ArcFM Solution: The Director's Cut

Data Modeling Tips & Tricks: Relationships

Creating a refined data model can be tricky especially when many relationships are involved. Use these tips and tricks to create quick and easy simple relationships within your data model. This post will cover a few common user sticking points Telvent has seen, Telvent conventions, and recommendations, as well as examples of each.

Conventions increase not only the ease of developing the data model but also the ease of reading for the end user. There are a number of conventions for Telvent data models overall, and some specifically for relationships. The following information references simple binary and composite relationships.

Naming:
When naming a relationship, the name is the Parent class followed by an underscore then Child class.  
 

• First End Name listed is the parent
  •  DevicePoint  
• Second End Name listed is the child
  •  Device

  For example, if there is a 1:* relationship between DevicePoint and Device, the relationship name would be DevicePoint_Device (see image below). 

  WHY the naming convention?

  First, it’s easier to quickly view any mistakes in parent/child direction.  
  Second, if you run into errors, the error will list the relationship name. It is much easier to locate the DevicePoint_Device relationship name then it is to locate, for example, Association27_Association28 relationship name (the default name).

Ensure association ends match association points and cardinality: 
The snap point from the relationship to the class needs to correspond to the Parent/Child end.

The image below shows both the standard relationship name, DevicePoint_Device, as well as the location of the cardinality 1:*. As shown, the DevicePoint is the Parent class (listed first and with the 1 cardinality) and Device is the Child class (follows the underscore with the * cardinality). A reader can easily see that the Parent is the class listed first in the relationship name, and that has the cardinality of 1. 
 

When assigning the relationship there are a few things that you need to remember:

• In the Association Ends section, the first End Name is the Parent and the second is the Child.

For example, the first name listed is Support Structure and is therefore the Parent (see image below).

• The Aggregation column is only used in a composite relationship. Binary relationships use the default of none.

• The Visibility column has no bearing on the visibility of the relationship or anything else needed for data modeling. Default is private.

• The Multiplicity column shows the cardinality of the relationship. The first name entry is for the Parent so its cardinality is 1 or *. The second entry is for the Child cardinality.

Check back for future posts on additional data modeling tips & tricks!

At Last, Search Has Arrived!

With posts spanning a dozen primary categories, an archive library exceeding 100 pages, and new content added weekly, we thought it prudent to add search capabilities to our blog.

Mirroring the existing search functionality on our main site, we have added a tailored search box atop the right column of this layout. We hope this functionality will allow you to navigate this blog and its myriad of content with greater ease and efficiency.

If your searches return less than ample results, please let us know what topics you would like to see addressed. We are constantly striving to author content that is highly relevant to the work you do with the ArcFM Solution everyday, so we welcome your feedback. Please submit your topic suggestions/requests to education@telvent.com

  

Creating Circuit Groups/Channels in Fiber Manager

In Fiber Manager, the path of a single glass fiber running from a utility through various connections and ending at a customer demarcation point is called a circuit. Since one fiber optic cable can contain well over a hundred glass fibers, you may have huge numbers of circuits to keep track of. Fortunately, Fiber Manager's Circuit Manager tool includes the ability to assign each circuit to one group or "channel" (your organization may use either term) and then filter the list of circuits by the desired group/channel. 

A circuit's group/channel assignment is an attribute editable by end-users in the Circuit Manager or the ArcFM Attribute Editor.

However, the creation of new groups/channels requires administrator action:

1. In ArcCatalog, right-click the database connection and choose Properties. 
2. In the Database Properties dialog, on the Domains tab, select the Fiber Circuit Channel domain.
3. In the list of Coded Values below, add the new group/channel name to both the Code and Description columns.

The next time a user starts ArcMap, this new group/channel will be available for circuit assignments and filtering. End-users will also be able to set the group/channel attribute of existing circuits to the new group/channel if desired.

How-To for Viewing User Edits and Conflicts

In response to reader feedback, we are happy to provide in this post the steps for launching the three edit tools described in the September 24th post "What Have You Done To This Job!" Three Ways to View User Edits and the September 29th post Conflict Viewing Made Simple. 

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for reading The Director's Cut!

QA/QC Version Differences

Steps:

(1) If necessary, add the QA/QC Version Differences button to the ArcMap interface: Tools menu > Customize, Commands tab, ArcFM Solution Category. From the Commands list on the right, click and drag ArcFM QA/QC Version Difference onto any toolbar. 

(2) To see all edits (not just those with errors), from the Tools menu choose ArcFM Options, Attribute Editor tab, and set After QA/QC to Keep Current Items.

(3) Open the desired Session/Design, then click the QA/QC Version Difference button. Open the ArcFM Attribute Editor, QA/QC tab, to view the results. 

Mobile Edit Log

Steps: Open the desired Session/Design, then on the ArcFM Session Manager toolbar click the Open Edit Log button. 

Designer Design Tab

Steps: Open the desired Design, then open the ArcFM Attribute Editor, Design tab.

ArcSDE Version Changes Command

Steps:
(1) If using ArcFM Process Framework, open the desired Session/Design; otherwise on the Table of Contents, Source Tab, right-click the second node (e.g. SDE.DEFAULT), choose Change Version, and choose the desired version from the resulting dialog. 

(2) On the Versioning toolbar click the Version Changes button. 

(3) When prompted, choose the desired ancestor version (or descendant version if starting from SDE.DEFAULT).

Mobile Conflicts Report

Steps: Open the desired Session/Design. If it contains any conflicts, the Conflicts Report will open automatically. Additionally, if an administrator configures a "Display Conflicts Report" task you may run that task from the Session Manager or Workflow Manager interface, Available Tasks drop-down list.

Further details for these tools are also available in the ArcGIS Desktop Help, Configuring the ArcFM Solution, or Using the ArcFM Solution documentation.