BaseOps User's Guide, Chapter 22: Importing Information from a Noise Case File

BaseOps allows you to import information into your current BaseOps case from a second noise case file. The imported case file can be a BaseOps .baseops or .bps file, or an NMap/RNM .ops or .opx operations file.

You can select the subset of information to import. For example, assume that you are calculating the noise impact of moving an F-16 fighter wing from one airfield to another. Furthermore, assume that you have BaseOps cases that model the existing conditions at both airfields. You can open the destination airfield's case, then import all F-16 flight profiles from the source airfield's case.

To import information from a noise case file, follow these steps:

Choose Import from Noise Case File from the File menu. The "Select the Noise Case File to Import Data From" dialog box appears.
Select the noise case file you wish to import from. Then press Open.
The "Importing From Noise Case File" dialog box appears.

The "Importing From" dialog box is a Multiple Page dialog box. See Multiple Page Dialog Boxes for more information.

Visit each of the pages in the "Importing From" dialog box, and set the options as desired.
Go to the Summary page, and review the summary of the options you have selected.
Press OK, closing the "Importing From" dialog box. The requested information is imported into the current BaseOps case.

Selecting What Information to Import

Use the Import pages of the "Importing From" dialog box to select what information you wish to import.

There is one dialog box page for each type of object (runways, flight tracks) that can be imported. Visit each page and set the options as desired, noting these points:

A BaseOps case can only contain one instance of some types of objects (for example, the weather object). If you import objects of this type, their data will replace the existing data in your case.
A BaseOps case can contain any number of instances of some types of objects (for example, flight tracks). If you import objects of this type, they will be added to any existing objects already in your case. If you have existing objects with the same names as objects you import, you will wind up with multiple objects that have the same name, and will need to give each object a distinct name before your case can be run.
Selecting the objects that will be imported is done in a similar manner to selecting the objects to display in the object list. See Filtering the Object List for more information.
Some objects have fields that refer to other objects. For example, every flight profile has a flight track field, and every flight track has a runway field. You can select how these fields are initialized.

As an example, consider flight profiles. You can select how the flight track field of each imported flight profile is initialized. You have two choices.
- attempt to find a flight track in the current case with a matching name - The existing case is searched for a flight track with the same name as the flight track that the profile referred to in the imported-from case. Typically, you will select this option if you are importing flight tracks along with the flight profiles.
- leave it undefined - The flight track will be undefined. You will later need to manually select which flight track to associate with each imported flight profile. Typically, you will select this option if you are not importing flight tracks, but instead will be assigning the imported flight profiles to existing flight tracks in the current case.
  
  Tip:
  
  Use the Flight Track Assignment Tool to efficiently assign flight tracks to flight profiles. See Using the Assignment Tool.

Modifying Imported Information

You can use the "Name and Notes" page of the "Importing From" dialog box to modify the text of each imported object's name, long name, and notes. This is useful for marking imported objects so that you can identify them as such in the future.

The name Prefix and Suffix are text added to the beginning and ending, respectively, of imported objects' short names.

Warning:

For most types of objects, the length of the name is limited to 10 characters. If the length of an imported object's name, plus the name prefix and suffix, is longer than 10 characters, the name will be truncated. Therefore, the name prefix and suffix should be very short.

The long name Prefix and Suffix are text added to the beginning and ending, respectively, of imported objects' long names.

The text added to the beginning of imported objects' notes can contain any number of lines. Press the Enter key to insert additional lines.

Tip:

You can modify imported objects' notes to include import audit trail information, such as the BaseOps case imported from and the date the objects were imported.

Your current BaseOps case may contain groups that are not present in the case you are importing from. If so, the "Importing From" dialog box will contain the "Group Settings" page.

Use this page to select the initial values of these groups for the objects you are importing.

Tip:

It is often useful to mark imported objects so that they can be easily selected for further manipulation. For example, after importing flight profiles, you may wish to use the Pattern Altitude Tool to modify the imported profiles. The easiest way to do this is to use a group created especially for this purpose. Follow these steps.

In your current BaseOps case, create a new group called, say, Source. Make this group applicable to the types of objects you will be importing.
Give this group two choices. The first choice should be named, say, Existing. The second choice should be named, say, Imported. Or, if you will be importing from multiple cases, you can create a choice for each case.
Since Existing is the first choice, it will be the default value for this group. Therefore, the Source of all existing objects in your case will be set to Existing.
When importing from the other case, go to the Group Settings page of the Importing From dialog box and select the Imported value for the Source group. The Source of all imported objects will be set to Imported.
If you need to edit the imported objects, filter the object list (see Filtering the Object List) to only show objects whose Source is set to Imported. You can then easily select all imported objects and, for example, run the Pattern Altitude Tool on them.
After you have finished editing the imported objects, you can delete the Source group. Alternatively, you can leave it to permanently document the source of each object.