Potential input checking and error handling improvements

Work-in-progress

Purpose

The purpose of the following potential improvements is to make it easier to stand up and use an ActivitySim model. This list of improvements is in response to phase 6a task 7.

Potential Improvements

Idea	Level-of-effort	Notes	Priority
Check input data consistency.	Days	Plan to check all the key relationships. Check primary key table joins across input tables - HH home zone vs. TAZ/MAZ land use file, MAZtoTAP file TAPs vs. TAP skims, TAZs in the land use file vs. TAZ skims, etc.	High
Check for well formed config files.	Days	Check settings files, expression files, and config files	Low
Better describe silly errors.	Days depending on LOE	For example, when a submodel yaml files cannot be found	Low
Print info about no alternative found.	Hours	When no alternative is found in a choice model, log which terms in the utility turn off all alternatives since this is really helpful info	High
Reduce pipeline file size	Weeks	Instead of checkpointing tables in the pipeline after each submodel, only add the additional fields and/or rows. Requires significant design work as well.	Low
Strings to Categorical Data	Days	Switch string type data to categorical type data to improve runtime and reduce pipeline file size	Low
Improve RAM/chunking	Days depending on LOE	Make it easier for new users to set a reasonable chunking/processors settings.	High
Eliminate distance==0 problems	Hours	Identify distance skims and ensure > 0 where appropriate to avoid funny simulation situations	Medium
Clean up command prompt logging	Hours depending on LOE	Be more intentional about what is logged to the console vs. log file	Medium
Avoid long trace file names	Hours	Reduce filenames (especially in estimation mode) for Windows limits	Low