An excellent video describing "Other" Automations and their setup can be found at http://www.storminfo.net/trainingvideo/2011u/auto/auto.html .

The setup of automated “Other” Automations can be selected via the Tools menu option or via the Command Bar Icons.

A dialog screen is displayed showing all of the current Automations. The system comes predefined with one of each type.

Important: There are 2 pre-requirements to successfully Email these outputs.

1.     You need to have setup your Email via the User Preferences Option (EMAIL Setup).

2.     You must define the email addresses or groups you would like to send these reports to… via the User Preferences (Email Addressbook). This is required even if you have selected the Outlook method for emailing in the Email setup.

The Automations capability basically includes other automatic output that did not fit into the category of Summary Report or EMAIL Alerts. The outputs defined in this function are automatically generated when new storm data is received and can be saved to a hard drive location and/or sent via Email. There are 4 types of “other” Automations.

More information on Automations (Automatic Output)

The following section will discuss the setup of each type of output as well as discussing the “error catching” feature of the setup option. Please note that the definition of Automatic Summary Reports and Email Alerts have a similar look and feel.

The Automations Setup screen looks similar to the following.

Section 1, 2, 4, Tabs 6 and 7 are essentially the same for all 4 types of Automations. Section 3 and Tab 5 are the only sections that vary by type of Automation.

Let’s look at the sections that, for the most part, do not vary by type of Automation.

Section 1 indicates the Name of the Automation as well as indicators that control whether it is active and also whether it should be automatically generated. It is valid to have an automation that is active with the automatic option turned off. This is typically used when you only want to generate the automation manually… i.e. selected from the Hurrtrak menu.

Section 2 defines the storms you would like considered when running the automations. The “all active storms” selection will select only storms that are currently having advisories issued for them. When you manually run the automations, it will only include storms that have data no more than 18 hours old (the “age” setting can be changed in the user options). With this option you can specify storms to “ignore” via the Select Exceptions command.

The “Selected Storms” option will run the automations for only storms you manually select. You can select those storms via the Select Storms command.

Finally, Global/Advanced users can select or de-select the storm basins they want to include for storm selection. i.e. if you are only interested in the Atlantic and Western Pacific then check only those 2 items.

Section 4 defines how to handle the automatic output. You can select to have the output saved to a hard drive location and/or email it.

Section/Tab 6 defines additional text you would like included within the email… when the output is being emailed. This is optional. See example below.

Section/Tab 7 allows the user to adjust the schedule of when this automation can run. In this way you can create this outputs only on certain days and times. See example below.

Now let’s look at the two sections that DO vary by Automation TYPE.

Section 3 is information that is specific to the Automation type being defined.

For the Tracking Map Automation, this section appears like the image below. The user can select the type of image format they prefer.

For the Google Earth KML Automation, this section appears like the image below. Here the user can specify KML or KMZ format for the Google Earth file. We recommend KMZ for its smaller size.

For the EXCEL Automation, this section appears like the image below. The user can specify a location group, all affected Counties or all affect Zip Codes.

The Shape File Automation does not require additional information in section 3.

Now on to the last section which varies by Automation Type... Section/Tab 5.

For the Tracking Map Automation, this tab allows the user to define the elements they want included on the tracking map. This includes which tracking map to use (we suggest BEST CHART), the locations (location group) to plot on the map, as well as several other options below.

For the Google Earth Automation, this tab allows the user to define the specific Google Earth outputs they would like to include within the KML/KMZ file.

For the Shape File Automation, this tab allows the user to define the specific Shape File outputs they would like to include.

The EXCEL automation type does not require additional information on this tab.

One last topic in this section…. Error Assistance…

The Automations Setup dialog is designed to help you along the way. It does this by highlighting areas that need correcting as well as changing the color of the border. So far all of the examples above show a nice green border… which means “all is well”. Let’s look at conditions which will cause errors and how they are demonstrated.

The image below actually shows 2 errors… First no storm basin is selected, next… there are no storms selected (the Selected Storms option is on). Correcting each of these will turn the border green (assuming you have no other errors).

The image below shows the error condition of selecting to Email the Automation output but not yet specifying an email address.

For the EXCEL automation type, when specifying a location group, you must also define the specific Location Group you would like a report for.

And finally, similar to the Summary Report setup there is also a “WARNING” type error conditions. A yellow border will appear if the Automation is defined correctly but either the ACTIVE or AUTOMATION boxes are not checked. This is acceptable under certain conditions.

Remember, an ALL GREEN border means you have defined a “proper” Automation. Of course, the output will only be generated when the Active or Selected Storm option is satisfied.