NAM: Glossary (Terms and Acronyms)

[Tarkus 6,933]

Network Addon Mod and SC4 Transportation-Related Acronyms

NAM: Network Addon Mod

• The Network Addon Mod is an extensive mod for SimCity 4 Deluxe/Rush Hour, which encompasses virtually all community-developed transport network content (excluding stations, cosmetic mods and lot-based items).

ABEP: Arthur Berkhardt Expressway Project

• An "April Fools Day" cosmetic mod produced by Tarkus for the RealHighway's RHW-8S network, inspired by the episode of the American comedy series "Seinfeld".

ARD: Asymmetrical Road

• An Asymmetrical Road is a Road in which there are more lanes travelling in one direction than the other. The ARD-3 network in the Network Widening Mod has 2 lanes in one direction, 1 lane in the other, and is a Road-based override from a starter piece, and has a higher capacity than the default Road network through the use of Distilled Intersection Paths (DIPs)

ATL: Avenue Turning Lanes

• An optional plugin in the NAM Core, which adds turn lanes to +-intersections between two orthogonal Avenues.

AVE: Avenue

• An abbreviation used not only to refer to the game's default Avenue network (sometimes called "AVE-4" in this short hand, because it has 4 lanes), but also the single-tile 2-lane (AVE-2) and triple-tile 6-lane (AVE-6) networks with divided medians, included in the Network Widening Mod (both of which are actually Road-based override networks built from starter pieces, as single-tile and triple-tile networks are extraordinary difficult to build from the dual-tile Avenue network).

BTM: Bullet Train Mod (also called Shinkansen Addon Mod)

• A Monorail replacement mod developed by the Japanese content APTX, and popularized by Haljackey.

CAN-AM: Canal Addon Mod

• A NAM Core option that allows for fully functional transportation via Canal, using puzzle pieces. Developed by daeley, Chrisim, and members of the BSC.

CP: Cosmetic Piece

• Cosmetic Pieces are specialized puzzle pieces, designed to allow users desiring great attention to detail to customize the look and feel of their transportation networks. The best known Cosmetic Pieces are included in the RealHighway system.

DBE: Diagonal Bridge Enabler

• A Plugin that uses temporary files, draining all of a city's water and locking road and rail slopes, to allow the construction of diagonal bridges and other advanced bridge designs from starter pieces.

DDI: Diverging Diamond Interchange

• A type of interchange popularized by American traffic engineer Gilbert Chlewicki, which resembles a standard diamond interchange, but flips the driving directions between the freeway connections along the surface street, to allow smoother movement of cross-turning traffic. The RealHighway system includes pieces to construct DDIs, which, in-game, have a higher capacity than standard diamond interchanges.

DIP: Distilled Intersection Path

• A Distilled Intersection Path is a bogus path designed to trick the game into thinking that a non-intersection tile is an intersection tile. Coupled with the settings for intersection capacity in the NAM Traffic Simulator, DIPs actually increase the capacity of affected tiles by 25%. They cannot be used on any network tile that already has an intersection or crossover path. DIPs are used to adjust capacities of wider networks in the RealHighway (RHW) system, the Network Widening Mod (NWM), and some Turn Lane Extension Pieces (TuLEPs).

DRI: Draggable Ramp Interface

• A Draggable Ramp Interface is a type of ramp interface built through draggable means for the RealHighway system. For more information, see the entry on "RI" (Ramp Interface).

DTR: Dual Track Rail

• An acronym sometimes used to refer to the game's default Rail network, particularly in the context of the extended networks included in the Railway Addon Mod (RAM).

ELR: Elevated Light Rail

• An acronym sometimes used to refer to the game's default Elevated Rail network, particularly when discussing its ground-level counterpart, Ground Light Rail (GLR), an addition included in the NAM Core.

EMHW: Elevated Maxis Highway

• An acronym sometimes used to refer to the game's default Elevated Highway network.

ERHW: Elevated RealHighway

• An acronym sometimes used to refer to Elevated RealHighways.

ETRM: Euro Texture Replacement Mod

• A cosmetic mod designed to change the appearance of roads to look more European/International, rather than the American default. The most recent version is MandelSoft's.

FA: Fractional Angle

• A network piece that is neither orthogonal, nor diagonal, but in between the two. The angle for the existing FA content is 18.4 degrees/71.6 degrees, and is referred to as "FA3", because each tileable segment is 3 tiles long. Another angle, "FA2" (26.6 degrees/63.4 degrees), sometimes called "HD" (half-diagonal) is in development, named because each tileable segment is 2 tiles long. FA3 content is currently available for Roads, Avenues, Rails, and some RealHighway networks. FA2 content is not yet available for any network.

FAA: Fractional Angle Avenue

• See FA.

FAOWR: Fractional Angle One-Way Road

• See FA.

FAR: Fractional Angle Road

• See FA.

FARHW: Fractional Angle RealHighway

• See FA.

FARR: Fractional Angle Railroad

• See FA.

FHW: FakeHighway

• A pejorative term sometimes used to describe MHW, due to the fact that it is half-scaled compared to other game networks.

FLEX Piece

• A ploppable network item which, unlike a standard puzzle piece, which is static, is dynamic, and is capable of accepting overrides from draggable networks.  This allows a single FLEX Piece to incorporate functionality that would take anywhere from a few to hundreds of traditional puzzle pieces in order to implement.

FLEXFly: Flexible Flyover

• A series of special FLEX Piece flyover ramps included in the RealHighway system. It is ploppable, but unlike a standard puzzle piece, is overrideable like a draggable item, as all FLEX Pieces are.

FlexSPUI: Flexible Single-Point Urban Interchange

• A special FLEX Piece included in the RealHighway system, designed to allow for the construction of Single Point Urban Interchanges, which resemble standard diamond interchanges, but with the ramps meeting in the center to form a single intersection. It is ploppable, but unlike a puzzle piece, is overrideable like a draggable item, as all FLEX Pieces are.

FTL: FLEX Turn Lane

• A series of draggable/FLEX-based turn lane features for the various surface road networks, the networks in the Network Widening Mod (NWM), and the RealHighway (RHW).

GID: Group ID

• A hexadecimal identifier designed to specify the function of a given game asset.

GHSR: Ground High Speed Rail

• The ground-level component of the High Speed Rail Project (HSRP). It is a Monorail-based override network built from a starter piece.

GLR: Ground Light Rail

• A ground-level counterpart to the game's default Elevated Rail network, included in the NAM Core (sometimes also called the "Tram" network). It exists in several style variants, all of which are Elevated Rail-based override networks built from a starter piece, and dual-networking options, embedded in Avenues, Roads, and Streets, also exist (see T-RAM, TIA, TIR, TOR, and TOS).

GMHW: Ground Maxis Highway

• An acronym sometimes used to refer to the game's default Ground Highway network.

HSR: High Speed Rail

• The elevated component of the High Speed Rail Project (HSRP). It is a Monorail-based override network built from a starter piece. It is primarily cosmetic in effect.

HSRP: High Speed Rail Project

• A project which adds starter piece-based mass transit networks based upon the Monorail network. The two components included are the Elevated High Speed Rail (HSR), and Ground High Speed Rail (GHSR).

IID: Instance ID

• A hexadecimal number used to identify a specific network piece, exemplar, RUL file, etc.

INRUL: Individual Network Rule File

• A type of Network Rule (RUL) File, used to handle the placement of individual networks, including intersections of the given network with itself. All INRULs lie in the IID range between 0x00000001 and 0x00000018.

MAVE: Medianless Avenue (deprecated)

• A Medianless Avenue is a network that maintains a lane count of 4 or greater (equalling or exceeding that of the game's default Avenue), but has a narrow, painted division between opposing directions of traffic. Two MAVEs exist the Network Widening Mod, a 4-lane version (MAVE-4), and a 6-lane version (MAVE-6), the latter of which has a higher capacity.
  
  Despite their name, MAVEs are Road-based override networks built from starter pieces. The term MAVE is being phased out in the next NAM release, to avoid confusion between the triple-tile AVE-6 and the dual-tile MAVE-6, and these networks will be considered wider versions of Road network (RD-4 and RD-6).

MHO: Maxis Highway Override

• A reskin of the Maxis Highway network (sometimes called "Project Symphony"), which redesigns the network to resemble the RHW-4, with two lanes in each direction (instead of the three narrower lanes on the default Maxis Highway), and interfaces with the RHW's Modular Interchange System and its own prefabs, rather than using the standard Maxis Highway interchanges.

MHW: Maxis Highway

• A term sometimes used to refer to the game's default Elevated and Ground Highway networks, often in contradistinction to the RealHighway (RHW) system.

MIS: Modular Interchange System

• This term has a dual meaning. The MIS is generically used to refer to the RealHighway (RHW) system's capabilities to build modular interchanges, as opposed to the pre-fabricated plop interchanges of the Maxis Highway system. More specifically, it is also used to refer to the "MIS Ramp", single-lane, one-way RealHighway-based override network, built from starter pieces, and is most often used to connect RealHighways to surface streets or other larger RealHighways.

NREE: Nicole Richie Effect Eliminators

• Early codename for RHW Neighbor Connectors.

NSGID: Network-Specific Group ID

• A Group ID (GID) for exemplar files, which is specific for a given network.

NWM: Network Widening Mod

• The Network Widening Mod is a NAM Plugin, which currently exists as a separate-download module, but will be added to the NAM Core with the upcoming NAM 31 release. It uses Road-based and One-Way Road-based override networks (but not Avenue-based override networks) from starter pieces to vary their width, capacity, and appearance. Network Widening networks are often referred to in a short hand based on their type and number of lanes they have (e.g. TLA-5, OWR-3).
  
  Five basic types of NWM networks currently exist: Road-based Avenues (AVE, 2-lane and 6-lane), Road-based Asymmetrical Roads (ARD, 3-lane), Road-based Medianless Avenues (MAVE, 4-lane and 6-lane) Road-based Turning Lane Avenues (TLA, 3-lane, 5-lane and 7-lane), and extended One-Way Roads (OWR, 1-lane, 3-lane, 4-lane, and 5-lane). Most NWM networks do have higher capacities compared to the networks upon which they are based.

OWR: One-Way Road

• An abbreviation used not only to refer to the game's default One-Way Road network (sometimes called "OWR-2" in this short hand, because it has 2 lanes), but also the single-tile 1-lane (OWR-1) and 3-lane (OWR-3), and dual-tile 4-lane (OWR-4) and 5-lane (OWR-5) variants, included in the Network Widening Mod, as One-Way Road-based override networks built from starter pieces.

PedMall: Pedestrian Mall

• A type of puzzle piece designed to carry only pedestrian traffic.

QTR: Quadruple Track Rail

RABET: Roundabout Extension Tiles

RAM: Railway Addon Mod

RD: Road

REW: RealExpressway

• A feature which adds ramp interfaces/branches to the One-Way Road network.

RI: Ramp Interface

RHW: RealHighway (formerly Rural Highway, before late-2009)

• The RealHighway system is a NAM Plugin, which currently exists as a separate-download module, but has been added to the NAM Core following the release of NAM 31. It is based upon an unfinished network ("DirtRoad") that Maxis left in the game's files, and was reactivated by the NAM Team in 2004-2005.
  
  It currently consists of a series of variable-width highways (ranging from 2 to 10 lanes) with the ability to have variable-width medians, built from starter pieces, and uses modular construction techniques to construct interchanges, rather than the pre-fabricated plop interchanges of the default Maxis Highways. RealHighways are connected to surface streets (Roads, One-Way Roads and Avenues) and other RealHighways through Ramp Interfaces. Transitions between different widths and ground and elevated networks are accomplished through Transition Pieces.
  
  RealHighway networks are often referred to in a short hand based on the number of lanes they have in a symmetrical setup allowing for travel in both directions, for example, RHW-2, RHW-4. Networks beyond the RHW-4 often are classified as either being C-type or S-type (e.g. RHW-6C, RHW-8S). C-type networks are "combined", and the two travel directions cannot be separated like S-type ("separable") networks.

RRW: RealRailway

• The NAM's default modernized specification for the Rail network (in contrast to the standard Maxis Rail specification).

RTL: Road Turning Lanes

• An optional plugin in the NAM Core, which adds turn lanes to +-intersections and T-intersections between two orthogonal Roads.

RTMT: Road-Top Mass Transit

RUL: Network Rule File

RUL2: Shorthand for the RUL with the Instance ID 0x100000002, the NetworkOverrides RUL, which is used in the creation of "override networks".

RuRP: Rural Roads Plugin

SAM: Street Addon Mod

SIP: Signalized Intersection Piece

SITAP: Signalized Intersection and Turn Arrow Project

• SITAP uses draggable and FLEX Piece-based functionality to allow working traffic signals on intersections involving networks that, due to the game's hardcoded limitations, can't otherwise support them, including the One-Way Road network and some of the smaller RealHighway (RHW) networks.

SPM: Signage Piece Mod

STR: Single Track Rail

T-RAM: Tram-Road Addon Mod

T21: Type 21 Exemplar

TIA: Tram (GLR)-in-Avenue

TIR: Tram (GLR)-in-Road

TLA: Turning Lane Avenue

TOR: Tram (GLR)-on-Road

TOS: Tram (GLR)-on-Street

TTR: Triple Track Rail

TuLEP: Turning Lane Extension Piece(s) (or Project)

WAVERide: Wave Override--deprecated term to refer to what is now known as a FLEX Piece.

Acronyms sometimes confused for being Network Addon Mod-related

CAM: Colossus Addon Mod

Not transit-related at all, but rather, a mod dealing with RCI simulation, which adds additional stages to growables.

Updated: 09/18/2012 (work in progress)

[Durfsurn 539]

Was going to compile a similar thing on the omnibus but never got round to it. Great work there and much MUCH more comprehensive than any of my tries at it! Are you going to add descriptions to them? I'd be more than happy to write some below for you to copy. (The descriptions will be to the best of my ability so maybe only a quarter of those listed)

  Edited September 18, 2012 by durfsurn  

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Topic pinned, so people can find this list easily. Great work, Alex!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Thanks, Alex. This is a great start.

[jacksunny 741]

Great work! This will be very helpful for those who are new to the NAM.

[Jim14409 448]

Great work! This will be very helpful for those who are new to the NAM.

...and for those of us who often find ourselves about to drown in alphabet soup. Thanks.

[W11gotme 74]

Yup, seven years later, yet it's still very helpful.

[Lucario Boricua 7,050]

We gotta update this, as some terms here are virtually obsolete as we've added FLEX substitutes to puzzle piece content, and also because we've added lots of other content with their own associated new terminology.