I have a long road to plot symbols, some are too small, some overlap – how can I ensure all are clear?

Issue

Often you will want to plot collision diagrams along a route as part of a route-based investigation.

It can be helpful to identify the location of all collisions along that route. Where they cluster, such as at junctions, the collision diagrams often overlap, but reducing their size to avoid overlap can mean they are less readable.

 

Solution

1.  Relocate overlapping diagrams

The plotting tools in KeyACCIDENT makes moving diagrams much easier:

  • Plot the diagrams “At location”
  • When plotting, make sure you “Add leader line”
  • Manually set the diagram size by clicking the scale symbol

  • Click on a diagram to be moved and drag it with the light blue grip
  • Leader lines point to the collision location automatically

  • When plotting, selecting “Include marker” leaves an additional symbol to show the actual collision location

  • The marker sizes can be amended with Edit Plot > Marker Style

  • The size of the markers can be adjusted by changing the value shown, showing the size in metres

 

2.  Resize the diagrams

Manually set the diagram size by clicking the scale symbol

 

3.  Plot with an offset

Plotting the diagrams with an offset can achieve a lot of the work for you.

Below is an offset plot with 100m X and 100m Y offset distances

Once plotted, any overlapping diagrams can be adjusted manually

The leaders adjust automatically