Measurement Regions for Density & Velocity

Posted: March 10th, 2016 in News

Pathfinder 2016 includes a new UI object called measurement regions. These red boxes record density and velocity values to a CSV file. They are drawn over the navigation surfaces in areas of steady flow.

The implementation of this calculation is based on a Voronoi diagram-based method from Steffen and Seyfried. Read more in the Technical Reference Manual.

Voronoi measurement regions — Voronoi cells of occupants who are intersecting a measurement region.

Creating a measurement region is quick. Set the Active Floor where you would like to draw the Measurement Region. Select Add a Measurement Region from the Draw toolbar. Click two opposite points of where you would like to record density and velocity information. The red box indicates that the Measurement Region has been added to the model, and an object is now listed in the Navigation Panel. Once you complete a simulation, a Measurement-regions.csv file will be created.

Measurement regions have several practical applications. Here are just a few.

Balancing multiple exit paths
Examining the effect of widening doorways
Measuring reduced speed from traffic jams

This feature is only available in Pathfinder 2016 or newer. Download the latest version here.