Category: SBS Blog

The question has come up, “how do I populate a custom field in an AUD model from the Drawing Properties. Specifically a Work Order number. This is easy to do, but not easy to figure out. AUD doesn’t always make sense, but it can usually do anything you want! Here is the process:

1. Create the drawing property you want to use (if it does not exist), by opening the View Drawing Properties tool:

2. Add a new property:

3. Once the property is added, populate it:

4. Now create the custom field in the model, in this case it was added to the Pad model attributes, it must be set as a “Custom Feature”, otherwise the rules will not recognize it:

5. Now verify that you attribute is showing by adding a Pad and looking at its Feature Info:

6. Open the Manage Rules tool and browse to Validation >> Structural >> Point >> Pad and create a new rule like this:

7. Once the rule is created you existing (and new) Pads should automatically update the Work Order attribute:

This method currently only works if the Work Order field is null, I will update the post soon to allow updates at anytime! Please comment if you have questions, or visit our Forum!

Jeremiah

To limit a user’s ability to write back mapping data with the AUD merge back function requires three actions:

1. Set up Read-only user in SQL for general AUD users.
2. Set up of the extraction mapping file and save it in the AUD template.
3. Disable the Configuration toolbar in AUD for read only users (this will also disable all configuration functions for those users).

To create the read-only user in SQL Server:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the Mapping database.
2. Right-Click on the Security folder, choose New, choose Login…

   

3. In the Login – New dialog box set the Login name: to AUD_User in the General page:

   

4. In the Server Roles page select only the public role:

   

5. In the User Mapping page check the name of the mapping database and check the db_datareader and public roles in the membership panel:

   

6. Click OK and close SQL Server Management Studio.

To set up the extraction mapping file in AUD:

1. Open the Danville AUD template.
2. Open the Configure Mapping tool in the Configuration panel:

   

3. Set the mapping file according to Danville specifications and make sure the Merge Back function is turned Off (Right-click on data source for option):

   

4. Click Done and save the drawing so the Danville template is updated with Mapping Configuration. This allows users that start with the template to extract data but not merge back.

To disable the configuration toolbar in AUD, for non-admin users. This must be done at each users machine:

1. In AUD type CUI at the command line to open the CUI editor.
2. 
3. In the All Customization Files dropdown select the aud_electricdistribution.cuix entry:
4. 
5. Expand the Ribbon section and expand the Tabs section. Right-click on AUD Configuration and select Remove:
6. 
7. Click Apply and OK.

This removes the Configuration tab from AUD and eliminates the ability of the user to make configuration and mapping file changes in AUD. AUD still keeps track of changes made when using mapping data so once the Drawing is opened in an AUD instance with the configuration tab active the Merge Back setting can be turned on and the data can be reviewed and sent back to mapping using the Merge Changes and Validate tool.

I was involved with my first GIS migration project in 1987. The client, a large electric utility, had a business requirement to merge three different organizations that were all using different geospatial systems. One system was home-grown, the other was from a vendor that was exiting the geospatial market and the third product was as an established player in the market. For the next 15 to 20 years I was involved, in one way or the other with various GIS consolidation projects. The objectives were always similar:

• Create a common enterprise database to serve the long-term needs of the organization
• Implement processes and applications around data creation and maintenance to allow the system to be kept up-to-date via normal business processes
• Get the organization on one common platform to reduce the number of systems that need to be maintained, thus reducing overall cost of ownership

As time has marched on, a new phenomenon has emerged. These organizations that were so focused on having a common geospatial platform are now branching out and using multiple GIS and CAD products to create, maintain, manage and analyze their geospatial information. We can ask the question, “What went wrong?” “Why are all these different systems proliferating throughout the organization?” Actually, there are a lot of things that are “going right”. Geospatial technologies, as they continue to become mainstream applications, are getting incorporated into more and more business processes within organizations. The figure below shows several different consumers of spatial information at a typical utility.

Today organizations are buying specialty, packaged applications to address specific business needs. Advanced CAD-based design tools are providing more advanced editing and engineering environments for design professionals. And the different user communities have vastly different requirements in terms of usability and application functionality.

What are the technology shifts that are driving these changes?

1. While systems are much more advanced, they are not as complex, or expensive to maintain as they used to be. When I started in the industry a standard workstation was over $100,000 USD. Now powerful GIS applications can run on your phone and they certainly don’t take a dedicated professional to maintain.
2. Computer performance has not only reduced system costs, but it has changed the paradigm for accessing spatial information. It is now possible to dynamically translate large amounts of spatial data within an interactive application. These operations used to take days (sometimes weeks) to process, using systems of high-powered mainframe computers.
3. New tools and integration standards are facilitating more open, interoperable systems.

While there is great opportunity with these new systems, there is also a risk that the enterprise data management for these large, integrated systems can be compromised. This series of posts will describe how new architectures are evolving to support these multi-user, interoperable environments. A key component of these solutions is the use of spatially enabled ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) technologies that support advanced data sharing requirements for enterprise users.

This post describes how to set up and use attributes to automatically label AUD features. For example when you place a transformer in AUD it is automatically labeled with the kVa rating:

The process is very simple and uses standard AutoCAD block attributes. In this post we will add and attribute for NAME_NUMBER to the standard AUD Pole block.

Open AUD

Open the standard AUD pole block from C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\AutoCAD Utility Design 2014\R19.1\enu\Configurations\RUS\Style\.

Select the pole.dwg drawing.

Zoom into the pole and type ATTDEF at the command line, this will open the attribute definition dialog box. A block attribute is a text value that can be part of a block, visible or hidden, and can be driven by user input or existing values in a drawing.

In the Attribute Definition dialog box populate the Tag, Prompt and Justification values as seen here.

Click OK and you will be prompted to place the text, place it anywhere on the screen for now.

Once placed select the attribute to activate the grips, select the grip in the middle of the attribute (this is like the MOVE command).

Move the Attribute to the center of the Pole. This will show the pole name in the middle of the pole, you can set this anywhere to suit your annotation needs.

The finished drawing will look like this:

“Save as” a pole_att.dwg in the same folder and close the drawing.

Start a new AUD drawing (preferably the AUD template you use).

In the Configuration tab open the Industry Model dialog:

Select the Pole feature class and switch to the Styles tab:

Double-click the Default style to open the Style Editor dialog box:

In the Block field click the browse button, this opens the block selection window:

Click the green Add icon and browse to and open the pole_att.dwg file you just created:

Double-click the pole_att icon in the selection box to set it as the block to use:

In the Style Editor the Block field now says pole_att and just above that we see the NAME_NUMBER has been added:

Drop down the NAME_NUMBER value box and you will see the list of available AUD Pole attributes appear. Select “Name Number” from the list. This pushes the AUD Name Number value into the NAME_NUMBER attribute in the drawing.

Click OK and you will see the Default Style icon has been updated to show the attribute. Click Apply and OK to accept the changes.

Now place a new pole using the AUD Place Pole command from the ribbon.

Once the pole is placed select it and view its Feature Info (or Quick Info). In the Name Number field type in the pole name and press the Enter key.

The data is refreshed and the pole block now contains the Name Number as a label.

There are an infinite number of possibilities for labeling in AUD. Using attributes on objects automates the process. You can add as many attributes as you need to any block and they can use a combination of AUD driven values and user updated values. The AutoCAD help file has details on using Attributes. AUD Callouts (Industry Model Callout tab) work in the same way, they just do not have a graphical component like the circle for the pole. You can create custom callouts by starting with the LIN-CALL.dwg and STR-CALL.dwg found in:

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\AutoCAD Utility Design 2014\R19.1\enu\Configurations\RUS\Annotations.

Have you had a chance to look at AUD 2014? The Callout feature is really nice, very simple, works… and has leaders… and automatic update’s!

It is simply a block with attributes; you can then define the attribute fields with AUD fields in the editor:

The only limitation out-of-the-box that I see is it cannot grab data from the material list, so we cannot see the cost or minor materials through the label. Hopefully I am just missing something! I will let you know if I find it.

In this tutorial we will create a specific layer for the AUD Pole objects, these steps can be used for all AUD objects and will allow the use of traditional AutoCAD Layer commands to control visibility.

1. Create a new layer called POLES

a. Type LAYER at the command line to invoke the Layer Properties Manager:

b. Click the new layer button (in red above).

c. Type POLES for the layer name:

d. Close the Layer Properties Manager.

2. In the Configuration tab in the ribbon click the Industry Model button:

3. Choose the Pole Feature Class:

4. Click on the Styles tab:

5. Click on the Default 2D Plan Symbol, then click the edit button (in red below):

6. In the Symbol Editor drop down the Layer Name pick list and choose the POLES layer:

7. Click OK to close the Symbol Editor.

8. Click Apply to save the changes in the Industry Model Configuration window.

9. Click OK to close the Industry Model Configuration window.

10. Select an existing Pole or create and a new one and view its properties (select pole, right-click, choose Properties). You will see the layer is now POLES:

11. Repeat this process for the Existing and Removal Pole Styles as well or any other AUD object type. You can create layers for each state and then can control AUD Object visibility with traditional AutoCAD layer tools.

After you add a Pole in the AutoCAD Utility Design (AUD) environment it is very easy to add most attachments using the tool bars and Design Explorer Pole Heads are one exception to this, they cannot be added using these tools. The command you need is AUDADDTOPOLE. Here is how it works:

1. Type AUDADDTOPOLE
2. Type F for Feature
3. Choose Pole Head
4. Choose Model Name
5. Select the Pole Head to use and click OK
6. Click Back
7. Click Back
8. At the command line type X for exit
9. Select the pole(s) you want to attach to, press enter
10. Press enter again to end the command

A little convoluted but it works great! Still working on how to get the conductors to connect and will post as soon as I do. As you can see this tool can be used for all kinds of other attachments as well.

Leveraging ESRI ArcSDE in your AutoCAD design can make life a whole lot better! Using the FDO tools found AutoCAD Map3D, Civil3D, and AutoCAD Utility Design this is easy to do. Here are the steps to do it:

You need these files from an ESRI install (any product):

1. Pe.dll
2. Sg.dll
3. Sde.dll

You need to copy them into this folder:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD *\bin\FDO

Once you copy them into the folder open AutoCAD *. At the command line type MAPWSPACE and choose Y to open the Task Pane. In the Task Pane click the “Data” button and choose “Connect to Data…”

In the Data Connections by Provider dialog box choose “Add ArcSDE Connection”, add your connection details and Login with the appropriate username and password:

Once you have logged in, select your Data Store and Version, click “Connect. The list of layers available to that user are listed, select what is needed and click “Add to Map…”

What a day. Syntax is everything. A file path, that’s all that was missing. So, next time you are importing and Oracle .dmp file (the old style, not the newer dp style) here is the simple syntax:

imp SYSTEM/password@orcl file=C:\WhereEverYouPutIt\file.dmp full=y log=imp.log

This did it. It seems that the Oracle imp command does not look in the default DMPDP folder like impdp does.