Meaning of core libraries

[Bernd Welter]

Hi there,

from time to time players in the xUniverse want to know more about the interaction between so-called core components. I therefor provide a short list describing the meaning of those components:

• DimaCtrl.dll: the job of the Dima Control is to maintain containers labeled as distance matrices. A distance matrix contains a large number of driving times and distances based on a specific routing option setting. The control creates / destroys the storage (single folder on the file system, usually /data/dima...), inserts, updates and deletes the content of the distance matrix and returns the content (byRoad) or approximations (byReference). Current versions of the Dima Control support both traditional and high performance routing.
  Since the 64bit version of the control it is able to deal with DIMAs exceeding 20.000 rows (=400.000.000 routings!). The control is also able to import given relations / export calculated relations and it can handle a large number of DIMAs at a time. The Control is part of xDima, xTour, xCluster and xTerritory.
• TimeCalc.dll: The TimeCalc control applies various time dependent rules on a given route based on
  • the waypoints opening times
  • the vehicles operating times
  • the defined break- and rest rules (daily, weekly...).
  The control doesn't need to know anything about the geometry of the route because it works with the driving distances and driving periods of the given route. It is also able to layer it's functionality on top of relations contained in a Dima. The TimeCalc is part of xRoute, xTour, xTerritory and xCluster.
• TourOpt.dll (xServer 1): The touropt dll is the function that determines
  • optimal assignments of orders to tours
  • optimal sequences of those assignments within a tour or chain
  For this purpose it needs access the results of DimaControl and TimeCalc. Within the touropt various optimization steps are executed such as
  • ConstructionPhase
  • SequenceOptimization
  • ImprovementPhase
  The output of these steps is a list of chains, tours and stop sequences each one of them given with various timesteps and driving distances. The TourOpt.dll is part of xTour.

Feedback is - as always - welcome! I can extend those texts on demand.
Best regards Bernd