Every version of Intersection Magic ever shipped stores all of its dates as julian numbers. This means that we shouldn't have any date problems for as long as cars skid on pavement. However, your source data may not be year 2000 compatible.
The Intersection Magic database is contained in a number of files. This article describes which of these files should be copied when moving or copying the database to a new location.
NOTE: Beginning with version 6.x of the program, there is an option called "copy" under the Utilities / Database menu. This is the preferred method of copying databases in Intersection Magic.
This article is for users that have been requested to upload a file or files to Pd' Programming
This article covers how to copy virtual locations, and set Intersection Magic to use the copy
The database contains two or more names for the same street. Either one is mis-spelled or a street is known by two names.
This article shows how to locate invalid time information in Intersection Magic
Intersection Magic version 6.6.8.4 introduced new functionality to protect your data from incorrect entries in your streets changes file. The program will not process your street changes file when a problem is detected.
Some users may need to sort the files that are being imported. This article was created to show how to sort a file.
Clients using data from ADOT cannot create accurate corridor studies.
Due to a bug in the program, the reindex process, when combined with data entry, change streets, or remove unused streets, can cause street names to become renumbered. This can cause the relationships with crash records to break.
Intersection Magic has been designed to support a wide variety of data formats. This data may originate on a mainframe, mini, or micro computer. In some areas data may be obtained directly from the state, California, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona and Idaho to name a few. In other areas, data is stored at police departments on mainframes. In still others, data is maintained on PC database programs. Intersection Magic supports all of these cases. This article describes the various options and requirements for preparing data to import into Intersection Magic.
The State of Arizona has created a new form for reporting crashes. This article describes changes that have occurred that will affect your crash data in Intersection Magic.
When a cross street order is defined in the streets manager, Intersection Magic assumes this is the entire list. As a result, it only shows the streets you've created in the order list.
Bad dates inadvertently get entered into an Intersection Magic database and can not be recognized by the program. IMW can not do a search of a 00/00/0000 date, because the date is invalid ("bad date").
Intersection Magic can maintain a list of intersections and volume studies. This article describes how to create the required volume data file, and how to let the program know to use it.
The State of Colorado has created a new form for reporting crashes. The new form is in effect as of 7/1/2006. This article describes changes that have occured that will probably affect your use of crash data in Intersection Magic.
In order to work with virtual locations, you will need to create an ODBC share and tables.
To claify the behavior for Intersection Magic during Import.
Making the Address or Mile Post fields blank in IMW Edit will store invalid numeric values in the database for those fields, and can cause program crashes.
On occasion it may be useful to be able to delete a specific group of cases from the database. The IMWEdit program contains an option to do this.
Intersection Magic has many capabilities, and depending on your use of the program, you may choose to include a variety of fields for analysis. Engineers, police, planners all have different needs. In addition, Intersection Magic requires a number of fields regardless of your specific analysis needs.
The volume data is handled in a new way starting with version 6.500. It is important to understand the new methodology.
After the dry run process and before actually making changes in the change streets process, a list box is supposed to show all the changes that will be made if continued.
Automated process to change incorrectly spelled street names.
Intersection Magic has a margin of error when calculating sliding spot sections.
A feature exists in the Pd' Editor application (pdeditor.exe) that provides the ability to produce a list of every intersection within a virtual corridor as well as all of its aliases. This is a low-level routine intended for use by other programmers desiring to extract part of the data stored by IMW.
IMW is crashing when trying to generate a sliding spot report.
User receives an error message stating trial period has expired or no active database when using the IMW Editor.
When creating a database in Intersection Magic, the user is provided a place to specify a username and password. If selected, the database manages read and write access by a list of users. This article describes how to change enable or disable the selection made when creating the database.
In some cases street names appear twice in cross streets listings and that it can cause confusion when selecting street names.
Intersection Magic supports several ways of adding data to its database. This article describes the difference between updating data with regular importing, partial record importing and merging using imwedit.
Changes made in version 6.615 require user verification of cross-street data. Note that because the changes only affect cross street ordering associated with the use of aliases, this information only applies to users who have prepared cross street listings using the streets manager. Also, if aliases have never been used, this information does not apply.
Intersection Magic requires read/write access to the IM database files on the operating system level.
Earlier versions of Intersection Magic have a small bug where a street is not truely deleted when using the delete feature in the Streets Manager.
Each diagram contains a number at the top that indicates how many crashes took place at that location. The number of graphics may not always match that number. However, the number of graphics plus the number of "records with insufficient data for display" listed at the bottom of the diagram should match.
On occasion, users have the need to supplement records in their database without removing data already stored for those records. An example would be if you have a data source that provides you all the crash data you need except for direction from intersection. You have another source that can provide direction from intersection and uses the same caseid number that the first data source uses. This is a use for Supplemental importing.
The data entry program, imwedit.exe, responds incorrectly in certain circumstances when there are no crashes in the database.
Dates may be represented may ways. Intersection Magic can handle most of them. This article describes which formats are supported and will be properly converted by the program.
It would appear that there are two streets with the same name causing reports to list a street twice.
The data in Intersection Magic is usually obtained from local city, county or state sources. In most cases, it is possible to query these sources to list the same data being reported by Intersection Magic. WeÕve found that when this is done, there may be discrepancies between the two systems. There can be several causes for these discrepancies. This document describes how we attempt to identify and resolve these differences when contacted by a concerned user of our software. While we welcome you to contact us, it is our hope that you can take the first steps yourself using the information provided here.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) maintains the crash records that you use as SWITRS data. In January of 1998 they modified the format which had been used for many years. The format was changed to add the century to any dates in the data file. This makes the data y2k compatible. This requires special treatment of SWITRS data by Intersection Magic.
A very long street name exists in the database, but diagrams for locations on that street can not be generated, and sometimes the street itself is missing from high accident location lists.