Vehicle Aging Options



Aging Options

The Aging Options command allows you to create and modify an "aging" process for vehicle location fixes. Aging is the term that describes the length of time since there has been a valid location update report ("fix") received for a given unit.

The vehicle fix's lifetime is divided into time slots, each of which can be configured to show the vehicle in a different context. These time slots are defined in seconds.

Vehicle Fix Timeouts can allow you to change the appearance of the vehicle ID as the vehicle ages. The foreground and background color settings are associated with the color of the vehicle's ID Display field which appears next to the vehicle icon on the screen (the PW_Street maps do not support background color at this time). Press the Set Color button and select the desired color for the Vehicle ID display. Different colors can be defined for each time slot. You could have a vehicle’s ID display turn from black to yellow after 60 seconds without a report. Then after 120 seconds, you could have it change to red.

You can also change the icon displayed for the vehicle as it ages. Enter the desired icon filename (.bmp) in the ‘Vehicle Icon Filename’ field.

In addition to control of the vehicle's ID display color and icon, a timeout slot may also cause an internal event to occur. The event is identified by an event ID, which, if associated with an advisory having the same event ID, can execute user specific functionality, for instance:

opening an image for display;
writing programmed text into the advisory window;
running an entry application;
running an exit application;
deleting the vehicle.

By allowing you to trigger an advisory based on the age of a vehicle fix, you can do all of these things automatically, as a result of a mobile unit taking too long to update. For example, by setting the entry application to BEEP.EXE (which simply performs an audible beep), you can audibly signal the stagnation of a vehicle fix. Furthermore, since an advisory can be programmed to delete vehicles as they open or close the advisory, you can even cause the vehicle to be deleted when its ceases to be received regularly.

After each time slot has been entered you must press the ‘Accept’ key before continuing on to the next time slot.

The ‘Reset’ button will reset (delete) the time slot you are currently viewing.

See also... Advisories