Formatting Excel Volume Tables
 
Beginning with release 3.2, TIAH can read volumes stored in Excel directly. In order to read an Excel volume table (or tables), the Excel file must be structured according to the following convention:

Worksheet Format
 
The worksheet containing the volume data for TIAH must be named TIAH* ("TIAH Data", "TIAH_mydata" etc.) in order that TIAH can locate it successfully. If your workbook does not contain a worksheet named TIAH* then the data will not be imported by TIAH.
 
A "Data Set" is a series of traffic volume data enclosed by START and END tags.
 
Any number of AM & PM data sets can be combined on a single worksheet, however, each data set must be enclosed in the appropriate Tags so that TIAH can identify the data.
 
The Tag format is a simple TIAH {AM⁄PM} START and TIAH {AM⁄PM} END system.
 
Data sets cannot be nested. Each START tag must be accompanied by a corresponding END tag before beginning another START tag. That is, if you have defined a TIAH AM START then you must close it by defining a TIAH AM END before beginning a TIAH PM START or another TIAH AM START section.
 
The actual order of the AM and PM data sets is not critical. You can have an AM data set followed by a PM data set followed by another AM data set. TIAH will sort through the worksheet and gather all the AM data and all the PM data separately.
 
One benefit of using the Tag system is that you can include any other data in the worksheet and TIAH will simply bypass any data not contained within TIAH START and END tags, without producing an error. This allows you to store notes and other information along with your traffic volume data.
 
Direction headers are only mandatory on the first defined set each of the AM and PM data sets. This is so that TIAH knows what the order is for sorting purposes. Any subsequent data sets do not require the direction headers to be included, though they can be if desired.
 
When the first AM and PM data sets are defined, the line immediately following the Tag line must contain the direction (NSEW) headers. The full set of headers are defined as:
 
NBL, NBT, NBR , SBL, SBT, SBR, EBL, EBT, EBR, WBL, WBT, WBR.
 
In addition to the direction headers, TIAH requires an ID number and if street names are to be displayed during Intvol insertion, then an INTERSECTION header can be included.
 
Data must begin in Column A. The START and END tags and the ID must all be contained in column A in order for TIAH to read the data correctly.
 
It is not necessary to include all the direction headers if you do not have data for that header. For example, if you do not have any data for "Northbound Left" then you do not need to include a "NBL" header.
 
Note: When using multiple data sets, each AM or PM data set must be in the same order sequence. For example, If your first AM data set is defined as WENS, than all subsequent AM data sets must also be ordered by WENS. You can have a different order sequence for PM data sets (from the AM data sets) but the PM data sets must all follow the same order sequence as the first PM data set.

Features
 
The key features of this system of storage of intersection volumes can be summarized as follows:
 
A sample Excel volume file is provided with the TIAH distribution. The images below show a small snapshot of the sample worksheet:

 
 
 
Note that blank, or empty volume values are allowed. TIAH will replace any blank values with a "0" when Intvol blocks are inserted into the drawing.
 
If you are using the same worksheet to store both AM and PM data, then select the same file in the TIAH AM and PM file selection.
 

Tools
 
An Excel add-in is provided with TIAH 3.2 and later releases to help in setting up an Excel volume worksheet. Click here to read more about it.
 
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