A custom PowerBI visual for mapping linear data on the Main Roads Western Australia Road Network. Supports line segments with an SLK From & SLK To. Automatically generates map geometry (automates geocoding / linear referencing).
- Please visit the
Releases page to
download the latest visual (At the time of writing the latest version is
named
nickmapbi82E1C4CFA7CF45C0BC3CD8771F27FDAF.4.2.0.pbiviz) - Please follow this guide to Import a visual file from your local computer into Power BI.
To update any existing dashboards with a newer version of this visual, the process is exactly the same as installing it for the first time. PowerBI will prompt you to confirm, then it will replace all existing instances of the NickMap visual in the report with the new version. Each of your reports must be individually updated and republished this way.
| Road Number | Carriageway | SLK From | SLK To | Offset (Metres) | Color (CSS) | Tooltip (1) | Tooltip (2) | ... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H001 | LS | 0.00 | 1.2 | 0.0 | "green" | "low" | "Some comment" | ... |
| H001 | LS | 1.20 | 1.3 | 0.0 | "yellow" | "medium" | "Some other comment" | ... |
| H001 | RS | 0.00 | 1.2 | `0.0 | "#FF0000" | "high" | "Some other comment" | ... |
| Field Well | Optional | Accepts Multiple Columns | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road Number | No | No* | State Road numbers (eg H001), PSP numbers (eg P016), Proposed Road Numbers (eg PROP.H064) Local road numbers such as 1180505 |
| SLK From (kilometres) | No | No* | Start position of the datapoint (See description of SLK below) |
| SLK To (kilometres) | No | No* | End position of the datapoint (See description of SLK below) |
| Carriageway | Yes | No* | Zero to three letters indicating the selected carriageways to be used as the road centreline for this datapoint. Any combination or permutation of the letters L, R, S will work (Selecting for Left, Right and Single carriageways respectively). If left blank, the default behaviour is the same as LRS which selects all carriageways. When plotting data on the left of a road it is recommended that LS is used, such that if the road network alternates between dual and single carriageway your data will still be plotted. RS can be used for data on the right. |
| Offset (Metres) | Yes | No* | Offset the linestring(s) after the road network centreline(s) is/are sampled. Positive values offset to the right hand side. Negative values offset to the left hand side. (See Offset Direction Below) |
| Color (CSS) | Yes | No* | For example red or #FF0000 or rgb(255,0,0) or rgba(255,0,0,0.5). Sets the color of each linestring shown on the map. If a blank or invalid CSS color is used the linestring will probably be black. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/color_value for more information about CSS color values. |
| Tooltip(s) | Yes | Yes | Any tooltip text |
*NOTE: There is a known issue regarding the number of columns accepted by each field-well; For example PowerBI will let you drop multiple columns into the
Road Numberfield-well, but only one of those columns will be used. The visual is supposed to restrict the field-wells to accept only the correct number of columns but currently it does not.
SLK stands for "Straight Line Kilometres". It is a system of measurement for positions along a road. SLK is measured from the start of the road along the centreline, with several important asterisks:
- SLK is 'preserved' when the length of a road changes due to realignment
- To accommodate this, there are gaps and overlaps known as "Points of Equation" or POEs at several points along most roads.
- In a POE overlap, SLK does not uniquely identify a single location
- There are approximately 200 POEs on the network, varying in size from a few metres up to a 1 kilometre.
- Left and Right carriageways each have their own SLK referencing system however these are almost always aligned within 20 metres or so
- SLK may not start from 0; for example Great Northern Highway H006 starts from SLK 3.17.
The "True Distance" referencing system is a true measure of distance along the centreline without POE adjustments (may still have gaps though). This system of measurement is not available though this PowerBI visual (yet).
The "Left Hand Side" of a road means "the drivers left hand side when travelling in the direction of increasing SLK"
The "Right Hand Side" of a road means "the drivers right hand side when travelling in the direction of increasing SLK"
The Offset column in this visual takes either positive or negative values:
- Positive values offset to the right hand side, and
- Negative values offset to the left hand side
This visual uses a backend server described in detail at https:/thehappycheese/nicklinref_rust
- The server MUST be https
- The server MUST support CORS with
Access-Control-Allow-Origin:null, - It SHOULD echo the header
x-request-id(which will be an unsigned integer) - It MUST support the
/batchendpoint binary protocal - It SHOULD support post requests to the
/lineendpoint- this powers the 'Goto Road/SLK' feature. However if this cant be supported, then the rest of the visual will work just fine.
Currently there is no support for a x-api-key header, but this should be added in future versions.