Introduction

Introduction
The specifications and data given in this documentation are subject to modification without prior notice.
Unless otherwise stated, any names and data used in the examples are completely fictitious.
No part of this documentation may be reproduced or transmitted for whatever purpose, in any form or by
any means (electronically or mechanically), without the express permission in writing from DataKustik
GmbH.

 DataKustik GmbH. All rights reserved.

Gilching, October 2017 (release 2018, 161.4800)
CadnaA is a registered trademark of Datakustik GmbH, Gilching, Germany.
 Contents 3

Contents
License Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 1 - Introduction
CadnaA - The leading software for calculating environmental noise. . . . . .13
Structure of CadnaA documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Selecting Calculation Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
How to learn CadnaA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Chapter 2 - Installation
Installing CadnaA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Sentinel Admin Control Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Select Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA

The Main Window of CadnaA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Symbol Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
CadnaA-Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Mouse Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Control Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Windows-Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Chapter 4 - Basics
Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Insert Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Inserting Objects using the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Inserting Objects via the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Editing Objects in the Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Polygon Point Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Stretching Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Introduction to CadnaA
4 Contents

Relocating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Change Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Rotating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Copying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Inserting from the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Deleting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Editing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Edit Object Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Decimals in Edit Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Search for Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Scale & Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Synchronization Graphics & Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation

Receiver Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Sound propagation according to ISO 9613-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
A-Weighted Sound Power Level as Emission Value . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Effect of Distance and Air Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Calculation Protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Correcting for Operating Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Inserting an Area of Land Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Effect of Ground Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Directivity Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Different Emission Day/Evening/Night. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Screening Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Partial Levels List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Spectrum as Emission Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Horizontal Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Specifications for Grid Calculations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Grid Arithmetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Vertical Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Building Evaluation & Building Noise Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Building Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Introduction to CadnaA
 Contents 5

Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols . . . . . . . . . .165

Result Table for the Building Noise Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173

Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources

Building Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Entering a Sound Radiating Facade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Editing Facades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Generate Radiating Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Internal Driveways and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
Directivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Pre-defined Directivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
User-defined Directivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
Frequency Dependant Directivities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209
Radiation from Stacks and Chimneys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211
Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212
Radiation by the Stack’s Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Ground Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Meteorology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Correction based on C0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
Correction based on Wind Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads

Entering Road Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Specifying Road Emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
Road with parallel Barrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257
Elevated Roads and Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263
Wall Optimization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .271
Pass-By Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

Chapter 8 - Modeling Railways

Entering & editing of railroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283
Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of Trains“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291
Railroads on Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297

Chapter 9 - Data Import

Introduction to CadnaA
6 Contents

Import & Calibration of Bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
DXF-Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
SHP-Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
ODBC-Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 10 - Groups & Variants

Structuring Data by Defining Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
ObjectTree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Managing Projects using Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Chapter 11 - Modify Objects

Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Modify Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Duplicating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Force Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Force Right Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Object Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Modify Order of Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Simplify Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Break into pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Connect Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Convert to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Generate Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Generate Station. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Generate Building Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Generate Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Generate Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Parallel Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Swap Name/ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Delete Duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Fit DTM to Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Introduction to CadnaA
 Contents 7

Fit Object to DTM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .439

Break Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .441
Break Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443
Lua Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .449

Chapter 12 - Context Menu

Edit Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457
Modify Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .459
Import here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461
Cross Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .463
3D (Special) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .465
Set Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .467

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Introduction to CadnaA
8 Contents

Introduction to CadnaA
 License Agreement 9

License Agreement
Important notice: Please carefully read this software license agreement be-
fore using the software. By installing the software, you agree to be bound by
the terms and conditions of this license agreement. If you do not agree to all
of the terms and conditions of this license agreement, you are not allowed to
use the software.
1. SUBJECT MATTER OF THE AGREEMENT: DataKustik GmbH
grants the customer a non-exclusive right to use for the software includ-
ing its documentation. A customer is a natural or legal person. Subsid-
iaries or affiliated companies are separate legal entities and therefore
separate customers. The right of use is granted for one customer only.
The property right and the copyright in the software do not pass to the
customer. The license is issued for use on one single computer worksta-
tion. For any further computer workstation, a separate license agree-
ment will be required.
2. COPY PROTECTION: The software is copy protected with a dongle.
The license dongle represents the value of the software and cannot be
replaced in case of loss. The DataKustik GmbH takes no responsibility
or obligation for the purchased license dongle. The customer shall bear
full responsibility in case of loss and may purchase a new license accord-
ing to the current price conditions.
3. COPY PROHIBITON: Neither the licensed software nor the docu-
mentation, in whole or in parts, may be copied. The only exception to
this rule is the generation of a machine-readable copy of the software
for backup or archiving purposes. Any copy made by the customer for
these purposes must include all copyright or other proprietary notices
contained on the original.
4. ASSIGNMENT AND TRANSFER: The assignment to third parties of
rights and obligations arising out of this license agreement, and the
transfer of the software for use is subject to prior express written per-

Introduction to CadnaA
10 License Agreement

mission of DataKustik GmbH. In particular the customer may not rent,

lease, lend or sublicense the software without prior express written per-
mission of DataKustik GmbH. The splitting of one license bundle (cli-
ent-server-license) is subject to prior written permission of DataKustik
GmbH.
5. USE OF TRADEMARKS: The customer is permitted to use the trade-
marks and commercial names used by DataKustik GmbH to identify
printouts, provided that (a) these printouts were produced by the
licensed software using an electronic printing medium, (b) these trade-
marks and commercial names are identified in the same way as done so
by DataKustik GmbH, and (c) the customer stops using these trade-
marks and commercial names upon termination of this license agree-
ment.
6. PROHIBITION OF MODIFICATION: The customer may not mod-
ify the licensed software in any way or have it modified by third parties.
The customer may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the
software or any part thereof.
7. UNAUTHORISED USE: The customer undertakes to ensure that his
employees and any other person subject to the customer's instructions,
having access to the licensed software, comply with all obligations of
safeguarding and the duty of care and diligence arising out of this agree-
ment. The customer furthermore undertakes to ensure that no person
gains access to the licensed software with the aim of deriving the source
code. If the customer becomes aware of any such persons as indicated
in the first sentence of this clause, using the software in violation of the
obligations of safeguarding and the duty of care and diligence men-
tioned, he shall immediately take any possible action to prevent such use
contrary to agreement. He shall inform DataKustik GmbH in writing
of any such use contrary to agreement, should it continue nonetheless.
8. INDEMNITY: DataKustik GmbH is entitled to the protection rights
and the copyright in the licensed software. The customer can be held
liable by DataKustik GmbH for any violation of such protection rights
which he is answerable for.

Introduction to CadnaA
 License Agreement 11

9. WARRANTY: The customer recognises that errors in the software and

the pertinent documentation cannot be excluded given the state of the
art. If, within 30 days from delivery to the customer, the customer
asserts any deviation of the software from the software specifications/
description, he has the right to return the defective software including
the dongle to his supplier, and to demand delivery of a new software
version. If remedial measures cannot be taken or fail, the customer has
the right to demand a cancellation of the agreement. In this case, the
customer shall destroy any and all copies that he may have generated. In
states where national legislation requires a term of notice of defect of
more than 30 days, that legally provided term shall be taken to apply, if
the software is purchased and used there. Any further warranty claims
are expressly excluded. DataKustik GmbH neither warrants that the
software features satisfy the customer's requirements nor that they are
compatible in the selection made by the customer. Any liability for lost
profit, for damage to or loss of saved data and for any other indirect or
consequential damages is also excluded, unless resulting from grossly
negligent or wilful action by DataKustik GmbH. Any warranty, liability
or indemnity, etc. promised by a third party (e.g. by a distributor) to be
granted by DataKustik GmbH is not binding for DataKustik GmbH.
10. PROTECTION RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES: If the customer is
held liable by a third party because of an alleged violation of a patent
right, copyright, or any other protection right that said third party may
have in the licensed software, DataKustik GmbH shall immediately be
informed in writing of the alleged violation of protection rights, and
DataKustik GmbH shall be supported sufficiently in any lawsuit. If the
customer is held liable by a third party in this way, DataKustik GmbH
has the right to choose, at its own discretion, to either provide the cus-
tomer with the appropriate license by the third party in question, to
modify the licensed software, to supply the customer with an equivalent
different software, or to take back the licensed software, in which case
the license fees shall be fully reimbursed to the customer. DataKustik
GmbH is not liable for violations of protection rights which are due to
the fact that the customer altered or modified the licensed software to

Introduction to CadnaA
12 License Agreement

suit his needs, or that the licensed software is used or sold in combina-
tion with other software, hardware or consumables not supplied by
DataKustik GmbH. This material liability is the total of any liability
assumed by DataKustik GmbH for violations of any patent right, trade-
mark right, copyright or other intangible property rights.
11. SOFTWARE UPDATES: As an error-free data exchange of our soft-
ware can only be granted if the software of one customer is at the same
version level on all computer workstations, DataKustik always supplies
the most recent version of the licensed software to the customer. In the
case of acquiring additional license rights, the customer is obliged to
update the existing licenses beforehand. A parallel use of different ver-
sions within the same customer is not allowed for the same reason.
DataKustik GmbH reserves the right to charge the customer with addi-
tional license fees for such updated versions.
12. LEGAL INVALIDITY OF CONTRACTUAL PROVISIONS: Should
one single or several provisions of this agreement be or become invalid,
this shall not affect the effectiveness of the remaining provisions of the
agreement. The invalid provision(s) will then have to be re-interpreted
or supplemented in such a way that the originally intended commercial
purpose is lawfully achieved.
13. DISCLAIM: This contract, including all provided documents, rep-
resents the full agreement between the parties. Collateral agreements do
not exist. All references or information by the contracting party with
regard to the validity of his terms and conditions is herewith explicitly
rejected.
CadnaA is a registered trademark of DataKustik GmbH, Germany.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 13
1.1 CadnaA - The leading software for calculating environmental noise

Chapter 1 - Introduction 1

1.1 CadnaA - The leading software for calculating

environmental noise
CadnaA is a software program for the calculation and the assessment of
noise and air pollution. The program fulfills the requirements for
professional experts.
The software calculates and predicts the noise immission in the vicinity of:
• commercial and industrial sites,
• sports and leisure facilities,
and of traffic systems like
• road and railways,
• airports and landing strips, or
• any other noisy facilities.
CadnaA is suitable for noise prediction in local studies as well as for detailed
analyses of mapping noise scenarios in large cities (option XL). Powerful fea-
tures include incredible screen displays, handling and output of graphical
grids and the use of scanned bitmap plans (option BMP). CadnaA enables
automatic optimization of barriers and the automatic allocation of noise quo-
ta (option BPL). Aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports, landing strips and
related facilities is calculated with the additional option FLG.
The option APL („Air Pollution“) extends the range of application to the cal-
culation, the assessment, and the presentation of air pollutants distribution.
Basic to all, CadnaA has the ability to import and export data from and to
third-party software programs (e.g. ArcView, MapInfo, DXF, or from
databases via the ODBC-interface).

Introduction to CadnaA
 14 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.1 CadnaA - The leading software for calculating environmental noise

The sound level during pass-by’s with time history and auralisation of moving
1 sources, the different 3D-views of your project when moving through, the
PCSP (Program Controlled Segmented Processing) to accelerate calculation
of large projects, the groups and variants, and result table are just some
highlights of CadnaA.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 15
1.2 Structure of CadnaA documentation

1.2 Structure of CadnaA documentation 1

The full range of documentation provided with the CadnaA software
consists of the following parts:

Document Contents

Introduction (present manual) installation, editing of objects, modes

of calculation, modeling industrial,
road, and railway noise, basic import
features & grouping concept, Modify
Objects & context menu actions/
commands

Reference manual detailed description of all dialogs and

their options (sources, obstacles,
topography, immission), configura-
tion dialog, import/export, graph-
ics/bitmaps, tables & libraries,
project organization

„Attributes, Variables, and Key- listings of object attributes, variables

words“ manual & keywords, handling of string oper-
ations, operators & functions, proto-
col abbreviations

The present introductory manual provides in chapters 1 and 2 basic Structure of this
information on the CadnaA software and describes the installation manual
procedure for local and server-installations.
In chapters 3 to 5 the basics on how to enter objects and the steps to
perform calculations for all noise types are explained.
In chapters 6 to 8 you will find explanations for all noise types (industrial,
road, and railway) on an introductory level. This is achieved using examples
with sequences of actions to take.

Introduction to CadnaA
 16 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.2 Structure of CadnaA documentation

Chapters 9 and 10 cover comprehensive subjects like data import and the
1 grouping concept in CadnaA. Also this is explained on an introductory level
to enabling progress and results also for beginners.
The chapters 11 and 12 list and describe all commands which are available on
the CadnaA specific dialog Modify Objects and on the object-specific
context menus.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 17
1.3 Selecting Calculation Standards

1.3 Selecting Calculation Standards 1

By selecting a desired country from the drop-down menu
Calculation|Configuration, tab „Country“ the software will be configured
to the corresponding standards for calculation of industry, road and railways.
The choice will depend on options purchased.
Standards and guidelines, however, do not describe all possible situations or
scenarios, so that the range of application being covered originally had to be
extended in many cases.
• In all cases the user of the software is responsible for the interpretation
and results of the calculation and analysis. We do not take liability for false
calculation results and their consequences caused by improper input data
and system configuration. The licence agreement (also accessible via the
online help) is accepted when using the software.
• When switching calculation standards, not all data or values can be
adapted afterwards automatically with source parameters having been
entered prior to calculation. In any case, the user must check and adapt
the data accordingly. For example, selecting the German standards for
railway noise using their train classes to evaluate the emission level will
produce wrong emission levels when switching to the French standard as
in France not the same train classes and corrections apply.
The correct calculation can be proven by official test cases. These are Test Cases 1.3.0
unambiguously described situations published by authorized institutions. For
the time being the following test cases are available:
• „Test cases for the testing of calculation software according to the
Guidelines for Noise Control at Roads (RLS90) - Test 94“, published by
the Federal Ministry for Traffic, Germany (available in German only)
• Draft of „Test cases for the testing of calculation software according to
the Guidelines for Noise Control at Railways (Schall03) - Test-Schall 03 -
95“ by Deutsche Bahn AG, Akustik 03.1, February 1996 (available in
German only)

Introduction to CadnaA
 18 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.3 Selecting Calculation Standards

• „Test cases for the testing of calculation software according to the appen-
1 dix on the MagLev Train-Noise, Noise act - Test-Transrapid - Akustik
03.2“, January 1997 (available in German only).
• comparative calculation and certification using a test airport by the The
Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt)
• test cases as described in the annex of RVS 4.02.11 „Lärmschutz“, per let-
ter of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, 13 February 2006
(Austria).

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 19
1.4 System Requirements

1.4 System Requirements 1

This paragraph list the minimum and recommended requirements to run
CadnaA with version 32-bit and 64-bit. The figures in brackets refer to the
notes at the end of this listing.
• dual-core processor from Intel (Core 2 series) or from AMD (Athlon X2 Minimum requirements
series) [1] for CadnaA 32-bit
• 2 GB RAM [2]
• 150 MB free disk space for the software installation
• 1 GB free disk space for project files [3]
• OpenGL 3.3 graphics card with minimum 512 MB real graphic memory
[4]
• operating system Microsoft Windows Vista [5][7]

• multi-core processor from Intel (Core i series) or from AMD (Phenom II Recommended
or FX series) [1] requirements for
• 4 GB RAM [2] CadnaA 32-bit
• 150 MB free disk space for the software installation
• 10 GB free disk space for project files [3]
• OpenGL 3.3 graphics card with minimum 1 GB real graphic memory [4]
• operating system Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
[5][7]

• multi-core processor from Intel (Core i series) or from AMD (Phenom II Minimum requirements
or FX series) with 64-bit extension [1] for CadnaA 64-bit
• 4 GB RAM [2]
• 150 MB free disk space for the software installation
• 1 GB free disk space for project files [3]
• OpenGL 3.3 graphics card with minimum 1 GB real graphic memory [4]
• 64-bit operating system Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows
10 [5][6]

Introduction to CadnaA
 20 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.4 System Requirements

Recommended • multi-core processor from Intel (Core i series) or from AMD (Phenom II
1 requirements for or FX series) with 64-bit extension [1]
CadnaA 64-bit • 8 GB RAM [2]
• 150 MB free disk space for the software installation
• 50 GB free disk space for project files [3]
• OpenGL 3.3 graphics card with minimum 2 GB real graphic memory [4]
• 64-bit operating system Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows
10 [5][6]

Notes 1. It is assumed that the processor has at least 2 cores and supports the
SSE3 instruction set. In order to use the 64-bit version the respective
64-bit instruction set (Intel 64 or AMD64) is required.
2. The amount of RAM required depends on the number and size of the
actual project.
3. The amount of disk space required depends on the number and size of
the projects.
4. To use the hardware accelerated 3D-Special view a graphics card with
OpenGL 3.3 support is required with up-to-date graphics card drivers
installed. The amount of graphics memory required depends on the size
of the project and on the screen resolution. Using a chip-set graphics
card or graphics card with no dedicated graphics memory ("shared
memory") may result in display errors.
5. It is assumed that the operating system is kept up-to-date. This includes
installing the latest available updates or service packs and all updates,
either provided by Windows Update or updates being classified by
Microsoft as "important" updates.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 21
1.4 System Requirements

6. For CadnaA (64-bit) a 64-bit operating system is mandatory as well as a

processor with 64 bit-extension. Supported operating systems are (64- 1
bit only): Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Win-
dows 10.
7. CadnaA (32-bit) can be installed and run on a 64-bit operating system.
Supported operating systems are (32-bit or 64-bit): Microsoft Windows
Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10.
CadnaA supports multiple monitors and the feature „DPI aware“ offered by Multiple Monitors
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 operating systems for automatic scaling of
screen fonts and icons depending on the screen‘s resolution.

Introduction to CadnaA
 22 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.4 System Requirements

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 1 - Introduction 23
1.5 How to learn CadnaA

1.5 How to learn CadnaA 1

The introductory manual describes the installation of CadnaA and all
features on the beginner’s level without replacing the thorough study of the
reference-manual.
In order to become familiar with the new features of the present CadnaA-re- CADNAA for
lease, we recommend to study the chapter 1.2 New Features of CadnaA 2018 experienced users
with its cross-references in the CadnaA reference manual. Alternatively, you
can open the corresponding pdf file on the CadnaA CD using Adobe® Read-
er® clicking on the hyperlinks to navigate to the respective chapters.
In this introductory manual all features for entering and editing of objects are CADNAA for beginners
described, as well as all modes of calculation (receiver point, horizontal &
vertical grid, building evaluation). Furthermore, you will find solutions and
hints for tasks relevant to the noise types industry, road, and railroad.
The documentation assumes that you are familiar with the Microsoft® Win-
dows® operating system, with mouse operations and general PC-handling. In
case this does not apply, please refer to the according Microsoft®-manuals or
the Windows®-online-help.
To get to know CadnaA we suggest you - after installation - to study at least
the following chapters in this introductory manual:
• chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA:
This chapter explains the main window of CadnaA and its symbols.
• chapter 4 - Basics:
This chapter describes how to enter objects using the mouse or the
keyboard.
• chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation:
Within this chapter all CadnaA-modes of calculation (receiver point, hor-
izontal & vertical grid, building evaluation) are explained with examples.
• chapters 6 to 8 - Modeling industrial, road, and railroad sources:
These chapters treat noise type relevant tasks which are explained step-
by-step in examples.

Introduction to CadnaA
 24 Chapter 1 - Introduction
1.5 How to learn CadnaA

• Chapters 9 and 10 cover the import features to import geometrical and

1 noise-type specific data from other file types and the group concept of
CadnaA.
When having studied this introductory manual you will have gathered
information on the main features of CadnaA.
Dialog Modify Objects & All actions on the dialog Modify Objects and the context menu of objects
Context Menu are described in chapters 11 and 12. Explanations of the terms used in the
Commands CadnaA-dialogs can be found in the WINDOWS help or in the index of the
reference manual. Should that not be the case we would be glad to hear from
you. We pride ourselves on making your introduction to, and used of,
CadnaA easy and enjoyable.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 25
2.1 Installing CadnaA

Chapter 2 - Installation
2

2.1 Installing CadnaA

In order to install CadnaA proceed as follows: Installing CadnaA
• Start your PC running one of the Microsoft operating systems Windows
Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10.
• Login as an administrator. Restart the operating system if required.
• Prior to the installation, close all other running software programs (e.g.
virus scanners).
• Insert the CadnaA CD into your CD-drive (e.g. drive D:). The
installation procedure starts automatically.
• If not or when using the download version of CadnaA, double-click the
file setup.exe on the CadnaA CD.
• Follow the instructions displayed on the screen.
After completion of the installation, the CadnaA-program link is located on
the Windows-StartUp-menu on Program Files\Datakustik\CadnaA.

 The software CadnaA cannot be run from CD.

CadnaA is copy-protected by a HASP-SRM-dongle. It requires to install the Installing the HASP-SRM-

dongle-driver to properly use the software. Proceed as follows: dongle driver

• Change to the drive with the CadnaA CD (e.g. D:) and open the directory
Support\HASP.
• Run the file HASPUserSetup.exe in order to install the dongle driver.

Introduction to CadnaA
 26 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.1 Installing CadnaA

• When the driver-installation is completed connect the HASP-SRM-don-

gle to a free USB-port.
2  In order to use a network-dongle the dongle-driver has to be installed
on all local client-PCs and on the server-PC as well.
Software-Updates When receiving an update of CadnaA you may overwrite the installed
version or you may install it to a different directory. An update is always a full
version, therefore, the former version is not required.

 Please consider that files created by a newer version of CadnaA may

not be opened correctly with a former version. Thus, some objects may
not be displayed when opening those files with a former version.
DataKustik guarantees the downward compatibility of files (i.e. files
may be opened with newer, but not necessarily with older versions of
CadnaA).

INI-files INI-files are used by software programs to save user-defined settings and
other parameters. From INI files these settings are loaded when starting the
software. CadnaA can use several of such INI-files, each having different set-
tings.
Start CadnaA and configure all the settings as desired, for example regarding
the position and size of the CadnaA main window by dragging it to the de-
sired position and size. When CadnaA is closed all settings are saved to the
CADNAA.INI-file.
Displaying the INI-file By selecting the command Open INI-file from the Options menu the INI-
file currently used by CadnaA is opened and displayed, regardless of the spe-
cific location where the INI file is stored on the system (see below).

 By selecting the command Save As in the text editor, you may locate
the directory where this INI-file is stored.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 27
2.1 Installing CadnaA

By the initial installation procedure no INI file is written. The INI file is, First installation of
however, written when running and quitting CadnaA for the first time. CadnaA
Depending on the operating system this file is located in the following
2
directories (assuming that no CADNAA.INI was available on the system
prior to the installation):
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local

 With releases prior to CadnaA 4.1, the file CADNAA.INI is written to

the Windows directory by default (usually C:\Windows). The operating
systems Windows Vista and Windows 7/8, however, refuse the genera-
tion of INI files in the Windows directory and redirect them automati-
cally to a directory in the user profile (for example:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows).
This automatic redirection, however, works only for 32 bit applications.
Using CadnaA 64-bit on systems Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows 7/
8 64-bit will fail to generate the INI file inside the Windows directory
when not having administrator rights.
When installing an update (i.e. there is already a CADNAA.INI available on Installing an Update of
the system) CadnaA starts scanning directories for an INI file using the fol- CadnaA
lowing sequence:
1. LOCAL_APPDATA (in subdirectory Datakustik\CadnaA)
2. APPDATA (in subdirectory Datakustik\CadnaA)
3. COMMON_APPDATA (in subdirectory Datakustik\CadnaA)
4. Windows directory
The first INI file found will be used. If the first found INI file is write-
protected or the user has not sufficient access rights a corresponding warning
message will be displayed.

 In order to display the directories APPDATA activate the option

„display filename extensions and hidden folders“.

Introduction to CadnaA
 28 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.1 Installing CadnaA

Using several INI-files CadnaA can be started using an explicitly specified INI file by adding a
command line parameter in the shortcut. For this purpose, change the target
of the shortcut usually containing the program call, for example:
2
C:\Program Files\DataKustik\CadnaA\cna32.exe
Append to this entry a space and the parameter „/ini=…“ using the absolute
path to the respective INI file, for example resulting in:
C:\Program Files\DataKustik\CadnaA\cna32.exe /ini=C:\Data\CNA1.INI
If the path or file name has spaces, the parameter value has to be put in
quotation marks. For example, a possible target is:
C:\Program Files\DataKustik\CadnaA\cna32.exe /ini="C:\My Data\CNA1.INI"
Please note that this parameter can only be interpreted as long as CadnaA is
started via the modified shortcut. When using multiple shortcuts (on the start
menu, shortcut on desktop, etc.) they have to be modified each.
Specific Dongle Access In order to access a particular HASP dongle - when having several of them
attached - edit the target of the shortcut used to launch the software, for
example:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Datakustik\CadnaA\cna32.exe /hasp=XXXXXXXXXX
Where XXXXXXXXXX represents the ten-digit HASP number.
Note that the HASP number does not correspond to the identifier code
printed on the dongle (starting by letter L or S), but represents the internal
dongle ID which is displayed in the „Key ID“ column on „Sentinel Keys“ tab
of the AdminControlCenter. (for figure see chapter 2.1).
Using a specific language The language setting of the user interface, however, is not saved in the INI
file. This command has to be entered to the target of the shortcut as well. In
order to launch CadnaA always with the English front-end append to the
target a space and the parameter „/lang=eng“, again using the absolute path
(provided this language is coded on the dongle). For example:
C:\Program Files\Datakustik\CadnaA\cna32.exe /lang=eng /ini=\Data\CNA2.INI

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 29
2.1 Installing CadnaA

The command Check for Updates on the Help menu enables to check Check for Updates
whether the CadnaA installation with regard to the standards and license
configuration as coded on the dongle is up to date.
2
This feature requires an active Internet connection since the required
information is retrieved from the DataKustik web-site.
At the first call the dialog CadnaA Update appears. First Call

The following options are available:

• Always check for updates: Each time CadnaA is started it will be checked via
the Internet connection, whether the standards and license configuration
is up to date.
If this is not the case, the available, newer versions of CadnaA and their
new features are displayed on the Dialog CadnaA Software Updates.
Use the provided link to download the latest version from the DataKustik
website (http://www.datakustik.com/nc/en/service-support/updates/). Install
this update after download.

Dialog CadnaA Software Updates (partial view)

Introduction to CadnaA
 30 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.1 Installing CadnaA

• option „Also display beta and intermediate versions“: When enabled, not only
official releases, but also beta and intermediate releases are checked for
new features and displayed.
2
• Never check for updates: Selecting this option will permanently disable the
check for updates for the current and for all future sessions of CadnaA.
This means that from now on no more automatic checks via this program
feature occur.
In this case, a further check for updates can just be carried out by select-
ing the command Check for Updates. If the standards and license con-
figuration is not up to date, the dialog CadnaA Software Updates is
displayed. Otherwise, this message appears:

Subsequent change of The options as selected on the dialog CadnaA Update are saved to the
configuration CADNAA.INI file open closing CadnaA. In order to subsequently change
the configuration of the feature „Check for Updates“ (e.g. from „Never
check for updates“ to „Always check for updates“), proceed as follows:
• Close CadnaA.
• Locate the currently used file CADNAA.INI (see section "INI-files").
• Open the CADNAA.INI file.
• Search in the INI-file the section starting with the line „[Update
Notifications]“ and delete it and all subsequent three rows (starting with
Policy, Beta and LastAvailableBuild).
• Save and close the file CADNAA.INI.
• Start CadnaA.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 31
2.2 Sentinel Admin Control Center

2.2 Sentinel Admin Control Center

The Sentinel Admin Control Center is installed parallel with the HASP-
2
SRM-dongle-driver automatically. The Admin Control Center is used for di-
agnosis in case of dongle-access problems (e.g. locally or within a network) or
when recoding the dongle-configuration.
A recoding of the dongle-configuration is required when a single or several Recoding
CadnaA-options, further standards, or objects shall be enabled. In those cas- the Dongle-
es you will receive a new dongle-configuration file from DataKustik having a Configuration
file extension *.v2c („vendor-to-customer“). This configuration file is at-
tached using the Sentinel Admin Control Center in order to recode the
HASP-SRM-dongle.
Proceed as follows:
• Quit all processes (i.e. main dialogs) of CadnaA on your PC.

 When recoding a HASP-SRM-network dongle all processes attached to

this network dongle of CadnaA on all client-PCs must be closed.
• Ensure that the HASP-SRM-dongle to be recoded is attached to a free
USB-port of the PC presently in use.

 In order to recode a HASP-SRM-network dongle detach it from the

server-PC and connect to the PC presently in use.
• Start the software on the WINDOWS-StartUp-menu on Program
Files\Datakustik\CadnaA\HASP Admin Control Center.

Introduction to CadnaA
 32 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.2 Sentinel Admin Control Center

The Sentinel Admin Control Center is displayed in your web-browser.

• Click in the menu „Administration Options“ (on the left) the item
„HASP Keys“ to display all attached dongles in a list.

All locally attached, as well as - if available - all network dongles on the net-
work are displayed in the table.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 33
2.2 Sentinel Admin Control Center

• Now, click in the menu „Administration Options“ the item „Update/

Attach“.
2

• Select the V2C-file sent by DataKustik using the button „Search“.

• When the file has been selected click on button „Apply File“ in order to
start the coding procedure.
Upon termination of the coding procedure a message is displayed.

Introduction to CadnaA
 34 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.2 Sentinel Admin Control Center

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 2 - Installation 35
2.3 Select Language

2.3 Select Language

The CadnaA user-interface is multi-lingual. For the time being, the software
2
may use one of the following languages:
• German
• English
• French
• Italian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Slovak
• Spanish
• Czech
• Turkish
• Korean
• Chinese (traditional & Mandarin)
The available languages are displayed on the menu Option|Language.
When CadnaA is started, it automatically selects the language corresponding
to the country setting in the Windows system. This setting is also the default
setting for CadnaA. If a language not available in CadnaA is required, the
program will be started in English.
Select the language to be used for CadnaA on the dialog Language. Then Change Language
exit and restart CadnaA. The selected language is active now.

Introduction to CadnaA
 36 Chapter 2 - Installation
2.3 Select Language

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 37

Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA

3
In CadnaA, selecting some menu items causes functions to be executed im-
mediately while selecting other menu items opens a dialog.
When you choose an item followed by ellipses (...) a dialog appears.
When a keyboard-shortcut is shown next to a menu command this can be
used to select the respective command without opening the menu.

Introduction to CadnaA
 38 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 39
3.1 The Main Window of CadnaA

3.1 The Main Window of CadnaA

Double-clicking the program icon on the Windows-desktop or an alternative Starting CadnaA
click on the link on the Start menu in Programs/Datakustik/CadnaA of
MS-WINDOWS starts CadnaA and the main window opens. 3
Main Window

On the main window, all objects can be entered and edited using mouse, Working with mouse and
keyboard, and digitizer in parallel. Inserting an object at the same time creates keyboard in parallel
a new data record in the pertinent object list (Tables menu).
Dialogs and also the toolbox can be moved on the desktop by positioning the
mouse pointer on the title bar of the dialog while pressing the left mouse
button. Now, drag the dialog to the desired position with the mouse button
held down. Release it at the new location.

Introduction to CadnaA
 40 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA
3.1 The Main Window of CadnaA

Symbols On the symbol of CadnaA symbols are shown which upon clicking with the
mouse immediately trigger a function (i.e. serving as shortcuts). The func-
tions of each symbols is displayed on a tooltip when the mouse arrow is posi-
tioned on a symbol. When now the left mouse button is kept depressed the
3 function will, additionally, be displayed on the status bar (see also Help text
under Show Icon Bar).
Status Bar The status bar runs horizontally along the bottom of the CadnaA main win-
dow.
If, with the left mouse button held down, the mouse pointer is positioned on
an icon from the icon bar or from the toolbox, information about the perti-
nent function will appear on the left side of the status bar.
As the mouse pointer is moved across the screen, the right site on the status
bar will show the coordinates and, after a calculation, also the levels (L) calcu-
lated and, if applicable, also the ground height (G), for that point which the
mouse pointer is currently positioned on.

Status Bar on/off The status bar can be turned on and off via the Options menu by clicking
the menu item Show Status Bar.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 41
3.2 Symbol Bar

3.2 Symbol Bar

The symbol bar (or tool bar) can be turned on and off by clicking
Options|Show Toolbar. The following list boxes are available:
combo box to select the scale from the list or by typing in a 3
value

list box to select and to display an existing variant, default:

variant V01

list box to select the evaluation parameter as defined on

menu Calculation|Configuration, tab „Evaluation
Parameter“

and the following symbols:

opens an existing file

saves the file

saves the file using a new name

exports according to the present export settings into a file

opens the dialog PlotDesigner

copies contents, section or selected object to the clipboard

calculates at receivers and building evaluations

calculate the grid

show bitmap display options

display 3D-Special view

Introduction to CadnaA
 42 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA
3.2 Symbol Bar

display ObjectTree

fix objects

Edit Symbol Bar The symbol bar of CadnaA can be edited (see chapter 9.6 in the CadnaA
Reference manual).

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 43
3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox
The toolbox is part of the CadnaA main window and shows the symbols
representing the different object types. It can be positioned at any location on
the desktop. To this end, click its upper border with the left mouse button 3
and hold the button depressed while moving the mouse to a different
position on the window. When having reached the desired position, release
the mouse button.
An object type is selected by clicking the desired symbol once, or - if available Select Object Type
- by pressing the respective key combination, i.e. the CTRL key plus the
respective letter key simultaneously.

Toolbox (icon size „default“)

Instead of activating an object type by clicking on the respective symbol, Toolbox Symbols
some objects can also be selected using key combinations. In this case, press
the control key (CTRL) plus a character key at the same time. All available
keyboard shortcuts are listed in the table below.

Introduction to CadnaA
 44 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA
3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

Functional Group Function/Element Symbol Positioning

Method *)

3 Edit Functions Select Edit Mode (CTRL+E) -

Zoom in 3

Zoom out 1

Zoom to Limits 1

Sources Point Source (CTRL+Q) 1

Line Source (CTRL+L) 2

Area Source, horiz. (CTRL+F) 2

vertical Area Source 2

Road (CTRL+S, CTRL+R) 2

Crossing (CTRL+A) 1

Parking Lot (CTRL+P) 2

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 45
3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

Functional Group Function/Element Symbol Positioning

Method *)

Railway (CTRL+B) 2
3

Tennis, Point of Serve 1

Optimizable Source 2

Power Plant Source (inactive) 1, 2

Obstacles Building (CTRL+H) 2

Barrier (CTRL+W) 2

Bridge Plate 2

Ground Absorption 2

Built-Up Area 2

Foliage 2

Contour Line 2

Introduction to CadnaA
 46 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA
3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

Functional Group Function/Element Symbol Positioning

Method *)

Line of Fault 2
3

Cylinder 4

3D-Reflector 2

Embankment 2

Height Point 1

Objects for Receiver Point (CTRL+I) 1

Evaluation

Building Evaluation 1

Calculation Area 2

Vertical Grid 2

Area of Designated Use 2

Objects for Bitmap 3

Display

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 47
3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

Functional Group Function/Element Symbol Positioning

Method *)

Level Box 1
3

Text Box 3

Section 3

Auxiliary Polygon 2

Symbol 3

Station 1

*) see chapter 4.2.1 "Inserting Objects using the Mouse"

By clicking onto an object type icon while holding the ALT-key depressed the Open Object Table
respective object table from the Tables menu is displayed.

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3.3 CadnaA-Toolbox

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 49
3.4 Keyboard

3.4 Keyboard
Menu items in CadnaA can be called by using access keys (underlined letters)
from the keyboard. To this end, hold down the ALT key, type the access key
of the menu in question, release ALT key, and then type only the access key 3
of the requested command. For example, to select the Save command, press
ALT+F at the same time (File menu opens), release both keys, and then type
the letter s for Save (saving the document).
But it is not just menu items that can be accessed via the keyboard. Also
icons in the toolbox can be selected using a hotkey. To this end, hold down
the control (CTRL) key and type the respective letter (see chapter 3.3).

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3.4 Keyboard

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 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 51
3.5 Mouse Buttons

3.5 Mouse Buttons

„Click“ means to press and release a mouse button once. „Double-click“
means to rapidly press and release the left mouse button twice.
3
To select an option, execute a command, select an object, or activate an Click with Left Mouse
object icon, place the mouse pointer on that option, icon, command, or - in Button
the graphics - on the border or the centre line of an object or line object and
click the mouse button.
Unless stated otherwise, mouse actions always refer to the left button. If you
are left-handed, or the mouse was configured differently, use the appropriate
button instead.

CadnaA features dialogs with lists where you can highlight and select several Multiple Selections
rows at the same time.
Click the desired row using the left mouse button. Clicking a different row Selecting one row
deselects the one selected before.
Click the first row using the left mouse button, press and hold down SHIFT Selecting several consec-
while clicking the last row to be selected. All rows lying in between are utive rows
highlighted and selected as well.
Press and hold down the CTRL key while clicking the desired rows. Selecting several rows in
an arbitrary sequence

Double-clicking an existing object or a data record in a table opens the Double-click with Left
pertinent Edit Object dialog enabling to enter the relevant parameters. Mouse Button

Clicking with the right mouse button means to rapidly press and release the Click with Right
right mouse button. Depending on which mode you are working in, using the Mouse Button
right mouse button has two different effects.

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3.5 Mouse Buttons

Entering an Object & When entering an object with the mouse in the main window of CadnaA,
opening its Dialog the insertion process for the object is completed by clicking the right mouse
button once. By a further click with the right mouse button the object dialog
is displayed.
3 Context menu objects Clicking on an object with the right mouse button in edit mode or a data line
in a table, a context menu (see Chapter 12 - Context Menu) is displayed.

Context menu opened (here with object „Building“)

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3.6 Control Elements

3.6 Control Elements

Option Button

3
Option buttons are control elements indicating whether a condition is true or
false. If true = yes, a black dot appears in the option button. The mouse
pointer is used for activation/deactivation. Within one set of options, only
one option can be active at one time.
Check Box

Check boxes are control elements indicating whether a condition is true or

false. When the check box is activated, an X or ü appears in the square,
indicating that the condition is true (active). Otherwise, the condition is false
(inactive).
List Box/
Combo box

A list box contains a list of data of which only one value can apply. The value
selected will be displayed in the list box, and the selected option is thus acti-
vated. In combo box, you can either select a value or enter a user-defined
one.
To make the list drop down, click the arrow to the right of the box. In some
cases, like in the example above, you will find an option button next to the list
box. Click this first to activate the list box.

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3.6 Control Elements

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 3 - Working with CadnaA 55
3.7 Windows-Help

3.7 Windows-Help
While working with CadnaA, the WINDOWS-Online-Help is just one click
away.
To call the Help: 3

• Press key F1 (or click the Help icon on the icon bar), or
• on a dialog, click the “Help” button.
Proceed as follows: Searching for a Help-
Topic
1. Click on the left column in dialog CadnaA-Help on the tab „Index“.
2. Enter the first or more letters of the key to be searched for. When
entering text the help-system will jump to the first matching keyword.
3. Double-click on a topic in the list or select a topic and press the
RETURN-key. Subsequently the help-system displays the topic
selected.

 Use as much as possible terms for searching found in dialogs or on

menus.
Proceed as follows: Searching for any kind of
text
1. Click on the left column in dialog CadnaA-Help on the tab „Search“.
2. Enter the first or more letters to be searched for into the box „Type
Keywords“.
3. Press the RETURN-key or click the button „Search“ to start the search.
4. Double-click on a topic in the list „Choose a Topic“ or select a topic
and press the RETURN-key. Subsequently the help-system displays the
topic selected.

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3.7 Windows-Help

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 4 - Basics 57
4.1 Files

Chapter 4 - Basics

4.1 Files
4
In CadnaA all files have the file extension CNA which does not need to be
entered when saving a file, but is appended to the file name automatically.
The import feature (see there) enables to import a CadnaA file into an
existing file.
Selecting the New command on the File menu opens a new, „blank“ file . If New
a file has already been opened and edited, but the modifications have not yet
been saved, a safety check dialog appears enabling to save the present file.
Selecting the command Open from the File menu (or by clicking the symbol Open
on the symbol bar) an existing file can be selected, opened, and edited (or by
the key combination: CTRL+O).
Selecting this command on the File menu saves the present file (including Save
any changes) using the existing filename. If it is a new file which has not been
saved before the Save As dialog opens.
With the Save As command, a new file can be entered saving the file using Save As
that name. In case the new filename already exists, a safety check dialog
appears enabling to cancel the saving procedure.
Clicking „Yes“ will overwrite the existing file. Clicking „No“ cancels the
saving procedure. In this case the active file must be saved using a different,
not existing filename.
An opened file can be locked. In this case the file cannot be saved using the Lock Files
same filename. To this end, select the command Lock on the File menu.
When attempting to save this file with the same filename, a dialog indicating
the locking is displayed. In this case the locking can be reversed by clicking
„Yes“ or be canceled by clicking „No“. A locked file can only be saved using
a different filename.

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4.1 Files

When having activated the Auto-Save feature (menu Options|Auto-Save)

the dialog will open as well if the filename of the auto-save-file uses the
filename of the locked file. Enter a different filename to auto-save your file, if
necessary.
Exit Select this command to exit CadnaA. If the active file has been edited but
not yet been saved, a dialog appears enabling to save this file prior to closing
4
the software.

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 59
4.2 Insert Objects

4.2 Insert Objects

All graphical elements available on the CadnaA main window are called ob-
jects. They can be inserted in different ways:
• using the mouse (see chapter 4.2.1)
• from the keyboard (see chapter 4.2.2)
4
• via tables (see chapter 11.1 in the CadnaA Reference Manual)
• by digitizing (see chapter 8.1 in the CadnaA Reference Manual)
• by importing (see chapter 7.1 in the CadnaA Reference Manual) and
• single objects also via the Windows clipboard (see chapter 4.3.7).
When inserting objects, the mouse, the keyboard, and the digitizer (if
configured) may be used simultaneously. There is no need to switch between
those items.
To position an object, first activate the desired object icon on the toolbox
either by clicking it with the mouse or by pressing the respective hotkey (see
chapter 3.3). Under the insertion mode, the icon just clicked then sticks to the
mouse cursor.

Now, insert the object selected into the CadnaA main window either by
pressing the mouse button and/or pulling the mouse or via keyboard by
entering the coordinates. At the same time, a data set is generated in the re-
spective object table (on the Tables menu).
An insertion procedure is finalized by either Finalizing the insertion
procedure
• pressing the right mouse button, or
• pressing the RETURN key, or
• changing to a different object type by clicking the respective icon on the
toolbox or by pressing the pertinent hotkey, or
• changing to the edit mode by clicking the respective icon or pressing
CTRL+E.

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4.2 Insert Objects

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 61
4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the Mouse

4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the Mouse

There are four different ways of positioning or inserting objects using the
mouse, depending on which object was selected (see chapter 3.3).

(e.g. point source, receiver point, level box) Positioning Method 1:

Insertion of Points
Position the object at the desired location on the CadnaA main window by 4
clicking with the left mouse button. Each click will insert one object in the
window, and generate the data set ion the respective object table.

(e.g. line sources, roads, railways, barriers, buildings, areas) Positioning Method 2:
Polygons and Lines
To insert lines or polygon lines and polygons, activate the respective icon,
then point to the desired starting point of the line or the desired first corner
of the polygon, and click. By this click, the first polygon point has been
inserted. The mouse pointer now pulls a "rubber band" line from that point
to any location the mouse is moved to. Pressing the mouse button again
defines the second polygon point. Press the left mouse button at every point
where the polygon line changes its direction. Each of these clicks will insert a
further polygon point which can be edited or deleted afterwards.
As soon as the line or the polygon has the desired length or dimensions, ter-
minate the insertion procedure. In the case of polygons, the last point
inserted is then connected to the starting point to give a closed polygon line.
Open or closed polygons may have arbitrary shapes. In order to force a right Right Angles
angle press the SHIFT key while moving the mouse. In this case just rectan-
gular moves are possible after clicking.

 If you want to produce a closed rectangular polygon with a mouse

always start with the longer side and press the SHIFT key on input.
With SHIFT key depressed enter the first, second, and if required further
points in the usual way by clicking at the respective location with the mouse.
However, do not click the last point on the final edge-point but on the al-
ready entered first point. By this, the last point is entered at the right location
and the polygon can be closed by clicking the right mouse button.

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4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the Mouse

Segment Length While drawing an open or closed polygon you can enter fixed predefined seg-
ments holding the CTRL key pressed. Enter the desired length (m) for the
segment. The default value is 10 m. With this you could enter e.g. equal
elements for an noise barrier.
Rectangles When drawing rectangles (e.g. buildings), it is useful to start with the longer
side. After having entered the third point for the shorter side, position the
4
mouse pointer on the starting point. Please click on the starting point, to
enter the third longer side automatically with it‘s correct length. Close the
rectangle by a final click using the right mouse button. This procedure is
recommended especially when entering buildings having a rectangular
outline.

Positioning Method 3: After activation of the respective icon, move the mouse pointer to that
Text Box and Zoom + location where one corner of the box or rectangle is to be positioned. Press
the left mouse button and hold it depressed while moving the mouse in the
direction of the desired opposite corner. Release the mouse button when the
desired location has been reached.

Positioning Method 4: The cylinder is defined by clicking two points. The first point defines the ra-
Cylinder dius center, the second the radius length.

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4.2.2 Inserting Objects via the Keyboard

4.2.2 Inserting Objects via the Keyboard

First activate the desired object icon on the toolbox. You can now enter the
desired coordinates from the keyboard. As you enter the first number, the di-
alog Input of Point opens.

Orthogonal coordinates may be entered as x-and-y pairs, and polar coordi-

nates as a pair of radius and angle. In the first case, which is the default set-
ting, the check box „Polar“ is deactivated, in the latter it is activated.
The coordinates are entered either as absolute coordinates with respect to the
origin x/y = 0/0 (this being the default setting), or as relative coordinates
with respect to the last point. In the first case, the check box is deactivated, in
the latter it is activated.
When entering several points in a series, you can arbitrarily switch between
the insertion modes using the mouse button, keyboard, and digitizer on the
one hand, and between orthogonal and polar, or absolute and relative coordi-
nates on the other hand. The result of an entry can be seen up-to-date at any
time in the graphic representation.
Insertion of a building of 30 m x 10 m, where the left corner of the 30-m fa- Example
cade is positioned at a specific location in the map and the front is inclined
towards the x-axis by an angle of 40°.
• Activate the Building icon by clicking the same on the toolbox or by
pressing the hotkey CTRL+H.
• Click the desired position of the building corner to be positioned (using
the mouse pointer in the graphical representation of the map on the
screen, or the digitizer magnifier on the paper map).

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4.2.2 Inserting Objects via the Keyboard

• Enter the value 40, press TAB, enter the value 30, activate the check boxes
Relative and Polar, and confirm by pressing RETURN (the first side of
the building is drawn).
• Enter the values 90 and 10 with the same settings and confirm (the sec-
ond side of the building is drawn).
• Enter the values 90 and 30 (third side of the building) and press the right
mouse button (the rectangle is closed).

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4.3 Editing Objects in the Graphics

4.3 Editing Objects in the Graphics

While in the edit mode, objects displayed in the graphics can be edited. By
editing the object’s geometry and properties are defined.
In order to switch to edit mode, click the respective symbol in the toolbox or
press the key combination CTRL+e. Afterwards select the object by clicking
4
onto it using the mouse. The object is then marked and its geometry (poly-
gon points) can be edited.
For all line-like objects (e.g. line sources, barriers) and area-like objects (e.g. Line and Area Objects
area sources, buildings) entered by a series of points two different edit modes
are available:
• polygon point mode (see chapter 4.3.1) and
• stretching mode (see chapter 4.3.2).
By clicking the edit mode symbol in the toolbox, the polygon point mode is
selected automatically. Press the TAB-key to toggle both modes.
An object is selected by clicking onto its border, or, in case of roads and rail- Selecting an Object
ways, by clicking onto its centre line, by using the left or right mouse button.
Clicking with the right mouse button opens the context menu offering fur-
ther commands for this object (see Chapter 12 - Context Menu).
Double-clicking with the left mouse button opens the respective object
dialog (see chapter 4.4.1).
Changes of object geometry via the CadnaA main window can be undone Undo
(see chapter 4.3.8 "Deleting Objects").

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4.3 Editing Objects in the Graphics

Marker Size On menu Options|Miscellaneous the size of the marker points (displayed
when an object is highlighted) can be selected.

Marker Size: size 2 on the left, size 5 on the right

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 67
4.3.1 Polygon Point Mode

4.3.1 Polygon Point Mode

selected polygon line selected polygon

In the insertion mode (see chapter 4.2) each click with the mouse defines a
polygon point.
In the polygon point mode, these polygon points bear markers. You can
move, insert, delete, or allocate a height to individual polygon points.
To move a polygon point, click it, and, with the mouse button held down (the Moving a Polygon Point
mouse pointer turns into a black arrow), drag it to the desired location.

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4.3.1 Polygon Point Mode

Adding a Polygon Point To add a polygon point, select the object as described above. Now, if you
press CTRL, the mouse pointer turns into a black arrow carrying along a box
with a plus sign in it. If you click the border of the object using this arrow, a
new polygon point will be added.

press CTRL-key near the polygon with additional

polygon’s border polygon point

Deleting a Polygon Point To delete a polygon point, press both CTRL and SHIFT at the same time.
Again, a black arrow appears, this time carrying along a box with a minus
sign. Any polygon point now clicked will be deleted.

press CTRL+SHIFT-keys and click onto The polygon point is deleted.

the polygon point to be deleted

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 4 - Basics 69
4.3.2 Stretching Mode

4.3.2 Stretching Mode

The stretching mode (enabled using the TAB key) does not allow you to in-
sert, delete, or move polygon points, but you can modify the size of the entire
object by stretching or squeezing it (see Change Dimensions further below in
this chapter).
Selected polygon in stretching mode. The object is marked by an invisible
rectangle. By dragging the markers of this rectangle with the mouse button
held down, the size of the object as a whole is modified.

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4.3.2 Stretching Mode

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 71
4.3.3 Relocating Objects

4.3.3 Relocating Objects

To move a selected object, position the mouse pointer on the border, not on
a polygon point, of the object, or, in the case of roads and railways, on the
centre line. Hold down the mouse button and a crossed arrow appears.

Then move the object to the desired location. The object is moved, and the
co-ordinates are updated in the pertinent object list.
To move an object horizontally or vertically along the x or y axes, press SHIFT
while you move it.

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4.3.3 Relocating Objects

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 4 - Basics 73
4.3.4 Change Dimensions

4.3.4 Change Dimensions

If the polygon point mode (see above) is activated, switch to the stretching
mode by pressing TAB, and select the object by clicking its border. Then posi-
tion the mouse pointer on one of the black markers at the sides or corners of
the rectangle around the selected object, and hold the mouse button down.
The mouse pointer turns into a two-headed arrow. Now you can enlarge or 4
reduce the entire object by moving the mouse in the appropriate direction.

object activated in stretching mode stretching the object to the

right using the mouse

Dragging the corner markers enlarges or reduces the object while maintain-
ing its proportions.
You can also adapt the size of an object by pressing SHIFT and/or CTRL.
SHIFT symmetrical change of dimensions
CTRL change of dimensions in discrete steps
SHIFT+CTRL symmetrical change of dimensions in discrete steps

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4.3.4 Change Dimensions

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 75
4.3.5 Rotating Objects

4.3.5 Rotating Objects

To rotate an object mark it by a mouse click first and press the ALT-key. A
arrow-headed circle appears indicating that you are in object rotation mode.
Move the mouse circular around the object: The object is rotated by the
respective angle.
4

To rotate the object in steps of 90° keep the SHIFT-key depressed in

addition.

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4.3.5 Rotating Objects

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 77
4.3.6 Copying Objects

4.3.6 Copying Objects

In CadnaA, objects can be copied within the graphics and via the Windows
clipboard. Copying within the graphics refers to a selected object, whereas to
the clipboard, you may not only copy individual objects, but also the entire
graphics or limits, or Section thereof, all at once.
Select the object to be copied. Then hold the mouse button down while Copying within 4
moving the object to the location where you wish to position the copy. the Graphics
Before releasing the mouse button, press CTRL. This generates a copy of the
selected object at the desired location.

step 1: activate object step 2: keep mouse button and

CTRL-key depressed

step 3: Release mouse button before releasing the CTRL-key. The copy is generated.

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 78 Chapter 4 - Basics
4.3.6 Copying Objects

At the same time, a further data record, with the transformed coordinates,
but otherwise unchanged data of the copied object, is inserted in the perti-
nent object list.
To generate a copy of an object and at the same time rotate it by 90° about
the vertical or horizontal axis, press and hold the CTRL+SHIFT keys during
copying. This generates an object of the same size and parameters as the
4
existing object, with its centre at the same x or y coordinate as the copied
object.
Copying to Clipboard To copy objects to the clipboard, you can either

• click the pertinent icon on the icon bar , or

• select the Edit|Copy command, or
• press CTRL+C.
If objects have been copied to the Windows clipboard, you can paste them in
a different Windows application for further editing by selecting the
Edit|Paste command, or, alternatively, by pressing CTRL+V.
Copying a single Object Select the desired object and execute one of the Copy commands.
Copying Sections Use the Section icon ( ) on the toolbox to define a Section.

To this end, position the mouse pointer on the upper-left corner of the
desired Section. Then, with the mouse button held down, drag the mouse to
the lower-right corner of the desired Section where you release the mouse
button. The area is marked by a rectangle.
Now switch to the Edit mode, select the rectangle and press, e.g., CTRL+C.
The selected Section is thus copied to the clipboard.
The rectangle marking the Section is neither copied nor printed, but only the
objects lying within the Section.
Copying Limits To copy the entire graphics with the defined limits, execute one of the Copy
commands. During this procedure, none of the objects must be selected.

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 79
4.3.7 Inserting from the Clipboard

4.3.7 Inserting from the Clipboard

You may insert the contents of the MS-Windows clipboard with CTRL+V or
with the function from the menu Edit|Paste into the graphics provided it is a
meta file.
The inserted clipboard contents will then be a Symbol object (see chapter
9.11.3 in the CadnaA-reference manual) and also gets therefore its object 4
options.
With it you are able to insert directly into the graphics cross section figures,
3D-Special views or tables quickly and easily.
The inserted meta file from the clipboard may not be bigger then 1024 pixel.
If that were so a frame with a cross inside appears. In that case you have to
use the CadnaA option BMP (see chapter 10.1 in the CadnaA reference
manual and chapter 9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps in this manual).

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4.3.7 Inserting from the Clipboard

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 81
4.3.8 Deleting Objects

4.3.8 Deleting Objects

Press DEL to delete a selected object. The object will thus be deleted from
the CadnaA main window and also from the object table. When another
object of the same type exists, this will be automatically selected after deletion
of the previous one so that this object can be deleted as well by pressing again
the DEL key. 4
The Delete command from the context menu (see Chapter 12 - Context Delete (Context Menu)
Menu) has the same effect. Using this command also deletes just the selected
object.
In order to delete a large number of objects of the same or of different object Action „Delete“ (dialog
types select the action „Delete“ from the dialog Modify Objects (via the Modify Objects)
context menu of the CadnaA main window).
The command Edit|Undo or the key combination CTRL+z enables to Undo
undo the following actions stepwise:
• changes of an object’s geometry on the CadnaA main window, for
example:
 adding/deleting a polygon point
 relocating an object
 rotating/stretching of objects
• editing of objects via their object dialog, for example:
 changing numerical values or text
 selecting an option from a list box
 activating/deactivating a check-box
• deletion of objects

 In order to retrieve a data row of an object table, first close the table and
select the command Undo afterwards.

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4.3.8 Deleting Objects

The last action is listed on the Edit menu. The following strings are used:
• Undo Geometry <Object Type>
• Undo Edit <Object Type>
• Undo Delete <Object Type>

4 Further Remarks • The action "Undo" is applied stepwise in inverse direction of the input
sequence of actions (for up to 256 steps).
• When editing objects, closing the object dialog by OK will count as an
action while closing the dialog via button "Cancel" will not.
• The command is not applicable with actions for groups of objects (e.g. via
dialog Modify Objects) and just for the deletion of objects in the object
tables (Tables menu).

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4.4 Editing Objects

4.4 Editing Objects

After having entered an object graphically with its coordinates the necessary
object data (e.g. number of cars per day or hour on a road, speed, road sur-
face or just the emission value) must be edited. This is usually achieved via
the object’s edit-dialog using the keyboard. However, object data may also be
imported using the various import filter in CadnaA (e.g. the ODBC inter- 4
face, see chapter 7.3 in the CadnaA reference manual or chapter 9.5 in this
manual).
To this end, to edit or to delete a object, first switch to the Edit Mode by ei-
ther clicking the pertinent icon or pressing the hotkey CTRL+E. Then, in the
graphic representation, you can choose among three different methods to
open the dialog:
• within input mode enabled (see chapter 4.2 "Insert Objects"):
Click with the right mouse button once on the object, either onto its bor-
der (e.g. area source, buildings) or onto its centre line (e.g. road, railway).
• within edit mode enabled (CTRL+e):
 double-click the borderline of the object or onto its centre line (with
roads or railways), or
 locate the mouse pointer onto the border of the respective object.
Clicking with the right mouse button opens the context menu. Select
the command Edit using the left mouse button or press the
RETURN-key while the object is selected.

Changes of an object’s geometry on the CadnaA main window or editing pa- Undo
rameters of objects via their object dialog, can be undone (see chapter 4.3.8
"Deleting Objects").
Data sets can also be edited via the respective object table (see chapter 11.1.3 Editing an Object Table
"Editing Table Cells" in the CadnaA-reference manual).

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4.4 Editing Objects

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 Chapter 4 - Basics 85
4.4.1 Edit Object Dialog

4.4.1 Edit Object Dialog

An object dialog serves to enter all parameters characterizing an object.

Example of an object dialog, here a point source (industrial source)

The required input values are entered into the respective input boxes using
the keyboard or by selecting from e.g. a list box. The input boxes and options
being available depend on both, on the object type and on the selected
calculation standard or guideline. By pressing the TAB key the insertion mark
jumps between input boxes.
Some input boxes may receive equations causing the equation being
calculated and displayed immediately. In the example shown above, the result
for the resulting sound power level is displayed in box „Result. PWL“ for the
periods Day|Evening|Night.
Further information on the object- and guideline-specific dialogs for the
source groups industry, road, and railway is provided in the following
chapters of the CadnaA Reference Manual:
• chapter 2.1 "Industrial Sources"
• chapter 2.4 "Roads"
• chapter 2.6 "Railways"

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4.4.1 Edit Object Dialog

Information on all further source types available is provided in Chapter 2 -

Sound Sources of the CadnaA Reference Manual.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

The boxes Name, ID, and the buttons Info and ObjectTree are described
below since they appear on almost every dialog of an object. The other fea-
tures will be dealt with in the relevant chapters.
The Name box contains an object name which appears in the first column of Name
the object table. It may comprise several thousand characters. However, since 4
the column width is adapted to accommodate the longest character string
among the names, it is recommended you use short terms. One of the
possibilities for finding an object is to search for its name (see chapter 4.5).

The symbol „Info“ is available on each object dialog. When you click it, the Info-button
dialog Memo-Window opens where you can enter specific object
information and/or string variables. The contents of the memo-window is
not printed but the value of string variables defined here can be referenced
and, thus, be exported. The dialog Memo-Window may contain up to
30,000 characters.
If the dialog contains any information, the symbol „Info“ appears in blue,
otherwise in grey.
In order to define a string variable write into a single line first its name, Defining String Variable
followed by an equal sign (without any space) and after the equal sign the
value or text. The value of a text variable can be referred to by using the
string variable’s name.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

Example String Variable GRN0=07115

In this example, GRN0 is the name of the string variable containing a
reference number. The number 07115 can be displayed e.g. in a separate col-
umn in the Result Table for receiver points by entering the variable’s name
GRN0 as expression.
4 With the string variables you can also revert to information stored in
databases, which have an ODBC-interface (see chapter 9.5 "ODBC-Import")
like MS Excel or MS Access, to save them by your CadnaA objects in the
memo-window.
For that the string variable has to be stored together with the equals sign and
the information in a field of the database.

ID 4.4.2 The ID-code is a string of up to 23 characters serving to identify an object or

a spectrum in the libraries. The limitation to 23 characters includes the part
of the ID due to group generation within the ObjectTree , if any (see section
„ObjectTree“ in this chapter).
The ID is used to organize objects in groups (see chapter 10.1 "Structuring
Data by Defining Groups") and to activate or deactivate within variants. An
activated object will be considered in the calculation. Deactivated objects,
however, may appear in the graphical representation, but will not be consid-
ered in the calculation (.i.e. sources will not radiate, obstacles will not provide
a screening effect).
Rules for ID Within the ID-code just letters, numbers, and the underscore ("_") are
allowed. In particular, all special characters serving as operators are not
allowed (e.g. + - * / etc.). With the ID of spectra in the libraries a letter as
first sign is mandatory.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

For each defined group you can present the proportionate sound pressure Group Formation
level on the receiver points as partial sum level. The activation status, the ID,
and the group formation are powerful tools for the controlling of projects
and the handling of various project variants while using the same file (see
chapter 10.3 "Managing Projects using Variants").
The check box next to ID allows you to specify three different activation Activation States
4
states for an object by clicking:

If the check box is grey (default), the object is activated. This is the case
shown in the figure ("ID" written in black). The state can be manipulated by
grouping.

If "ID" is written in red, the object has been deactivated via a group and will
not be taken into account in the calculation.

If the box is checked with , the object will always be active no matter what
group it may belong to and whether or not that group, if any, is active. There-
fore, "ID" will always be written in black.

If the check box is white, the object will always be inactive no matter what
group it may belong to and whether or not that group, if any, is active. There-
fore, "ID" will always be written in red. In the graphical representation, these
objects will be drawn with dashed lines (default setting).

The button ObjectTree is located on every Edit Object dialog. By clicking ObjectTree 4.4.2
this symbol the Dialog Select for ObjectTree is displayed. In case an
ObjectTree has been defined (see chapter 10.2 "ObjectTree") the present ob-
ject can be sorted into an object group by a mouse-click.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

Hyperlink 4.4.2 In the Info field of the object dialog you can insert hyperlinks for files,
pictures, music, video, internet home pages etc. which you then can open eas-
ily by just a mouse click from the object’s context menu. For that enter the
memo variable HYPERLINK=file. „File“ stands for the entire path of a file
including its filename e.g.
HYPERLINK=T:\Reports\2198\diagram.xls.
4
If you intend to forward the CadnaA file together with all linked files you
should use a relative path specification. If necessary delete the path and name
of drive from the hyperlink. It will work if all files are saved together with the
CadnaA file in the same directory on a different destination.

Instead to enter the hyperlink via your keyboard you can alternatively insert
the hyperlink with drag and drop. Then the definition is entered
automatically. After this „Hyperlink“ is displayed in the object’s context menu
and in its local menu the linked filename (in the above example
„diagram.xls“). The file opens if you click onto its name. For the file you also
could enter an alias separated from its correct name with a vertical line . This
alias is then displayed instead the original name, e.g.:
HYPERLINK=diagram.xls|spectrum
You can define several hyperlinks on the memo-window.
The memo variable is a CadnaA attribute and can therefore also be changed
via the dialog Modify Objects, Action „Modify Attribute“, attribute:
MEMOTXTVAR, string variable: HYPERLINK.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

Objective: all path definitions shall be deleted globally. Example

• Modify Attribute as explained before

• Replace Strings: find what: *\\(*)
• replace with: \2
effects that all path definitions will be deleted - and replaced only with the
filename. 4

Enter the standard deviation in dB if you want to calculate the source related Standard Deviation 4.4.2
uncertainty (see chapter 6.2.2 in the CadnaA reference manual) of the
emission determination.

The button AUSTAL is available only when the option CadnaA-APL has AUSTAL 4.4.2
been purchased.
In the dialog Memo-Window of point, lines and area sources, and of roads
and railways you can define via button „AUSTAL“ the emission time series
of air pollutants in a table.
Further information is provided in the manual CadnaA-APL.

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4.4.2 Dialog Options Name, ID, INFO, ObjectTree

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4.4.3 Decimals in Edit Boxes

4.4.3 Decimals in Edit Boxes

Either the comma or the point may be selected as decimal separator via the
menu Options|Miscellaneous. The default setting is the point.
For all numbers with decimals entered in CadnaA, use the selected decimal
separator. Entering decimals without a leading zero is not accepted; a leading
zero is always required (so 0.01, not .01). 4

In many cases, the program accepts either a comma or a point, interpreting it Decimal separator in
as the active separating character. However, this is not possible in all dialogs. object dialogs
For example, in the edit polygon point dialog, but not in the table, you may
separate the decimals of the x, y and z coordinates of a polygon point, of
track centre line distance and slope by either a comma or point. In this case,
CadnaA is able to correct the decimal point or the comma by taking it as the
valid decimal separator.
In other boxes, however, which are used for performing calculation Decimal separator with
operations, decimals must be separated by a decimal point. Otherwise, the calculation operations
value will be misinterpreted or its acceptance refused.
Use the active decimal separator when you are editing in the object tables di- Decimal separator in
rectly. Otherwise it could be that the values are not correctly interpreted. object tables

The correct interpretation of the decimal separator of CadnaA in other Interpretation by other
WINDOWS software programs also depends, among other things, on the WINDOWS software
country settings of the operating system.
It could happen, e.g. in MS-Excel that values inserted from a CadnaA table Example: MS-Excel
via the clipboard are interpreted as a date and not with the correct number
format. In this case you may have chosen the comma as decimal separator in
the system settings. To rectify the false interpretation adjust the setting with a
point for the decimal separator.

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4.4.3 Decimals in Edit Boxes

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4.5 Search for Objects

4.5 Search for Objects

Use this command to search within the entire data stock, to identify and
retrieve objects for editing. When an object is found, it will be selected and
displayed in the window. Pressing the RETURN key will open the relevant
dialog. The Search dialog must remain opened.
4
The „Search Again“ button serves to start or continue the search procedure.
Either one or an arbitrary combination of the attributes Object Type, Name
and ID (see chapter 4.4.2) can be used to specify either all objects or each of
the objects to be retrieved. If more than one criterion is given, all criteria
(logical AND) have to be fulfilled (see chapter 4.1 in the CadnaA-manual
„Attributes, Variables, and Keywords“).

This input would search for a point source

named either „a“ or „c

Use the list box to select the type of object. By selecting the option: ?(All) all
kinds of objects are compared with the search criteria. Otherwise, only
objects of the specified type are searched for. Wildcards can be used as usual,
e.g. the asterisk (*).

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4.5 Search for Objects

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4.6 Scale & Zoom

4.6 Scale & Zoom

Use the zoom tools to modify the scale of the diagram, either via the editable
list box „Scale 1:“ on the symbol bar, or via the three global tools in the tool-
box:

Zoom + 4

Zoom -

Zoom to Limits

By clicking the arrow to the right of the box „Scale 1:“ on the icon bar, a list Combo Box
of predefined scales drops down. You may click the desired scale on that list. "Scale 1:“
The graphic on the CadnaA main window will be modified accordingly-

Combo box

You may also enter an arbitrary scale. Click the edit box and enter the desired
value. Then press RETURN.

The "Zoom +" icon on the toolbox allows you to enlarge the graphic Zoom +
representation of a specific area. After clicking this icon, the mouse pointer
drags along a little magnifier icon with a "+" sign.
There are two comfortable ways of enlarging a selected area:
1. Clicking an object with the left mouse button enlarges the graphic by a
factor of two with each click. The position of the mouse pointer
becomes the new centre of the displayed area.
2. If you hold the left mouse button down, you can draw a rectangle
around the objects you wish to enlarge. Upon releasing the mouse but-
ton, the area within the rectangle will be enlarged so as to fill the screen.

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4.6 Scale & Zoom

The enlarging is undone in reverse order by clicking with the right mouse
button.

Zoom - The "Zoom -" icon on the toolbox allows you to reduce the graphic
representation of a specific area. After clicking this icon, the mouse pointer
drags along a little magnifier icon with a "-" sign.
4
Clicking an object with the left mouse button reduces its size by a factor of
two. You may repeat this several times.
The reducing is undone in reverse order by clicking with the right mouse but-
ton.

Zoom to Limits All objects lying outside the visible area will immediately be shown on the
CadnaA main window when you click this icon. The scale of the
representation is automatically selected according to the dimensions of the
limits and the size of the CadnaA main window.
If you hold the SHIFT key depressed while clicking the "Zoom to Limits"
icon, CadnaA will recalculate the limits and will also show all objects in the
window. However, the new limits are only temporary (analogous to the
command Options|Limits|Calc), which means the limits specified by the
user are not overwritten.
This feature is convenient where the specified limits cover a wide area
containing relatively few objects, or if the objects all lie within a small propor-
tion of the limits.

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4.7 Synchronization Graphics & Tables

4.7 Synchronization Graphics & Tables

All objects inserted via the graphics will automatically be adopted as data
records in the pertinent table of objects and vice versa. An object entered by
giving its data in the table of objects will appear as a graphic object in the
CadnaA main window. The tables of objects are all compiled under the
pertinent category term on the Tables menu. 4
A check mark in front of an item on the Tables menu indicates that data
records of that type are available.

As you know, the tool icons (see chapter 3.3) from the toolbox can be Open Tables with
activated via shortcuts. The edit mode, e.g., with CTRL+E, the road icon Shortcuts
with CTRL+S (see also online help keyword „Shortcut“).
You can also open the corresponding table of objects with the same character
keys, but without the CTRL key and you can close it again with the ESC key.
You press, e.g., the key s that opens the road table, key b for the railway table
and so on. By doing so the first data record is activated automatically.

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4.7 Synchronization Graphics & Tables

Synchronization The tables and the graphics are synchronized. When a record in a table is se-
lected, the corresponding graphic object on the main window is as well. Even
an individual polygon point, edited on a Geometry dialog, will be flashing so
you always know what you are working on.

Features in Object
4 Tables

Editing data records In order to edit a data record in a table, double-click into the row of the
record. The object dialog opens.
Copying and Inserting a To copy a data record from a table, just click on the appropriate row. Now
data record press the key combination CTRL+c to copy the record. Now, add a new row
to the table by clicking with the right mouse button into the table (selecting
Insert before/after). Make sure that the focus is on this new row and press
the key combination CTRL+v. The copied data record is inserted into the
new row.
Deleting a data record In order to delete a data record from a table first click into the respective row.
Now, press the DEL key or select the command Delete from the context
menu (right mouse button). Consequently, the corresponding graphical
object in the graphics is deleted as well.
The deleted data record can be undone by the command Edit|Undo (up to
256 operations).
The deletion of groups of object, however, cannot be undone (e.g. objects
being deleted by using the dialog Modify Objects, see Chapter 11 - Modify
Objects).

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Chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation

The following objects are available on the CadnaA toolbox for the
calculation of sound levels:

Receiver Point: Individual receiver points can be defined at any lo- 5

cation using the mouse or the keyboard.

Calculation Area: This object serves to restrict the range of

calculation for horizontal grids.

Vertical Grid: This object serves to define a vertical projection sur-

face for a vertical grid.

Building Evaluation: For buildings being marked by a building

evaluation symbol the façade levels of which are calculated.

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 Chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation 103
5.1 Receiver Point

5.1 Receiver Point

The most frequent evaluation method in noise calculation is the calculation

of noise levels at defined receiver points. To this end, select the object "Re-
ceiver“ from the CadnaA-toolbox place using the mouse or the keyboard at
the desired location within your project screen.

Object "Receiver" on the toolbox

For the calculation and evaluation at individual receiver points the following
features are available that are not found with grid calculations:
• A calculation protocol which contains all input and intermediate values of
the calculation (e.g. the attenuation terms) can be generated.
• Acoustic rays can be displayed between the sources and the receiver/s
which enables a geometric analysis of the propagation paths, including
reflections.
• An exceedance is indicated for - locally or globally - defined limiting val-
ues by a red coloring of the receiver symbol.
• The partial level list shows the partial levels of all sources contributing to
the overall level at the receiver point.
• Receivers can be snapped at buildings to ensure a defined distance to the
facade’s surface.

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5.1 Receiver Point

Configuration Industry The following examples are based on the use of a point sound source
ISO 9613 (industrial source) and application of the standard ISO 9613. In case you
want to follow the examples using CadnaA yourself, select this standard on
the menu Calculation|Configuration on the tab "Country" at first. Either
select a "Country" which is linked to the standard ISO 9613 automatically or
select "(user-defined)" under "Country" and then select the "ISO 9613" from
the list box "Industry".

Standard ISO 9613 for source group "industry" selected

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5.1.1 Sound propagation according to ISO 9613-2

5.1.1 Sound propagation according to ISO 9613-2

The A-weighted sound pressure level at a receiver point LAT (equivalent con-
tinuous sound pressure level) according to ISO 9613-2 is calculated by:

L AT  L w  D I  D  - A div - A atm - A gr - A bar - A misc

5

where:

PWL sound power level in dB, relative to the reference sound

power of 1 pW

DI directivity index: deviation of the continuous sound

pressure level for the directionally radiating source in a
specified direction from the level of an omnidirectional
point source with the sound power level PWL.
For building radiation the directivity index in CadnaA con-
siders the self-screening effect.

D (K0) Correction for solid angle: Term that accounts for sound
propagation into angles of less than 4 steradians.

Adiv attenuation due to geometrical divergence:

The geometrical divergence calculates from the distance d
between source and receiver:
Adiv = [20 lg (d/d0) + 11] dB

with d distance source-receiver, d0 = 1m

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5.1.1 Sound propagation according to ISO 9613-2

Aatm atmospheric absorption:

Aatm =L * d / 1000
where
L atmospheric attenuation coefficient per kilometre,
d distance source-receiver.
5 In CadnaA, for the default frequency of 500 Hz, the atten-
uation coefficient is 0.002 dB/m.

Agr attenuation due to ground effect

Abar attenuation due to screening (due to berms, barriers, build-

ings, topography, cylinders, etc.)

Amisc attenuation due to miscellaneous effects:

- foliage Afol
- industrial sites Asite
- housing Ahous

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5.1.2 A-Weighted Sound Power Level as Emission Value

5.1.2 A-Weighted Sound Power Level as Emission Value

Enter a point source (x, y) = (100, 100) via the keyboard. To this end,
proceed as follows:
• Move the vertical scroll bar down and the horizontal scroll bar to the left.
The coordinate origin (x, y) = (0, 0) is now in the lower left corner. You
can check this with the help of the mouse and the coordinates being dis-
played on the status bar.
5
• Select the object "point source" from the toolbox with the mouse. The
symbol of the point source is now attached to the mouse arrow.

Object Point Source selected from the toolbox

• Now, enter the x-coordinate 100 using the numerical keys or the numeri-
cal keypad of your keyboard. Upon entering of the first figure the dialog
„Input of Point“ is displayed:

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5.1.2 A-Weighted Sound Power Level as Emission Value

5 • Finalize the input of the point source’s coordinates (x, y) = (100.100).

• After click on OK the point source is shown.
• Check for the correctness of the coordinates in the dialog of the point
source. Change to it into the edit mode by click to the symbol ( ) in
the toolbox.
• Double-click on the point source. Note that the border of the point
source represents the "hot spot".
• Click on the point source’s dialog on the button "geometry". The entered
coordinates are displayed.

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5.1.2 A-Weighted Sound Power Level as Emission Value

• Close the dialog Point Geometry and enter for the emission level of the
point source a PWL of 100 dB(A). Since "Single band" is chosen under
„Type“, this value is interpreted as the A-weighted sound power level.

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5.1.3 Effect of Distance and Air Absorption

5.1.3 Effect of Distance and Air Absorption

In the following, the effects of geometrical divergence and of air absorption
are examined.
• Open the dialog Geometry of the point source once more. Enter a height
of 1000 m for the point source.

 Due to this height, there is influence of the ground attenuation and the
5 ground reflection on the calculation result.
• Choose the object "receiver" from the toolbox. Enter - in the same way
like for the point source - the coordinates (x, y) = (200,100).
• Double-click on the border of the receiver point to open the dialog.
• Set the receiver height on the Geometry dialog to 1000 m.
• Activate the option "Generate Rays (as Aux. Polygons)" at the lower end
of the dialog.

Point source and receiver point being entered

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5.1.3 Effect of Distance and Air Absorption

• Start the calculation by clicking on the pocket calculator symbol on the

symbol bar ( ).

• Then, open the dialog of the receiver point to check for the calculated
sound pressure level.

Receiver: resulting level LpA = 48,8 dB(A)

Since the ground attenuation (Agr) and the reflection (Domega) can be
neglected at a height of 1000 m, the calculated sound pressure level is just due
to divergence and air absorption.
LAT = LwA - Adiv - Datm
Thus:
LAT = 100 dB(A) - [20 lg (100m/1m) + 11] dB - 0,002 dB/m * 100 m
LAT = 100 dB(A) - 51 dB - 0,2 dB = 48,8 dB(A)

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5.1.4 Calculation Protocol

5.1.4 Calculation Protocol

All details of the calculation can be inspected via the CadnaA-calculation
protocol. The protocol displays all emission and immission values, including
the attenuation terms for each partial source at every receiver point.
• First, save the file to a directory on your local drive.
• Now, open via menu Calculation|Protocol the dialog Calculation
5 Protocol and activate „Write Protocol“ and close the dialog by OK.

• Restart the calculation via the pocket calculator symbol on the tool
bar.
• Open the calculation protocol via menu Calculation|Protocol, and click
the button „Print“.

 The protocol file is written to the directory where the CadnaA file was
saved to.
• Select the protocol preview for the receiver (IP1) with and click the
button "Preview".

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5.1.4 Calculation Protocol

On the protocol for receiver IP1 the point source is displayed:

5
Protocol at receiver IP1 for the point source

The attenuations due to geometrical divergence (Adiv = 51 dB) and air

absorption (Aatm = 0.2 dB) are listed.

In this case, the resulting level Lr corresponds to the sound pressure level at
the receiver during Day, Evening and Night (see column „DEN“).

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5.1.5 Correcting for Operating Time

5.1.5 Correcting for Operating Time

If a sound source is operating during a shorter period of time tE than the du-
ration of the reference time interval tB, then the time correction Dt is added
to the calculated sound pressure level to obtain the average sound pressure
level during the reference time interval.
Dt = 10 lg (tE / tB)
5 The reference times are specified on dialog Calculation|Configuration, tab
„Reference Time“, by assigning the letters D (day), E (evening), and N (night)
respectively for every full hour.
Prior to this, select on tab „Evaluation Parameters“ the parameters Lde (day-
evening) and Ln (night).

Evaluation parameters Lde and Ln

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 Chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation 115
5.1.5 Correcting for Operating Time

Adjust the reference time on the tab „Reference Time“ as illustrated below.

Input of reference times and penalties (example)

The reference times considered here are as follows:

• for Day (7:00 -20:00 hours): 13 hours,
• for Evening/Recreation (6:00-7:00 hours and 20:00-22:00 hours): 3 hours,
• for Night (1 hour, activity during the loudest hour).
Set the penalty for Evening/Recreation to 6 dB (by default).

 The default penalty of 10 dB for night is not relevant as there is no

mixed evaluation parameter assessing the night period.

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5.1.5 Correcting for Operating Time

The actual operation time is entered on the dialog of the point source.
• First, select the option „Operating Time (min)“ instead of the default set-
ting „Source in Steady-State“.
In this example, half of the reference times are entered for the day and the
evening period, while for the night period a quarter is entered:
 Day: 390 min. operating time = ½ reference time (780 min.)
 Evening: 90 min. operating time = ½ reference time (180 min.)
5
 Night: 15 min. operating time = ¼ reference time (60 min.)

Thus, the following time corrections result:

 time correction day: DtT = 10 lg (390/780) = - 3 dB
 time corr. evening/recruitment: DtE = 10 lg (90/180) = - 3 dB
 time correction night: DtN = 10 lg (15/60) = - 6 dB
The A-weighted sound power levels of the point source and the receiver
levels during the time periods Day/Evening and Night result in this example
as:

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 Chapter 5 - Modes of Calculation 117
5.1.5 Correcting for Operating Time

1. time period Day/Evening:

emitted sound power Day/Evening:

receiver level Lde:

LAT = 98,9 dB(A) - 51 dB - 0,2 dB = 47,7 dB(A) 5

2. time period Night:

emitted sound power Night:
LwA(N) = 100 + 10 lg (15/60) dB = 94 dB(A)
receiver level Ln:
LAT = 94 dB(A) - 51 dB - 0,2 dB = 42,8 dB(A)
Those levels are displayed on the receiver’s dialog in CadnaA::

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5.1.6 Inserting an Area of Land Use

5.1.6 Inserting an Area of Land Use

In the following, an „Area of designated Land-Use“ is assigned to the
receiver point. Area of designated land-use object enable to address limiting
values based in general settings for different types of areas.
• Double-click on the receiver and deactivate on the receiver’s dialog the
option „Determine from Areas of Land Use“.
5 • Select for „Land Use“ the option „KU Kurgebiet“ (meaning „spa area“),
and for „Use Standard Values for“ the option „Industrial“.

 You may define your own areas of land use on the dialog Land Use
(Options menu). To this end, click in an empty row in column „Land
Use“ and enter respective limiting values depending on source type or
for total.

Area of Land Use „KU Kurgebiet“ (spa area)

• Select on the dialog of the point source the option „Source in Steady-
State“ causing the source to radiate permanently.

Option „Operating Time“ deactivated

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5.1.6 Inserting an Area of Land Use

• Recalculate by clicking the pocket calculator symbol.

The exceedance of a limiting value is indicated by the receiver turning to red
(depending an specified type of land-use and selected performance
parameter). In this case, the limiting value for the spa area is exceeded both,
during daytime and nighttime.

Receiver displayed in red: addressed limiting value exceeded

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5.1.7 Effect of Ground Absorption

5.1.7 Effect of Ground Absorption

In the standard ISO 9613-2 two different models for assessing the ground ef-
fect (ground attenuation) are described:
• the spectral model (ISO 9613-2, section 7.3.1), and
• the model for A-weighted sound pressure levels (section 7.3.2).
When calculating only the A-weighted sound pressure level the so-called „al-
5 ternative method“ according to ISO 9613-2 can be applied under the condi-
tions that
• the sound propagation occurs above porous or mostly porous ground,
• the sound is not a pure tone.
In this case, the ground attenuation Agr is calculated from:

 2h  300 
Agr  4.8  m 17   dB  0 dB
 d  d 

In order to calculate the ground attenuation for A-weighted levels according

to this formula, the setting on tab "industry" (on the dialog
Calculation|Configuration, „Ground Attenuation“) has to be either "not
spectral" or "spectral, spectral sources only".

Dialog Configuration, tab „Industry“

 For more details on the further settings for ground absorption see
chapter 6.2.9.1 in the CadnaA-reference manual.

 With selection "none" no ground attenuation is calculated (Agr = 0 dB),

however, the directivity correction according to formula (11), ISO
9613-2 is considered.

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5.1.7 Effect of Ground Absorption

 With setting „spectral, all sources“ the frequency dependent model is

applied („general method“). For sources the emission of which is
specified by the A-weighted sound power level the entered frequency is
considered to calculate the ground attenuation (default value: 500 Hz).
• On the example, reduce the height for the point source to 0.5 m above
ground, and for the receiver to 1.5 m.
• Restart the calculation.
5
The protocol shows a ground attenuation of Agr = 4.4 dB:

To consider the apparent increase of the sound power level of the source due
to ground reflections near the source, the directivity index D is added -
resulting from distance and heights of source and receiver (here in column
K0 showing +3 dB).

 With spectral ground attenuation selected the ground reflection is

already taken into account in the calculation of Aground. In this case, the
column „K0“ shows zero or - if any - the „K0 w/o Ground“ as entered
on the source‘s dialog.
In this example, a sound pressure level of 47.4 dB at the receiver’s location re-
sults.

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5.1.8 Directivity Index

5.1.8 Directivity Index

The directivity index D (=K0) is used to account for reflecting surfaces near
the source into angles of less than 4 steradians (sr). A point source with no
obstacles nearby radiates into an angle of 4 steradians.

 4 
K 0  10 lg  dB
5 
with the angle  (sr).
For an angle of 2 sr (e.g. a source near the ground) a correction of 3 dB ap-
plies.
In CadnaA, however, the level increase due to ground reflection is calculated
automatically for both, for the alternative (A-weighted) as well as for the gen-
eral method (frequency dependent). The value to be entered on the point
source’ dialog is, therefore, the directivity index not considering the ground
(thus „without ground“, i.e. ignoring the ground).

So, in order to specify the directivity index all reflecting surfaces besides the
ground are relevant for the value of K0 in CadnaA.
Examples for Din ISO point source above ground: solid angle 2 K0 w/o ground = 0 dB
9613-2 (resp. K0 in VDI
point source in front of a wall: solid angle  K0 w/o ground = 3 dB
2714)
point source in a corner: solid angle /2, K0 w/o ground = 6 dB

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5.1.9 Different Emission Day/Evening/Night

5.1.9 Different Emission Day/Evening/Night

In CadnaA, different emission can be specified and calculated for the three
time periods (Day, Evening, Night). To this end, adjustment or correction
values have to be entered into the corresponding input boxes „Correction“
on the noise source’ dialog (e.g. in order to consider a reduced emission
during the night-time).

Example: correction -20 dB for emission night-time

Upon recalculation of the sound pressure level at the receiver’s location the
night-time immission value has dropped by 20 dB with respect to the former
situation (28.8 dB(A) instead of 48.8 dB(A)).

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5.1.10 Screening Effect

5.1.10 Screening Effect

When objects are in the ray’s path, the screening effect is taken into account
by a corresponding barrier attenuation. This barrier attenuation is calculated
according to ISO 9613-2. As a rule, there are three paths considered in the
calculation: one over the top of the obstacle, and two lateral paths, around
each side.

three rays at a screening object section and top view

If several objects are in the ray’s path three paths are considered for every
pair source-receiver.

three rays at several screening objects section and top view

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5.1.10 Screening Effect

This procedure used for several objects - at which the lateral diffraction is ac-
counted for by the two rays around the arrangement of objects - is an
approximation. Actually, there is a variety of additional rays through the ar-
rangement of objects and these rays may determine the resulting levels in a
specific case. The described procedure, however, has proven to be an optimal
compromise with respect to the computation time and the on average result-
ing accuracy.
In CadnaA, the lateral diffraction can be turned off with time-intensive com- 5
putations including large amounts of screening objects. In this case, just the
ray path across the upper edges of the objects is considered in calculation of
the screening effect (Configuration|Calculation, tab "Industry").
In the following example, a building with the first corner located at (x1, y1) =
(140.90) is introduced.
• Select the object „Building“ from the toolbox.

• Enter the first corner point (coordinates see above) via the keyboard and
press OK.

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5.1.10 Screening Effect

• The next points can be defined relatively to the previous point. To this
end, activate the option "Relative" before entering the second point. The
second corner point {is located at x2 = 20 m to the right, while y2 = 0
m:

• Confirm by OK.
• Up to now, the building is just made from a single segment. CadnaA is
waiting for the third polygon point to be entered:

• Enter the third point at x3=0 m and y3=20 m.

• The fourth point is located at 20 m to the left, i.e. in negative x-direction.
So, the required value to be entered is x4=-20 m and y4=0 m.
• Close the building by clicking the right mouse button. Now, the building
looks like this:

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5.1.10 Screening Effect

• The building‘s height has still to be defined. Change to the edit mode
(symbol in the toolbox) and double-click on the border of the
building. Click on the button "Geometry" and enter a building height of
10 m.

• Click the pocket calculator-symbol on the symbol bar. The level due to
the screening effect at the building reduces to Lde=35.8 dB(A) or
Ln=13.9 dB(A).

 The calculation protocol (menu Calculation|Protocol) lists the barrier

attenuation Abar for the performance parameters Day (Ld = LrT) and
Night (Ln = LrN). The protocol does not show intermediate results for
mixed levels (e.g. Lde).

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5.1.11 Reflection

5.1.11 Reflection
All objects (e.g. building, cylinder, polygon object, barrier, 3D-reflector) can
be defined as reflective. An absorption or reflection coefficient can be as-
signed to their surface as a single number rating or as a spectrum.
The reflection calculation is carried out according to the image source meth-
od, i.e. additional image sources are taken into account for all possible ray
paths until a pre-defined order of reflection is met.
5
The following figure illustrates how the 3rd order of reflection is constructed
when sound propagates from source Q0 to receiver IP.

The maximum reflection order is specified via menu Calculation|Configu-

ration, tab "Reflection".

 Objects will be considered as reflective only if their dimensions, pro-

jected into ray direction, in relation to the wavelength exceed a pre-
defined value. For the simplified model based on A-weighted levels, the
frequency 500 Hz is supposed per default.

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5.1.11 Reflection

In order to continue with the preceding example a reflective barrier is

entered.
• Select the object „barrier“ from the toolbox.

• Enter the first polygon point via the keyboard at (x1,y1) = (130,140) and
press the OK.

• The next polygon point has the coordinates (x2,y2) = (170,140):

• Confirm your input by OK and click the right mouse button to finalize
the input-procedure. The barrier is now made of just a single segment.

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5.1.11 Reflection

• Double-click onto the barrier to define its parameters. Enter on dialog

Geometry a barrier height of 8 m.

• All obstacles in CadnaA are non-reflective at first. To change this, click in

the dialog Barrier on the option "Reflection Loss".
• Select the reflective properties of the two barrier sides via the two file
selector symbols . The directions "left" or "right" refer to the sides of
the barrier when looking from first point to the last point of the barrier’s
polygon line.

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5.1.11 Reflection

• Choose from the dialog Reflection Type the option „Smooth Facade /
refl. Barrier“ for either sides.

5
• WIth those settings finalized the barrier’s dialog looks like shown below.

• To include reflections in the calculation, the desired reflection order must

be specified on the CadnaA-configuration. To this end, open via menu
Calculation|Configuration the tab "Reflection" and select the 1st order
of reflection.
• Start the calculation by clicking the pocket calculator symbol.
• In the representation, the ray of 1st order reflected at the barrier is shown
besides the direct path:

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5.1.11 Reflection

• Double-click on the reflected beam (displayed as an auxiliary polygon).

The first part of the ID identifies this auxiliary polygon as a ray ("RAY").
The triple of numbers refers to the partial daytime level (Ld), in this case
44.1 dB, transmitted via this ray. The following detail "01" addresses the
order of reflection of the ray.

• Close the dialog and double-click on the direct path screened by the
building. The detail also contains the transmitted daytime level [Ld = 33.9
dB(A) and the reflection order (0th order = direct path). The letter „S"
indicates that the ray is screened by at least one object on it’s ray path.

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5.1.11 Reflection

• The protocol of calculation (menu Calculation|Protocol) lists the direct

path in the first line (column "Refl.", zero standing for 0th order of reflec-
tion) and in the second line the reflected ray (value "1" for 1st order of
reflection).

 The protocol of calculation shows the partial levels of the individual

orders of reflection just for the performance parameters Ld=LrT (day-
time) and Ln = LrN (night-time). For mixed parameters (e.g. Lde), how-
ever, no protocol exists. The ID of a ray relates to the most recently
calculated unmixed parameter (Ld, Le, or Ln).

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5.1.12 Partial Levels List

5.1.12 Partial Levels List

The noise level caused by one of many sources at a receiver point is the par-
tial level. The total immission level is the energetic sum of the partial levels.
The partial levels of several sources at a receiver can be listed on a table.
• Enter a point source using the mouse. Select the object "point source"
from the toolbox and click on an arbitrary location on the screen (scale
1:1000).
5
• In edit mode, click with the right mouse button on the border of the
point source. The point source’s edit window is opened. Enter an A-
weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A).

Entering an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A)

 This value being entered for the first object will be kept for all further
objects of the same type.
• Enter another 9 point sources using the mouse.
• Open the object table „Point Source“ on menu Tables|Sources|Point
Source.
• Click with the right mouse button into column „Name“ to open the con-
text menu.

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5.1.12 Partial Levels List

• Select the command „Change Column“.

Object table for point sources with context menu in column „Name“

• Specify on „Replace with“: „PS ##“ and press OK. The name will be
replaced by the string PS and counting number.

• Select the receiver from the toolbox and enter a receiver at a location
among the group of point sources.

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5.1.12 Partial Levels List

10 point sources with PWL=100 dB(A) each

• Start the calculation by clicking the pocket calculator symbol in the

symbol bar.

• Change to the edit mode by click to the edit mode symbol in the
toolbox.
• Click on the border of the receiver point. The dialog opens. Move the dia-
log to the side of the CadnaA-main window.
• Click on the button "partial level" to display the list of partial levels.

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5.1.12 Partial Levels List

Partial levels list

• You may sort the partial levels list for one of the performance parameters,
e.g. Lde. Click with the right mouse button in the respective table column
and select the command „Sort“ from the context menu. For example,
from this sorting the sequence of priorities with respect to noise mitiga-
tion measures may result.

 In order to display a list of all partial levels for several receivers select
the command Partial Level on the Tables menu after calculation.

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5.1.13 Spectrum as Emission Value

5.1.13 Spectrum as Emission Value

Depending on legal requirements the study often has to be carried out con-
sidering the level spectrum of the source. However, calculation based on A-
weighted noise levels - as been shown before - is possible as well when
needed.
The emission levels of the point source can be entered into CadnaA as an
spectrum in octave band width by selecting "Spectrum" for „Type“ on the
5
point source dialog.
By clicking the file selector symbol to the right of the PWL-input box the
local library of sounds levels (sound power level spectra & interior sound
pressure level spectra) opens where a spectrum can be selected.
You will find all further information on entering, processing and selection of
sound emission spectra in the CadnaA-reference manual, chapter 12.1 Spec-
tra.

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5.2 Horizontal Grid

5.2 Horizontal Grid

Besides the calculation at fixed receiver points CadnaA offers also the
calculation of noise maps on horizontal or vertical grids. Such noise maps
provide not only a visually attractive alternative representation but can serve
as a visual control for the object’s geometries as well as an evaluation tool to
detect possible faults in the calculation method.

Horizontal grid in a power plant

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

Grid Specification Both, the receiver spacing in x- and y-direction and the receiver height are de-
fined in the grid properties. By default, a receiver height of 4 m relative to the
ground is predefined.

If you want to restrict a grid calculation just to a certain area, this can be per-
formed by the object "Calculation Area" on the toolbox. With several calcula-
tion areas in a project, all active calculation areas are included in the grid
calculation.

Object „Calculation Area“ in the toolbox

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

For the appearance of the calculated grid the dialog Appearance (Grid Grid Appearance
menu) offers the following dialog sections:
• section „Show“: selection of display mode
• section „Color Palettes“: selection of color palettes, globally for all evalua-
tion parameters or individually for each evaluation parameter.
• Level Range and Line Width: This section corresponds with the options
available in former releases of CadnaA. The display options resulting
from former CadnaA-files will be displayed for color palette „(file)“ 5

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

Principally, there are three types of grid to appear:

5 Lines of Equal Areas of Equal Raster with

Sound Level Sound Level Oversampling

For large limits and a - with respect to calculation time - coarse grid spacing
the mode "Raster" is recommended (default setting).
By use of oversampling the boundaries between the individual colored areas
can be smoothed when using the setting „Raster“. This is caused by an inter-
polation between the grid points actually calculated, though and therefore
can lead to a deviation between the calculated level at a fixed receiver point
and the sound level on the grid at the same location.
Applying the default configuration settings, the calculation at the grid points
does not differ from the calculation at fixed receiver points.
Color Palettes On the dialog section „Color Palettes“ the color palettes for up to four
evaluation parameters and for the ground grid are selected. A color palette is
a library object defining the class width, the number of classes and the color
to used. With the default setting, the color palette „(default)“ selected for
evaluation parameter 1 is applied to all further evaluation parameters and the
ground grid.

 Detailed information on the definition and use of color palettes is pro-

vided in the CadnaA reference manual, chapter 12.6 "Color Palettes".
In this introductory manual, just the color palettes as delivered per
default in the global library are used.

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

In this example, the horizontal grid using a calculation area is calculated for a Example
point source.
• Enter a point source with PWL = 100 dB(A) via the keyboard at (x,
y)=(100, 100).
• Enter a receiver point at (x, y)=(200, 100) in the same way.
• Scroll down using the vertical scroll bar and the horizontal scroll bar to
the left, in order to display the area near the origin in the main window.
5
• Select the object "Calculation Area" from the toolbox with the mouse.
• Draw a calculation area either with the help of the mouse or about the
keyboard. Use the following corner coordinates:

(x1, y1)=(50, 150); (x2,y2)=(250,150)

(x3, y3)=(250, 50); (x4, y4)=(50, 50)
• Start the grid calculation via the Grid menu, command Calc Grid.

 In CadnaA, grid calculations are started separately from receiver point

calculations (via the pocket calculator-symbol).

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

The color palette „(default)“ makes use of the grid appearance setting
„Raster, Oversampling=1“:

Selecting a Color Palette To select a color palette from the global library proceed as follows:
• Open the dialog Grid Appearance from the Grid menu.

• Click on the file selector symbol and select by a mouse click from the
library table Color Palette (global) the palette with the name
„pal_35_85_step_5“ and click the OK button.
• Clicking the button „Apply“ on dialog Grid Appearance displays the
effect caused by the new color palette immediately.
The use of progressive colors is defined for this color palette:

Grid Appearance using the global Color Palette pal_35_85_step_5

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

The intermediate grid values are interpolated from the grid points. So, grid Interpolation
values can deviate from the receiver point values at those locations. The dif-
ference depends on:
 the grid resolution, and
 the distance of the interpolated point from the source.

Example: comparing the level at a receiver 46.1 dB(A) with the interpolated level
at the same location on the grid (see status bar, on the lower right): 46.5 dB(A)

 The text box (label) showing the level at the receiver point was
generated using the command Generate Label from the receiver’s con-
text menu of (via right mouse button, attribute LP1).
• Double-click alternatively on the receiver to display the daytime level (on
dialog Receiver).
• Select on menu Grid|Appearance for „Grid Points“ the option
„Values".
The figure above shows the parameter LP1 at the receiver point [46.1 dB(A)]
as well as the value calculated on the grid by means of interpolation on the
status bar at the location of the mouse’ arrow head [46.5 dB(A)]. The differ-
ence is 0.4 dB in this example.

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

Level Range This option is deactivated per default. If it is activated, the specifications for
lower/upper limit and class width apply only with the options „Lines of
Equal Sound Level“ or „Areas of Equal Sound Level“ selected.

 The option „Level Range“ overrides the settings of the color palette
selected and should, therefore, not be used with new definitions of the
grid appearance. Use color palettes instead.
Progressive Colors This option may have three modes: deactivated (no tick mark), activated
5
(black tick mark), neutral (grey tick mark). In the neutral mode (default set-
ting) the setting for „Progressive Color“ of the respective color palette ap-
plies. Thus, if a progressive color has been defined in the color palette it will
be used, and vice versa. With this option deactivated, color palettes with pro-
gressive colors show use distinct color with transition. With this option acti-
vated, color palettes without progressive colors show them, instead.
Import of old This button enables to load files with color palettes (file extension *.PAL)
Palette-Files from former CadnaA releases. The imported color palette is shown on the
list box for the evaluation parameter 1 and simultaneously copied to the local
library of color palettes.
Displaying grid points & Furthermore, grid points and grid values can be displayed:
grid values

Dialog Grid Appearance: options for grid points

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5.2.1 Specifications for Grid Calculations

• displaying the grid points (grid spacing 10x10m, grid not displayed):

• displaying the grid values (rounded to integers):

The following grid formats can be saved (via menu Grid|Save as): Saving the grid

CadnaA, ASCII, LIMA, NMGF

The following grid formats can be loaded (via menu Grid|Open):

CadnaA, ASCII, AUSTAL, ESRI, Immi, LIMA, NMGF (from NMPlot,
TNM, INM) and SoundPlan.
By multiple selection several grid files can be opened at once (e.g. with seg-
mented grids).

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

By the grid arithmetics different grids can be combined with each other. For
example, effects resulting from reflection, screening or triangulation can be
rendered visible in a easy and informative way. The dialog Grid Arithmetics
(on the Grid menu) enables to load up to six grid files and to perform calcu-
lations thereof.

Example Let us see how a barrier changes the sound contours. Proceed for this as
follows:
• Enter a point source at (x,y,z)=(100,100,0.5), and a receiver at
(x,y,z)=(200,100,1.5).
• Enter a calculation area using the mouse or the keyboard (e.g. with the
corner coordinates ((x1,y1)=(50,150), (x2,y2)=(250,150), (x3,y3)=
(250,50) and (x4,y4)=(50,50)).
• Start the grid calculation with a receiver spacing of 1x1 m and with
appearance setting „Raster, Oversampling=1".
• Save the grid (menu Grid|Save as) with the file name "without barrier“.

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

• Enter a barrier via the keyboard reaching from (x1,y1)=(150,75) to

(x2,y2)=(150,125) having a height of 6 meters (dialog Geometry).

Editing a barrier height of 6 m

• Recalculate the grid and save the resulting grid again via menu Grid|Save
as using the file name „with barrier“.

grid showing the barrier effect

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

Calculating the Level • Open the dialog Grid Arithmetics and select using the respective file
Difference on the Grid selector symbols the grid file named "without barrier" for grid R1 and the
file "with barrier“ for grid R2.
• Enter for the first evaluation parameter (here: Lde) the expression r2.
Thus, the resulting grid for the first evaluation parameter is the level dis-
tribution with barrier.
• Enter in the line for the second evaluation parameter (here: Ln) the
5 expression r1-r2. Since the screening effect is added in the calculation of
the receiver level, this expression will return the barrier attenuation Abar in
dB on the grid (Abar = Lw/o barrier - Lwith barrier).
• Click the button OK to apply those expressions.

Dialog Grid Arithmetics: Calculating a grid of level differences

Selecting a Color Palette The color palette "pal_35_85_step_5" selected in the grid appearance for the
for Evaluation Parameter evaluation parameter 1 is, by default, also applied to all further evaluation pa-
2 rameters 2..4 and the ground grid. Consequently, this color palette is not suit-
able for the second evaluation parameter Ln as this grid is showing a
difference level: The entire grid is displayed in green colors. To improve the
representation for evaluation parameter 2 proceed as follows:
• Open the dialog Grid Appearance and activate the tick mark in front of
evaluation parameter 2.

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

• Select via the file selector symbol in line „Eval. Parameter 2“ the color
palette „pal_0_20_step_2“ from the global library of color palettes by a
mouse click and then click the button OK.

Color palette „pal_35_85_step_5“ for evaluation parameter 1 and

color palette „pal_0_20_step_2“ for evaluation parameter 2 selected

• Close the dialog Grid Appearance by OK.

With those settings for each of the evaluation parameters a different color
palette is used.

Difference grid showing the screening effect (barrier attenuation Abar)

Now, the name of evaluation parameter 2 shall be corrected for as it is a level Modifying the Evaluation
difference. Parameters Name

• Open the dialog Configuration in the Calculation menu and select the
„Evaluation Parameters“ tab.
• Activate the tick mark in column „Name“ of evaluation parameter 2 and
enter the text „DeltaL“.

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

• Close the dialog with OK

Now, on the list box for the evaluation parameter on the CadnaA main „Del-
taL“ instead of „Ln“ is displayed.

Displaying a Grid The object „Symbol“ ( ) from the toolbox enables to display a grid
Caption
caption with respect to the evaluation parameter selected.
• Select the symbol and draw a rectangle to the left of the calculation area.
• Click with the right mouse button on the symbol’s border.
• On the dialog, select from the list box „Symbol“ the option „Caption:
Grid“.
• Close the dialog with OK.
Now, when toggling the evaluation parameter the respective grid caption is
displayed.

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

In addition, the object „Level Box“ ( ) from the toolbox can be used to Applying the Object
„Level Box“
display the level at distinct locations on the grid.
• Select this object from the toolbox and click at any location inside the
grid.

Difference grid with grid caption and level boxes

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5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics

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5.3 Vertical Grid

5.3 Vertical Grid

The object "vertical grid" enables to perform grid calculations on vertical
cross sections showing the noise distribution as on a vertical projection
screen. The noise distribution on a the vertical grid can be print, copied,
saved or displayed in the 3D-Special view. By default, the receiver spacing of
the vertical grid and the grid appearance are the same as for the horizontal
grid.
5
As an example, the former situation with a point source, a receiver, and a Example
barrier in between is used (see chapter 5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics).

 We assume that you carry out the examples in a sequence starting from
the preceding section. In this case, open on dialog Grid|Appearance
the palette file "Default.pal" as saved in section 6.2 before recalculating
the grid.
To calculate the vertical grid proceed as follows:

• Select the object "Vertical Grid" ( ) from the toolbox and draw a line
from two polygon points crossing the point source and the receiver.

Vertical grid made of a line from two points

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5.3 Vertical Grid

• Double-clicking the vertical grid will display its dialog.

• By default, the vertical grid’s properties and the appearance parameters
are set to "global", i.e. these are taken over from the horizontal grid. After
deactivation of the respective option the settings can be changed sepa-
rately for the vertical grid. If necessary alter these options.
• Make sure that the receiver spacing is 1x1 m and that the option "Raster,
Oversampling=1" is specified.
5 • Click the button "Calculate". After calculation the vertical grid is
displayed.

 When the option "Calculate, automatically“ is activated this vertical grid

will be automatically recalculated when the horizontal grid is recalcu-
lated (menu Grid|Calc Grid).
• After having clicked with the mouse once into the lower part of the dialog
(grid part) the vertical grid can be zoomed in and out using the mouse
wheel.

default setting vertical grid being zoomed in

By default, the height (z-extension) of the vertical grid is 20 m. This can be

adjusted to the dimensions of the obstacles via the dialog Geometry of the
vertical grid (button "Geometry").

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5.3 Vertical Grid

The vertical grid also displayed in the 3D-Special view. There, the vertical 3D-Special View
grid appears as a vertical projection screen showing the corresponding sound
level distribution. To this end, press the key combination CTRL+3. You can
navigate in the 3D-Special view by use of the forward and backward arrow
keys and with the left button of the mouse depressed.
For further details on the navigation tools for the 3D-Special view please re-
fer to the CadnaA-reference manual, chapter 9.14 3D-Special View and 9.16
Paths of 3D Special View. 5

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5.3 Vertical Grid

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5.4 Building Evaluation & Building Noise Map

5.4 Building Evaluation & Building Noise Map

The building evaluation in CadnaA enables the calculation of noise levels at
façades of buildings due to noise impact from industry, roads and railway
tracks. For the respective noise type the standard or guideline as specified in
the configuration of calculation is applied. Based on the building noise map
one can determine facade points meeting or exceeding a limiting sound level.
In this introduction a point source is used to explain the fundamental 5
procedure and the most essential features. The calculation is carried out ac-
cording to the standard ISO 9613.

Building noise map with facades colored based in noise level

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5.4.1 Building Evaluation

5.4.1 Building Evaluation

For the calculation of facade levels the building evaluation symbol in the
CadnaA-toolbox is used.

The building evaluation symbol:

To calculate facade levels, proceed as follows:

5  As an alternative to the keyboard enter the objects using the mouse in
order to speed up the input procedure. In this case, consider the
principles described in chapter 4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the Mouse.
• Add a point source at (x,y)=(100,100) and a building with the following
corner coordinates:

(x1,y1) = (140,90),
(x2,y2) = (160,90),
(x3,y3) = (160,110),
(x4,y4) = (140,110).

Enter a building height of 10 m on the dialog Geometry.

• Select the building evaluation symbol from the toolbox and click within
the borders of the building. The screen now looks as follows:

• Double-click on the border of the building evaluation symbol. Click in the

dialog on the button "Options" to display all options.

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5.4.1 Building Evaluation

In order to address a limiting value areas of land use can be assigned for Select Type of Land Use
which corresponding limiting values have been defined. Alternatively, a type
of area can be set after deactivation of the option „Determine from Areas of
Land Use“. In CadnaA, the pre-defined types of land use are listed on the
menu Options|Land Use. For example, for the land use "WR reines
Wohngebiet" (in English: pure residential area) the following limiting values
are defined depending on the noise type:

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5.4.1 Building Evaluation

• Select the object „Area of Designated Use" (symbol: ) from the tool-
box and draw a polygon around the building.

Building with building evaluation symbol and Area of Designated Use

• Double-click on the border of the area of designated land use and select
"WR" from the list of land uses. Upon closing of the dialog the area is dis-
played according to the settings specified on the dialog Land Use
(Options menu).
Define Height of Storeys Furthermore, on the dialog Building Evaluation Symbol it is defined how
the facade points are distributed across the building’s height. To this end, the
height of ground floor above ground („Height Rcvr EG above Ground“) and
the further heights of storeys can be defined. A predefined height of ground
floor above ground of 2.5 m and a height of storey of 2.8 m results in:
- the first floor reaching from 0 to 2.5 m height, and
- the 1st floor reaching from 2.5 to 5.3 m etc.
The input box "Rounding up with last digit" enables to fix a rounding rule for
the building noise levels indicated. For example, the default setting of 0.1 dB
causes a level of 59.1 dB(A) to be rounded up to 60 dB(A).
Furthermore, via the button „Exclude Facades" facade parts not to be
considered in calculation can be deactivated.
• Start the calculation by a click on the pocket calculator symbol on the
symbol bar.

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5.4.1 Building Evaluation

After the calculation the range of stories in which exceedances (facade level Display of Results
above limiting value) is shown on the upper semicircle of the building evalua-
tion symbol. If this semicircle remains empty, no exceedance occurred or an
area of land use has not been assigned. The lower quadrants report the maxi-
mum levels for the day- and nighttime (i.e. for the first two performance pa-
rameters defined).

Building evaluation symbol with exceedances for storeys II and III

(level for perf. parameter 1: 62 dB(A), for parameter 2: 40 dB(A))

The results of the building evaluation are displayed as well on the table Table Building Evaluation
Building Evaluation (menu Tables|Other Objects).

Object table „Building Evaluation“

On this table, the size of the building evaluation symbol can be changed. Changing the Symbols
Size
• Click with the right mouse button in column „Coordinates,  (m)“.
• Select from the context menu the command „Change Column“.

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5.4.1 Building Evaluation

• On the dialog select „Arithmetic“, enter a new value of 4 m and close the
dialog by OK.
Now, the building evaluation symbol is displayed with half of his former di-
ameter.

 Of course, you can also overwrite the value shown on the object table
of 8 m by typing "4". The procedure first-mentioned, however, provides
a more comfortable approach with a variety of building evaluation
5
symbols.

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

For a large number of buildings, the building evaluation symbols can be add-
ed automatically. This action can, if necessary, be established based on a a nu-
merical condition or limited to a defined area in your project. First, a source
and a number of houses are entered.
• Enter a point source with an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A).
• Enter in the vicinity of the point source a building with a height of 10 m 5
(Scale 1:1000).

Point source with building nearby

• Click on the border of the building with the right mouse button and select Context Menu: Duplicate
the command Duplicate from the context menu. Buildings

• On the dialog Duplicate, enter the values as shown in following figure.

Upon OK, five columns and four rows of buildings are generated. The
negative sign for „Vertical“ (i.e. the y-axis) causes the duplicates to be
generated with 10 m gaps downwards (i.e. into negative y-direction).

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

5
Duplicating buildings

Assigning names In the next step, a name shall be addressed to all buildings. This can be
achieved easily via the object table.
• Open the table Buildings via menu Tables|Obstacles.
• Click into column "Name" with the right mouse button and select the
command Change Column from the context menu.
• Select for the range of rows "Whole Table", replace in the input box
„Replace with“ the default entry „\1“ by the string „building ##“ and
press OK. The buildings receive the name "building" followed by a two-
digit numbering.
• The action is immediately executed when pressing the OK-button.

Table Buildings: new names addressed

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

• Select the object "Area of Designated Use" from the toolbox and draw a Addressing Area of Land
polygon around the building. This enables later on to assign a limiting Use
value to the building evaluation symbols to be defined.
• Open the dialog Area of Designated Land Use by a double-click on its
border and select the type of use „WR“ (i.e. pure residential area) from
the list box „Land Use“.

Arrangement of buildings with area of designated land use

All the building’s duplicates have the same height as the initial building. Via 3D-Special view
the key combination CTRL+3 the 3D-Special view is displayed.

Arrangement of buildings in 3D-Special view

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

 Areas of designated use are not displayed in the 3D-Special view.

• Close the 3D-Special view.

• Click with the right mouse button into the white area on the CadnaA-
main window and select from the context menu the command Modify
Objects.
Addressing building eval- The dialog Modify Objects assigns actions to a selection of CadnaA-
uations objects. Detailed explanations of all actions and all further options on the di-
5
alog are in Chapter 11 - Modify Objects in this manual.
• Select the action „Generate Building Evaluation“ and click on the object
type "Building" in the lower list to specify the target object type.

• Upon OK, the number of objects affected by this action are shown on a
further dialog. The change can be confirmed for each object individually
(Yes) or be rejected (No). With „All“ the action is carried out immediately
for all objects found.

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

• After confirmation of the change by clicking "All" the building evaluation 5

symbols is addressed to all buildings.
• Start the calculation by clicking the pocket calculator symbol in the sym-
bol bar. Subsequently, the facade points and the resulting levels are shown
within the building evaluation symbols.
• Select from the Options menu the command 3D-View and on this Building Noise Map
dialog from the list box the view „Gen. Parallel“.

• Via the arrow keys left/right on your keyboard you can rotate the
buildings with the facade points attached in 3D-view.

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

Building Noise Map in 3D-view (Options menu)

Settings for Building By default, the maximum level at every facade point is evaluated and
Noise Map displayed. This and further settings relevant for the building noise map are
available on the dialog Building Noise Map (Options menu).
• Open the dialog Building Noise Map.
• In the upper half, the option "Maximum" is selected as the averaging
method. This means that the highest facade level of all facade points is
assigned the building.
• Change in section „Appearance of Building Noise Map“ of the dialog the
option „Show Facade Points“ to „(all)“ and close the dialog with OK.

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

 Further information on the available settings on the dialog Building

Noise Map see chapter 5.4.1 "Building Noise Map" in the CadnaA-
reference manual.
• Reopen the 3D-View on the Options menu (General Parallel). Now, the
building noise map is displaying all facade points.

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5.4.2 Automatically assigning Building Evaluation Symbols

• Close the dialog 3D-View and press the key combination CTRL+3 to
enable the 3D-Special View.

On the building noise map, the facade points are represented by three
ribbons for the three storeys along the building’s facade. The colors
corresponds to the color palette as selected on dialog Grid Specification
(Grid menu) for each evaluation parameter. The ribbons along the facades
reach for each storey by definition from 0 to 2.5 m, from 2.5 to 5.3 m, and
from 5.3 to 8.1 m. Since the remaining height of 1.9 m is less than required
one for another storey the colors do not extend above 8.1 m.

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5.4.3 Result Table for the Building Noise Map

5.4.3 Result Table for the Building Noise Map

For documentation, the results of the building evaluation can be listed in a ta-
ble. The CadnaA-Result Table displays the calculation results in a user-defin-
able table format both, for individual receivers and for facade points.
• Select the command Result Table from the Tables menu and click the
button "Edit".
• Select from the lower end of the dialog Edit Result Table for „Receivers 5
from Building Noise Map" the option „(all)“.
• Now, some table columns are edited:
 Double-click in line no. 2 and replace the string „ID“ by "storey".
 Select for „Column“ the entry "(String variable)" and enter STW as the
expression to display the storey’s name.
 Double-click in line no. 3 and replace the entry „Flurst." by
„FacPtNo“ (meaning „facade point number").
 Select "(String variable)" at "Column" and enter the expression
FASSNR to display the number of the facade point.
 Click in the line no. 7 and press the delete key (DEL) three times.
Thus, the lines "relative road axis, station/distance/height are deleted.
 Furthermore, click into line no. 11, "Lr w/ noise control", and then
press the delete key (DEL) five times. By that, the lines 11 to 15 is
deleted.

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5.4.3 Result Table for the Building Noise Map

Now, the dialog looks like this:

Editing the result table

• The current table format can be saved via the button "Save" and applied
in a further project. After click on OK the result table shows the new for-
mat.

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5.4.3 Result Table for the Building Noise Map

In order to reduce the table’s length just display the facade points with
exceedances.
• To this end, reopen the dialog Edit Result Table via button „Edit“.
• Activate the option "Only exceeding BNM-Receivers" (BNM=Building
Noise Map) on the lower end of the dialog and close it with OK.

Result Table: receivers with exceedances only

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5.4.3 Result Table for the Building Noise Map

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 177

Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial

Sources

Sound propagation for industrial sites and commercial areas as well as for all
other noise relevant facilities that have stationary (fixed) noise sources or dis-
crete moving sources is modeled based on the concept of point-, line- and
area-sources the emission of which is specified by the sound power level. 6

Point, line, and area sources on the CadnaA-toolbox

In this chapter the following tasks often encountered in industrial noise mod-
eling are described:
• building radiation (by facades, facade parts, or by an entire building),
• internal traffic lanes (e.g. inside industrial plants, traffic in pits, or on race
tracks) or traffic areas (e.g. areas with fork-lifters, loading/unloading of
goods, harbor areas),
• directivity of sound sources (predefined or user-defined directivities),
• modeling of the directivity at chimneys and stacks (as a special case),
• areas with defined ground absorption characteristics, and
• consideration of meteorology (wind influence).
In all cases the international standard, ISO 9613-2, is applied to model the
propagation (see dialog Configuration, tab Country).

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 179
6.1 Building Radiation

6.1 Building Radiation

Buildings are not just obstacles to sound propagation, but can also emit noise
into the surrounding area. The calculation according to the corresponding
standard (e.g. ISO 9613-2) models buildings as a set of connected barriers,
open in the top (i.e. "open boxes“). This approach causes the sound power of
a source located inside the buildings envelope to be diffracted over the build-
ings outer walls. This does not model reality so sources in buildings must be
treated differently. Therefore, the sound radiation of buildings is modeled by
attaching noise emitting sources to the outside of the building’s envelope.
6

Sound radiating facades at a power plant

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6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

Object Snap A vertical area source is attached to the outside of a building’s facade by use
of the command Object Snap.
• Enter a building with 20 m of edge length using the mouse and set the
building’s height to 10 m relative (dialog Building|Geometry).
• Select the command Object Snap from the Options menu.
• On the dialog Object Snap a snap radius can either be entered in meters
(i.e. scale dependent) or in pixels (i.e. not scale dependent). Enter a snap
6 radius of 10 pixels.
If the building’s facade is located inside this snap radius upon mouse click,
CadnaA catches the point at the defined distance of 0.05 m off the facade.
This procedure prevents sources to be entered inside a building’s envelope.

Dialog Object Snap, snap radius 10 pixels

Entering a vertical area • Select the vertical area source (symbol: ) from the toolbox and click
source consecutively at two points outside the building’s facade, close to the cor-
ners. Finalize the input by clicking the right mouse button.
• By zooming in with the magnifying glass (+) the vertical area source. out-
side the building polygon can be recognized.

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6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

• Select the auxiliary polygon symbol ( ) and measure the distance

between the facade and the vertical area source by clicking with the
mouse on the building’s border and dragging the auxiliary polygon to the
projection line of the vertical area source.

Distance building - vertical area source = 0.05 m

• Finalize this procedure by pressing the right mouse button.

• Now, click with the right mouse button on the vertical area source and
select from the context menu the command Set Length. Enter a length
of 19 m.

• Open the dialog of the vertical area source.

• Click on button „Geometry“ and enter a height of 10 m for the upper
edge of the vertical area source. Close the dialog Geometry.
• Specify on the dialog Vertical Area Source a z-extent 10 m. The z-extent Editing the vertical area
is the vertical dimension from the upper edge downwards. source

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6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

Entering the z-extent

Directivity index K0 With vertical area sources the directivity index K0 is set to 3 dB automatically
(„K0 without ground“). This default setting takes the reflection at the build-
ing into account causing the radiated sound power to be increased apparently
by 3 dB - ignoring the ground reflection. This is equivalent to the statement
that the source radiated into half-space, instead of into full space. Here, the
ground as a reflector is not considered since the ground reflection is taken
into account automatically by CadnaA. The following cases apply:
- source at a height above ground: K0 = 0 dB
- source at a height above ground in front of a wall: K0 = 3 dB
- source at a height above ground in a corner: K0 = 6 dB
Making use of the directivity index K0 (D in ISO 9613-2) requires that no
calculation of reflections at the building near to the source occurs. Therefore,
on menu Calculation|Configuration, tab Reflection, a value of 0.1 m is
entered for "Min. Distance Source-Reflector". For sources located closer to a
reflector than this distance no calculation of reflections is carried out.

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6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

• Press the key combination CTRL+3 the enable the 3D-Special view. 3D-Special View
• Move the camera location using the arrow keys (forward/backward) and
the mouse (left mouse button depressed), to catch a view of the vertical
area source.

• Double-click in 3D-Special view onto the area source.

• Activate on the lower left hand side of the dialog the option „Trans.Loss“.
The dialog switches from PWL/PWL“ to the interior level.
• Enter an interior level of 90 dB(A) and a transmission loss of 25 dB. Entering interior level and
transmission loss

After entering of interior level and transmission loss

the resulting sound power level PWL and PWL“ are displayed.

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6.1.1 Entering a Sound Radiating Facade

The A-weighted sound power radiated by the area source calculates from:
PWL = Li - TL + 10 lg (S/S0) - 4 dB = 90 - 25 + 22.8 - 4 = 83.8 dB(A)
PWL“ = Li - TL - 4 dB = 90 - 25 - 4 = 61.0 dB(A)

 For the calculation in frequency bands the radiated sound power per
octave band width results from:
PWLokt = Li - R + 10 lg (S/S0) - 6 dB or
PWLokt“ = Li - R - 6 dB

6 For the modeling of sound radiation from buildings or from building parts, in
principal, the point, the line, and the area source are also suitable as well as
the vertical area source. Whether to model the radiation from the one or the
other object type depends on the available input data, the situation (e.g. dis-
tance and partial-screening), and on precision requirements.

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

6.1.2 Editing Facades

Radiating sources attached to facades can be edited conveniently in CadnaA
using the command Edit Facades from the context menu of a building. This
enables to enter point, line or vertical area sources attached to the building’s
facade in the graphics.
• Enter the building with an arbitrary floor plan and a height of 10 m. Entering a building
• Select the command Edit Facades from the context menu.

Subsequently, the dialog Edit Facades is opened showing three different Dialog Edit Facades
views of the building:
• above: front view of the entire façade (with all sections),
• bottom left: top view,
• bottom right: isometric.
On the in-plane front view of the facade sound sources can entered using a
local coordinate system. The origin (0, 0) of this coordinate system is at the
base of the first polygon point of the building (for all further dialog options,
see chapter 3.1.4 in the CadnaA Reference Manual).

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

Edit first facade section First, a window radiating sound shall be entered as part of the first facade
section. Proceed as follows:

• Select the vertical area source (symbol: ) from the toolbar and draw a
horizontal line - representing the top edge of the window - in the upper
half of the first facade section.

 Zoom in as required to enlarge the size of the displayed section.

• Terminate the input procedure after having entered the second polygon
point by clicking the right mouse button.

• While in the input mode, click the right mouse button on the top edge of
the vertical area source.

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

The dialog vert. Area Source is displayed.

• Enter into the box „z-Extent“ an appropriate value (in this example: 3 m).
The z-extent determines the position of the lower edge (positive distance
from the top edge). The top edge has been entered graphically. In this
example, the assumed height of the window is 3 m. Alternatively, you may en-
ter the coordinates of the vertical area source via the dialog Input of Point
(see chapter 4.2.2).
• Activate on dialog vert. Area Source the option „TransLoss“.
• Enter an indoor level of 100 dB(A) and transmission loss (sound 6
reduction index) of 30 dB.

 The directivity index K0 or D resp. will be set to 3 dB automatically

(see chapter 6.1.1).

• Close the dialog Edit Facades (by clicking symbol ) and press the key
combination CTRL +3 to display the 3D-Special view.
• Move to a different viewing point - as required - to take a look at the ver-
tical area source attached to the first facade section.

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

Building with a window in the first facade section

• Close the 3D-Special view and reopen the dialog Edit Facades.
Duplicating windows • Click once the right mouse button on the top edge of the vertical area
source and select the Duplicate command.

• On the dialog Duplicate - for example - enter the values as shown below.

 Since the emission of the first source has been specified already, the
duplicates will have the same emission data.

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

After closing the dialog with OK there will be four copies generated with 4 m
gaps in between. 6

In order to enter point and line sources on dialog Edit Facades proceed in
the same way. When moving the mouse pointer in the front view, its actual lo-
cation will be displayed in the top view (plan view) and in the isometric as
well. This enables to judge the current cursor position.
• To this end, select the type of source from the toolbar on dialog Edit
Facades.
• Apply the insertion methods for entering point and line-like objects (see
chapter 4.2.1).

 The key combination (left mouse button) & (CTRL-key) is also avail-
able on the dialog Edit Facades to duplicate a single object (see chap-
ter 4.3.6).

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6.1.2 Editing Facades

Building with point, line, and vertical area sources

used for modeling building radiation

 Bitmaps can be addressed to each facade section and to the roof of a

building which will be displayed on the 3D-Special view as textures (see
chapter 3.1.4 in the CadnaA Reference Manual).

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6.1.3 Generate Radiating Building

6.1.3 Generate Radiating Building

The command Generate Building from the context menu can be applied to
model a building whose outer walls and the roof are sound radiating.
• Enter a horizontal area source forming the building’s base. Entering an Area Source
• Activate the option „Trans.Loss" on the edit window of the area source.
• Enter an interior sound pressure level of 100 dB(A) and a transmission
loss (weighted sound reduction index) of 30 dB.
6

Area Source: Emission based on interior level and transmission loss

• Click on the border of the area source with the right mouse button and Generate Building
select the command Generate Building from the context menu.

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6.1.3 Generate Radiating Building

Command Generate Building from the context building

• On the dialog Generate Building enter a height of 8 m and close the dia-
log by OK.

 In addition, the absolute ground height at the houses base and the
absorption coefficient can be entered, either as a single number rating
or as a referenced spectrum.

Upon closing the dialog by OK CadnaA generates:

1. a building of the specified height - in this example - of 8 m height,
2. die respective numbers of vertical area sources for each facade
and
3. a horizontal area source as radiating roof.

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6.1.3 Generate Radiating Building

The emission relevant parameters for each subsequent source are taken from
the first area source entered. The area sources are fixed at a distance of 0.05
m in front of the walls or above roof plane, respectively.
The directivity index K0 for the vertical area sources (i.e. radiating facades) is
set automatically to 3 dB, while for the horizontal area source (i.e. radiating
roof) no directivity index is taken into account (K0 = 0 dB).

Generate Building: building with 6 corners

On the plan view, the area source representing the roof’s radiation is hidden Changing Sequence of
by the building’s polygon. To change this, open the dialog Layer on the Layers
Options menu. The ranking of objects on this dialog determines the
sequence when CadnaA draws objects onto the screen. The object being at
the top end of the list is drawn first, the one at the bottom is drawn last. So,
the building has to be ranked at a higher position in the list of layers than the
area source.
• Open the dialog Layer.
• Click on „Area Source“ in layer list and keep the left mouse button
depressed.
• Drag with the mouse the „Area Source“ downwards in the list, below the
„Building“ and release the mouse button.

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6.1.3 Generate Radiating Building

6
Dialog Layer: Dragging the „Areas Source“
below the „Building“

• Click on button „Apply“ and move the dialog apart to see the result more
easily.
• The area source - shown with a hatching - is no drawn above (i.e. after)
the building has been drawn.

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

Vehicle noise on non-public roads or lanes inside industrial sites or plants
may also to be taken into account when assessing the noise impact from such
areas. This may also apply to the traffic entering and leaving the works via
public roads, but being due to factory needs (e.g. transport of material, prod-
ucts & goods). Such internal drive ways and areas can be:
• traffic inside the works (e.g. fork lifters, tippers, and wagons),
• traffic inside pits or on race tracks,
6
• loading areas with fork lifts and such (e.g. loading of bulk cargo),
• harbour areas with traffic.
In these cases the calculation cannot be carried out based on a road noise
standard or guideline since the emission model thereof just refers to public
roads. Thus, the modeling in CadnaA makes uses the concept of the moving
point source. The relevant objects to model a moving point source are Cad-
naA’s line and area source.

Internal traffic inside of an industrial site

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

Example: moving point • Select the line source from the CadnaA-toolbox and enter a line from
source of line source two points with coordinates (x1,y1)=(100,100) and (x2,y2)=(200,100).
type 6.2
• Change you to the edit mode (key combination: CTRL+E) and double-
click the line source.
• Switch the emission type from "PWL' " to "PWL-Pt“.

6 Upon this selection, the former input box for „Correction" switches to
"Number/h Q" and a further input box is displayed to enter the speed.
• Enter 100 dB(A) as A-weighted sound power level of the single point
source.
• Enter for number of events (i.e. pass-bys) the following values: Day/Eve-
ning/Night = 40/20/10 pass-bys per hour.
• Keep the speed of 10 km/h.
The dialog displays the resulting PWL and the PWL ' based on those values.

Line Source: emission based on moving point source

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

The A-weighted sound power level PWL calculates from:

Q l v
LwA  LwA  PQ  10 lg  10 lg  10 lg  30 dB
(h 1 ) ( m) (km / h)

in this example for daytime (with a source length of l=100 m):

LwA  100  10 lg 40  10 lg 100  10 lg 10  30 dB  100  16  20  10  30  96 dB ( A)

 On dialog Geometry just the 2D-length of line objects is indicated:

6

2D-length with line objects

The A-weighted sound power level PWL’ per unit length calculates from:
Q v
LwA '  LwA  PQ  10 lg  10 lg  30 dB
(h 1 ) (km / h)

in this example for daytime:

LwA '  100  10 lg 40  10 lg 10  30 dB  100  16  10  30  76 dB ( A)

The emission during the periods Evening and Night are 3 dB lower each due
to halving of the amount of pass-bys.

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

Example: moving point An area source is used to model areas of traffic circulation in such cases
source of area source where there are no driving paths or tracks explicitly defined.
type 6.2
• Select the area source from the CadnaA-toolbox and enter an area source
defined from the following corner coordinates:

(x1,y1) = (100, 100)

(x2,y2) = (200, 100)
(x3,y3) = (200, 150)
(x4,y4) = (100, 150)
6 • Switch to the edit mode and double-click onto the border of the area
source.
• Select on the dialog Area Source on the list box „PWL“ the option
„PWL-Pt“.
• Enter an A-weighted sound power level of the single point source of 100
dB(A) and the following numbers of vehicles in the three time periods:
Day/Evening/Night = 40/20/10 vehicles.
The dialog displays now the resulting PWL and PWL’’.

Area Source: emission based on moving point source

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

The A-weighted sound power level PWL calculates from:

LwA  L wA  PQ  10 lg Q

in this example for daytime (with a source area of S=5000 m²):

LwA  100  10 lg 40  116 dB ( A)

 On dialog Geometry the 2D-area (besides the 2D-length) of area

objects is indicated:
6

2D-area with area objects

The A-weighted sound power level PWL’’ per unit area calculates from:
S
LwA "  LwA  PQ  10 lg Q  10 lg
(m 2 )

in this example for daytime:

LwA "  100  10 lg 40  10 lg 5000  100  16  37  79 dB( A)

Again, the emission during the periods Evening and Night are 3 dB lower
each due to halving of the amount of pass-bys.

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6.2 Internal Driveways and Areas

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6.3 Directivity

6.3 Directivity
In CadnaA, the directivity of sound sources can be considered either by pre-
defined directivities for certain source types (e.g. stacks) or by user-defined
directivities.
On the dialog of all industrial sources (point, line, area sources) a button
„Directivity“ is available. On the Directivity dialog pre-defined and entered
or imported directivities can be selected. By default, all source types
mentioned above have no directivity addressed.
6
The directivity correction is added in the calculation of the emitted sound
power.

Dialog Directivity

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6.3.1 Pre-defined Directivities

6.3.1 Pre-defined Directivities

From the list box on the dialog Directivity predefined directivities can be se-
lected. The following frequency-independent directivities are available (litera-
ture links see chapter 1.4 in the CadnaA-reference manual):
1. radiation from building elements according to OEAL 28 (1987 /53/
and amendment Feb. 2001 /54/),
2. radiation of openings according to OEAL 28 (ed. Dec. 1987 /54/), and

6 3. radiation of chimneys according to VDI 3733 (ed. July 1996 /45/).

For chimneys the directivity depends on the wind speed, the exhaust velocity
and the temperature of the exhaust gas.
Directivity vector, The forward direction (direction 0°) of the directivity vector depends on the
Automatic Direction source type:
• Point source: The auto-vector points in the direction of the normal vector
of the reflecting surface of an object nearby.
• Line source: The vector points in the direction of the line (seen from first
to last point).
• Area source: The vector points in the direction of the normal vector of
the area (right-hand rule).
• Vertical area source: The vector points to the right when looking from
first to last polygon point.
Example: point source in In a following example, the use of a predefined directivity is explained using a
front of a building point source in front of a building.
• Enter a building with 10 m side length (scale 1:500).
• Enable the feature Object Snap with a snap radius of 10 pixels at a
distance of 0.05 m.

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6.3.1 Pre-defined Directivities

• Choose the Point Source from the toolbox and click within the snap
radius in front the building’s right facade, approximately the middle. The
point source is set at a distance of 0.05 m after that in front of the facade.
• If you double-click on the point source’s border the dialog is displayed.
• Enter an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A) and a value of 3 dB
for "K0 without ground".
• Click on button „Directivity“ and select from the list box the predefined
directivity „Element“. Keep the setting directivity "Automatic Direction".
• Draw a calculation area around the building and calculate the grid using a 6
grid spacing of 1x1 m (menu Grid|Properties) as a line grid (menu
Grid|Appearance).

Point Source at a building with directivity „Element“, automatic direction

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6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

User-defined directivities are entered into CadnaA’s local library in order to
later get assigned to the relevant source.
• Open the table Directivity (local) on the menu Tables|Libraries
(local).
• Select from the context menu (right mouse button) the command „Insert
after“ and double-click into the new row. The dialog to enter directivities
is opened.
6
• Enter as a name e.g. "dir 1".
• Since the calculation makes use of A-weighted levels with the main fre-
quency of 500 Hz the directivity is just entered into the 500 Hz column.
Enter the following values:
0°: 100 dB; 45°: 95 dB; 90°: 90 dB; 135°: 85 dB; 180°: 80 dB.
• Activate the option "normalized". This setting normalizes the specified
sound levels to an energetic sum of 0 dB. Thus, not altering the emitted
sound specified on the source’s dialog.
• Close the dialog with OK.

Input data for directivity „dir 1“

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6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

• Open the dialog Directivity by a double-click onto the row in the table
Directivity (local) again. Consider that the intermediate directivity
values have been interpolated by CadnaA.
• Enter a point source with an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A)
and define a calculation area around that source.
• On the source’s dialog click the button „Directivity“ and select the user-
defined directivity „dir 01" from the list box. For the time being, keep the
setting "Automatic Direction".
• Calculate the horizontal grid after having the grid spacing to 1x1 m and
appearance to „Lines of Equal Sound Level“. 6

Point symmetrical propagation by a point source

Obviously, no directivity was considered in the xy-plane since the

propagation is point symmetrical. The ground acting as near reflector causes
the directivity vector to be orientated automatically into the positive z-direc-
tion.
• Select the object Vertical Grid from the toolbox and draw a line from
two polygon points across the point source from left to right.

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6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

• Double-click on the vertical grid and click on the button "Calculate".

Vertical grid for a point source with automatic directivity in z-direction

To aim the directivity in the xy-plane, the option "Automatic Direction" has
to be deactivated and a suitable direction (i.e. 0°-direction) to be entered.
• Open the point source dialog and click the button „Directivity“. As can
be seen, CadnaA has orientated the directivity vector into the positive
direction of the z-axis automatically (x = y = 0, z = 1).
• Select the option „Vector" to enable the input of x,y,z-coordinates.
• Enter the coordinates x = 1, y = 0, and z = 0, to point the normal
direction (0°-direction) into the direction of the positive x-axis (so, point-
ing to the right).
• Close all dialogs with OK and start the grid calculation. This results in the
following representation:

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6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

• Open the dialog Directivity of the point source once more.

• Enter for the vector’s coordinates x = 1, y = 1 and z = 0 to aim the direc-
tivity vector to 45° (i.e. the angle bisector between positive x and y-axis).
• Close all dialogs by OK and start the grid calculation.

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6.3.2 User-defined Directivities

The coordinate input on the dialog Directivity refers to the unit circle. The
triple (x, y, z) = (1,1,0) points into direction of 45°. With respect to the unit
circle this results in the values x=y=0.7071. CadnaA displays those values
upon reopening the dialog Directivity. The following calculation formulae
for the non-normalized directivity vector into direction (in degrees) apply

6 Where,  is the angle between the directivity vector - projected on the xy-
plane - and the positive x-axis. The angle  is the angle between the directivity
vector and the xy plane.

Polar coordinates and orthogonal coordinates

For the orthogonal coordinates, normalized to the unit circle, it holds:

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6.3.3 Frequency Dependant Directivities

6.3.3 Frequency Dependant Directivities

Furthermore, frequency dependent directivities covering the entire frequency
range can be copied via the clipboard to the dialog Directivity (menu
Tables|Library (local)|Directivity) or be imported via CadnaA’s ODBC-
interface.
1. Inserting via the clipboard:
• To this end, mark and copy a section with data in a MS-Excel spreadsheet
to the clipboard.
6
• On the opened dialog Directivity click the button „Paste“.
Subsequently, the data will be pasted starting from the cell in the upper left
(i.e. 0°, 31.5 Hz).
2. Import of directivities from a MS-Excel file via the ODBC-interface
(for example, with directivities in columns per direction and per octave):
• Select the command Database|Definition from the File menu.

Dialog File|Database|Definition

• Select an ODBC-driver on "Data Source" (e.g. for MS-Excel). All ODBC-

drivers installed on your system are listed.

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6.3.3 Frequency Dependant Directivities

• Move on the list „Object Type“ downwards and select „Directivity" by

mouse click.
• Activate the option „Import Object Type“.
• Now, on the list box „Table“ a data range defined in the MS-Excel file can
be selected. This data range has to be defined in MS-Excel prior to the
import operation.
• In the table „Assign Columns" each CadnaA-attribute can be assigned to
a column of the MS-Excel table. The attributes of the directivity index has
the structure "Sxxx_yyyy", where:
6
xxx: angle from 0° to 180°
yyyy: frequency from 31 to 8000 Hz

(example: S000_31 or S180_8000)

• Close the dialog Database by OK.
• Select the command Database|Import from the File menu. On the
following dialog activate the option "Append nonexisting Objects“ and
click OK.

Now, the data is imported. Check for the correct import on menu
Tables|Libraries (local)|Directivity.

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6.4 Radiation from Stacks and Chimneys

6.4 Radiation from Stacks and Chimneys

When modeling stacks and chimneys two radiation components are of
relevance:
1. The sound emitted by the chimney’s opening („mouth“) is modeled by a
point source located at this height with a corresponding directivity.
2. The radiation by the chimney’s cylinder can be taken into account by a
vertical line source - for reasons of simplicity with uniform radiation -
located at the chimney’s axis.
6
Both cases are discussed in the following.

Sound radiation by the chimney’s opening and by the cylinder itself

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6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

In order to consider the screening and the reflecting effect of the chimney
correctly and, in particular, to display the chimney in the 3D-representations
correctly the cylinder is used in CadnaA.
By a specific configuration setting it is ensured that the cylinder itself does
not cause a screening effect to the point source representing the radiation
from the chimney’s opening.
• Switch the scale to 1:1000 and select the cylinder from the CadnaA-tool-
6
box (symbol: ).

• Click to the middle of the main window. This first polygon point
represents the center of the cylinder.
• Drag the mouse at the side to fix the radius. The length (in this case the
radius) is shown along the line. Click with the mouse button once more
when the value is about 3 m. A circle is drawn representing the cylinder in
xy-plane.
• Double-click on the cylinder’s border and click on the button
"Geometry".
• Enter a radius of 3 m and a height of 20 m.

Geometrical data of the cylinder

• Select the point source in the CadnaA-toolbox and put a point source in

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6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

the center of the cylinder using the mouse.

• Click with the right mouse button on border of the point source to open
it’s the dialog.
• Enter an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A) and click on the
button "Directivity“.
• On the dialog Directivity, select from the predefined directivities the
option „Chimney“ and enter the following data:

Exhaust Velocity: 5 m/s

Exhaust Gas Temperature: 150 °C 6
Wind Speed: 3 m/s
• Close the dialog Directivity and click on button „Geometry“.
• Enter a height of 19.95 m for the point source.

Specifying the height of the point source

• Close the point source’s dialog and select the command Configuration
from the Calculation menu. Then click on the tab „Industry“.
• Activate on tab „Industry“ the option "Sources in Building/Cylinder do
not shield“.

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6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

By activation of this option it is ensured that the cylinder’s screening effect is

not taken into account twice: on the one hand due to the pre-defined
directivity "Chimney" - which includes the screening effect in its data set -
and, on the other hand, in the calculation of sound propagation where the
cylinder’s edge provides screening as well.
This option being activated in CadnaA, the cylinder as screening object for
the point source is ignored in calculation of propagation (resulting in Abar =
0 dB for those rays).
• The vertical grid is used to represent the result. Select this object from the
6
toolbox (symbol: ).
• Draw the vertical grid made from 2 polygon points across the cylinder
with the cylinder’s circle in the middle of the line approximately.

Vertical grid to display the radiation from a chimney

• Double-click on the vertical grid and enter via button „Geometry“ a

height of 40 m (= top edge of the vertical grid).
• Deactivate the dialog option "global" beneath the two buttons
"Specification" and "Appearance".
• Enter a grid spacing via button "Specification" of 1x1 m and select the
„Lines of Equal Sound Level“ via button "Appearance“.
• Start the calculation by clicking the button "Calculate".

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6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

The result indicates that there the cylinder does cause no screening as this ef-
fect is already considered by the directivity pattern.

You can convince yourself that the screening effect of the cylinder is not in-
cluded by inserting a receiver point.
• Enter a receiver point near the cylinder.
The receiver point has per default a height of 4 meters. If the cylinder causes
screening it should result in a reasonable value of Abar on the calculation pro-
tocol.

Chimney with a close receiver point

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6.4.1 Radiation by the Stack’s Mouth

• Select the command Protocol on the Calculation menu and activate the
option "Write Protocol".

• Run the calculation clicking the pocket calculator symbol .

• Open the dialog Protocol again and click the button "Print".
• Choose the protocol preview for the receiver IP1.

Protocol for receiver point: Abar = 0 dB

The protocol shows that no screening effect by the cylinder has been
accounted for. A receiving level of 54.3 results - in this example - is just due
due the radiation from the chimney’s opening.

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6.4.2 Radiation by the Stack’s Shell

6.4.2 Radiation by the Stack’s Shell

The sound radiation from the chimneys surface is particularly relevant with
light steel chimneys which may have a small sound reduction index or trans-
mission loss. In CadnaA this radiation component is considered by a vertical
line source in the chimney's axis.
• First, zoom in using the zoom-in tool (e.g. to scale 1:100).
• Select the line source and enter a short line nearby the cylinder’s center
point.
6

Cylinder with a short line source near the cylinder’s axis

• Double-click on the line source and click the button "Geometry".

• Activate the option "Last Point“ and enter a height of 19.95 m for the last
point.
• Close the dialog Geometry and activate the option „Trans.Loss“ on the
line source’s dialog.
• Enter an interior level of 90 dB(A) and a transmission loss of 30 dB.
• The radiating surface of the cylinder results from: 2 r l = 2 * 3 * 20 =
377 m². Enter this value into the input box „Area (m²)“.

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6.4.2 Radiation by the Stack’s Shell

Data of the line source

• Now, select a scale of 1:1000.

• Double-click on the vertical grid and start the grid calculation (via button
„Calculation“).

Vertical Grid: radiation from the chimney’s opening and its cylinder

When radiating from the opening and from the cylinder the resulting receiver
level is 55.5 dB(A), in this example.

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6.5 Ground Absorption

6.5 Ground Absorption

The calculation of ground absorption is determined by the standard or guide-
line chosen for each noise type. With modeling of industrial sources accord-
ing to ISO 9613-2 two ground attenuation models have to be distinguished:
1. spectral method according to section 7.3.1 of ISO 9613-2 with the
ground factor G as a parameter, and
2. method for A-weighted levels according to section 7.3.2 of ISO 9613-2
not using the ground factor G.
6
On the toolbox the object „Ground Absorption“ (symbol: ) enables one
to define areas with a specific ground factor G when applying the spectral
method of ISO 9613-2. Consequently, these areas are not relevant for the
method for A-weighted levels of ISO 9613-2.
Open on dialog Configuration (Calculation menu) the tab „Ground Default Ground
Absorption“. The „default ground absorption“ applies to all areas within the Absorption
limits not being defined by ground absorption areas. The „default ground ab-
sorption“ (ground factor) is defined to G=1 by default (i.e. "porous
ground“).

Tab Ground Absorption: specifying default ground absorption

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6.5 Ground Absorption

tab Industry With the industrial guideline ISO 9613-2 several methods can be selected
from the dialog Configuration, tab „Industry“.

Tab Industry: options for ground absorption

The following four options are available:

Selection Procedure

none No ground attenuation Agr is calculated. The ground reflection D ,

however, is considered using equation (11).

not spectral The ground attenuation Agr is calculated for spectral and non-spec-
tral sources is calculated according to the method described in section
7.3.2.

spectral, spectral For spectral sources the method according to section 7.3.1, in all
sources only other cases the method according to section 7.3.2 is applied.

spectral, all For spectral and for non-spectral sources the method according to
sources section 7.3.1 is used. For non-spectral sources the ground attenuation
is calculated based on the specified octave band center frequency.

By default, the option „spectral, all sources“ is selected. Keep this setting for
all further calculations.

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6.5 Ground Absorption

• Select the object „Ground Absorption“ from the toolbox and enter an Specifying areas of
approximately circular area in the middle of the screen (scale 1:1000). ground absorption

• In order to smooth the contour select the command Spline from the
context menu of the ground absorption area.
• Enter a point source with an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB (A)
to the left of this area.
• Define a calculation area surrounding the source, the ground absorption
area and the area on the right of the ground absorption area (as displayed
on the following figure).
6

Calculation area with point source and ground absorption area

• Double-click on the border of the ground absorption area. By default, Reflecting ground
"hard ground" is predefined (ground factor G=0). Keep this value and absorption area
close the dialog.
• Open on dialog Configuration (Calculation menu) the tab „Ground
Absorption“.
Keep the „default ground absorption“ (ground factor) of G=1 (i.e. "porous
ground“). Thus, a reflective area inside the absorbing limits is assumed.

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6.5 Ground Absorption

• Adjust the grid spacing to 1x1 m (menu Grid|Specification) and select

„Lines of Equal Sound Level“ (menu Grid|Appearance).
• Run the grid calculation via the Grid menu (command Calc Grid).

Grid with reflecting ground absorption area

The resulting grid shows the lines of equal sound level bent to the outside
when looking from the source’s location. Because the area being reflective the
sound energy is reflected by the ground leading to a level increase compared
with the absorbing case.
Absorbing ground • Open again the tab „Ground Absorption“ (menu Calculation|
absorption area Configuration) and change the default ground absorption to G=0.
• Double-click on the border of the ground absorption area and specify a
ground factor of G = 1.
• Start the grid calculation again.
In this case, the lines of equal sound level are bent towards the source’s
location due to the sound energy absorbed with distance - compared to the
reflecting situation outside that ground absorption area.

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6.5 Ground Absorption

Grid with absorbing ground absorption area

For information on the further options on tab „Ground Absorption“ see the Further options on tab
CadnaA-reference manual, chapter 6.2.7 Ground Absorption Tab. Ground Absorption

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6.5 Ground Absorption

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6.6 Meteorology

6.6 Meteorology
Since wind direction and wind speed influence the sound propagation, these
parameters are either taken into account in the calculation or are already part
of the calculation model’s basic assumptions.
The calculation method in ISO 9613-2 calculates the equivalent continuous
A-weighted sound pressure level for downwind conditions of propagation
(for detailed definition see ISO 9613-2, section 5). These meteorological
conditions represent a favorable propagation situation where for source-
receiver combination (acoustic ray) slight downwind is assumed. 6
To correct for wind situations deviating from this assumption the so-called
„meteorological correction“ Cmet is used. According to ISO 9613-2, equation
(6), it holds:

L AT ( LT )  L AT ( DW )  C met
where
 LAT(LT): long-term average A-weighted sound pressure level for the
meteorological situation under consideration (LT=long-term),
 LAT(DW): equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level for
downwind conditions (DW=downwind),
 Cmet: meteorological correction.

The calculation according to ISO 9613-2, section 8, is as follows: Correction Cmet 6.6

 10hs  hr  
C met  C 0 1  
 dp 

for d p  10hs  hr  ,

else C met  0 .

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6.6 Meteorology

Where
 C0: correction factor in dB,
 hs: source height above ground, in meters,
 hr: receiver height above ground, in meters,
 dp: distance source-receiver projected to the horizontal ground plane.

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6.6.1 Correction based on C0

6.6.1 Correction based on C0

Provided values for C0 are available for the time periods Day, Evening, and Configuration Industry
Night these can be directly entered on dialog Configuration, tab „Industry“.
• Open the dialog Configuration|Industry.
• On the tab, select for under „Meteorology“ the item „Cmet, constant C0“
instead of „none“.
• Enter the values 2, 1 and 0 dB for D/E/N, respective and close the
dialog.
6

Dialog Configuration|Industry: Input of constant C0-values

• Enter a point source with A-weighted sound power level of PWL = 100 Example
dB(A) at (x,y)=(100,100) and two receivers at (x1,y1)=(180,100) and
(x2,y2)=(200,100).
• Choose on dialog Configuration, tab „Performance Parameters“
(Calculation menu) the performance parameters 1:Ld, 2:Le and 3:Ln and
deactivate the check box in front of the column "Name".
• Name both receiver by RCVR 1 and RCVR 2 in the table Point Source
(Tables menu).
• Select from the Calculation menu the command Protocol and activate
the option "Write Protocol".

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6.6.1 Correction based on C0

• Start the calculation by clicking the pocket calculator symbol in the tool
bar.

Result level Ld|Le|Ln for the Result level Ld|Le|Ln for the
receiver at a distance of 80 m receiver at a distance of 100 m

In this case, no meteorological correction applies at 80 m distance, but at 100

m distance.
Limit for distance source-receiver:

d p  10hs  hr   104  4   80 m
Thus, for the receiver at 80 m distance no Cmet-correction is accounted for.
For the receiver at 100 m distance the Cmet-corrections result in:

C met ,d  2 1  0.8  0.4 dB

C met ,e  1  0.8  0.2 dB
C met ,n  0 dB

• Open the protocol (Calculation menu|Protocol, buttons „Print“ and

„Preview“)
• Successively select the protocols for receivers 1 and 2.

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 229
6.6.1 Correction based on C0

For receiver 1 the correction is Cmet=0 dB (for Ld and Ln). For receiver 2,
however, a value of Cmet = 0.4 dB results for the daytime value (Ld), while for
the night Cmet = 0 dB.

 The results on the protocol always refer to the daytime and night-time
levels (Ld and Ln) and not to the evening level (Le) or to mixed param-
eters (e.g. Lde, Lden) even if these are selected as performance parame-
ters.

Calculation protocol for receiver 1: no Cmet-correction for day- and nighttime-levels

Calculation protocol for receiver 2: Cmet-correction for daytime-level Ld=LrT only

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 230 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

Wind Statistics With a local wind statistics available this distribution can be used to calculate
the meteorological correction in CadnaA.
• Open the dialog Configuration|Industry, select for "Meteorology" the
option "Cmet, Co from wind statistics" and click the button "Wind
Statistics".
• The dialog Wind Statistics enables to specify the wind frequency in 30°
sectors for the assessment period (a year). Enter a value of 50 into the two
6 sectors located next to the North direction.

Wind statistics for North wind (= wind from North direction)

 The sum of the values entered (wind frequencies) does not need to be
100 as CadnaA normalizes the values entered automatically to the sum.

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 231
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

In CadnaA, two methods for calculation of C0 from wind statistics are avail- Method LfU Bavaria
able:
 method published by the Bavarian Environmental Protection Agency
(LfU Bavaria), and
 method published by the Environmental Protection Agency of North
Rhine-Westphalia (LUA NRW).
In this example the approach according to LfU Bavaria is used which is:

 Tm  K m Tq 
Kq
Tg 
Kg

C 0  10 lg 10 10
 10 10
 10 10  6
 100 100 100 
 
where
Tm percentage of annual downwind situations and calmness (inversions) in %
Km level difference to the downwind situation in dB
Tq percentage of annual cross-wind situations in %
Kq level difference of cross-wind situations to the downwind situation in dB
Tg percentage of annual upwind situations in %
Kg level difference of upwind situations to the downwind situation in dB

The percentages T for downwind, crosswind, and upwind result from the
wind frequencies in the following sectors:
downwind: +/-45° in direction of propagation (=90° sector) and calmness,
crosswind: 45° to 135° and 225° to 315° in direction of propagation,
upwind: +-45° opposite to the direction of propagation (=90° sector).
The red line in the chart represents the value of the direction-dependent C0 Circular Diagram
in dB. The outer circle corresponds to C0 = 5 dB. The value per circular sec-
tor results from the entire distribution when the ray is pointing from the bor-
der of this sector to the center. Upon calculation, the direction-dependent C0
is evaluated for every ray. From this the value of Cmet is calculated.

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 232 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

Example • Enter a point source with an A-weighted sound power level of PWL=100
dB(A) at (x,y)=(500,500) and four receivers with the following coordi-
nates:
receiver to the North: (x1,y1)=(500,600)
receiver to the South: (x2,y2)=(500,400)
receiver to the West: (x3,y3)=(400,500)
receiver to the East: (x4,y4)=(600,500)
• Name the receivers on the receiver’s table (Tables menu) by the letters N,
S, W, E according to their direction.

6 • Define a rectangular calculation area which includes all four receivers.

• Select the command Protocol from the Calculation menu and activate
there the option "Write Protocol".
• Start the calculation by clicking the calculator symbol in the tool bar.
• Set the grid spacing to 1x1 m and select the „Lines of Equal Sound Pres-
sure“ (menu Grid, Grid properties or Appearance respectively) and cal-
culate the grid (command Calculate Grid on Grid menu).

Grid with wind from North and four receivers

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 233
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

• Open the protocol (menu Calculation|Protocol, buttons „Print“ and

„Preview“)
• Successively select the protocol for receivers 1 to 4.
The following Cmet-values are displayed on the respective pages:
receiver to the North: Cmet = 2 dB
receiver to the South: Cmet = 0 dB
receiver to the West: Cmet = 0.3 dB
6
receiver to the East: Cmet = 0.3 dB
For the to the receiver located to the North the average level reduces due to
the predominant North wind (= upwind) by 2 dB, for the receivers to the
East and to the West by 0.3 dB. The level at the southern receiver point, situ-
ated in the downwind direction remains unchanged. These values result from
the wind statistics as shown below.
For the receiver to the North (i.e. upwind from the North): Receiver North

 0 0 
1. 5
100  10 
10
C0  10 lg   10 10  10   10 lg 0.1  10 dB
 100 100 100 
and

 104  4 
C met  101   10 * 0.2  2 dB
 100 
For the receiver to the South (i.e. downwind from the North):0 Receiver South

 100 0 
1. 5
0 
10

C 0  10 lg  10 10  10 10   10 lg 1  0 dB
 100 100 100 

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 234 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

So:

C met  0 dB

Receiver West and East For the receivers to the West and to the East (i.e. crosswind from the North):

 0 1. 5
100  10 0  
10
C0  10 lg   10  10 10   10 lg 0.71  1 .5 dB
 100 100 100 
6
and

 104  4 
C met  1.51   1.5 * 0.2  0.3 dB
 100 

Deviating Nord Direction In case the North direction in the CadnaA-file does not correspond with the
North direction assumed by default (N = top), a North arrow can be inserted
using the object "Symbol" pointing towards the correct North direction.
Then, CadnaA rotates the North direction of the wind statistics into the new
North direction.

• Select the object "Symbol" symbol ( ).

• Drag with the mouse a small area (square) on the CadnaA-main window
on.
• Open the edit window of the symbol (with the right mouse button in the
edit mode or with a left mouse button in the edit mode).
• Select from the list on dialog "symbol" the item "North Arrow 1" and
enter an angle of 45°.

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 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources 235
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

Symbol „North Arrow 1“ at an angle of 45°

• Close the dialog by OK and restart the grid calculation (menu Grid|Calc
Grid).
The result shows the lines of equal sound level based on the North direction
rotated by 45 degrees. Thus, the resulting Cmet-values differ from those in the
preceding situation (see protocol).

Grid with North direction rotated by 45°

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 236 Chapter 6 - Modeling Industrial Sources
6.6.2 Correction based on Wind Statistics

 Note that the assignment of the symbol „North Arrow“ is based on the
language-specific symbol name. Therefore, when changing the language
setting the symbol selection is no longer valid. In this case, reselect the
symbol (see also chapter 9.11.3 Symbol in the CadnaA Reference Man-
ual).

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 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 237

Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads

For the modeling of the sound propagation of roads and of other source
types (like traffic lights/crossings and parking lots) the following objects are
available in the CadnaA-toolbox:

Road, traffic lights/crossing and parking lot on the CadnaA-toolbox

7
The treatment of the objects "crossing" and "parking lot" depends on the
regulations of the selected road noise standard. In the following chapter the
German road noise guideline RLS-90 is used as the calculation method for
roads (default setting on tab „Country“ on dialog Configuration). When a
different road noise standard is selected traffic lights and parking lots are still
calculated according to RLS-90 as long as the selected guideline does not
specify its own calculation scheme.
In this chapter the following topics are dealt with:
• entering road geometry,
• specifying road emission,
• road with a parallel barrier,
• elevated roads and bridges (also with barriers),
• barrier optimization alongside of a road,
• level vs. time diagram for vehicle pass-bys.

Introduction to CadnaA
 238 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 239
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

7.1 Entering Road Geometry

The noise emission of the parametric source "road" depends on the selected
road noise standard (menu Calculation|Configuration, source group
„Road“).
It is presupposed hereinafter that the guideline "RLS90" was chosen for
"Germany (TA Lärm)" as a country or - with setting „(user defined)“ - the
guideline „RLS90“ was selected. If necessary please, check this.
Upon selection of the road symbol from the toolbox the road can be entered Entering a road
as a polygon line.
7
• Select the object "Road" from the toolbox (symbol: ).
• Select a scale of 1:1000 and click with the mouse in the left part of the
main window to define the first polygon point of the road.
• Move the mouse to the right and click to a second location.
• Click the right mouse button to finalize the input road.

• Change to the edit mode by clicking the arrow in the left top corner
of the toolbox.
• Double-click with the mouse on the axis of the road. The dialog Road for
RLS90 opens.

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 240 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

Dialog Road (for RLS-90)

Specifying road width There are three ways to specify road width:
1. Specifying the distance between the center lines of the outer lanes:
To this end, enter in box "SCS/Distance (m)" a numerical value. With
that width being zero the road will be modelled by just a single emission
line.
2. Specifying the distance of the road’s curb-to-curb distance:
In some road noise standards, the road width is defined starting from
the curb. This option is available as a second option when clicking on
the file selector symbol ( ). In this case, the emission lines are located
at half the value of the additional width as defined on the dialog
Options|Appearance for the object type "Road" (default value: 3.5
m).
3. Selecting of a default cross-section according to RAS Q 82 + 96 (see /
18/ and /19/ in the CadnaA-reference manual):
Furthermore, various cross-sections are available via the file selector
symbol resulting from German road construction guidelines. Select
a cross-section using the mouse and click the OK button.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 241
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

In all three cases the dotted line/s represent the emission line/s. By default,
the road curb is drawn as full line while the overall road’s axis is drawn as a
thick dotted line. All appearance settings can be modified on the dialog
Appearance (Options menu) via the object types "Road" and "Road 2" .

 All settings defined for the Object „Road“ on the dialog Appearance
concern merely the graphic representation and are not relevant to the
location of the emission lines.
The distance from the road axis to the curb (additional width) is set via object
type „Road" stopped with a default value of 3.5 m for both sides of the road
(corresponds to 1.75 m on either side).
7

Dialog Appearance, object type „Road“: additional width 3.5 m

• Enter on the dialog Road a road width of 3 meters and close the dialog Example
with OK.

Road with a road width of 3 meters

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 242 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

The entered road width represents the distance of the emission lines
(distance between the center lines of the outer lanes). The distance from the
emission lines to the curb is half of the additional width entered on the dialog
Options|Appearance „Road“. This holds for all other types to specify road
width analogously.
Variable Road Width When the road width changes in the course of the road, this can be taken into
account in CadnaA for each road section. Assume, the road width changes
from 3 to 5 m, then continues for two polygon points with constant width
and then reduces to 2.5 m.
7 • Enter a new road with at least 6 polygon points using the mouse.
• Double-click on the road axis to open the dialog.
• Enter for „SCS/Distance" a value of 3 m.
• Drag the dialog Road aside to be able to see the entire road and then click
on the button "Geometry".

Dialog Road: Geometry, entering a road with

of 5 m at the second polygon point

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 243
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

• In the upper part of the dialog Road:Geometry the point list with the
polygons x,y coordinates is shown. Enter into the second line in column
"Dist (m)" a value of 5 m. The polygon point edited is blinking in the
screen representation.
• Enter the values for the road width at the further polygon points accord-
ing to the following table:
x (m) y (m) z (m) Ground (mDist (m)
LSlope (%
589.63 437.09 0.00 0.00
624.76 446.88 0.00 0.00 5.00
650.96 455.35 0.00 0.00
675.83 468.31 0.00 0.00 5.00
710.49
741.71
473.87 0.00
490.27 0.00
0.00 2.50
0.00
7

• Close the dialogs Road|Geometry and Road with OK.

Varying road with at polygon points

The edited road widths are retained for the subsequent polygon points as
long as no other value is entered.
A further table column „LSlope (%)“ on dialog Geometry enables to specify Variable Lateral Slope
the lateral slope of the road. The lateral slope is acoustically only relevant
when it alters the position of the emission lines considerably.
• Open the dialog Road from the previous example and drag this aside
again.
• Open the dialog Road:Geometry.

Introduction to CadnaA
 244 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

• Double-click into the first line of the point table. Subsequently, the dialog
Road:Point is opened.
• Move to the second polygon point by clicking once the right arrow key
and enter there a lateral slope of 5%:

Lateral slope of +5% at the second polygon point

• Move two polygon points downwards using the right arrow key and enter
a lateral slope of -5%.
• Close all three dialogs by OK.
• Select from the road’s context menu the command 3D-Special.
On the 3D-Special view the lateral slope can be judged visually. Press the
RETURN-key to move the camera along the road.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 245
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

Road with lateral slope

 The lateral slope is interpreted as a rotation around the road’s axis. A

positive lateral slope increases the right curb when looking from first to
last point, while a negative slope increases the left curb. An entered
value applies to all following polygon points until a new value is entered.
Further instructions how to enter complex road geometries can be found in
the CadnaA-reference manual, chapter 2.9.1 Specification of Road Widths.

Introduction to CadnaA
 246 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.1 Entering Road Geometry

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 247
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

7.2 Specifying Road Emission

The emission caused by the traffic of a road is characterized by its emission
level. This value is calculated automatically according to the selected standard
or guideline by CadnaA based on the road’s traffic data.
With the German road noise standard RLS 90 and the option „Strictly Configuration|tab Road
accord. to RLS-90“ selected on tab „Road“ the following rules apply:
• The 1st order of reflection is calculated only (irrespective of the setting of
the maximum reflection order on tab "Reflection“).
• The two outer lanes are represented each by an emission line.
• No lateral diffraction and no attenuation by foliage and built-up areas are 7
taken into account.
The emission level Lm,E according to RLS-90 is the average emission level at a Emission Level Lm,E
distance of 25 m from the axis of an infinite long road and free
(unobstructed) sound propagation.
The emission level Lm,E considers:
 number of vehicles per hour M
 percentage heavy vehicles p (%)
 speed limit vmax (referred to 100 km/h)
 different vmax for autos (cars) and trucks
 road gradient and
 road surface
 multiple reflections

Introduction to CadnaA
 248 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

Specifying Road Emission The emission by a road can be specified in CadnaA in four different ways:
Entering MDTD In the simplest case the road emission is described by the mean daily traffic
counts (MDTD = „Mean Daily Traffic Data“):
• Select the object "Road" from the toolbox and enter a road running from
the left to the right across the screen using the mouse (scale 1:1000).
• Double-click on the road’s axis and enter a road width of 3 meters.
• Enter into input box "MDTD" 20000 vehicles per day. The emission level
Lm,E is calculated and displayed for the selected road type "Federal Road"
for day and night-time.

Road emission based on MDTD-data

 The emission for the evening period is zero as there is no emission

defined for this time interval in RLS-90.
• Close the dialog Road and select the receiver from the toolbox.
• Place a receiver perpendicular to the road’s axis and - while still being in
input mode - click on the receiver’s border with the right mouse button.

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 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 249
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

• Activate the option „Generate Rays (as Auxiliary Polygons)" on the bot- Generate Rays
tom of the receiver’s dialog.
• Start the calculation by click on the pocket calculator symbol on the tool
bar.

Road and receiver with rays as auxiliary polygons

The figure indicates that the road as a line source is segmented into sections,
each of which is replaced by a point source in calculation. This occurs for
both emission lines separately.
Double-click at on the receiver to display the resulting day- and night-time
levels.
• Draw a calculation area around the road which includes the receiver Grid Calculation
point.
• Select the command Calc Grid from the Grid menu to calculate the level
grid.
Specifying the road emission based on a diurnal pattern requires to define Defining a Diurnal Pattern
such a pattern first.
• Open the tables "Diurnal Pattern" on menu Tables|Libraries (local).
• Insert a new line via the table’s context menu (right mouse button).
• Double-click on the line to enter values.
• Enter a name and ID for the diurnal pattern.

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 250 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

• Click with the right mouse button into the column "Veh/h" and select the
command Change Column from the context menu. Enter for „Arithme-
tic“ as new value 1000 and click OK.
• Proceed in the same way for the percentage of heavy goods vehicles
(HGV) in column "HGV (%)" by entering 20 %.
• Overwrite a section of the input value in the table (e.g. 6:00 h to 14:00 h)
with 2000 vehicles/hour and with 8% for percentage HGV.

Diurnal pattern with hourly traffic data

 Diurnal patterns can be imported via the ODBC-interface in CadnaA.

Refer to chapter 9.5 ODBC-Import in this introductory manual.
• Close the dialog with OK and then click on the button "Close" in order to
close the table "Diurnal Pattern".
• Double-click the street and select from the list box „Road Type“ the user-
defined diurnal variation "T1" at the end of the list.

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 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 251
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

Selecting the diurnal pattern on dialog Road, List box „Road Type“

 The traffic counts of the diurnal variation are used as defined if an

MDTD of zero is entered. If a MDTD-value is entered, however, the
hourly traffic data of the diurnal pattern is normalized according to:

M DiurnalPattern
M applied  MDTDentered *
MDTDDiurnalPattern

A gradient (positive and/or negative slopes) influence the road’s emission. Specifying Road Gradient
Depending on the guideline a more or less detailed correction is used. In
RLS90 a gradient correction applies at absolute road gradients |g|>5 % (i.e.
also for downward gradients).
When entering a value into the list box "Road Gradient: Input (%)“ the cor-
responding gradient correction according to the selected road noise standard
is considered. The correction applies to the entire road section. In particular,
it is independent from diverging height information at individual polygon
points - and subsequently gradients between those points - points due to an
existent terrain model.

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 252 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

Road Gradient auto With selection "Road Gradient: auto“ the gradients of roads modeled from
several sections are calculated automatically. In this case, in the displayed
emission level for the road (e.g. Lm,E with RLS 90) no gradient correction is
considered - as it varies from section to section. However, the correction is
calculated and taken into account in the calculation of propagation for each
road section separately.
On the list box "Gradient" the direction of traffic flow for the two outer
lanes is specified. The abbreviations VA, AV, AA, and VV refer to the traffic
direction on the two lanes when looking from first to last point of the road.
Correction for Multiple With reflecting buildings at either sides of a road the level increase is
Reflections considered according to RLS90 by the correction for multiple reflection Drefl.
7
In CadnaA this correction can be either entered directly or be calculated
based on the average height, the distance and the absorptive properties of the
parallel buildings.
• Enter a house parallel to the existing road (i.e. the former example).

 If you do not recall the sequence of commands when entering multi-

point objects, please check the chapter 4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the
Mouse in this manual.
• Change to the edit mode and double-click on the building’s border.
• Click the button "geometry" and enter a height of 10 m (relative).
• Close both dialogs with OK.
• Duplicate the building by using the CTRL-key on your keyboard.

 To copy objects, please check the chapter 4.3.6 Copying Objects in this
manual.
• Proceed in same way to place three buildings at each side of the road.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 253
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

• Finally, you can display the arrangement as a wire frame model in 3D-
view (command 3D-View on Options menu, setting „General Parallel“).

3D-View (Options menu): road with 6 buildings

• Selects the command Calc Width of Roads (Extras menu) to calculate

the distance, average height and the gap proportion.
• Double-click on the road to open its dialog.

• Click on the blue info-symbol ( ) in the right upper corner of the dialog
to open the Memo-Window.
The following parameters on the Memo-Window result for the left and the
right side of the road (left/right when looking from first to last point):
 DBEB_L/R: mean distance of buildings left/right
 HBEB_L/R: mean buildings height left/right
 LUECK_L/R: gap proportion left/right
Whether a correction for multiple reflections actually must be considered or
not depends on the gap proportion (only at gap proportions < 30%
according to RLS90).

Introduction to CadnaA
 254 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

To generate the mean values of the buildings height and distance from the
values for both sides of the road, proceed as follows:
• Close the Memo-Window and the dialog Road.
• Click into the white area of the screen and select the context menu Mod-
ify Objects.
• Select action „Modify Attribute" for object type "Road" and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select attribute HBEB from the list box
and enter in section „Arithmetic“ the following expression:

(MEMO_HBEB_L+MEMO_HBEB_R)/2
7
Thus, the attribute HBEB is defined as the average of the values for both
road side.
• Click OK and confirm the action by „All“.
• From the road dialog it can be seen that an mean height of 10 m was
inserted - what wonder with all buildings being 10 m high.
Proceed in the same way to determine and assign the mean distances on the
left and on the right side:
• This time, select the attribute ABST on the dialog Modify Attribute and
enter following expression "arithmetically" in the area:

(MEMO_DBEB_L+MEMO_DBEB_R)/2

• Click OK and confirm the action by „All“ once again.

• From the road dialog it can be seen that a mean distance was calculated
from the present geometry.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 255
7.2 Specifying Road Emission

CadnaA displays on dialog Road the correction for multiple reflections Drefl
corresponding to the input values automatically.

Displaying the correction for multiple reflections Drefl

based on mean distance and height of buildings left/right

• Update the calculation result by clicking the pocket calculator symbol.

• Save the file with a different file name, e.g. „road with parallel Save File
buildings.cna“.

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7.2 Specifying Road Emission

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 257
7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

Often parallel barriers are used to reduce thee sound impact by roads. Those
barriers can easily be generated in CadnaA by the command Parallel Ob-
ject.
• Enter a road with three buildings on either side or use the file "road with Entering a Road
parallel buildings.cna" from the previous chapter 7.2 Specifying Road
Emission.
• Select the command Object Snap (on Options menu) and enter there a
snap radius of 10 pixels.
When a building’s façade is located within this radius of the mouse click, 7
CadnaA catches the point at a distance of 0.05 m.

When calculating the receiving levels at buildings façades the „Distance Configuration| Reflection
Points-Facade“ on dialog Object Snap is related to the minimum distance
receiver-reflector as specified on the configuration-tab „Reflection“
(Calculation|Configuration menu).

With the receiver distance from the facade is smaller than the minimum dis-
tance receiver-reflector, no reflection by the own building is considered on
the level at this receiver point. Keep this setting on the configurations for the
time being.

Introduction to CadnaA
 258 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads
7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

Placing Receivers • Deactivate the option "Generates Rays (as Aux. Polygons)“ on the lower
part of the dialog Receiver of the receiver point in the default file "road
with parallel buildings.cna".
• Select the object "Receiver" from the toolbox and click once on the road
side of each building located above the road. The default height of the
receivers is 4 meters.

• Zoom-in ( ) and measure using an auxiliary polygon ( ) to check for

the distance of the receivers 0.05 m in front of the façades.

Receivers attached to building facades

In a next step, the receiver levels shall be displayed in labels near to each re-
ceiver:

• Switch to edit mode ( ) and click with the mouse into the white area of
the screen and select from the command Modify Objects from the con-
text menu.
• Select "Generate Label“ as action and as object type "Receiver".
• Click OK and select on dialog Generate Label from list box „Attribute“
the attribute "LP1".
• After clicking OK and confirming by „All“ the level LP1 (daytime value)
will displayed in text boxes to the right of the receiver points.
In the next step, stations are defined alongside of the road to be used as refer-
ence when entering the barrier.

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 Chapter 7 - Modeling Roads 259
7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

• Click with the right mouse button on the road’s axis and select from the Generate Stations
context menu the command Generate Station.
• Enter as the distance of stations 20 m to the right of the road (seen from
first to last point).

• Click on OK: Station marks are generated in steps of 20 m on the right of

the road.
In the next step a parallel barrier is placed for a defined range of stations on Parallel Object: Barrier 7
the left side of the road.
• Click with the right mouse button on the road’s axis and select the com-
mand Parallel Object from the context menu.
• Enter distance of 5 m to the left of the road’s axis and a barrier height
(height offset) on the dialog of 4 m.
• Activate the option "Station Range" and enter - depending on the geome-
try in your example - a range „from...to“. " of ... till ", which protects the
receiver points with a lateral additional width which will screen the
receiver point from the road’s emission.

Parallel Object with Station Range (example)

• By use of an auxiliary polygon ( ) you may check that the barrier was
actually generated at a distance of 5 m from the road axis.

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7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

• Start the calculation by a click on the pocket calculator symbol. The

sound levels displayed by the labels will be updated.

Receiver levels at building facades with a road-parallel barrier

7
Calculating the Grid In order to visualize the screening effect by the barrier the horizontal grid is
calculated.

• Select the object "Calculation Area" (symbol: ) from the toolbox and
draw a rectangle which includes the road and all buildings.
• Enter on dialog Properties on the Grid menu a receiver spacing of 1 by 1
meter.
• Start the grid calculation by the command Calc Grid in Grid menu.

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7.3 Road with parallel Barrier

When moving the mouse across the grid, CadnaA displays the current A-
weighted level on the status bar on the lower right (e.g. "L: 67.5").
In order to display the level inside a label at arbitrary positions on the grid use Choose level boxes
the object "Level box".

• Select the object "Level Box" (symbol ) from the toolbox.

• Click within the grid area to arbitrary positions to show the actual sound
level on a text box.

 When switching the performance parameter via the symbol bar from
day (LP1) to night (LP2), the level boxes on the grid will display the
night-time values while the level boxes at the facade receivers still dis- 7
play the daytime values. This is due to the fact that when generating the
labels for the facade receivers the daytime value (LP1) was selected
deliberately for display (action „Generate Label“).
Via grid arithmetics (Grid menu) a level difference grid can be generated Grid Arithmetics
showing the level difference without-with barrier to display the screening ef-
fect on screen.
For details check the chapter 5.2.2 Grid Arithmetics in this introductory
manual.

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7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

In CadnaA bridges, viaducts, and other elevated roadway constructions are
modeled by assigning the relative height to the road’s axis at every point or as
absolute height and activating the option "self-screening" of the road object.
The width of the self-screening bridge plate includes the road width and ad-
ditional sidewalk etc.

Elevated road with barrier to the left with „Self-Screening“ activated

• Select the object "Road" from the toolbox and enter a straight road Entering an elevated
section from two polygon points. Road

• In edit mode - recognized by the road symbol attached to the mouse

pointer - the road dialog can be opened by clicking with the right mouse
button on the road axis.
• Enter a road width of 5 m, MDTD of 15000 vehicles/day and click on
the button "Geometry".
• Specify a relative road height 10 m above the ground (default: 0 m).
• Close the dialogs Geometry and Road by OK.

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Vertical Grid • Select the object "Vertical Grid" (symbol ) from the toolbox.
• Draw a line from two polygon points perpendicular to the road axis,
approximately in the middle of the road section.

Road with vertical grid (projected into xy-plane)

• Switch to the edit mode (symbol ).

• Double-click on the vertical grid to open its dialog.
• Deactivate the options "global" and specify a receiver spacing of 1 by 1 m
and select the representation type "Lines of Equal Sound Level".
• By clicking the button "Calculate" the calculation is engaged and the
resulting vertical grid displayed.
• Click with the mouse into the lower part of the dialog - where the grid is
shown - and zoom in the vertical grid using the mouse wheel.
As can be evaluated from the representation the road - being a parametric
line source - is radiating to both sides. Thus, the road’s surface is not
considered as screening surface by default.

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7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

 The two emission lines are located 0.5 m above the height entered for
the road itself.

Vertical grid: elevated road not being self-screening

• Close the dialog Vertical Grid and double-click again on the road axis.
• Click the button "Geometry".
The option "Self-Screening" is activated on the road’s Geometry dialog. Activating Self-Screening
Additional width and barrier heights can be defined separately for the left and
right side. The additional width equals the distance of the outer diffracting
edge ("bridge' edge") to the axis of the outer lane.
• Activate the option "Self-screening" and enter an additional width 4 of
meters for the left and the right side.
• Close the dialogs Geometry and Road by OK.

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7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

Instead of the former additional width (per side of the street 1.75 m, see
dialog Options|Appearance, „Road“) the additional width is now based on
the self-screening definition. Using an auxiliary polygon you can measure that
the perpendicular distance from the dotted emission line to the road’s curb is
4 m an either sides. Consider, as the additional width from the self-screening
definition determines the radiated pattern it supersedes the additional width
defined on the dialog Appearance (Options menu).
• Double-click on the vertical grid and restart the calculation.

Vertical grid: elevated road with self-screening activated

The resulting grid illustrates the self-screening effect: The bridge's edge is
considered as a diffracting edge upon recalculation.
Enter the Barrier’s Height • Again, open the dialog Geometry of the road and enter a barrier height
on the left of 5 meters.
• Close both dialogs and start the grid calculation from the dialog Vertical
Grid.

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7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

Vertical grid: self-screening elevated road with barrier (parapet) on the left side
In conjunction with the feature „Self-Screening“ it has to be considered that, just the own source is
both, the additional width and the parapet/s are just seen by the own source seen
(i.e. the road having this option activated). For other sources - besides the
road in question - the road’s plate is not seen as a screening surface. This will
be illustrated in the following.
• Open the road’s dialog and change the MDTD to zero vehicles per day.
• Enter a point source at a height of 10 m aside of the road and in the line
of the vertical grid Specify an A-weighted sound power level of 100
dB(A).
• Open the vertical grid and start the calculation.
The result indicates by the lines of equal sound level propagating unaffected
across the road’s plate that the self-screening option activated for the road is
not relevant for the sound propagation of the point source.

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Vertical grid: self-screening elevated road with no emission and a point source
Dialog Modify Objects The values required in conjunction with the definition of self-screening prop-
erty can also be changed via dialog Modify Objects, action Modify Attri-
butes. For this, proceed as follows:
• Click with the mouse into the white screen area and select the command
Modify Objects from the context menu.
• Select from the list of actions the option „Modify Attribute“ and as object
type „Road".
• After click on OK the dialog Modify Attribute is displayed.
• The following attributes can be selected from the attribute list to address
new values:
 SSCR_ADDWID: Half of the value assigned here is the distance from
the outer diffracting edge to the corresponding road axis (i.e. addi-
tional widths left/right are numerically equal).

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7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges

 SSCR_AW_L: This value is the distance from the outer diffracting

edge on the left to the utmost road axis on the left (= additional width
to the left).
 SSCR_AW_R: This value is the distance from the outer diffracting
edge on the right to the utmost road axis on the right (= additional
width to the right).
 SSCR_H_L: height of the barrier’s upper edge above the road plane, to
the left.
 SSCR_H_R: height of the barrier’s upper edge above the road plane,
to the right.

Definition of the additional widths left/right

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7.5 Wall Optimization

7.5 Wall Optimization

CadnaA enables to determine automatically the required height of a noise
barrier in order to respect a predefined limiting level using an iterative
optimization calculation strategy. The object "Embankment" and not the
"Barrier" must be used for this wall optimization, due to the internal object
structure required. The embankments may be replaced with barriers when
the calculations are optimized. To execute a wall optimization it is mandatory
that a limiting level is assigned to the receiver points. The limiting level can ei-
ther be enter directly or may be extracted from areas of designated use.
In the following example a noise barrier alongside of a road shall be
optimized. This applies in the same way for other line sources (e.g. line 7
source, railroad).
• Enter a road with the following emission data. The remaining input val- Entering Objects
ues on the dialog Road are kept.
 road width: 3 meters,
 MDTD = 10000 vehicles/24
• Enter a house on a side of the road having a height of 10 meters.
• Select the command Object Snap (Options menu) and enter a snap
radius of 10 pixels with a distance points-facade of 0.05 m
• Enter a receiver at the building’s facade facing the road.
• Double-click on the receiver point: The option „Determine from Areas
of Land Use" is activated by default. Select from list box „Use Standard
Values for“ the option „Road".
• Define an area of land use around the building so that the receiver point is Defining Areas of Land
surrounded by the area (symbol: ). Use

• Double-click on the border of the area of land use and select from the list
box „Land Use“ the option „WA Allgemeines Wohngebiet“ (in English:
residential area).

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7.5 Wall Optimization

With this setting the reference values as defined on dialog Land Use for road
noise (Options menu) apply.

 You may add your own definitions to the list of land uses. On dialog
Land Use click into an empty line in column „Land Use“ and enter
corresponding limiting values for each noise type.
• Start the calculation by a click on the pocket calculator symbol on the
symbol bar.
Subsequently, the receiver point’s color switches to (performance parameter:
day = LP1). This means that the limiting value assigned to the receiver is ex-
ceeded for the day time period.
7

Limiting value for the receiver at the building exceeded

 If the receiver’s color does not turn to red, either the area of land use is
missing or the sound pressure level at the receiver is too low in your
case. Correct for this if necessary.
Parallel Object: Embank- In the next step an embankment as a parallel object to the road is generated.
ment
• Select from the context menu of the road the command Parallel Object.
• Choose the object type „Embankment" and activate the option „Left
from active Object“.
• Enter a distance of 5 m and a height offset of zero.

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7.5 Wall Optimization

Dialog Parallel Object: generate parallel embankment

7
• Double-click on the embankment and enter a slope of 1:0.

 By the slope of 1:0 a vertical embankment is predefined. The height is

not entered since this is calculated on optimization.
• Select from the context menu of the embankment the command Break
into pieces and enter 10 meters for the length of each piece.
• Select from the Options menu the command 3D-View.
• Change the type of view to "General parallel" and choose a suitable angle
of view by typing the left/right arrow keys on your keyboard.

• Now, click the symbol for the wall optimization ( ).

• Keep the default optimization parameters (element height: 0.5 m, max.
number of elements: 20). This corresponds to a maximum barrier height
of 10 meters.
• Start the wall optimization with OK.
At first, CadnaA checks whether the limiting value is kept at the
embankment’s maximum height. The optimization is continued only if this is
the case. Subsequently, with each iteration step there is a check to determine
which of the embankment sections yields the highest level reduction.

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7.5 Wall Optimization

This optimal section is then considered in the next iteration step. Finally, the
optimization result is displayed graphically on dialog 3D-View.

Result of the wall optimization

The table Embankment (Tables|Obstacles menu) lists the height of each

section.

Table Embankment listing the section heights

• Move the dialog Embankment so that the road becomes fully visible.
When clicking in a line of the table, the respective embankment section is
highlighted.

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7.6 Pass-By Level

7.6 Pass-By Level

In CadnaA, the time signal of the sound pressure level at a receiver point due
to the pass-by of an individual vehicle with a predefined emission can be cal-
culated for roads - but also for railways or line sources.
Via the time signal it can be assessed - for example:
• whether a noise mitigation measure (e.g. a barrier) causes a sufficient level
reduction,
• the level reduction due to an absorptive cladding of a reflecting façade of
a building, or
• the amount the resulting level of vehicles passing by is reduced when an 7
ordinary road is converted into a speed-reduced zone.
In the following example the pass-by level at a building’s façade is examined.
• Enter a road with several polygon points with the following emission Entering Objects
data:
 road width: 5 meters,
 MDTD = 20000 vehicles/24 h
• Enter a building with a height of 10 meters on a side of the road.
• Select the command Object Snap (Options menu) and enter a distance
of 0.05 m and a snap radius of 10 pixels.
• Insert a receiver at the lateral side of the building.
• Name the receiver point by RCVR 1.

• Start the calculation by clicking on the pocket calculator symbol ( )

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7.6 Pass-By Level

7
Building alongside of a road with a receiver partially screened by the building

Calculating the Pass-by- • Click with the right mouse button on the road axis and select the
Level command Pass-by Level from the context menu.
The dialog Pass-by Level is opened. The level during a pass-by depends on:
 the select receiver point,
 the source type (car, truck), and
 the speed (km/h).
Since just one receiver point is available in the example, this is selected auto-
matically.
• Select the entry „light" from the list box „Source Type“.
The speed dependent sound power levels of an individual vehicle in dB(A)
are based on the emission data of RLS 90.
• Enter 4 meters as length of the source.
• Keep the speed of 100 km/h and the sampling time of 0.1 s (interval
between the individual positions of the source).

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7.6 Pass-By Level

• Click on the button OK to display the time dependent pass-by level.

Pass-by Level at a receiver partially screened

• Clicking the button "Animate" starts the animation at different speeds

(default speed="1x").
CadnaA displays the level at each sampling position along the road in the di-
alog’s title.
• Click after finalization of the animation into the level diagram with the
mouse.
• By moving the mouse cursor within the window the levels at a certain
time can be displayed.
With this example, the level rises at the receiver point until the closest
approach of the source and decreases due to the screening effect caused by
the building’s edge.

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7.6 Pass-By Level

Auralisation The sound during a pass-by can be heard through a loudspeaker connected to
the computer.
• Click on the dialog Pass-By Level on the command
Auralisation|Properties.
• Select as an acoustic source type "Road".
• Activate the option "3D-Auralisation". In this case, the Doppler effect is
included with vehicles approaching and departing.

• Keep the settings for „Listening Direction at Receiver“ and click OK.
• Start the animation at default speed (1x) by clicking on the menu item
Animation.
The animation is started while the signal at receiver 1 is reproduced via loud-
speaker (and the audio output connector of your PC).
Record Video The change of the level grid when the source is moving can be saved as a vid-
eo file and replayed with a suitable software later on (e.g. MS-Windows Media
Player).

• Define a calculation area (symbol ) around the road and the building
with the receiver point.

• In addition, define a section (symbol ) around the calculation area and

name it "A1".
• Specify a grid spacing of 2 by 2 meter (menu Grid|Properties).
• Again, select the command Pass-by Level from the context menu of the
road, enter again a length of 4 meters and keep all other settings.

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7.6 Pass-By Level

• Select the section "A1" in the lower part („Video-Options“) of the dialog
and click on the button "Video".
• Enter a name for the video file to be generated (e.g. "road_1") and click
OK.
• Select from the listed video codecs (e.g. Microsoft Video 1) and click OK.

 The contents of the list depends on the video codecs installed on your
PC. Some codecs are per default available on MS-Windows operating
systems (e.g. Microsoft Video 1).
CadnaA starts the grid calculation for every sampling position of the source
and saves the moving grid as a frame in the video file. 7
• Double-click on the video file in the respective directory to replay it.

Two video-frames with a moving source and a building

Information on further options available on the dialog Pass-By Level please Further Options
refer to the CadnaA-Reference Manual, chapter 2.8 Pass-By of individual Ve-
hicles.

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7.6 Pass-By Level

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Chapter 8 - Modeling Railways

For the modeling of the sound propagation of railway lines the object Railway
is available in the CadnaA-toolbox:

Object Railway on the CadnaA toolbox

In this chapter the German railway guideline Schall03 (1990) is used as the
calculation method for railways (see „Country“ tab on the dialog
Calculation|Configuration). 8
The following topics are dealt with:
• entering and editing railways,
• defining, importing, and addressing of lists with train numbers,
• railways on bridges.

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

The emission of the source "railway" depends on the selected railway noise
standard (menu Calculation|Configuration, tab „Country“).
It is presupposed hereinafter that the guideline "Schall03" is chosen for "Ger-
many (TA Lärm)" as a country or - with setting „(user defined)“ - the guide-
line „Schall03“ was selected. If necessary please, check this.
In this example a straight railway track with two lanes having each a traffic of Entering a Railway Track
20 local trains during the day and 6 during the night period are used.

• Select the object „Railway“ from the toolbox.

• Select a scale of 1:1000 and click with the mouse to enter the first polygon
point of the railway. 8

• Move the mouse to the right and clicking at a second location.

• Click the right mouse button to exit the input mode.

• Change to the edit mode by clicking the arrow object in the left top
corner of the toolbox.
• Double-click with the mouse on the railway’s axis. The dialog Railway
(for Schall03 1990) opens.

Dialog Railway (here for Schall03 1990)

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

Specifying Emission The emission of railways is alternatively defined by:

• The emission level Lm,E for the time periods day/night, and - if necessary
- the evening period or
• by referring to a local or global list „Numbers of Trains“ specifying the
counts per train class during Day/Night, and - if required - Evening.

 The present railway guidelines produce for the time being just emissions
in the time periods day and night. Via the option „Use Non-Standard
Reference Time D/E/N = 12/4/8 (see Ref.Time Tab)“ the calculation
can be extended to three time periods D/E/N.
Emission Level Lm,E The emission level Lm,E can either be entered for periods Day/Evening/
Night as a numerical value via the dialog Railway or be imported alternatively
8 (see chapter 9.5 ODBC-Import).
Local List To edit the local list „Number of Trains“ for the railway selected proceed as
„Numbers of Trains“ follows:
• Activate the option „Train Classes and Penalties“ on the dialog Railway.
On the upper right of the dialog Railway, the selection „Train Classes“ is
provided. By default, the local list is selected. In this case the input of -traffic
numbers occurs on the present dialog.

Adding a train class to the local list „Number of Trains“

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

• Click with the right mouse button into the list and select from the context
menu the command Insert after.
• Double-click in the new table line.
• Select the local train „N Nahverkehrszug“ in the list box "Train Type"
and enter the numbers of trains (day = 20 trains, evening = 0 trains , night
= 6 trains).

Input number of trains Day/Night

• Upon closing of the dialog Railway:Train Class with OK the emission is

displayed with the respective Lm,E on dialog Railway as for day and night.

Dialog Railway after inserting local train numbers

• Now, close the dialog Railway.

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

Parallel Track • Click with the right mouse button on the railway track and select the com-
mand Parallel Object from the context menu.

• Select the object type "Railway", enter a distance of 6 meters to the right
and click OK.
8
• Change to the edit mode .
• Double-click on the new, parallel railway track and check whether the
emission data was copied correctly from the original railway.
Configuration| With selection of the guideline Schall03 the option „strictly accord. to
Tab „Railroad“ Schall03“ is automatically activated. This means that
 only the 1st order of reflection is considered (whatever was specified
for „max. Order of Reflection“ on tab "Reflection"),
 the railway correction of 5 dB taken into account, and
 no lateral diffraction and no attenuation due to foliage is calculated.

Emission Level Lm,E The emission level Lm,E according to Schall03 is the average level at a distance
of 25 from the railway's axis and in 3.5 m height above the rail's top edge and
considers:
 the basic emission data per train class,
 the correction for the type of track,
 the corrections for bridge, grade crossing and curve radius,
 the correction for multiple reflections,
 the speed correction.
Per default, all corrections are 0 dB.

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

• Close the dialog Railway and select the receiver point from the toolbox. Entering a Receiver
• Enter a receiver aside of the railway track and click in edit mode on the
receiver’s border with the right mouse button.
• Activate on the lower part of the dialog the option „Generate Rays (as Generate Rays
Aux. Polygons)“.
• Start the calculation by click on the pocket calculator symbol on the sym-
bol bar.

Tracks and receiver point with ray representation

It is obvious from the representation that the two railway tracks, each
representing a line source, are segmented into sections. Every segment is re-
placed by a point source.
• When double-clicking to the receiver the daytime and the night-time lev-
els are displayed.
When combining industrial noise with road noise in an assessment it has to
be considered that the partial level for railway noise already contains the rail-
way correction of 5 dB (see Calculation|Configuration menu, tab „Rail-
way“). The energetic addition of the partial levels for commercial and
industrial noise, therefore, leads to a total level which could be regarded as re-
sult for an overall assessment.

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

Defining a Calculation • Select the object „Calculation Area“ (symbol ) from the toolbox and
Area define a calculation area including and the receiver.
• Adjust the grid spacing to 1x1 meter (menu Grid|Properties).
• Calculate the grid (menu Grid|Calc Grid).
• Use the object „Level Box“ (symbol ) to display the level at individual
locations on the grid.

Level grid (daytime) for a railway track with two lanes

Defining a Parallel Barrier • Click with the right mouse button on the - in this example - upper railway
track and select the command Parallel Object from the context menu.
• On dialog Parallel Object, enter a distance (aside of the railway's axis) of
3 m and a height difference of 5.4 m.

 Since the source height of the railway is set automatically to 0.6 m above
the rail’s top edge, the height of the barrier’s top edge is located at 0.6 +
5.4 = 6 meter.

 The option "Station Range" enables to restrict the barrier’s length to a

range of stations.

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8.1 Entering & editing of railroads

• Recalculate the grid (menu Grid|Calc Grid).

Level grid (daytime) for a railway track with parallel barrier

• Select the object "Vertical Grid" from the toolbox (symbol ). Vertical Grid
• Draw a line from two polygon points perpendicular to the railway track
(approximately in the middle of its length).

• Switch to the edit mode (symbol ).

• Double-click the vertical grid to open its dialog.

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• Deactivate the option „Global“ for the grid representation and set it to
„Lines of the Equal Sound Level“.
• Click the button „Calculate“ in dialog Vertical Grid.
• Click after completion of calculation with the mouse into the lower part
window and zoom in the vertical grid using the mouse wheel.

Vertical grid, grid appearance „Lines of the Equal Sound Level“

From the graphics it becomes obvious that the emission lines are above the
terrain’s level. On dialog Railway|Geometry it can be checked that the
source height is set by CadnaA to 0.6 m above terrain automatically (i.e. the
rail’s top edge).

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8.2 Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of Trains“

8.2 Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of

Trains“
Editing the list of train numbers for each railway track locally, however, is te-
dious since, every time, the same numbers of trains would have to be
reentered for any track section where the type of track or other corrections
(e.g. bridge, grade crossing and curve radius) change.
But, lists with train numbers can be defined in the local library of CadnaA
(menu Tables|Libraries (local)|Number of Trains). These lists can be as-
signed to each railway track. When changing the number of trains in the li-
brary all respective railway tracks will be updated automatically.
In this section the editing, the import and addressing is explained by lists with
train numbers with the help of example data. At first, a text file is produced, 8
having a specific format, with numbers of trains.
The data per track consist of at least three line: Data Structure

1st line: name of the list with number trains (e.g. designation of track)
2nd line: train class|number_Day|number_Evening|number_Night|
speed|train_length|percentage_disc_brakes%|
type_correction_Dfz|selection_traintype
3rd line: blank (as a separating line between tracks)
Note the following points:
• The parameters in the 2nd line have to be separated from each other by
the tabulator key (TAB).
• Number of trains for additional train classes are inserted after the 2nd line
as additional lines.
• The last two parameters in the 2nd line just apply to calculations using the
German railway noise guideline Schall03 (otherwise set values to zero).

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8.2 Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of Trains“

Generating a List with The following list with numbers of trains shall be imported:
Numbers of Trains
track_001
ICE 16 0 0 100 420 100.0 -3.0 1
EC 13 0 2 100 340 94.0 0.0 6
track_002
IR 14 0 1 120 205 90.0 0.0 0
D/FD 0 0 4 120 340 30.0 0.0 0

• Enter these figures into a MS-Word file or into a text editor and save the
8 file as a text file (file extension *.txt). The individual parameters are to be
separated by the tabulator key (TAB).
The text file will now look like this:

Text file with number of trains for two tracks

Importing the Numbers of • In CadnaA, select New from the File menu.
Trains
• On the File menu, select command Import and from the list of file types
„Number of Trains (*.txt)“.
• Select the previous text file by clicking its name once and click the button
„Options“.
Number of trains can be imported either to the local list on the dialog
Railway or into the local library Number of Trains.

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8.2 Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of Trains“

• Select for „Object Type“ the option „Numbers of Trains“ with the check-
box „Append non-existing Objects“ activated.

Options for import of number of trains

• Close the dialog and click the „Open“-button on the dialog Import
Number of Trains.
• Open the imported list with number of trains via the menu Tables|
Libraries (local)|Number of Trains. 8
Thus, the numbers of trains for two tracks have been imported. The
indicated emission level Lm,E considers all types of trains running on this
track.

Imported number of trains for two tracks

• Double-click onto the first table item „track_001“.

Railways classes and numbers for track_001

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Addressing the Now, the numbers of trains shall be assigned to two railway tracks.
Numbers of Trains
• Enter two railway tracks into the file for which the number of trains have
been imported.
• Define the ID’s of both tracks, the first track’s ID "track_001" and the
second tracks’s ID "track_002".

Railway track with new ID, but without number of trains

• Click in the white screen area with the right mouse button and select from
the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• Select the action „Change Attributes“ and the object type „Railway“.
• Click OK.
• Select on the dialog Modify Attribute the attribute "LIBZZ" from the
upper list box.

 The abbreviation „LIBZZ“ stands for ’Library Numbers of Trains’ and

refers to the designation in the library „Number of Trains“.
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and delete the present entry „\1“ in
line „Replace with“.
• Click on the double arrow symbol .
• Select the attribute "ID" from the sub-menu (in the upper left corner).

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8.2 Creating & Addressing Lists with „Number of Trains“

Subsequently, the string "{ID}" is written into the input box „Replace with“.
The parentheses indicate that not the text string "ID" is becoming the new
string, but the value of the attribute ID.

8
Replacing the attribute LIBZZ by the ID-value

• After OK confirm the operation with „all“.

• Double-click on both railway tracks, one after another.
The railway track with ID „track_001“" got the number of trains assigned of
„track_001“ in the library Numbers of Trains, and the railway track
„Track__002“ those of „track_002“.

Number of Trains „track_002“ assigned

• Save the file e.g. with filename „railway.cna“.

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8.3 Railroads on Bridges

8.3 Railroads on Bridges

The sound radiation by railway tracks on bridges or viaducts can be modeled
in CadnaA by use of the option „Self-Screening“. This option is available on
the Geometry dialog of the object „Railway“.

Dialog Geometry (via dialog Railway)

With the option „Self-Screening“ activated the following values can be

entered:
• additional width left/right (to consider the bridge plate's edge),
• parapet height left/right (located at the plate’s edge), and
• a stationing.
The use is explained by an example in the following.
• Set the scale to 1:2000 and select the „Railway“ from the toolbox. Entering an elevated Rail-
way Track
• Enter via keyboard the first pair of coordinates:
(x1, y1) = (100, 900)
• Enter via keyboard the second pair of coordinates:
(x2, y2) = (300, 900)

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• Finalize the input procedure by clicking the right mouse button.

• Enter a relative height of the railway track of 10.6 meters above to the
ground (via button „Geometry“ in the dialog Railway).

 The entered height refers to the rail's top edge.

• Close the Geometry and the Railway dialog by OK.

• Enter an emission level of Lm,E = 70 dB(A) for the daytime period.
Vertical Grid • Select the object „Vertical Grid“ from the toolbox (symbol ).
• Draw a line from two polygon points perpendicular to the railway's axis,
approximately in the middle of the track’s length.

• Change to the edit mode (toolbox symbol ).

8

Railway track and vertical grid (in xy-plane)

• On a double-click on the vertical grid the dialog opens.

• For „Specification“ and „Appearance“, deactivate the option „global“ and
set the grid spacing to 1x1 meter and the appearance to „Lines of Equal
Sound Level“.
• Now, click „Calculate“.
• Click once with the mouse into the lower part of the dialog and zoom in
or out the vertical grid using the mouse wheel.

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8.3 Railroads on Bridges

It is obvious from the representation that the railway track emits to all sides.
Thus, the track is not seen as a screening surface by default.

Vertical grid: elevated railway track with self-screening deactivated

• Close the dialog Vertical Grid and double-click onto the railway track
once more.
• Click the button „Geometry“.
The option „Self-Screening“ is activated on the dialog Geometry. Additional Activating Self-Screening
widths and barrier heights can defined for the left and right side of the rail-
way track. The additional width corresponds to the distance of the outer dif-
fracting edge ("bridge' edge") from the railway's axis.
• Activate the option „Self-Screening“ and keep the default additional
width of 2 meters on either sides left/right.
• Close the dialogs Geometry and Railway.

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• Double-click on the vertical grid and start the calculation by click on but-
ton „Calculation“.

Vertical grid: elevated railway track with self-screening activated

As can be seen from the resulting vertical grid the diffracting edge is defined
by the additional width entered.
Specifying a Furthermore, on dialog Geometry, the length of a parallel barrier (parapet)
Parapet by Stations can be restricted to a certain part of the railway track using the option „from/
to Station“. As an example, two buildings are entered serving as bridgeheads.
• Select the object „Building“ from the toolbox.
• Enter the following coordinate points via the keyboard after each other:
(x1, y1) = (100, 825)
(x2, y2) = (150, 825)
(x3, y3) = (150, 975)
(x4, y4) = (100, 975)

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• Click with the right mouse button on the building’s border in order to
select the command Transformation from the context menu and
subsequently the option „Rotation + Translation“.
• Enter a translation of 150 m in x-direction and activate the option „Keep
Original“.

Transforming a copy of the building

• Select from the railway’s context menu the command Generate Stations. Generating Stations
• Specify a distance of stations of 25 m aligned to the right side of the
objects and click OK.

Distance of stations 25 m, right alignment

• Open dialog Geometry via the dialog Railway. Specifying Stations
for the Parapet
• Activate the option „from Station“ and enter a value of 75 meters.
• Activate the option „to Station“ and enter a value of 125 meters.

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Station range for parallel parapet (barrier)

Definition of a • Select the object Calculation Area (symbol: ) from the toolbox and
Calculation Area draw a rectangle around the objects entered.
• Calculate the horizontal grid (menu Grid|Calc Grid).

Horizontal grid: elevated railway track & parapet with stations

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8.3 Railroads on Bridges

By restricting the parapet’s length to the bridged part of the railway track, the
grid levels to the left of the bridge (upper half of the grid) are determined by
the path difference across the barrier’s upper edge. The sound emitted by the
railway sections on the bridgeheads is diffracted by the respective edge of the
building which considers the bridge plate as a screening object as well.
The self-screening effect by the railroad track - including parapets, if any - re- Only of own Source is
fers just to this source itself (i.e. just to this railway track). For more seen
information please refer to chapter 7.4 Elevated Roads and Bridges in this
manual.

 Additional widths and parapets defined using the option „Self-Screen-

ing“ for railways are not displayed in the 3D-Special view.

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Chapter 9 - Data Import

CadnaA offers extensive features to import the object’s geometry and data
from various file formats.
In view of the variety of import formats, only the procedure for the most rel-
evant and frequent formats can be explained in the context of this
introductory manual. This includes:
• import of bitmaps as background images (including GoogleEarth™),
• geometry import from DXF-files,
• import of geometry and data from Shape-files (ESRI-ArcGIS),
• import of data from MS-Excel worksheets via ODBC. 9
The procedures to be used are presented in the following by examples.

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

 The features described in this section require the CadnaA-option BMP
enabling bitmap processing.
Bitmaps serve as a background graphic when entering sources, obstacles and
receiver points. In those cases, the object coordinates are not available as dig-
ital data but may be defined by drawing the objects onto the background.
This feature enables to make use of scanned plans or maps (e.g. from land
register), but also of photographs serving as background.

 The bitmap file itself is not saved within the CadnaA-file. The
CadnaA-file, however, contains a reference to the file via its file path.

It is mandatory for the to-scale insertion of a bitmap file that one of the
following data is at least available:
9
1. coordinate pairs (x,y) for the bottom left and the top right corner,
2. coordinate pair (x,y) for bottom left corner, the resolution in dpi ("dots
per inch") and the original scale (1: X),
3. at least two matching points (located within the bitmap with well-
known coordinates) assuming translation deformation, or
4. at least three matching points with a shear deformation of the bitmap.
The bitmap files used in the following examples are available for download File Download
at:
http://download.datakustik.de/download/bmp1.zip
http://download.datakustik.de/download/bmp2.zip
Decompress the files after download. Free test version of WinZip is
downloadable at:
http://www.winzip.com

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

Example 1 The bitmap-file bmp1.jpg is an extract from a land register. It is orientated

vs. North and shows a scaling bar.

The scaling bar has a length of 25 m. Thus, the relative, orthogonal

coordinates of two points are known:
(x1,y1) = (0,0) and (x2,y2) = (25,0).

• Select the bitmap-symbol from the toolbox and draw an area.

As no bitmap-file has been referenced so far the frame just contains the
default bitmap-symbol.
• Open the bitmap’s dialog (in input mode) by clicking on the border with
the right mouse button.
• Select the bitmap-file to be imported bmp1.jpg using the file selector
symbol.

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

Selecting the bitmap-file

After selection of the file the entire path is displayed in box „File“.

 A bitmap-file is, however, found in any case - independent of the file

path addressed - if it resident in the same directory as the project file
(file extension *.cna).
The present coordinates for the two corners apply to the drawn area of the
bitmap-symbol.
• Click on button „Calibrate Bitmap“.
• On dialog Calibrate Bitmap, the option „Reference Point 2“ is selected
by default.
• Now, enter the x-coordinate of the second reference point as shown in
the next figure.

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The other coordinates are all zero and need not to be changed therefore..

Coordinates for two reference points

• After having defined the coordinates click on OK.

On a further dialog, CadnaA displays the bitmap and prompts you to specify
the position of the first reference point. When moving with the mouse arrow
9 across the bitmap you will realize a fiducial mark attached to the mouse ar-
row.

Symbol for the fiducial mark

 The hotspot is the mouse’ arrow head and not the center point of the
fiducial mark.
• Click onto the zero meter point on the scaling bar in order to enter the
first reference point.
• If necessary make use of the magnifier feature to enlarge a section of the
bitmap.
Now, CadnaA prompts you to specify the second reference point.
• Click at the 25 m point on the scaling bar to introduce the second
reference point.

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

Defining the second reference point at (x2,y2) = (25,0)

After input of the last reference point a further dialog displays the RMS-error
and the standard deviation of the calibrating procedure. For bitmaps with two 9
reference points the error with an orthogonal transformation is zero.
• Click OK and enter a new file name for the calibrated file (e.g. bmp1_-
cal.jpg).

• Now, click the OK-button in the Bitmap dialog.

The bitmap is imported, but may be out off the screen area as it’s location is
outside the present screen area of the CadnaA-main window.
• In case this applies, select the command Limits on the Options menu.
• On the dialog Limits click the button "Calc" and close the dialog by OK.

• Click the symbol on the toolbox to display the entire limits.

• By use of an auxiliary polygon you may check whether the scaling bar
actually has actually a length of 25 m.

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Example 2 In this example the bitmap-file bmp2.bmp having a shear deformation is im-
ported to scale using three match points.

Bitmap with three match point-coordinates

If you intend to import a file with an unknown distortion use at least three
match points.
• If necessary select the command New from the File menu.

• Draw an area after selection of the bitmap symbol from the toolbox.
• Open the dialog (in the edit mode) by a right mouse click on the border
of the bitmap symbol.
• Select via the file selector symbol the bitmap file bmp2.bmp to be
imported.

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

Upon selection of the file the entire file path and the file name is displayed in
the box "File". The coordinates displayed right now apply to the two polygon
points of the arbitrary area of the bitmap symbol.
• Click the button „Calibrate Bitmap“.
• In the dialog „Calibrate Bitmap“ activate the radio button at "Reference
Point 3" to enable the input of three reference points.
• Enter the coordinates of the three reference points as shown in a
following figure.

Coordinates for three reference points

 It is recommended to adhere a certain sequence when defining the ref-

erence points (e.g. clockwise) in order to be able to remember the
sequence of points more easily - if it is not put down in the bitmap file
already.
• Click after input of the reference point coordinates on OK.
CadnaA displays the bitmap and prompts to enter the position of the first
reference point.
• Click on the location which was entered as the first reference point.
• If necessary use the magnifying glass to zoom to a part of the bitmap.
CadnaA prompts you to enter the positions of the two further reference
points.

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• Click at the location which was entered as the second reference point.
• Further, click at the location which was entered as the third reference
point.

9 Defining the third reference point

After input of the last reference point the RMS-error and the standard
deviation of the calibrating procedure are displayed. For bitmaps non-transla-
toric distortion - as in this case - the error applying an translatoric transfor-
mation is, for sure, larger as with an affine transformation.

RMS-error and standard deviation of the calibrating procedure

(applying orthogonal or affine transformation)

• Click OK with the a affine transformation selected and enter a new file
name for the calibrated file (e.g. bmp2_cal.bmp).

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9.1 Import & Calibration of Bitmaps

• Click OK on the dialog Bitmap.

• If the bitmap is out off the screen area select the command Limits on the
Options menu.
• Click the button "Calc" and close the dialog by OK.

• Select the symbol from the toolbox to display the entire limits.
• Using an auxiliary polygon you may check whether the distances between
the locations having served as match points correspond to the differences
of the respective coordinates in x and y direction.
Bitmaps are also listed in the tables.
• Select from the Tables menu the sub-entry Miscellaneous|Bitmap.

Bitmap table (menu Tables|Miscellaneous)

As CadnaA saves this calibration data with the file the location of the bitmap
has not to be recalibrated when reopening the file. The calibrated bitmap en-
ables to draw objects - like buildings and roads - on top of the bitmap serving
as background.

 The imported bitmap file is projected to the ground in 3D-Special view.

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9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

 The features described in this section require the CadnaA-option BMP
enabling bitmap processing.
CadnaA offers the possibility of importing geo-referenced bitmaps from
GoogleEarth The view in Google Earth determines the resolution of the bit-
map. It is prerequisite that the recent version of GoogleEarth is installed on
your PC (download: http://earth.google.de/download-
earth.html). CadnaA supports GoogleEarth up to release 6.2. On the
other hand, GoogleEarth 7 is not supported since the communication with
external software was switched off in this and further releases by Google Inc.
There are two procedures to import bitmaps from GoogleEarth into
CadnaA:

1. The position of the CadnaA-objects or the bitmap-object is known 9

with respect to a geodetic coordinate system. In this case bitmaps can
be imported in correct position from GoogleEarth.
2. The position of the CadnaA-objects is not geo-referenced (i.e. only rel-
ative local coordinates are known). In this case bitmaps can be imported
by selecting the area in GoogleEarth.
In case the object coordinates are in a known geodetic system proceed as fol- Objects Coordinates are
lows: geo-referenced

• If the geodetic datum of the object coordinates is known open the dialog
Coordinate System (Options menu).
• On the dialog Coordinate System select the corresponding system and
the reference point and click OK.
• Select the bitmap symbol from the toolbox and draw a frame at the posi-
tion where you would like to have the GoogleEarth bitmap inserted.
• Click in the edit mode with the right mouse button on the border of the
bitmap.

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9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

• On the dialog Bitmap click the button „Import from GoogleEarth“.

• Activate on dialog Options for GoogleEarth™ the option "Use Bitmap-
Dimensions“.

Option „Use Bitmap-Dimensions“ activated

9
• The option „Height of View“ determines the resolution and also the file
size of the imported file. Change the height of view to 2000 m.
• Agree with the conditions of use of GoogleEarth by activating the check-
box and click OK.
GoogleEarth is started and the target area is centered on automatically („Get
Image“).
• Confirm the selection with OK.
• If the query dialog is not visible move the GoogleEarth window a little
aside.
• Subsequently, you are prompted to enter a file name for the bitmap.
• Click OK and the bitmap is displayed in the CadnaA-main window.

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9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

Bitmap as background image, imported from GoogleEarth™

9

Bitmap as ground texture in 3D-Special view

In the alternative case the bitmaps can be imported by selection in Objects Coordinates are
GoogleEarth. not geo-referenced

• If necessary select the command New from the File menu.

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9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

• Select the bitmap symbol from the toolbox once more and draw a bitmap
frame.
• Click in input mode with the right mouse button on the border of the bit-
map (alternatively, double-click with the left mouse button in edit mode).
• On the dialog Bitmap click the button „Import from GoogleEarth“.
• Activate the option "Select in Google Earth and modify the bitmap-
dimensions“ on dialog Options for GoogleEarth™.

 With the option „Position to current CadnaA View“ activated the

bitmap imported matches with the visible project part (i.e. screen area)
of the CadnaA-main window.

Option „Select in Google Earth™ and modify the bitmap-dimensions“ activated

• Agree with the conditions of use of GoogleEarth™ by activating the

check-box and click OK.
• On the subsequent dialog Coordinate System select the system to be
applied for the corner coordinates of the bitmap.
• For example, select the system „UTM coordinates (northern
hemisphere)“ with the reference „WGS84“ and click OK.
• Now, CadnaA switches to GoogleEarth™ to enable the selection of the
screen section.

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9.2 Importing Bitmap from GoogleEarth™

• Move to the location using the features offered by GoogleEarth™.

• When the location has been set return to CadnaA and confirm your
selection by clicking OK.

Confirming the selection

• Subsequently you will be prompted to save the file.

• On dialog Bitmap click OK.
In case the bitmap coordinates are outside the present limits, they will be ad-
justed automatically. The imported bitmap is displayed in CadnaA with the
object coordinates according to the selected geodetic datum.
9

Bitmap as background image, imported from GoogleEarth

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9.3 DXF-Import

9.3 DXF-Import
Data for object geometry provided in the DXF-format (DXF: "Data
Exchange Format") can be used to set up a model in CadnaA. Due to the
ongoing modification of the DXF-format by Autodesk, the manufacturer of
AutoCAD, a DXF-file may contain various objects (e.g. lines, polylines, 3D-
objects etc.). Basically, a DXF file is a text file with ASCII-compatible type
range which can also be displayed in an ordinary text editor.
To ensure a smooth import to CadnaA the following rules should be Prerequisites
observed by the DXF-file:
• Different object types are on separate layers.
• All objects superfluous for the object representation (e.g. text frames,
fiducial marks, auxiliary lines etc.) are deleted from the drawing.
• Polygon objects (e.g. buildings) are stored as polylines. 9
 Polygon objects not been saved as polylines consist of a multitude of
individual lines which can afterwards - if necessary - be closed only if
you have the CadnaA-option XL (command „Close Buildings“).
• Open polygons (e.g. roads) have been saved as such.
• For roads, just the central axis is relevant since the road width is entered
in CadnaA as road parameter.
In the following example buildings and roads are imported from a DXF file. Example
This DXF file is available for download from:
http://download.datakustik.de/download/buildings_roads.zip

Proceed as follows:
• Unzip the file (e.g. using http://www.winzip.de)
• Select on the dialog File|Import the file type „DXF (AutoCad)".

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9.3 DXF-Import

• Click once (!) on the file name and then click on button „Options“ on dia-
log Import File.
The dialog Options for DXF-Import is displayed. On the table, each Cad-
naA object type can be assigned to a single layer in the DXF file. In this ex-
ample, roads and buildings are to be assigned.
• Double-click into the table row "Road".
• Select from the list box „Layer“ in the dialog Import:Layer the layer
name „ROAD“. Subsequently, all objects on this layer are assigned to the
object type „Road“.

Selecting the layer ROAD for all roads

• Double-click into the table row „Building“.

• Select from the list box „Layer“ in the dialog Import:Layer the layer
name „BUILD“". Subsequently, all objects on this layer are assigned to
the object type „Building“.

Selecting the layer BUILD for all buildings

• Activate the option „Use Object Height for Polylines“ on the bottom of
the dialog.

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9.3 DXF-Import

Option „Use Object Height for Polylines“ activated

9

• Close the dialog Options for DXF-Import with OK.

• Launch the import procedure by click on the button „Open“ on dialog
Import files.
• If you do not see any objects in CadnaA engage the display of the entire
limits (symbol: ) or click via menu Options|Limits the button
„Calc“.
• Press the key combination CTRL+3 to display the objects visible on the
screen in 3D-Special view.
Via the building’s table (menu Tables|Obstacles|Building) you may check
whether the building heights have been imported (column „Height“). The
road widths, however, have not been imported since the geometry data refers
to the roads axis only. The road width might be imported via ODBC, e.g.
from spreadsheet tables.

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Imported roads and buildings

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9.4 SHP-Import

9.4 SHP-Import
With geometry and object data resulting from geographical information sys-
tems (GIS), these can be imported using the flexible shape import filter of
CadnaA (from ArcGIS/ArcView/ArcInfo). A shape file consists of three
files:
• file extension *.shp: file containing object geometries,
• file extension *.shx: index file (containing a position index for geometry),
• file extension *.dbf: file containing the object’s attributes (table in the
dBASE III-format).
Since GIS-systems are structured by layers or topics specific objects can be
addressed to a single shape file.
In the following example buildings and their attributes are imported from a Example
shape file. This shape file is available for download from: 9

http://download.datakustik.de/download/buildings.zip
Proceed as follows:
• Unzip the file (e.g. with http://www.winzip.de)
• Select on the dialog File|Import file type "ArcView".
• Click once (!) on the file name buildings.shp and then click on button
„Options“ on dialog Import File.
The dialog Options for ArcView Shapefile-Import is displayed. On the ta-
ble, each CadnaA object type can be assigned to a single layer in the shape
file. In this example, buildings are to be assigned.
• Click on the vertical scroll bar of the table on the left to display the table
entry „Building“.
• Click in line „Building“, into the column „Layer“, and enter a asterisk
symbol (*).

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9.4 SHP-Import

 The asterisk symbol is a wild card for any text string. Consequently, in
this example, all objects will be imported as buildings.
• Note that the option „Unknown Attributes to Memo-Variables“ is
activated. This ensures that all attributes imported from the DBF-file
which do not correspond with the building’s attributes in CadnaA will be
copied to the memo-window of the buildings.

Configuration for import of shape files

• Close the dialog Options for ArcView Shapefile-Import with OK.

• On dialog Import files click on button „Open“.
• Open the building’s table (via Tables menu, Obstacles|Buildings).
• Click into the first line in the table and then click the button
„Sync.Graphic“.
CadnaA centers on this building in the main window.

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9.4 SHP-Import

• Double-click on the border of this building to open its dialog.

Dialog Building Memo-Window of the building

The unknown attributes "INHAB" and "HEIGHT" were copied as string

variables into the Memo-Window since their designation does not
9
correspond with the CadnaA-object attributes. On the next step, these string
variables are transferred to the attributes EINW (=inhabitants) and HA
(=height) of the buildings.
 Alternatively, the same final result could be achieved after reimport with Transform Attributes
the following settings in the input box „Transform Attributes“:

To write the content of the string variable "INHAB" into attribute EINW of Replace Attributes
the buildings proceed as follows:
• Click with the right mouse button in the white screen area and select
Modify Objects from the context menu.

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• Select the action „Modify Attribute“ for the buildings as object type.
• On dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute to be changed, EINW,
and enter „Replace String, Replace with“:

{MEMO_INHAB}

9
Attribute EINW is replaced by the content
of the string variable INHAB

• Click OK and confirm the action by „All“.

• Double-click on a building’s border to check whether the inhabitants were
transferred into the input box „Residents“ of the building’s dialog.
Analogously, the building height is transferred to the attribute HA.
• Click with the right mouse button to the white screen area once again and
select Modify Attributes from the context menu.
• Select the action „Modify Attribute“ for the buildings as object type.
• On dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute to be changed, HA, and
enter „Replace String, Replace with“:

{MEMO_HEIGHT}

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Attribute HA is replaced by the content of the string variable HEIGHT

• Click OK and confirm the action by „All“.

• Double-click on a building’s border to check whether the height has
transferred into the input box „First Point, Height“ of the building’s dia-
9
log Geometry.
• Press the key combination CTRL+3 to display the objects visible on the
screen in 3D-Special view.
On the tables Building (Tables menu, Obstacles) it can be seen that the
height and the number of residents have been assigned.

Buildings with heights and residents imported

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9.5 ODBC-Import

9.5 ODBC-Import
CadnaA enables to import data from various data sources via its ODBC in-
terface (Open Database Connectivity) into a project file (menu File|
Database).
In order to establish access using the database interface, an appropriate data
set is required from which the parameters are imported (e.g. MS-Excel or
MS-Access). Furthermore, a suitable ODBC-driver must be installed on the
PC. To check your system for available ODBC driver go to
Settings|Control Panel|Administrative Tools|Data Sources (ODBC)
from the Windows start menu.
Examples for the data import via ODBC:
1. sound level spectra, sound reduction spectra etc.
2. object attributes (name, emission data etc., text attributes for the 9
Memo-Window)
3. object coordinates of point objects (e.g. receiver points, point sources,
bitmaps)
The following spectra of sound power levels shall be imported via ODBC Example 1: Importing
from an MS-Excel-worksheet. Sound Power Level Spec-
tra

Table with sound power level spectra, named range selected

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This file is available for download from:

http://download.datakustik.de/download/spectra.zip
The tables consist of the following columns:
 Name,
 ID,
 spectrum type:
type=2 means a PWL-spectrum, see attribute LW_TYP on the
Windows-help or in CadnaA-manual „Attributes, Variables and Key-
words“)
 weighting (here: A-weighted),
 octave band data from 31 to 8000 Hz.
The data range (including the column designation) to be imported is selected
in the "Named Range" of MS-Excel by the name „data“. To this data range
9 access is provided on ODBC-import.
Proceed as follows to import the data into CadnaA:
• Open the dialog Database|Definition on the File menu.

• Select via the file selector symbol from the ODBC data sources avail-
able on your PC the driver for MS-Excel-files (about tabs "File Data
Sources" or "Machine Data Sources").
• On the following dialog select the file spectra.xls and click OK.
• Scroll in the table „Object Type“ on dialog Database down to the
bottom and select the object type „Sound Levels“.
• Now, activate the option „Import Object Type“. The selected object type
is highlighted.
• Select the named range of cells from „Table“ (here: „data“).

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9.5 ODBC-Import

Configuring data import via ODBC

Now, the table columns are assigned to the corresponding object attributes in
CadnaA. To this end, each attribute for which data is to be imported the cor-
responding table column name of the database table is assigned.
9
• Double-click into the first line "Bez" of the table „Assign Columns“.
• On dialog Assign Columns select the table column „Name“ to assign its
content to the attribute BEZ.

Assigning column „Name“ to the attribute BEZ

• Proceed with the attribute ID and assign this to the table column „ID“.
• The attribute BEWERT (i.e. weighting type) gets assigned to the table
column „Weight“.
• Furthermore, the attribute STYPI is assigned to column „Type“.

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• Finally, assign the octave band data to the respective attributes. To facili-
tate the procedure you may use the arrow buttons to switch to the
next attribute:
 attribute SIN_31 to column „f_31“,
 attribute SIN_63 to column „f_63“ etc. till
 attribute SIN_8000 to column „f_8000“.

Assigning octave band level data

• So, the configuration of the ODBC interface is completed. Close the dia-
log Database with OK.
• To start the import, select the command Database|Import from the
File menu.
• Activate on the subsequent dialog the option „Append non-existing
Objects“ and click OK.
Now, the data is imported. Alternatively, you may also update existing objects
or select the combination of both options. The imported sound level spectra
can be displayed from the Tables menu, tables Libraries (local)|Sound
Levels..

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9.5 ODBC-Import

Now, road data shall be imported for 9 roads via ODBC. The MS-Excel file Example 2: Import of
with the respective road data is available for download from: Road Data

http://download.datakustik.de/download/road_data.zip

The MS-Excel file has the following columns:

• Name: road’s name,
• ID: relevant characteristic for synchronization,
• MDTD: mean daily traffic data,
• Type: type of road,
• speed_car: speed limit for cars (km/h),
• speed_truck: speed limit for trucks (km/h).
• rd_width: distance between the outer lane’s axis in m.
First, enter into a new CadnaA-file nine roads. 9

• Select the object „Road“ from the toolbox.

• Enter an arbitrary road network consisting of nine separate roads (i.e.
nine road objects).

Road network consisting of nine roads

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• Open the Road table from the Tables|Sources menu.

• Click with the right mouse button in the column "ID" and select the com-
mand „Change Column“.
• Enter in section „Replace Strings, Replace with“: rd_ #
• After OK all roads receive the ID "rd_" plus a single-digit number.
• Save the file under a new name.
• Open the dialog Database|Definition on the File menu.

• Select via the file selector symbol from the ODBC data sources avail-
able on your PC the driver for MS-Excel-files.
• Select the file road_data.xls in the following dialog and click OK.
• On dialog Database select the object type „Road“ from the table of
object types.
9
• Activate the option „Import Object Type“. The selected object type is
marked.
• Select the named range in the MS-Excel-file via „Table“ (here: „data).
• Assign the following attributes the respective table column as listed in the
following table per double-click:
Attribute Table Column
BEZ Name
ID ID
FBABST dist
DTV MDTD
STRGATT Type
VPKW sp_car
VLKW sp_truck

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• Close the dialog Database with OK.

• Select the command Import on menu File|Database to import the
data.
• Activate on the subsequent dialog the option „Update existing Objects“
and click OK.
The data is imported and the road data is updated. The imported data can be
displayed via the menu Tables|Sources|Roads..

Table Road showing the imported road data

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Chapter 10 - Groups & Variants

CadnaA offers efficient features to organize objects in such a way that a file
may contain several stages of a project - even with large project files. This
considerably simplifies the handling of different project situations (e.g. actual
state, planning case A, planning case B) as those situations do not have to be
stored in separate files requiring multiple files to be edited when changes be-
come necessary.
In CadnaA objects can be organized in groups. All objects of a group have a
common characteristic (being a part of the ID). Up to 16 variants are possible
in a CadnaA file making use of these predefined groups. The group forma-
tion can be accomplished either manually or semi-automatically using the
ObjectTree.
All possibilities are explained in this chapter using examples. 10

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10

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10.1 Structuring Data by Defining Groups

10.1 Structuring Data by Defining Groups

A group is a selection of objects which is based on a predefined expression
based on the ID. For these groups of objects different actions can be carried
out, for example:
• deletion,
• conversion into a different object (e.g. converting a line source into a road
or a railway),
• transformation of object coordinates,
• activating or deactivating objects for calculation,
• representation of results etc.
The groups are defined via menu Tables|Group.

10

Table Groups with two groups (Tables menu)

Objects are associated with a group by specifying a character string

(„Expression“) being part of the object’s ID. In the above example all objects
whose ID starts with the letter A are belong to the group „actual“ (i.e. actual
situation). All objects, however, whose ID starts with the letter P are belong
to the group „planning“ (i.e. planning case). The asterisk (*) is a wild card
substituting all further characters of a string.
When groups are defined, actions can be restricted to all objects of an Group dependent Actions
existing group. On the dialog Modify Objects, a list box is available listing all
groups in the present project.

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By the action in the following figure all roads of the group „present“ would
be deleted.

10 Deleting all roads of group „present“

In principle, actions available on the dialog Modify Objects can either be ap-
plied to all objects or be restricted to the objects within an existing group.
Example With sources organized in groups, their respective partial levels are displayed
on the group table. For example:
• Enter two groups of 10 point sources each.
• Draw a section around the left group of point sources.

A section delimiting the 10 point sources on the left

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10.1 Structuring Data by Defining Groups

• Click with the right mouse button on the section’s border and select the
command Modify Objects from the context menu.
• Select the action „Modify Attribute“, as range“ „Inside Polygon“, and as
object type the point source. Now, click OK.

10

Modifying an attribute of the point sources inside the section

• On dialog Modify Attribute, select from the list box „Attribute“ the item
„ID“ and enter for „Replace Strings, Replace with“ the following string:
compressor_##.

Replace Strings: Modifying attribute ID

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• Click OK and confirm the action with „All“.

In the next step, a different ID will be assigned to the sources outside the sec-
tion.
• Again, click on the section’s border with the right mouse button and
select the command Modify Objects from the context menu.
• The action and the object type selected are retained. Deactivate the range
„Inside Polygon“ and activate the range „Outside Polygon“.
• Click the OK-button.

10

Modifying an attribute of the point sources outside the section

• On list box „Attribute“ the „ID“ is still selected.

• Change the input for „Replace with“ to: ventilator_##.
• Click OK and confirm by „All“.
The sources inside the section have an ID starting with „compressor...“ while
the sources’ ID outside starts with „ventilator...“. In either case the ID is fol-
lowed by an underscore and a counting number.

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10.1 Structuring Data by Defining Groups

Now, an emission level is assigned to all sources. To simplify, all sources re-
ceive an A-weighted sound power level of 100 dB(A).
• Click into the white area of the CadnaA main window and select the
command Modify Objects.
• The selected action („Modify Attribute“) and object type („point source“)
can be kept.
• Click OK and select from the list box the attribute "Lw_Li" which
represents the numerical emission value PWL.
• Enter on „Replace Strings, Replace with“ the value: 100.

10

Emission: sound power level of 100 dB(A)

• Click OK and confirm by „All“.

As can be seen from the table for point sources (menu Tables|
Sources|Point Source) all point sources have received an emission level
PWL of 100 dB(A). In the next step, three receiver points are entered and
two groups are defined.
• Select the receiver point from the toolbox and enter three receiver points.
• Address a name to the receiver via the respective table (menu
Tables|Receiver). Click into each table cell in column „Name“ and type
RCVR1 to RCVR 3. You can immediately write to the table cell. Click the
„Close“-button.

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• Click into the white area on the screen and select the action „Generate
Label“ for the receivers and click OK.
• Select the attribute „Name“ and click OK.
• Confirm the action with „All“.
Now, all receiver points are labeled by their name.
• Open the Group table on the menu Tables.
• Click with the right mouse into the group table and select command
„Insert after“ from the context menu.
• Repeat the procedure to attach a second row.
• Type into the first line as a name „compressors“ and as expression „c*“.
Thus, all objects starting by the letter C will belong to the first group.
• Type into the first line as a name „ventilator“ and as expression „v*“.
Thus, all objects starting by the letter v will belong to the second group.
10

Group table with two groups edited

• Close the table Groups and start the calculation by clicking the pocket
calculator-symbol on the symbol bar.
• Now, reopen the group table.

Partial Level day per group for three receivers

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10.1 Structuring Data by Defining Groups

On the table Groups the partial levels of each group for the selected
performance parameter (Day) at all three receiver points are displayed.
• Double-click into the first line of „compressors“.
• On the dialog Group click the button „Partial Level“.
The subsequent dialog lists the A-weighted partial levels at all receiver points
by all sources within this group and for all performance parameters (on this
example: for Day and Night).

10

Partial Level list for group „compressors“

Via the context menu command Sort (right mouse button) those values can
be sorted for the column selected, e.g in a descending order.

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10

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10.2 ObjectTree

10.2 ObjectTree
The ObjectTree (menu Tables|ObjectTree) enables to assign objects in a
project to a hierarchical group structure. By this feature, CadnaA offers a
feature for a semi-automatic definition of groups and the allocation of
objects to these groups.
The sequence of actions required consists of the following steps:
1. definition of the ObjectTree-structure,
2. allocation of the objects to the ObjectTree-groups,
3. evaluation of partial sound power levels and partial receiver levels.
At first an example file is created with point sources into two groups. Entering Objects
Proceed as follows:
• Enter a point source using the mouse having an A-weighted sound power
level of 100 dB(A).
10
• Select the command Duplicate from the context menu of the point
source (right mouse button).
• Enter 5 copies in horizontal and -5 in vertical direction.

Duplicating the point source

 Due to the input of a negative value -5 the duplicates will be generated

in negative x-direction.
• Enter 10 meters for horizontal and vertical gaps and click OK.

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Subsequently, the 25 point sources with the same emission are generated and
displayed on the screen. Now, this group of objects shall be copied to a dis-
tance of 100 m to the right.
• Draw a closed polygon object around this group of 25 point sources. Use
e.g. the calculation area for this.
• Finalize the input of the polygon by clicking the right mouse button.

• Change you to edit mode (symbol: ).

10

25 point sources being enclosed by a calculation area

• Click with the right mouse button onto the polygon of the calculation
area and select the context menu command Modify Objects.
• Select the action „Transformation“, the range „Inside Polygon“, and the
„Point Source“ as object type.

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10.2 ObjectTree

Duplicating the point sources using action „Transformation“

• Click OK and enter on the subsequent dialog Transform Coordinates - 10

with the option „Rotation + Translation“ selected - into the first input
box for „Translation“ a value of 100. This will cause that all objects con-
cerned will be shifted by x=100 m to the right.

Translation transformation of the duplicates by 100 m to the right

• IMPORTANT: Activate the option „Keep Original“ on the bottom of

the dialog and click OK.

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• Confirm the action by „All“.

Transformation: group of point source being duplicated

Defining a Structure for In the next step, two groups are defined within the ObjectTree.
10
ObjectTree
• Open the dialog ObjectTree from the menu Tables|ObjectTree|
Definition.
• Set by a single click the focus to the "Root" and click twice onto the file
icon on the dialog’s symbol bar. Two group symbols will be inserted
into the root, named "(untitled)".
• Rename the groups by double-click into „group 1“ and „group 2“.

ObjectTree with two groups

Now, objects can be assigned to those two groups.

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10.2 ObjectTree

In order to assign objects to the ObjectTree each edit window has the Assigning Objects
ObjectTree icon to the right of the ID input box. When a group symbol on individually
the dialog ObjectTree is selected and the dialog closed by OK, a
corresponding group specification is added to the ID automatically.
• Double-click on a point source within the left group.

• Click on the symbol to the right of the ID input box.

• Click on "Root" in order to display its contents.
• Double-click on „group 1“.
Subsequently, the dialog Select is closed and an automatically generated iden-
tifier is written in front of the ID.
• Close the dialog Point Source.
• Open the dialog ObjectTree on the menu Tables|ObjectTree|
Definition once again.
• Click on the + symbol in front of „Root“ and then in front of „group 1“. 10

The point source is listed within the object group 1.

To speed up the assignment of objects to ObjectTree-groups a further Assigning Objects
procedure of automated assignment is available. automatically

• Click with the right mouse button on the border of the calculation area
delimiting the sources on the left and select the command Modify
Objects from the context menu.
• Select the action Modify Attributes, the range „inside Polygon“ for
„Point Source“ as object type and click OK.
• On dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute „ID“ and activate the
option „Replace Strings“.

• The ObjectTree is accessible via the symbol . Click on this symbol.

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10.2 ObjectTree

Dialog Modify Attribute, enabling access to the ObjectTree

• Open the Root directory and double-click on „group 1“.

• Confirm the action on dialog Modify Attribute by clicking OK.
• In the dialog Modify Objects click on „All“.
10 • Open the ObjectTree via menu Tables|ObjectTree|Definition to
check for the result.
• Click on the + symbols in front of „Root“ and then in front of „group 1“.
All 25 point sources have been assigned to group 1. Now, the remaining
point sources will be assigned to group 2.
•Click with the right mouse button on the border of the calculation area
enclosing the point source to the left and select again the command
Modify Objects from the context menu.
• Select the action Modify Attributes, and this time the range „outside
Polygon“ for „Point Source“ as object type. Click OK.
• On dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute „ID“, activate the option
„Replace Strings“, and click on the symbol to access the ObjectTree
once more.

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10.2 ObjectTree

• Assign the objects this time to group 2 by a double-click.

• Return to the main window by clicking OK and „All“.
• Open the dialog ObjectTree via the menu Tables|ObjectTree|
Definition.
• By click on the respective + symbol all objects within the groups 1 and 2
are displayed. So far, the point sources do not have any name.
• Close the dialog ObjectTree and select from the Tables menu the sub- Naming of the Point
group Sources|Point Source. Sources

• Click with right mouse button in column „Name“ and select the
command Change Column.
• On the dialog Change Column select the option „Replace Strings“ and
enter in input box „Replace with“ the string „PS ##“.

10

Assigning names to the point sources

• After clicking OK and confirming with „All“ the point sources are named
and numbered consecutively.
• Close the table Point Source by clicking the button „Close“.
• From the dialog ObjectTree|Definition you can see that the point
sources are listed with their respective names now.

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Sound Power Level Table The table of sound power levels displays all partial sound power levels of the
sources, and the energetic sum of each group, and the overall sound power
level of all sources in the ObjectTree for the presently selected performance
parameter.
• Open table of sound power levels via menu Tables|ObjectTree|Sound
Power Level.

10 Table Sound Power Level on menu Tables|ObjectTree

In column „Name“, the groups and the objects within each group are
indented versus the root directory. In column „A“, the A-weighted sound
power levels of the sources, of the groups, and the overall sound power level
is displayed. Since - in this example - the emission of the sources has been
specified based on A-weighted sound power levels the columns of the oc-
taves and column "lin" remain empty.
Partial Level Table • On the toolbox, select the receiver point and enter three receiver points.
• Name the receivers on table column „Name“ by R1 to R3 (menu
Tables|Receiver). Write directly into the table cell and close the table.
• Click into the white area of the screen and select the command Modify
Objects.
• Select the action „Generate Label“ for the receiver and click OK.
• Select the attribute „Name“, click OK and confirm with „All“.
All receiver points are labeled by their name now.

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10.2 ObjectTree

Three receivers labeled by their name

• Run the calculation by clicking the pocket calculator-symbol on the

10
symbol bar.
• Now, open the table Partial Level on menu Tables|ObjectTree.
The partial level table lists the partial levels by all sources in the ObjectTree
for the presently selected performance parameter per receiver point using the
specified group structure. In column „Name“, the groups and the objects
within each group are indented versus the root directory. In each column, ei-
ther the A-weighted overall level, or the A-weighted group level, or the A-
weighted partial level of the each source are displayed.

Table Partial Level on menu Tables|ObjectTree

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By a double-click in a line of the table Partial Level the corresponding

source dialog is opened.

 Whether the columns for the octave band levels are displayed or not is
controlled by a corresponding entry in the file CADNAA.INI. Per
default, the file CADNAA.INI is located in the WINDOWS-directory
on your disk drive C:/. If required open this file and add to the section
[Main] the following line:

ObjTreePartLevSpekImmAnz = 0

This variable controls the maximum number of receiver points whose

octave band levels are displayed on the table Partial Level of the
ObjectTree. With the above setting (zero) no octave band levels will be
displayed.

10

Table ObjectTree|Partial Level, octave band levels suppressed

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10.3 Managing Projects using Variants

10.3 Managing Projects using Variants

By using variants it can be toggled between different project situations based
on the prevailing group structure. The group definitions applied may origi-
nate from user-defined definitions (via menu Tables|Group) or from defini-
tions within the ObjectTree (via menu Tables|ObjectTree).
The procedure is explained using a road without and with a parallel barrier.
• Enter a road with a MDTD of 20000 vehicles/day (Federal Road) with a Editing a Road and
road width of 3 m. a Barrier

• Click with the right mouse button on the road’s axis and select the com-
mand Parallel Object.
• Select as object type „Barrier“, enter one distance of 5 m and a height dif-
ference of 8 m.

10

Generating a parallel barrier

• Double-click on the barrier and enter for the ID: bar_1

• Open the dialog Variant on the Tables menu.
Just the variant V01 is activated per default („Use Variant“). In this example,
two variants „without barrier“ and „with barrier“ shall be used. At first, the
variant V02 has to activated.

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• In the table on the right, click once on variant „V02“.

• Now, activate the option „Use Variant“.

Variant V02 active for usage

• For variant V02, enter the short name „w bar“ and the name „with
10 barrier“.
• Switch to variant V01 by click on it in the left column.
• For variant V02, enter the short name „w/o bar“ and the name „without
barrier“.
• Close the dialog Variants.
Thus, variant V01 is defined not considering the barrier, while variant V02 is
considering the barrier. The list box on the CadnaA-main window lists - in-
stead of „V01“ and „V02“ - the options „w/o bar“ and „w bar“.

List box for switching of variants

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Now, a group and its activation status must be defined with respect to the
two variants. This occurs on the dialog Groups (menu Tables|Group).
• Open the dialog Groups on the Tables menu.
• Click with the right mouse button into the table and select the command
Insert after.
• In table Groups, enter in column „Expression“ the following string using
the keyboard: bar*
• Move to column „w/o bar“ using the mouse (single click) or the arrow
keys and enter a minus sign (-).
• Move to column „w bar“ and enter a plus sign (+).
The minus sign means that all objects which correspond to the ID-
expression „bar*“ are deactivated in variant „without barrier“ while all
objects which correspond to that expression are, however, activated in variant
„with barrier“.
10

A group assigned to two variants

• Close the table Groups by OK.

With the variant V01 („without barrier“) selected it can be seen from the
CadnaA-main window that the barrier is deactivated: The barrier is displayed
as a gray hatched line.
• Select from the list box for variants the variant „w bar“ (with barrier).

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The active barrier (i.e. providing a screening effect) is displayed as a full line
on the graphics.
• Toggle between both variants.

Variant V01 „without barrier“ Variant V02 „with barrier“

(barrier deactivated) (barrier activated)

Entering a Receiver Point Now, enter a receiver point prior to calculation.

10 • Select the object „Receiver“ from the toolbox and place it to the left side
of the road where it is screened by the barrier.
• Select from the receiver’s context menu the command Generate Label
and select from the subsequent dialog the attribute LP1 (evaluation
parameter 1 on dialog Configuration|Eval. Parameter).

Display the evaluation parameter 1 (LP1) in a label

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There are two possibilities to perform the calculation: Calculation of Variants

1. Calculation of each variant separately: To this end, select the respective

variant and click the pocket calculator symbol on the tool bar.
2. Calculation of all variants: Select from the Calculation menu the com-
mand Calc and mark „All Variants“ on the dialog.
• Select the command Calc on the Calculation menu.
• Activate the option „All Variants“ and click OK.

10
Calculate all variants

• Now, toggle between both variants.

The calculated level for the selected variant is displayed in the label close to
the receiver point.

Receiving level for variant V01 Receiving level for variant V02
„without barrier“ „with barrier“

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10.3 Managing Projects using Variants

Alternatively, the barrier could have been deactivated by unchecking the mark
( ) in front of the ID on the barrier’s dialog. The possibility of toggling
variants using groups is, however, much quicker and is by all means more
comfortable in cases where a numerous objects are to be activated and
deactivated.
Save Grid per Variant This option on the Variant dialog offers - in addition to the calculation re-
sults at receivers and facade points (via the building evaluation symbols) - to
calculate the grid for each active variant and to save all those to the CadnaA
file. With this option is inactive, the grid is calculated and saved just for the
active variant.

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Chapter 11 - Modify Objects

The command Modify Objects enables to address various actions to a single

or several object groups. The command is selectable from the global context
menu when clicking into the white area of the CadnaA-main window.
The command is also available from the context menu of an individual
object. When being selected from the context menu of a closed polygon the
command refers to all objects inside, outside, or on the polygon border.
The actions may be applied to an individual objects as well upon a selection
of a respective action from the object’s context menu.

11

Dialog Modify Objects

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Actions The following actions can also be performed for several objects or groups of
objects:
• Delete
• Modify Attribute
• Duplicate
• Force Rectangle
• Force Right Angles - Orthogonalize
• Snap Point to Facade
• Modify Order of Points
• Spline
• Simplify Geo
• Break into Pieces
• Connect Lines
• Transformation
• Convert to
• Generate Rails
• Generate Station
• Generate Building Evaluation
11 • Generate Label
• Generate Floors
• Parallel Object
• Activation
• Swap Name / ID
• Delete Duplicates
• Fit DTM to Object
• Fit Object to DTM
• LUA Command (requires option X or XL)
These actions may be restricted by one or more of the following methods
(Range, Activation, Condition, Object Types) described on the following
pages.

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Range

In case not all objects shall be affected by the action, you may draw a closed Excluding objects
polygon around the objects to be modified (e.g. using a calculation area). In geometrically
edit mode, click on the border of the closed polygon with the right mouse
button and select the command Modify Objects from the context menu. In
this case the closed polygon defines a geometric condition.
By activating the respective check boxes, specify the location of the objects to Objects inside, outside,
be modified: inside, outside, or on the borderline of the polygon. All these on the border line of a
options may apply simultaneously. polygon

 Objects located on the border of the polygon or in case they reach to

the inside or to the outside of the polygon, it may be useful to apply
first the actions „Break Lines“ (see chapter 11.25) or „Break Areas“
(see chapter 11.26) from the polygon’s context menu to break the lines
or areas at the intersection of the borderline.

Activation

In order to apply the command Modify Objects to all types of objects in Modifying all objects 11
your project file select the command Modify Objects from the context
menu displayed when clicking with a right mouse button onto the white area
of the CadnaA main window. While selecting „all“ the activation status of
the objects concerned is irrelevant.
When selecting this command from the context menu of a single object this
object will be excluded from the subsequent action.
These options enable to specify whether the action is applied to „activated“ Modifying activated,
or „deactivated“ objects only. deactivated objects

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Modifying all objects in a Furthermore, the action may be restricted to all objects in a group (see Chap-
group ter 10 - Groups & Variants). Select the name of the pertinent group from the
list box. All actions will be restricted to the objects of the specified group.

Condition In addition, in order to restrict the selection of objects, a numerical condition

or a string-based expression can be specified. For the specification of a
condition all attributes of the object type selected are available. With a single
object type selected, an attribute can be selected from the pop-up menu list
(>>).

11

Attributes for Object „Point Source“ on in the pop-up menu

 The attribute description (in parentheses after the attribute name) in

this and other lists can be suppressed. Locate the INI file (regarding its
location, see chapter 2.1) and enter in section [Main] the expression:
DoAttrDescr = 0.

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Expressions can be defined using numerical and logical operators (see Chap- Numerical Condition
ter 5 - Operators & Functions in the CadnaA manual „Attributes Variables,
and Keywords“). The operation will be executed only if the condition is
fulfilled (expression<> 0). Examples:

Object Type Condition concerned are...

Building HA>5 buildings with a height larger than 5 m

Building (HA>5)*(HA<20) buildings with a height larger than 5 m and

smaller than 20 m

Building WG_NUM==1 or residential buildings only (with option

WG_NUM!=0 „Residential Building“ activated)

Building WG_NUM!=1 or non-residential buildings only (with option

WG_NUM==0 „Residential Building“ deactivated)

In string expressions defining a condition, the usual attribute names are used, String Expression
with a dollar sign appended and by enclosing the entire string in quotation
marks (e.g. ID$=="aaa" in order to address the ID as a string and to check
11
for "aaa" string). The following operators and commands are available:

Operator/Command Testing

== strings match, upper/lowercase are relevant

!= strings do not match, upper/lowercase are relevant

<, <=, >= uses ASCII values to order the strings

match(string,regex) test string against a regular expression (for example:

match(ID$, "ab*") addressing all objects with ID starting by
"ab"), upper/lowercase relevant

matchx(string, regex, as with match, but with ignore_case!=0 upper/lowercase will be

ignore_case) ignored, e.g. matchx(ID$,“aaa“,0) addresses all objects with
ID=“aaa“, but not those with ID=“aAa“

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Object Types Select a single or multiple object types to be concerned by the specified ac-
tion using the mouse (Multiple Selection see chapter 3.5). To select all object
types at once, click the button „All“. Clicking the button „None“ will deselect
a specified selection.
When closing the dialog via the OK button, a subsequent dialog may be
displayed, depending on the action chosen. Enter the appropriate parameters
on this dialog. After confirmation by clicking OK, the selected action is ap-
plied to the respective objects. Instead, the action to cancel the action.
Example: Deleting a
group of objects

11

The industrial enterprise in the above example, consisting of one building,

point and line sources, is deleted using the context menu command Modify
Objects.
• Draw a closed auxiliary polygon around the industrial enterprise.

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• Select the auxiliary polygon using the right mouse button.

• From the context menu, select Modify Objects - the following dialog
appears:

11

• On the Actions list box, select Delete.

• Activate the options „Inside Polygon“ and „On Border“.
• Select the object types „Point Source“, „Line Source“, „Building“ and
„Aux.Polygon“ by clicking while pressing the CTRL key.

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 In this example, however, you may also choose all objects by clicking
the „All“ button.
• Confirm by OK.
In the dialog appearing next, you can either confirm or cancel the selected
action.

• Click the „All“ button.

If the „All“ button is clicked, a selected action will be applied to all objects
without the need for further confirmation, whereas the „Yes“ button requires
explicit confirmation for each object.

11

The object on which the command Modify Objects is executed is excluded

from this action - in this example the auxiliary polygon. If required delete this
object using the DEL key.

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11.1 Delete

11.1 Delete
CadnaA-objects may be deleted in several ways.

• mark/activate the object Delete in the Graphics

• press DEL keys or select from the object’s context menu the command
Delete
• CadnaA jumps automatically to the next object of that object group

• mark the object’s line in the respective object’s table (Tables menu) Delete in the Tables
• press the DEL key or select from the table’s context menu the command
Delete
• CadnaA jumps automatically to the next object in that object table

• click into the white area on screen with the right mouse button Delete via the dialog
• select context menu command Modify Object Modify Objects
• on dialog select action „Delete“
• specify/select object type/s
• confirm the execution of the command (options Yes/No/All/Cancel)
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11.1 Delete

Default Condition With action „Delete“ the default condition can be used to delete the auxiliary
polygons being rays generated via the option on the Receiver dialog (see
chapter 5.1 in the CadnaA Reference manual).

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11.2 Modify Attribute

11.2 Modify Attribute

By this action on dialog Modify Objects the object’s attributes (see Chapter
1 - Object Attributes in the manual „Attributes, Variables, and Keywords) of
a single object type or several object types can be changed globally.
This task requires the following steps: Example 1: Increase pres-
ent building height by 2 m
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select from the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• On the dialog Modify Objects select the action „Modify Attribute“ and
the object „Building“.
• Keep the option „all“ with „Activation“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute HA from the list box.
• Select the option "Arithmetic" and enter the following expression: x+2

11

Dialog Modify Attribute: The attribute HA (object-initial height)

is increased for the addressed buildings by 2 m.

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Example 2: Change The polygon points of imported roads have absolute heights (with option
height attribute from „Height at every Point“ selected on the dialog Geometry). Instead, relative
absolute to relative heights shall be used in order to adapt the road’s geometry to the existing ter-
rain model.
This task requires the following steps:
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select from the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• On the dialog Modify Objects select the action „Modify Attribute“ and
the object „Road“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute HA (initial height)
from the list box.
• Select the option "Arithmetic" and enter the value 0 (zero).

 A different value may be entered instead. After executing the action,

CadnaA adapts the heights of the road’s polygon points to the terrain
11 model, causing the heights at each polygon point of the roads being
positioned at the height entered above the terrain model’s height.
• Confirm all dialog boxes with OK.
After the action has been executed the road heights are at 0 m relative,
selecting at the same time the option „Interpolated Height from First/Last
Point“. The z-heights of the roads will be adjusted to the terrain model
during a subsequent calculation or by displaying a 3D view.

 With point objects the attribute H_ATT, with polygon objects the attri-
butes HA_ATT and HE_ATT can be toggled using the available
options of different height attributes (r=relative, a=absolute, g=Roof,
for polygons, in addition: h=absolute Height at every Point,
hg=absolute Height/Ground at every Point).

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11.2 Modify Attribute

At point-like objects (e.g. point sources, receiver points), both the ground Example 3: Changing the
height on dialog Geometry, as well as the corresponding ground attribute ground attribute and
can be changed using the command Modify Objects, action „Modify ground height
Attribute“.
In order to change the ground attribute use the following steps:
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select from the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• On the dialog Modify Objects select the action „Modify Attribute“ and
e.g. the object „Point Source“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute GROUND_ATT
from the list box.
• In order to toggle the attribute to „Input of Value (m)“, select the option
„Replace Strings“ and type in:

Find what: *
Replace with: i 11

The following settings are available:

I = Input of Value (m)
H = Use next building
all the other letters = calculate from DTM (default)
Proceed as follows to change the ground height on dialog Geometry of
point-like objects:
• On dialog Modify Objects select the attribute GROUND (instead of
GROUND_ATT) from the list box „Attribute“.
• In order to set the height to 10 m, select the option „Replace Strings“ and
type in:

Find what: *
Replace with: 10

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11.2 Modify Attribute

Example 4: Changing the The color of auxiliary polygons can be subsequently changed using the com-
color of auxiliary polygons mand/action Modify Objects|Modify Attribute.

 Deactivate any auxiliary polygons whose color should not be changed.

This task requires the following steps:

• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window and select the command Modify Objects from the context
menu.
• Select the action „Modify Attribute“ just for the active objects of type
„Auxiliary Polygon“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute L_COLOR (line
color) from the list box.

 The filling of the closed auxiliary polygons can be changed using the
attribute F_COLOR.

11

• Select the option "Arithmetic" and type in for the „New Value“
RGB(255,0,0).

 RGB stands for the color components red/green/blue, wherein the

numerical values correspond to the respective color values in this order.
In this example, the auxiliary polygons are shown in red.

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11.2 Modify Attribute

In case the appearance of the auxiliary polygons does not change, this is usu- Use Global Properties on
ally due to the option „Use Global Appearance“ being deactivated (default /off
setting). In this case, CadnaA applies - as with all other types of objects - the
color settings etc. from dialog Appearance (Options menu, see chapter 9.5
in CadnaA Reference Manual).
To change this setting, proceed as follows:
• Reselect from dialog Modify Objects the action „Modify Attribute“ (e.g.
for the active objects only), for the object type „Auxiliary Polygon“ and
click OK.
• Choose from the list box on dialog Modify Attribute the attribute
GLOBAL.
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and enter a space in the box „Replace
with“.

11

• After clicking OK, the option „Global“ for all the auxiliary polygons con-
cerned will be deactivated causing the objects to receive the colors
defined locally.

 In order to set the attribute GLOBAL again, use in box „Replace with“
the character x.

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Example 5: Writing a For each object string variables can be entered manually on the dialog
string variable to an Memo-Window (see chapter 4.4.2). In addition, for various import
attribute operations unknown attributes can be imported as string variables (see chap-
ter 7.1.5 in CadnaA Reference Manual). By using the operation described
below, the values of string variables can be written to CadnaA attributes.

 The operation can be applied to both, numerical and text attributes. In

case text strings are copied to numerical CadnaA attributes, however,
their value may be set to zero. There is no restriction when copying
numerical values to text attributes. Note the restrictions in the case of
the attribute ID (see chapter 4.4.2, section "ID").
In this example, the value of the string variable HEIGHT from the dialog
Memo-Window of terrain contour lines is copied to the attribute HA.

11

Dialog Memo-Window a contour line:

The text variable HEIGHT has a value of 100 m.

This task requires the following steps:

• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select the command Modify Objects from the context menu.
• On dialog Modify Objects, select the action „Modify Attribute“ for the
object type „Contour Line“ and click OK.

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11.2 Modify Attribute

• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute HA (height at first

point) from the list box „Attribute“.
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and enter:
Find what: *
Replace with: {MEMO_HEIGHT}

 To ease up the procedure you may select from the list of attributes (>>)
the attribute MEMO and then add to the string inside the braces
„_HEIGHT“.

11

Dialog Modify Attribute after having added the partial string „_HEIGHT“

After executing the action by clicking OK, the value of the string variable
HEIGHT is copied to the attribute HA of the contour lines.

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11.2 Modify Attribute

Example 6: Writing an The adverse operation compared with the previous example is also possible.
attribute to a string In this example, the ID of the object „Railway“ shall be written into a string
variable variable named ID_ORIG.

 When manipulating attributes of imported objects it can be useful to

save the original values of attributes to string variables on the dialog
Memo-Window for later use or information purposes.
This task requires the following steps:
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select the command Modify Objects from the context menu.
• On dialog Modify Objects, select the action „Modify Attribute“ for the
object type „Railway“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute MEMOTXTVAR
(addressing a string variable) from the list box „Attribute“.
• Enter in the additionally displayed input box „Text Variable“ the name of
11 the text variable to be used: ID_ORIG.
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and enter:
Find what: *
Replace with: {ID}

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11.2 Modify Attribute

 To ease up the procedure you may select from the list of attributes (>>)
the attribute ID directly.

 In this case, the option „Arithmetic“ may be used instead („New Value“
= ID, without braces). Consider the restrictions when replacing numeri-
cal attributes by strings (see Example 5: Writing a string variable to an
attribute).
To the name of roads the speed limit shall be added. Example 7: Adding speed
limit to road’s name
This task requires the following steps:
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
window.
• Select from the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• On the dialog Modify Objects select the action „Modify Attribute“ and
the object „Road“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute BEZ from the list
box.
11
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and enter:
Find what: *
Replace with: \1_vmax={VMAX}

 The attribute VMAX may also be selected from the list box (>>).

Clicking OK and confirming with „All“ will execute the operation (see also
chapter 11.1.3 "Changing Column Content" in the CadnaA Reference
Manual)

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Example 8: Modifying In order to delete or change parts of strings or change the following syntax is
Strings available.

Syntax: {name,position_start,position_end,type,decimals}

control keys: braces {}

position_start: starting string position (including)

position_end: ending string position (including)

type: g or u = upper case letters

k or l = lower case letters
t = trim (deletes all preceding and succeeding blanks)

decimals: number of decimals with numeric strings

 This operation is not available via the context menu of the object tables.

From the present object ID=abcdef of object „Point Source“ only a part
shall remain and be converted to capitals. Proceed as follows:
• Click with the right mouse button on the white area in the CadnaA main
11 window.
• Select from the context menu the command Modify Objects.
• On the dialog Modify Objects select the action „Modify Attribute“ and
the object „Point Source“ and click OK.
• On the dialog Modify Attribute select the attribute ID from the list box.
• Select the option „Replace Strings“ and enter:
Find what: *
Replace with: {ID,2,4,g,}
After clicking OK, the letters from the 2nd to 4th position of the ID are kept
and converted into capitals (new ID=BCD).

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11.3 Duplicating Objects

11.3 Duplicating Objects

This command can be executed from the context menu of an object or via
the Modify objects dialog, action „Duplicate“. In the second case you can
enter additional settings. It is applicable to all graphical objects.

To insert several objects of identical properties and the same size in Duplicate
horizontal and/or vertical rows in the CadnaA main window, first insert one
object of the desired size and then select it by clicking it with the right mouse
button - the context menu opens.
Before an object is duplicated, it should be allocated the desired parameters
by editing. These parameters will be adopted for all duplicates.
From the context menu, select the Duplicate command. In the dialog that
opens, specify the number of duplicates and the distances between either the
borders or the center’s of the objects.

11

Click onto an object with the right mouse button and select
from the context menu the command Duplicate.

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11.3 Duplicating Objects

Specify the number of copies (horizontal/vertical). With values being

negative the duplicates will be generate in negative direction of the
coordinate system.
Below, it is defined what the distances refer to - enter the distances in meters.
With point objects this is superfluous.

11

Result when applying the above operation (original is marked)

Horizontal: positive figure places the duplicates to the right (in +x direction)
of the existing object, a negative figure to the left of it (in-x direction).
Vertical: positive figure places the duplicates above the existing object (in +y
direction), a negative figure below (in -y direction).

Action Duplicate With the command sequence Modify Objects|Action: Duplicate you can
enter additional settings:
Move Center Point The center point of objects being selected can be moved. Upon activation of
the check box enter values accordingly.

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11.3 Duplicating Objects

Duplicated objects can be enlarged or minimized in horizontal and vertical Scaling Factor
direction. Upon activation of the check box enter values accordingly.
Duplicated objects can be rotated around their center point. Upon activation Rotation around Center
of the check box enter values accordingly. Point

see also chapter 4.3.6 Copying Objects and chapter 7.1.4 Coordinate Trans-
formation, section "Duplication by Transformation".

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11.4 Force Rectangle

11.4 Force Rectangle

This command can be applied to any closed polygon with four corners.
Using this context menu command allows you to transform an arbitrary
quadrangle into a rectangle.
To this end, click the object with the right mouse button, and, from the con-
text menu, select the Force Rectangle command.

A quadrangle entered in CadnaA The same quadrangle after applying the com-
mand "Force Rectangle"
11
See also Chapter 12 - Context Menu and Chapter 11 - Modify Objects and
chapter 4.2.1 "Inserting Objects using the Mouse"

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11.4 Force Rectangle

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11.5 Force Right Angles

11.5 Force Right Angles

This command can be applied to any closed polygon.
An arbitrary polygon with different angles between two adjacent polygon
points can be transformed into a polygon with right angles by specifying a
snap angle.

After executing „Force Right Angles“

Original polygon with snap angle 20° with snap angle 45°

11

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11.5 Force Right Angles

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11.6 Object Snap

11.6 Object Snap

The action „Object Snap“ on the dialog Modify Objects or via the context
menu enables a subsequent shift of objects (e.g. receivers, point/line or verti-
cal area sources) attached to building’s facades.
This feature is useful e.g.
• after having inserted objects without prior activation of the object snap
feature or
• after import of data.

11

Dialog Snap Point to Facade

On the dialog, the snap radius and the distance to the building’s facade are to
be specified. Objects resp. the polygon points of objects within the specified
snap radius will be fixed at the specified distance from the facade.

see also:
chapter 3.1.3 Snap Point to Facade in the CadnaA-reference manual

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11.7 Modify Order of Points

11.7 Modify Order of Points

The action „Modify Order of Points“ on dialog Modify Objects (also avail-
able from the context menu of polylines) enables to subsequently change the
sequence of polygon points.

The option „Reverse Order of Points“ inverts the sequence of points in the Reverse Order of Points
polygon’s point list (dialog Geometry). Thus, the former first point becomes
the new last point.
The option „Point with max. Weight becomes Point 1“ enables to specify a Weighting Criterion
criterion defining the new first point. Via the double-arrow ( ) the
following pre-defined parameters can be selected:

Parameter Remarks 11
x, y, z object’s coordinates x, y, z

ground ground height

num number of the polygon point (counting from the

first point)

len 2D-polygon length

len3 3D-polygon length (considering the height z)

dist 2D-distance to the first point

dist3 3D-distance to the first point (considering the

height z)

The weighting criterion will by default select the highest value of the specified
parameter/s („maximum weight“). In order to select for the smallest value
(„minimum weight“) use the negation (e.g. „-ground“).

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11.7 Modify Order of Points

Example 1 Task: The building’s polygon point having the highest ground height become
the new first polygon point of the buildings.
Background: When modeling buildings with terrain CadnaA defines from
the first polygon point the final height of the building. So, the relative height
will be attributed to the first polygon point. The subsequent polygon points
the heights are defined automatically assuming the building’s edge is horizon-
tal.
Solution: When importing building polygons the first polygon point is often
defined randomly. In the picture below both buildings have a relative height
of 10 m. The representation (and also the calculation result) in CadnaA of
the buildings height’s is, however, different as the first polygon point of the
building to the left is on the hill’s side, while for the right it is on the valley’s
side.

11

Hill with two buildings, both having a relative height of 10 m

To modify the order of points proceed as follows:

• Click onto the white area and select Modify Objects from the context
menu.
• Select the action „Modify Order of Points“ and the building for object
type.
• Click OK.

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11.7 Modify Order of Points

• Activate on dialog Modify Order of Points the option „Point with max.
Weight becomes Point 1“ and enter the parameter ground or select it
from the list provided .

Point with maximum value “ground“ becomes new point 1

• Upon OK the command is executed.

Double-click onto the - in this example - building to the right and display the
list polygon points. The first polygon point is now located on the hill’s side as
there the highest ground height occurs.

11

Hill with two buildings, either with 1st polygon point on the hill’s side

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11.7 Modify Order of Points

Example 2 Task: The building point with the smallest ground height shall become the
first polygon point.
Solution: The start-off situation is equivalent to example 1. So, first proceed
in the same way.
• Select from dialog Modify Order of Points again the option „Point with
max. Weight becomes Point 1“.
• Enter the parameter -ground or select it from the list provided in
edit a minus-sign in front.

Point with minimum value “ground“ becomes new point 1

• Upon OK the command is executed.

Double-click onto the building to the left and display the list polygon points.
11
The first polygon point is now located on the valley’s side as there the lowest
ground height occurs.

Hill with two buildings, either with 1st polygon point on the valley’s side

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11.8 Spline

11.8 Spline
This command directly from the context menu (see Chapter 12 - Context
Menu) or via Modify Object (see Chapter 11 - Modify Objects) can be
applied to any open or closed polygon.
A selected polygon line is replaced by the smoothed curve using a cubic poly-
nomial function. This may change the polygons shape significantly.

Before applying the After applying the

Spline command Spline command

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11.9 Simplify Geometry

11.9 Simplify Geometry

With this command from the context menu, or as part of the import options
or via the Modify Objects dialog, polygon objects can be simplified by delet-
ing intermediate polygon points.

This saves memory space and increases calculation speed since calculation
occurs for each segment delimited by two points. In particular with imported
files, the geometry of terrain contours and traffic lines (roads, railways) are
often with much detail. By applying the command Simplify Geometry, a
considerable data reduction which does not impair the accuracy can be
achieved.
All object points having a larger distance from the connecting line of the two
11
neighboring polygon points than the given horizontal and - if any - vertical
distance are deleted.

• Horizontal: The entered condition is checked just for deviations in the xy Dialog Options
plane and applied if necessary.
• Vertical: If this option is activated, a vertical deviation in the z direction
can be specified. This condition is then additionally checked and applied
if necessary. In this case both conditions - horizontal and vertical - must
be met in order to trigger the stitch.

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11.9 Simplify Geometry

Example The example makes use of a road having many polygon points.

Initial situation: road with many polygon points

On the dialog Simplify Geometry, 1 m is entered as a horizontal criterion.

This causes the deletion of all points which meet the this criterion.
After closing the dialog with OK, the road section is straightened.

11

Final situation: remaining road with three polygon points

Just three polygon points remain, since all other points deviate to their
respective neighboring points by less than 1 m.

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11.10 Break into pieces

11.10 Break into pieces

By the action „Break into Pieces“ on the dialog Modify Objects or on the
context menu of a line-like object (e.g. road, line source) enables to subdivide
an object into several objects of the same kind.
This command can - for example - be applied to barriers along a road in
order to subdivide the entire barrier into sections of a defined length.

Via the dialog Break into Pieces you may

• Length of Pieces: define the length of the new sections („pieces“). The
last sections may have a shorter length, tough.
• Number of Pieces: The number determines based on the polygon‘s 11
length the length of each section.
• Split at polygon points: The polygon is split using the present vortex
points.
The following example illustrates the effect when being applied to a road Example
defined from two polygon points.

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11.10 Break into pieces

After having applied the command Break Lines to the road the road table
(Tables menu/Sources/Road) lists a separate line for each new road
segment - in this example 13 roads in 13 lines.
This command is also useful in conjunction with the CadnaA-feature
Optimize Walls (see chapter 7.5).

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11.11 Connect Lines

11.11 Connect Lines

In CadnaA, sections of line-like objects of the same object type can be
connected to form a single object by transferring the relevant parameters of
the selected section to neighboring sections.
When connecting lines certain conditions can be defined. Activate the
respective polygon section with the right mouse button and select its
command Connect Lines from the context menu.

11

Activate the relevant options on the dialog and confirm with OK. The
affected sections will be joined forming a single object.

Dialog Options

Enter the radius of the circle within which a connection point is to be Snap Radius
searched. This snap radius is the maximum distance between the final points
to be connected.
With this option activated, the snap radius will also relate to the 3-D distance Check Height
(z-coordinate) instead of only to the 2-D distance (x/y-coordinate).
According to the options chosen, the search will be one-way or two-way. Search at first/last point

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11.11 Connect Lines

Search recursively With this option activated, CadnaA will, after having connected two lines,
search from the open point of the next line (etc.) as long as the given require-
ments are fulfilled.
Check ID With this option activated only lines with identical ID will be connected.
Strategy for Ambiguities You can choose which of several possible lines shall be connected.

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11.12 Transformation

11.12 Transformation
The transformation of objects and/or entire projects is a powerful feature of
CadnaA.

When files are imported, differences in the coordinate systems may have to Import files from third-
be taken into account. Therefore, coordinate transformations are offered for party software
all import formats in CadnaA (button “Transformation“).
Furthermore, the coordinate transformation can be applied to duplicate, to Duplicate, displace,
relocate, or to rotate a group of objects. rotate, distort objects

The feature is available from the dialog Modify Object, action

„Transformation“. or from the context menu of objects. Via the dialog
Modify Objects several objects - also from different object types - can be
transformed or even duplicated (via the option „Keep Original“). When
selecting this command from the context menu just the object selected will
be transformed or duplicated.
The following types of transformation are available:
• rotation + translation, 11
• match points,
• affine transformation,
• geodetic transformation,
• general transformation,
• interactive transformation (by using the mouse).
The interactive transformation is not available via the context menu of ob-
jects.
For further details check for the CadnaA-reference manual, chapter 7.1.4
Coordinate Transformation.

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11.13 Convert to

11.13 Convert to
Object types can be converted to other object types. For example, a road can
be can converted to a railway, a contour line to a barrier, a building to foliage
or to a built-up area. Existing parameters are retained where it makes sense.
In order to convert, e.g. parallel barriers along the road to contour lines,
select one barrier using the right mouse button to open the context menu,
and click the Convert to command.
A pop-up menu appears, listing all object types available. Click „Contour
Line“. This converts the barrier to a contour line with the barrier coordinates
and height being applied to the contour line.

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11.13 Convert to

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11.14 Generate Rails

11.14 Generate Rails

By the command Generate Rails parallel tracks including the gravel bed are
generated automatically. This action is available on the dialog Modify Ob-
jects and on the context menu of the object "Railway".

Dialog Generate Rails

On the dialog the following parameters are editable:

• Number of lanes: number of parallel tracks of the entire rail track
• Distance between center lines (m) 11

• Ballast height (m): height above terrain; will replace the default height
above rail top edge of 0.6 m (Geometry: „height at every point“).
• Additional ballast width (m): width of the ballast, measured from the rail
tracks axis.
total width of track bed = distance between center lines + 2 * additional
track ballast width (on the following example: 6.5 + 2 * 1.5 = 9 m)
• Ballast slope: lateral slope of the ballast (default: 0.66 = 1:1.5)
• Additional track bed width (m): additional width on the level of the previ-
ously mentioned terrain, measured from the lower contour line of the bal-
last slope.

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11.14 Generate Rails

Example By using the values as specified above a railway track as illustrated results (di-
mensions added):

11

Sectional view resp. on vertical grid:

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11.15 Generate Station

11.15 Generate Station

The action Generate Station enables to generate marks alongside of line-
like objects. The station’s distance specified refers to the distance from sta-
tion to station. Stations can be generated either via the command Generate
Station on the context menu, or on the dialog Modify Object, action
„Generate Station“.
This feature is convenient, e.g. for placing kilometer or distance-marks at
roads:
• To this end, click the road with the right mouse button, and select
Generate Station from the context menu.
• In the dialog that opens, specify the distance between the individual sta-
tions.

11

Upon closing the dialog by clicking OK, CadnaA generates stations along
the road with the specified distance between stations.

Road with stations

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11.15 Generate Station

Indicated distance The distance indicated at each station is the total of preceding distances
summed up from station to station. On the example, the stationing starts at
50 m and continues from station to station summing up the values.
To display values with reference to road kilometers, specify this by entering in
kilometers on the Geometry-dialog of that road („Station“).
• Open the Road dialog by double-clicking the road axis.
• Click the „Geometry“ button.
• At the bottom of the dialog, enter the starting point of the stationing in
metres.
• Furthermore, the counting order (ascending/descending) can be
selected from the list box.

11

Stationing starts from 10 km = 10000 m

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11.15 Generate Station

Upon closing the dialog by clicking OK, you have to update the dimensioning Update Station
in kilometers via the menu command Extras|Update Station.

The station mark then displays the kilometres and metres separated by a plus
sign. If you wish to insert only single stations, use the pertinent toolbox icon,
and click at the desired locations.
For every line source stations can be defined via the dialog Geometry, option Parallel Object between
„Station“. The default setting for the initial point is 0. However, this can be defined station marks
defined by the user (in meters).
With the Parallel Object command from the context menu you can define a
starting and an end point related to the Station Range.

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11.15 Generate Station

Example • Insert a road and enter on the Geometry dialog a station start point of
12,000 m ascending. The starting point of the road is now 12 km.
• Close the dialog with OK.
• Generate the station marks for the road (click onto the road with the right
mouse button and from the context menu choose Generate Station).
• Define a distance of 10 m and confirm with OK.
The station marks are generated.

11

• Choose Parallel Object from the context menu.

• Enter „right from the active object“ at a distance of 10 m and a height of
4 m.
• Activate the option „Station Range“ and enter values from 12,020 to
1,2050 m.
• Click OK.
A barrier will be generated at a distance of 10 m from the road’s axis (seen
from the first point) with a height of 4 m and a length of 30 m between sta-
tion marks 12,020 and 12,050 m.

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11.16 Generate Building Evaluation

11.16 Generate Building Evaluation

With this action the building evaluation symbol is assigned to buildings auto-
matically. Both, the object "Building" and the object "Cylinder" can be used
to model buildings. The building evaluation symbol is generated inside the
borders of every building.

11

Automatically generated building evaluation symbols inside the building’s borders

When generating building evaluation symbols in this way, the name, the ID,
and the contents of the building’s/cylinder’s memo-window will be copied to
the respective building evaluation symbol.

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11.16 Generate Building Evaluation

Name and ID copied from the building

On a subsequent calculation the facade levels are calculated according to the

specifications on the dialog Building Noise Map (Options menu) for any
building having the building evaluation symbol assigned to.
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11.17 Generate Label

11.17 Generate Label

This command or action generates a text box in order to display an object
attribute or entered text.
The Generate Label command is available in the context menu of objects,
or as an action on dialog Modify Objects. In this case, label may be
generated for multiple and/or different objects.

11

The placement defines the alignment of the content inside the label. Placement

Select the object attribute to be displayed from the list box „Attribute“. The List Box „Attribute“
range of attributes depend on the selected object type (see chapter 1.1 in the
manual „Attributes, Variables, and Keywords“). When calling this action
from the dialog Modify Objects to label objects of different object type at
once, just a restricted range of attributes is available.
Click this button, to set font alignment, size and type (see chapter 9.11.1 in Button „Textbox“
the CadnaA Reference Manual).

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11.17 Generate Label

Example In this example, a label containing the ID of a road has been generated.

User defined Label By selecting the option „(user defined)“ from the list box „Attribute“ the in-
put box „Code“ can be edited. Alternatively, the input in box „Code“ can be
saved by clicking the button „Predefined“ or a saved label format be deleted.
Editing the Code Editing the code offers - for example - to display several object attributes in a
single label (text frame). Proceed as follows:
• Select the first object attribute to be displayed from the list box
11 „Attribute“.
Subsequently, in the box „Code“ shows the expression generated by CadnaA
[normal format: #(ObjAtt, %1,attribute)].
• Select from the list box „Attribute“ the option „(user defined)“.
• Copy this expression and insert it into the next line by pressing the
RETURN key.
• Now, change in the second line the attribute name as desired (see chapter
1.1 in the manual „Attributes, Variables, and Keywords“).
You may also enter additional text.

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11.17 Generate Label

The task is to display the level LP1 and its limiting value GRENZ1 in a label Example
near a receiver point.
After selecting the attribute LP1 from the „Attribute“ list box switch to „(us-
er defined)“. Copy the row copied and insert it into the next line after press-
ing the RETURN key. Now, edit the second line by replacing LP1 by
GRENZ1:

The numerical values in the expression mean: 11

1 = one decimal will be displayed
0.500 = rounding the last decimal starting from 5
Select via the button „Predefined >>“ the option „Save as“ to save the label Save/delete label format
and its user-defined coding. Enter, for example, the name „LP1 and limit“.

After clicking OK, this new label format can be selected from the
„Predefined“ button. Existing label formats can be removed using the
„Delete“ command.

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11.17 Generate Label

String Variable Selecting the option „(String variable)“ from the attribute list box enables to
display information saved in the object‘s memo-window . Subsequently,
enter the string variable‘s name in the „Variable“ box.
Example In the memo-window of buildings the number of floors are available, e.g.
x=2; x=5 etc. In this case „x“ is the name of the string variable. These figures
shall be display in labels near the buildings, however, with the text string „no.
of floor“ going in front.
• Select on the dialog Modify Objects the action "Generate Label" for
building and click OK.
• Choose from the list box "Attribute" on the dialog Generate Label the
option "(string variable)" from the top of the list.
• Enter for "Variable" the name "x".
• Now, select the option „(user defined)“ form the list box "Attribute" and
type the string „no. of floors = “ in front of the existing expression in box
„Code“.
• Click OK and confirm the query by "all".
11

After OK the labels show the text strings „no. of floors = 2“, „no. of floors =
3“, etc.

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11.18 Generate Floors

11.18 Generate Floors

The action „Generate Floors“ on dialog Modify Objects or the equivalent
command on the context menu of receiver points or point sources enables to
automatically generate receivers or point sources with pre-defined storey
heights.
To this end proceed as follows:
• Enter a receiver point attached to a building’s facade (e.g. using the
Object Snap feature)
• Open the dialog Receiver and enter via button „Geometry“ the height of
the receiver above ground.
• Close the dialog and click with the right mouse button on the receiver’s
border.
• Select the command Generate Floors from the context menu which
opens the respective dialog.

11

Dialog Generate Floors

• On dialog Generate Floors, select the required range of storeys (up to

99th floor maximum) and specify the selected active point.
• Enter the distance from ground floor to first floor (EG-1.OG) and the
distance between upper floors (OG-OG).
Click OK generates the receiver points.

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11.18 Generate Floors

Append Name of Floor With the control box „Append Name of Floor“ being activated CadnaA
extends upon OK the receiver’s name by the designation of the storey (see
chapter 9.15 in the CadnaA Reference manual).

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11.19 Parallel Object

11.19 Parallel Object

This command can be applied to any open or closed polygon. The command
is either available as an action on the Modify Object dialog or directly from
the context menu of an object.

This command generates a new object of the selected type parallel to the
selected object. It can be defined whether the new object shall be generated
to the left or to the right or to both sides of the selected object. Furthermore,
the distance of the new object from the geometrical axis of the selected
11
object has to be specified. The meaning of „left“ and „right“ refers when
looking from the first to last point.

The distance refers to the entered polygon line. Particularly in the case of Distance (m)
roads, this distance refers to the center axis of the road (and not to the roads
curb).
Especially in the case of roads and railways, this option considers the Option „Distance from the
specified „additional width“ specified for the appearance of the roads (see curb/border“
chapter 2.4.1 in the CadnaA Reference Manual) or the „Additional Width
left/right“ entered on dialog Road: Geometry (see chapter 2.4.1, section
"Additional Width left/right" in the CadnaA Reference Manual).

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11.19 Parallel Object

Example

Polygon around line- Applying the command Parallel Object to an open polygon, e.g. to a road,
objects and by selecting a closed polygon as object type (e.g. an „Area of Designated
Use“), and by selecting both options „Left“ and „Right“ from the object,
CadnaA inserts the new closed polygon around the road object.

Station Range By defining a station range (see chapter 11.15 "Generate Station") the parallel
object will just be generated in this defined range. In case the height of the
original line object is defined with different heights at the first and the last
point, the height of the new parallel object will be interpolated from these
two heights, considering the specified station range.

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11.20 Activation

11.20 Activation
By this action from the dialog Modify Objects or from an object’s context
menu the activations status (see chapter 4.4.2, ID) of the objects concerned
can be modified without opening the their respective dialogs. On the dialog
Activation the check boxes on the left show the possible status of activation,
the check boxes on the right the actual status after execution of this action.

The specified objects are deactivated after

execution of this command.

Choose from the list box the new final activation status. All corresponding
objects will be set to this status, no matter what status they have had before.
11
When selecting „inactive“ all the concerned objects will be deactivated. This Status „inactive“
is also visible from the „blank“ activation boxes to the right of the arrows.
When selecting „active“ all the concerned objects - will be activated. This is Status „active“
also visible from the black tick marks to the right of the arrows.
When selecting „indeterminate“ the objects are neither activated, nor Status „indeterminate“
inactivated. This is the default setting.
When selecting „general“, you may decide individually on the new activation Status „general“
status by clicking on the check boxes to the right. This enables to define the
activation status after execution of the command for each status of (to the
left) separately by clicking on the check boxes to the right.

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11.21 Swap Name/ID

11.21 Swap Name/ID

By this action on dialog Modify Object the contents of the edit boxes
„Name“ and „ID“ on the object’s dialog are exchanged.

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11.21 Swap Name/ID

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11.22 Delete Duplicates

11.22 Delete Duplicates

This action from the dialog Modify Objects enables to delete duplicates of
objects based on specifiable criteria. This function is useful after import from
third-party programs like e.g. ArcView or DXF (e.g. just for roads).

11

After confirming with OK a further dialog opens in which you can choose
conditions for the deletion.

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11.22 Delete Duplicates

Having chosen several conditions, then all conditions are evaluated prior to
the deletion with all duplicates. The first object placed in the object table is
considered to be the original while subsequent are supposed to be the dupli-
cates.
The duplicate is deleted only if the condition/s is/are met. In case several
conditions are specified all of them must be fulfilled before the duplicates are
deleted (logical AND). As restricting condition the following specifications
can be used, individually or as a combination:
• Name
• ID
• Geometry:
 Snap: Enter a deviation (snap in meters). Objects which deviate not
more than the given snap distance from the original will be deleted.
 Polygons bidirectional: With this option activated duplicates will also
be deleted when they match based on the specified criteria, but differ
with first/last geometry point.
11  2D only: With this option activated duplicates will also be deleted
when they do not match with height coordinate/s (z), but match with
xy-coordinates based on the specified criteria.
• Keep Object with max. Weight: This option enables to define a criterion
based on object attributes to control the deletion procedure.
 Weight Function: Here you can select from the available object attri-
butes in order to define a weighting function.

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11.23 Fit DTM to Object

11.23 Fit DTM to Object

The height information of objects (e.g. roads, buildings) and of the terrain
(height points, contour lines) frequently results from different sources. It
happens frequently that the imported absolute object heights (e.g. road
heights) do not match with the terrain heights e.g due to less resolution).
In these cases the terrain model can be fit to the roads (or also to other ob-
jects) by CadnaA.
In the following example a road modeled from two polygon points crosses a Example
wavy terrain. Since the road has both, at first and last point the correct height
of 0 m, the road receives a height of 0 m along its entire length. The road,
therefore, intersects with the wavy terrain completely.

11

Road from two polygon points with a wavy terrain

When selecting the action „Fit DTM to object“ on dialog Modify Objects
(or from the context menu of line-like or area-like objects) the following dia-
log is displayed:

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11.23 Fit DTM to Object

Dialog Fit DTM to Object

On the dialog Fit DTM to Object the following input boxes are available:
• Width/Additional Width (m): additional width for total width left/right
of the object at the same height
• Sampling Distance (m): distance between new height points being
inserted alongside of the object
• Far diffracting Edge: This can be specified based upon
11  Distance from Curb (m): In this case the distance of diffracting edge is
fixed while the slope varies.
 Slope 1:x (gradient): In this case the slope is constant while the dis-
tance of the diffracting edge varies.
When fitting the terrain to the road automatically using this feature the result
will be for this example as illustrated below:

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11.23 Fit DTM to Object

Road after applying the action „Fit DTM to Object“

The 3D-special-view shows that the hills have been cut, while the valleys have
been filled up.
Correcting for the terrain model manually would be far to time consuming.
The automatic fitting procedure is the only realistic alternative. It has to be 11
decided, however, in each case whether this command is useful as the entire
terrain model is modified.
This command being selected from the context menu of an individual line-
like or area-like object will be just applied to that object.

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11.24 Fit Object to DTM

11.24 Fit Object to DTM

The height information of objects (e.g. roads, buildings) and of the terrain
(height points, contour lines) frequently results from different sources. It
happens frequently that the imported absolute object heights (e.g. road
heights) do not match with the terrain heights e.g due to less resolution).
In these cases the roads (or also other objects) can be fit to the terrain model
automatically by CadnaA. This is achieved by inserting new polygon points
to the object’s geometry the z-coordinate of which results from the local ter-
rain height.
In the following example a road modeled from two polygon points crosses a Example
wavy terrain. Since the road has both, at first and last point the correct height
of 0 m, the road receives a height of 0 m along its entire length. The road,
therefore, intersects with the wavy terrain completely.

11

Road from two polygon points with a wavy terrain

When applying the action „Fit Object to DTM“ from the dialog Modify Ob-
jects (or from the context menu of an object) the result is as illustrated be-
low:

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11.24 Fit Object to DTM

Road after applying the action „Fit Object to DTM“

By the options on the dialog Modify Objects this action can be addressed to
specified object types only - e.g. to a specific road - or to all objects of an ob-
ject class - e.g. all roads in a project.
11 This command being selected from the context menu of an individual line-
like or area-like object will be just applied to that object.

 The fitting of the object’s height occurs at all points where the object’s
polygon intersects the entered or triangulated terrain contours. The
resulting intermediate triangles, however, may still be partially below
ground level. In order to adapt area-like sources to the terrain model it
is recommended, therefore, to make use of the option „Area sources
with constant relative height follow terrain“ on the DGM tab in the
configurations (see chapter 6.2.6 in the CadnaA Reference Manual).

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11.25 Break Lines

11.25 Break Lines

This command/action is available on the Modify Objects dialog and on the
context menu of any open polygon. Any line-shaped object (polygon) splits
another polygon into two objects with identical properties.

Breaking line-like objects requires a line or polygon intersecting another Break Lines per
polygon. That object will be broken at the intersecting point. Any line-like Context Menu
object from the toolbox can be used (e.g. the auxiliary polygon to break a rail-
way line).

Change to edit mode and click the auxiliary polygon using the right mouse
button. Select the command Break Lines from the context menu. Now, two 11
railway objects have been generated, one of which is moved aside here:

The action „Break Lines“ is also available when having selected the Break Lines via
command Modify Objects from the context menu of the breaking object. In Modify Objects
the selection for „Object Type“, define which objects are to be broken by the
selected one.

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11.25 Break Lines

Example This auxiliary polygon will just break the - active - roads, but not the line
sources:

After selection of the Modify Objects command from the context menu of
the auxiliary polygon, select the action „Break Lines“ from the „Action“ list
box and the object type „Road“. After execution, just the two active roads at
are broken by the auxiliary polygon at the intersecting point.
11

Further Remarks • This command will break lines even when the breaking line crosses at a
polygon point.
• Deactivated objects are not broken.
• Line objects do not break area objects.

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11.26 Break Areas

11.26 Break Areas

This command/action is available on the Modify Objects dialog and on the
context menu of any closed polygon. The area used as cutting object may
cover the area to be cut partially or may also be entirely inside the area to be
cut. Like the command Break Lines (see chapter 11.25) also lines are bro-
ken, besides areas, by the command Break Areas.

Break Areas per

Context Menu

The area 1 (here: area source) shall be broken by area 2 (here: parking lot). Example 1

• Enter an area source and an overlapping parking lot as illustrated.

11

• Select them command Break Areas from the context menu of area 2.
Consequently, area 1 is cut - in this example - into three parts.
• Click on border of area 2 being located inside area 1.
The dialog Select Object is displayed:

Dialog Select Object

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• Click once onto the second object from the top down and click on button
„Mark“ afterwards.
• When have closed the dialog the part of the area source being cut can be
relocated.

Relocated part of the area being cut

• Delete this part been cut via its context menu (or by the DEL-key) and
delete the second lower part of the area source been cut.

11

Result: area 2 breaks area 1

Example 2 Starting from the same initial situation, the command Break Areas been
selected from the context menu of area 1 causes area 2 to get broken. The re-
sult is illustrated on the following figure.

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11.26 Break Areas

Result: area 1 breaks area 2

In this example, the cutting area is entirely inside the area to be broken. Example 3

• Enter two buildings - one inside the other - having 8 m height as

illustrated below.

11

Initial situation: building inside building

• Select from the context menu of area 2 (inner building) the command
Break Areas.
Subsequently, small inner area punches a „hole“ into the larger outer area.
The connecting line is a small „channel“ enabling to draw the new ring poly-
gon from a single closed polygon.
• When clicking on the inner ring polygon three building objects are
displayed on the dialog Select Object.

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11.26 Break Areas

• Delete the last two entries from the list on dialog Select Object.
Finally, in the file just a single building remains.

Result: area 2 breaks area 1

• Press the key-combination CTRL+3 to display the building with

courtyard in 3D-Special view.
11

Break Areas via The action „Break Areas“ is also available when having selected the
Modify Objects command Modify Objects from the context menu of the breaking object. In
the selection for „Object Type“, define which objects are to be broken by the
selected one.

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 11 - Modify Objects 447
11.26 Break Areas

The highlighted triangular shaped area source shall break only the parking Example 4
lots, but not the areas of land use.

After selection of the command Modify Objects from the context menu of
the area source, select as action “Break Areas“ and for the object type
„Parking Lot“. Further, select for „Range“ the option „On Border“. After
execution of the command, just the two active parking lots are broken at the
intersection point area source‘s polygon, but not the areas of land use. 11

 Deactivated objects are not broken by the command Break Areas.

Introduction to CadnaA
 448 Chapter 11 - Modify Objects
11.26 Break Areas

11

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 11 - Modify Objects 449
11.27 Lua Command

11.27 Lua Command

 This action requires option X or XL!

For all further information regarding this action see chapter 15.8.2.5 in the
CadnaA Reference Manual.

11

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 450 Chapter 11 - Modify Objects
11.27 Lua Command

11

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 451

Chapter 12 - Context Menu

By selecting an object on the main window while in the edit mode, or by se-
lecting a data record in a table, using the right instead of the left mouse but-
ton, a context menu is opened offering a number of commands referring to
the selected object.

12

Select an objects with the right mouse button displays the context menu

The following commands are available from the context menu depending on Commands
object type. The links listed with each command refer - when nothing differ-
ent is specified - to the respective sections of this manual.

Introduction to CadnaA
 452 Chapter 12 - Context Menu

3D-Special view Graphical 3-D view with hidden lines, taking into account the visibility of the
individual surfaces. Objects can also be edited in 3D-Special view by double-
clicking an object (see chapter 12.5).
Break Areas A closed polygon can be divided into several smaller areas with identical pa-
rameters (see chapter 11.26).
Break Lines A line-like object is divided into at least two objects with identical parameters
(see chapter 11.25).
Fit DTM to Object CadnaA calculates the heights of objects and of the terrain at the pertinent
polygon points of the objects. For the area in-between, a linear interpolation
is performed (see chapter 11.23).
Duplicate Several objects of identical properties and the same size are inserted in hori-
zontal and/or vertical rows (see chapter 11.3).
Edit Opens an edit object dialog (alternatively: double-click an object with the left
mouse button (see chapter 12.1).
Insert before/after A new row is inserted in a table before or after the selected row. Another al-
ternative is to press INS key (see chapter 11.1.2 in the CadnaA-reference
manual).
12 Generate Label This option generates the issue of object parameters to be defined within an
automatically generated Text box located at the object. You can do that for
only one object, for all objects of the same object type or for all object types
(see chapter 11.17).
Generate Station Inserts station marks at a desired spacing along a line-like object, with indica-
tion of distances, e.g. marking of roads by kilometres (see chapter 11.15).
Force Right Angles An arbitrary polygon with different angles can be transformed into a polygon
with right angles by specifying a snap angle (see chapter 11.5).
Force Rectangle An arbitrary quadrangle can be transformed into a rectangle (see chapter
11.4).

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 453

This command enables to snap point objects (e.g. point source or receiver ) Snap Point to facade
onto a building facade after the point has been inserted or imported (see
chapter 11.6).
The command enables to edit in the graphics sound sources attached to Edit Facades
building facades. In addition, bitmap textures can be assigned to the facades
and the roof facilitating the generation of attractive 3D views (see Section
3.1.4 in CadnaA Reference Manual).
Generates a building with sound-radiating facades and roof (see chapter 3.1.6 Generate Building
in the CadnaA-reference manual).
In the Info field of the object dialog you can insert hyperlinks for files, pic- Hyperlink
tures, music, video, internet homepages etc. which you then can open easily
by just one mouse click (see chapter 4.4.2).
Using this command enables to import data to the existing project while the Import here
origin (at x,y=0,0) of the imported data is placed to the point selected/clicked
using the mouse or, if this command is selected from the context menu of a
point object, to this point (see chapter 12.3).
The length of any line-like object can be specified (see chapter 12.6). Specify Length

Calculation according to the Germany guideline RLS90 for Long Straight Long Straight Road
12
Road (see chapter 2.11 in the CadnaA-reference manual)
Deletes the selected object - another alternative: press the DEL key (see Delete
chapter 11.1).
CadnaA calculates the heights of objects and of the terrain at the pertinent Fit Object to DTM
polygon points of the objects. For the area in-between, a linear interpolation
is performed (see chapter 11.24).
Different actions can be executed simultaneously on several objects and also Modify Objects
on different object-types or groups of objects. Some actions can also be en-
forced on individual objects alone. These are then directly obvious in the
context-menu (see chapter 12.2).

Introduction to CadnaA
 454 Chapter 12 - Context Menu

Parallel Object Generation of objects parallel to the object selected (see chapter 11.19).
Modify Order of Points This command enables to modify the sequence of polygon points of polygon
objects (see chapter 11.7).
Delete Grid-Points Deletes grid-points inside or outside of a calculation area (see chapter 5.3.1 in
the CadnaA-reference manual)
Air Pollution CadnaA enables you to calculate air pollution caused by road traffic accord-
ing to the MLuS 92, edition 96 /48/ (see chapter 2.4.13 in the CadnaA-refer-
ence manual).
Generate Rails A railroad track from parallel rails including the ballast bed is generated auto-
matically (see chapter 11.14).
Cross Section Sectional view along a line (see chapter 12.4)
Sort Sorting of table columns in ascending or descending order, numerical or al-
phanumerical (see chapter 11.1.4 in the CadnaA-reference manual).
Edit Column Conversion of numerical values or substitution of character strings in table
columns (see chapter 11.1.3 in the CadnaA-reference manual).
Spline A selected polygon line is replaced by the segmented curve of a cubic polyno-
mial (see chapter 11.8)
12
Simplify Geometry Geometrical objects are simplified for calculation purposes by reducing the
degree to which details are taken into account (see chapter 11.9)
Generate Floors Automatic generation of a vertical row of receiver points with corresponding
heights for the different floors (see chapter 11.18)
Transformation The transforming of objects and/or complete projects is a strong aid and dis-
tinguishes CadnaA in a special way (see chapter 11.12).
Convert to An object type can be converted to another one (see chapter 11.13).
Connect Lines Individual parts of line-like objects of the same object type can be connected
to a single object (see chapter 11.11).

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 455

For roads, railways, and other line-like sources, you can also calculate the time Pass-By-Level
characteristic of the sound pressure level that would result if a single vehicle
with a specified emission were to travel along a certain path (see chapter 2.8
in the CadnaA-reference manual).
Line shape objects are split into definable parts with identical parameters (see Break into pieces
chapter 11.10).

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 456 Chapter 12 - Context Menu

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 457
12.1 Edit Object

12.1 Edit Object

An dialog of an object serves to enter all parameters characterizing an object.

Example of an Object Dialog here Point Source (industrial source)

The respective values are entered in the boxes either using the keyboard or -
for some parameters - by selecting the relevant option from list boxes.
Different boxes and options are available depending both, on the object type
and on the selected calculation standard.
The individual boxes are accessed by pressing the TAB key or by clicking. 12
Some boxes may also contain an equation which will be calculated instantly
and the result displayed in the box „Result. PWL“ for Day, Evening, and
Night.

Introduction to CadnaA
 458 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.1 Edit Object

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 459
12.2 Modify Objects

12.2 Modify Objects

This command selectable from the context menu of an object enables to ad-
dress various actions to a single or groups of objects. When being selected
from the context menu of a closed polygon the command refers to all objects
inside, outside, or on (i.e. crossing) this polygon.
The actions may be applied to an individual object as well. In this case, these
actions are listed on object’s context menu.

12

Dialog Modify Objects

For the general features on the dialog Modify Objects and all available ac-
tions see Chapter 11 - Modify Objects.

Introduction to CadnaA
 460 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.2 Modify Objects

Actions with point and When the command Modify Objects is selected from the context menu of a
line objects point or a line object the subsequent action will be addressed to all objects
besides the one which the command was selected from.
Example: delete all point sources besides just a single one
Procedure:
• select from the context menu of the point source to be kept the com-
mand Modify Objects,
• action: Delete,
• range: all
• object type: point source
Upon OK all point sources will be deleted, besides the one the context menu
of which was used to start the action from.

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 461
12.3 Import here

12.3 Import here

This command selectable from the context menu of an object (or from the
context menu when clicking into the white area of the screen, both using
the right mouse button) enables to import data directly to the graphically
designated location. The imported data are automatically transformed on
import resulting their origin (x=0, y=0) to get located at the designated point.
With this feature, it is possible (for example when modeling technical systems
in a plant) to import prepared project components (for example, the model
of a cooling tower or a fan unit) directly to the selected point, without having
to enter coordinate values.
The designated point depends on the object type from context menu of
which the command was selected:
• For point objects (e.g. point source, crossing, receiver): The imported data
are transformed resulting the origin (x=0, y=0) getting located at the
coordinate of the point object.
• For line and area objects (e.g. line/area source, road, building, barrier):
The geometry of these objects consists of a polygon list which is not
evaluated on import. In contrary, the coordinates of the point at which
12
the mouse click occurred are used.

If necessary, use the reference point list (see chapter 4.2.4, section "Filling
the List of Reference Points" in the CadnaA reference manual) to place a
point object at a polygonal point of a polygon object and select this
command from its context menu.
• Also, when clicking with the right mouse button into the white area of
the screen, the location coordinates of the point at which the mouse click
occurred is used.
When importing using this feature, all import formats implemented in
CadnaA are available (see chapter 7.2 "Import Formats" in the CadnaA
reference manual).

Introduction to CadnaA
 462 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.3 Import here

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 463
12.4 Cross Section

12.4 Cross Section

The command Cross Section is available on the context menu of line objects
(e.g. from the auxiliary polygon) provided the object is made of not more
than two polygon points. A height has to be entered for this object which will
be considered as the upper edge of the cross section.
Upon selection of this command the vertical cross section from first to last
point will be displayed in a separate dialog showing the terrain contour and a
objects cut.

12

Dialog Cross Section

Source: With that option being activated the sources cut by the section are Options on the dialog
displayed. By default, this option is activated.
Ray: The ray’s path from start to end point - as considered by the software
within the calculation - is displayed. By default, this option is deactivated.

Introduction to CadnaA
 464 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.4 Cross Section

Z-Factor: The z-coordinates of all objects displayed are multiplied by the z-

factor entered. This facilitates to distinguish height differences.
Copy: The picture is copied to the clipboard.
All further options correspond to those of the vertical grid.
Upon saving of the cross section via the button „OK+Save“ the
representation including - if any - calculated vertical grid is save to the object
group „Vertical Grid“ as well. This copy receives the ID „CROSS_SEC-
TION“ (see menu Tables|Miscellaneous)
see also:
• chapter 5.3 "Vertical Grid" in this manual
• chapter 9.12 "Cross Section" and chapter 5.3.6 "Vertical Grid" in the
CadnaA reference manual

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 465
12.5 3D (Special)

12.5 3D (Special)
The 3D-Special view in CadnaA enables to display the entire model
considering hidden objects and the actual terrain shape.
The camera point can be defined using pre-defined paths or it can be moved
freely within the model by use of the keyboard and the mouse. Provided a
camera path has been defined the camera drive can be repeated easily and
also can be saved as an AVI video file.

12

3D-Special View (Dialog CadnaA 3D):

bottom left: grid caption, top right: mini map

The 3D-Special view may also serve as a checking tool: Use it to visually
check for object’s geometry enabling to discover errors in the model more
easily. In order to modify properties of an object double-click the respective
object to get access to it‘s dialog. Modifications can be performed directly
without closing the 3D-Special view. Changes to the geometry will be updat-
ed right away.

Introduction to CadnaA
 466 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.5 3D (Special)

Calling the The 3D-Special view is activated by clicking with the right mouse button on
3D-Special view an object and selecting the command 3D-Special from the context menu. To
this end, the edit mode has to be activated (CTRL+E).
You can move through your model by pressing the forward/backwards arrow
keys on your keyboard. By keeping the left mouse button depressed the angle
of and the flight direction can be controlled.
For more details regarding calling the 3D-Special view and on how to move
trough your model see chapter 9.14 "3D-Special View" in the CadnaA
reference manual.
Terrain texture Activated bitmaps - imported into CadnaA as a background image - will be
displayed as a ground texture on 3D-Special view. This holds as well for
bitmaps being imported from GoogleEarth CadnaA (see chapter 9.2 "Im-
porting Bitmap from GoogleEarth™" in this manual).

12

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 Chapter 12 - Context Menu 467
12.6 Set Length

12.6 Set Length

By this context menu command the exact length of all line-shaped objects
can be specified, such as roads, railways, line sources, and also of the vertical
area source, etc.
• First, enter the line-like object with its approximate length.
• Then click this object under the Edit Mode using the right mouse but-
ton, and, from the context menu, select the command Set Length.
This results in the line-like object being extended beyond or cut off before
the last entered point.
see also:
chapter 4.2.1 Inserting Objects using the Mouse, section „Segment Length“

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 468 Chapter 12 - Context Menu
12.6 Set Length

12

Introduction to CadnaA
 Index 469

Index
A select type of land use 161
table 163
absolute/relative coordinates 63 building evaluation & building noise map 159
activation 429 building evaluation symbol 160
additional width (appearance) 241 building noise map 170
additional width s. road, self-screening edit result table 173
addressing building radiation 179
limiting values 118 edit facades 185
numbers of trains 294 generate building 191
area of land use 161 interior level & transmission loss 183
limiting value 118 object snap 180
areas of equal sound level 142 snap radius 180
assign object attributes s. ODBC-import vertical area source 180
auralisation 278
A-weighted PWL 107 C
B calc width of roads 253
Calculate Level Difference on Grid 150
barrier attenuation 150 calculation protocol 112, 127, 133
bitmap-import 307 change dimensions 73
calibrate 307 Check for Updates 29
geo-referencing 317 chimney’s cylinder s. stacks and chimneys
reference points 308, 313 chimney’s mouth s. stacks and chimneys
RMS-error/standard deviation 314 clipboard
scaling bar 308 copy to 78
break Cmet 225
areas 443 Color Palette 142
into pieces (line-like objects) 405 combo box 53
lines 441 scale 97
bridge 263 condition s. modify objects
building evaluation configuration
assign automatically 165 railroad 286, 287
change symbol size 163 connect lines
define height of storeys 162 check ID 408

Introduction to CadnaA
470 Index

snap radius 407 data record 100

context menu 451 objects 81
3D-special 465 Delete (Context Menu) 81
break areas 443 dialog
break into pieces (line-like objects) 405 Grid Appearance 141
break lines 441 dialog box
convert to 411 building noise map 170
cross section 463 layer 193
duplicating objects 387 dialog options
edit 457 ID 88
fit DGM to object 435 Info-button 87
fit object to DTM 439 name 87
force rectangle 391 ObjectTree 89
import here 461 different emission Day/Evening/Night 123
modify objects 367, 459 directivity 201
parallel object 427 frequency-dependant 209
set length 467 pre-defined 202
spline 401 table 204
control elements 53 user-defined 204
check box 53 directivity index 122, 182
list box 53 examples 122
option button 53 directivity vector 202, 205, 208
convert to 411 Display INI-file 26
coordinates diurnal pattern 249
absolute/relative 63 normalizing a 251
copying downwind conditions 225
individual objects 77 DPI aware 21
within the graphic 77 driveways & areas 195
correction Cmet 225 duplicating objects 387
correction for multiple reflections 252 action duplicate 388
correction for operating time 114 DXF-import 323
cross section 463 example 323
layer 324
D
E
decimal separator 93
delete edit facades 185

Introduction to CadnaA
 Index 471

edit mode 65 save 147

edit object dialog 85, 457 Grid Appearance
edit result table 173 Section "Color Palettes" 141
editing objects 83 grid appearance 141, 155
effect grid arithmetics 148
of air absorption 110 calculate difference grid 150
of distance 110 grid calculation
of ground absorption 120 displaying grid points & grid values 146
emission example 143
as A-weighted PWL 107 interpolation 145
as spectrum 138 specifications 140
emission level Lm,E 247, 284 ground absorption 219
example ground absorption area
groups 344 absorbing 222
meteorology 232 reflecting 221
moving point source 196 ground factor 219
ObjectTree 351 group
ODBC-import 333, 337 example 344
variants 361 expression 343, 348, 363
expression s. group objects associated 343
partial level 344
F possible actions 343

File (menu) 57 H
force rectangle 391
frequencies of wind 230 horizontal grid 139
hyperlink 90
G
I
generate building 191
generate rays 110 image source method 128
generate stations 259 import
geo-referencing 317 bitmap 307
GoogleEarth DXF 323
geo-referencing 317 from MS-Access 333
grid from MS-Excel 333
receiver spacing 155 ODBC 333

Introduction to CadnaA
472 Index

SHP 327 import 292

Import here 461 local list „Number of Trains“ 284
Import old palette-files
Color Palette M
Import Import old palette-files 146
importing numbers of trains 292 marker size 66
industrial sources MDTD 248
directivity 201 menu
driveways & areas 195 File 57
ground absorption 219 meteorology 225
meteorology 225 Cmet 225
stacks and chimneys 211 correction based on C0 227
INI-file, displaying the 26 deviating Nord direction 234
INI-files 26 example 232
using several 28 wind statistics 230
input of point miscellaneous
orthogonal/polar 63 decimal separator 93
installation 25 modes of calculation
CadnaA 25 building evaluation 159
Check for Updates 29 building noise map 159
dongle-driver 25 horizontal grid 139
INI-files 26 receiver point 103
Sentinel Admin Control Center 31 vertical grid 155
V2C-file 31 modify attribute 377
interior level & transmission loss 183 modify objects 367
ISO 9613-2 105 actions 368
activated or deactivated objects 369
L activation 429
all 369
land use s. type of land use break into pieces 405
lateral diffraction 125 condition 370
Level Range 146 convert to 411
lines of equal sound level 142 delete 375
list „Number of Trains“ delete duplicates 433
creating a 291 fit DGM to object 435
list train numbers fit object to DTM 439
addressing 294 force rectangle 391

Introduction to CadnaA
 Index 473

force right angles 393 O

generate building evaluation 419
generate floors 425 object edit dialog 85, 457
generate rails 413 object snap 180
generate station 415 Objects
label 421 Undo 81
modify attribute 377 objects
modify order of points 397 copying 77
numerical condition 371 delete 81
object snap 395 duplicate 387
objects in a group 369 edit objects (edit mode) 65
parallel object 427 insert objects 59
range 369 modify objects 367
several objects 369 rotating 75
spline 401 ObjectTree 351
string expression 371 assigning objects 355
transformation 409 automatic assignment 355
Monitor define 354
DPI aware 21 example 351
multiple 21 table partial level 358
mouse table sound power level 358
double-click left button 51 ODBC interface 333
left button 51 ODBC-import 333
multiple selections 51 assign object attributes 335
right button 51 example 333, 337
mouse buttons 51 named range 333
moving point source 195 range of cells 334
example 196 select file 334
Multiple Monitors 21 Open Object Table 47
operating time
N reference times 115
operating time correction 114
noise maps 139 option "Generate Rays" 110
numerical condition 371 options
icon bar 41
options menu
decimal separator 93

Introduction to CadnaA
474 Index

oversampling grid 142 railway correction 287

range of cells s. ODBC-import
P range s. modify objects
raster with oversampling 142
Palette see Color Palette ray paths
parallel buildings s. road screening 124
parallel object 427 receiver
barrier along road 259 generate rays 110
between defined station marks 417 partial levels list 134
parallel track 286 protocol 112
partial level 344 receiver height 140
partial levels list 134 receiver point 103
pass-by level 275 receiver spacing 140, 155
auralisation 278 record video s. pass-by level
record video reference points 308, 313
point source, moving 195 reference times 115
polar 63 reflection 128
polygon point reflective properties
adding a 68 barrier 130
deleting a 68 relocating objects 71
moving a 67 RLS90 239
polygon point mode 67 road
positioning method additional width (appearance) 241
Cylinder 62 calc road width 253
insertion of points 61 elevated 263
polygons and lines 61 emission 247
text boxes and zoom 62 emission level Lm,E 247
protocol of calculation 112, 133 geometry 239
gradient 251
R MDTD 248
multiple reflections 252
railroad parallel buildings 252
creating a train list 291 pass-by level 275
editing geometry 283 road width 240
emission level Lm,E 284 self-screening 263
local train list 284 standard cross section 240
on bridge 297 stations 259

Introduction to CadnaA
 Index 475

variable lateral slope 243 standard cross section 240

variable width 242 status bar 40
wall optimization 271 string expression (condition) 371
with parallel barrier 257 symbol bar 41
road gradient 251 symbols 40
road width 240 synchronization Graphics & Tables 99
rotating objects 75
T
S
table
scale delete data record 100
combo box 97 directivity 204
zoom - 98 variant 361
zoom + 97 table groups 343
Schall03 283 tool bar 41
screening 124 toolbox 43
lateral diffraction 125 Open Object Table 47
screens, multiple 21 Select Object Type 43
SCS s. standard cross section transformation 409
search for objects 95 type of land use 161
segment length 62
Select Object Type 43 U
self-screening 263, 297
stations (parapet) 301 Undo 81
Sentinel Admin Control Center 31 unknown attributes 328
sequence of layers 193 Updates 26
shape-file s. import SHP Check for 29
SHP-import 327
example 327 V
layer 327
transform attributes V2C-file 31, 33
transform attributes 329 variant
unknown attributes 328 toggle 364
Software-Updates 26 variants 361
sound propagation accord. to ISO 9613-2 105 example 361
spline 401 vertical area source 180
stacks and chimneys 211 z-extend 181

Introduction to CadnaA
476 Index

vertical grid 155

3D-special view 157

W
wall optimization 271
width s. road width
wind direction s. meteorology
wind frequencies 230
wind speed s. meteorology
wind statistics 230

Z
z-extent 181
zoom - 98
zoom + 97
zoom to limits 98

Introduction to CadnaA