below).
For example:
[SF_DU] = [SELF] + [RM_HH] + [RL_HH] + [RVL_HH]
In this example [SF_DU] will be the final value output in the field "SF_DU" taken from the input TAZ table's structure.
[SELF] is the number of households that exist in the input TAZ table's field called "SF_DU". If the input TAZ Table contains a specific year's household count, then the new houses from UPlan will be added to that.
[RM_HH], [RL_HH], [RVL_HH] are the number of new households of those land use types produced by UPlan.
Or another example:
[SVC_EMP] = [SELF] + 0.8 * [CH_EMP]
[GOV_EMP] = [SELF] + 0.2 * [CH_EMP] + 0.2 * [CL_EMP]
[RET_EMP] = [SELF] + 0.8 * [CL_EMP]
In this example. Three output values are created by splitting two of UPlan's land use categories up and adding them to the existing value. In effect [SVC_EMP] equals the starting value plus 80% of the employees in UPlan's commercial high category (for that TAZ).
Other possible manipulations include not using the [SELF] value to build a value from only UPlan outputs, to add a constant value to the field, multiplying the [SELF] by a constant (i.e. assuming 150% growth would be [SELF] * 1.5)
While a general configuration is created to apply the same mapping to all TAZs within the analysis area, it is possible to select some TAZs and highlight them as exceptions that will use an independent mapping. This exception is set in exactly the same manner as the default one, but applies only to the specified TAZ.