The Hurrtrak Advanced system includes a location / location group import utility. This program allows you to import your organizations locations as well as the ability to automatically associate them to a location group.

The utility is accessible from the START PROGRAMS menu – Hurrtrak Advanced program group. Select “Run Location Import Utility”. It is best if the main tracking program is not running at the time this utility is used.

If selecting a comma (standard format) delimited input file, the following screen and field are presented.

The input file must be comma delimited and is required to be in the following format.

Location Name (25), Location State (3), Latitude, Longitude

The first row must NOT contain data field names and the data fields must NOT have any commas or quotes.  Latitude and Longitude must be entered in degrees and tenths of a degree (not degrees and minutes).  West Longitudes, like the ones in the US, must be specified as a negative number.  A sample input record for Fort Lauderdale, Florida would look like the following.

Fort Lauderdale, FL, 26.14, -80.14

Plot Size: If you want to set the plot size to a certain value for all locations, specify it in the plot size field. It will determine how the location will appear on a map. A plot size of zero will only show the location name while larger plot sizes will draw a circle at the diameter of the plot size (nm). Leaving this field blank will force a value of 1.

Location Prefix: If you want all of the location being imported to have the same prefix identifier, enter it in this field. For example the prefix "Store-" will put this in front of the name of each imported location name. i.e. a location name 1234 will be loaded as "Store-1234" . This is not a required field.

If you would like ALL of the locations in the import file to be grouped into a location group, enter a location group name in that field.  If you do not want to group these locations at this time, leave the location group name field blank.

When the import is complete the following verification message is displayed.

Finally, the next time you go into System Maintenance – Location Maintenance, the system may ask if you want to calculate roughness indices for these locations.  Reply Yes to do so.. it may take a few minutes to complete.

The input file must be in a comma delimited format however the key fields can be at any position in the input file. The first row must contain the information on where to find the location name, state, latitude and longitude.  The subsequent rows must contain the data. For example, if the location name is at position 3, the state at position 5 and latitude and longitude are at positions 7 and 8... the first row would be coded as...

3,5,7,8

with the following rows looking something like,

fielda data, fieldb data, Fort Lauderdale, fieldx data, FL, 26.14, -80.14  (field a, b and x data will be ignored).

The rest of the import procedure is the same as described above.

If the input data file is a point type Shape file, the following screen is presented.

The data fields are identical to the comma delimited input file method however an additional selection screen is presented during the import. It displays the data fields within the point shape file.

Here you must identify the unique ID field and optionally the State data field. When identified, select “continue” and the locations will be imported as described with the comma delimited method above.

Important Notes:

When adding custom locations you will need to perform 3 “batch” operations available from the System Setup function (via Location Maintenance). Those operations are required to calculate the locations roughness indices (for use with Advanced Wind Estimation), Tide Station (for coastal locations) and closest weather observation station. The import utility will suggest you do this and “take you” to the System Setup function when done importing locations.