Determining when to rebuild geometric networks

Clint_Glover

I currently support geometric water networks for my organization.  The water networks consists of things like water lines, valves, hydrants, etc.  I have recently began making updates that including adding/removing lines and valves.  What I don't fully understand is when/if I need to rebuild the geometric network after changes are put in place.  Will the network automatically pick up those updates to the lines and valves or will a geometric network rebuild be required?  Can anyone give me some insight on this to ensure I know exactly when I need to rebuild the networks in the future. 

JonDeRose

Clint Glover‌ Cross-posting this to Geodatabase where a larger community around the Geometric Network exists.   Rebuild is not required to maintain the topological connectivity of the Geometric Network (GN). GN connectivity can be maintained during normal editing operations through attention to the snapping environment you've set up.  

Whether or not to rebuild depends upon the goal and/or the issues you are seeing.  The snapping environment, trace tools and verify network connectivity tools should be sufficient to identify and address connectivity issues you encounter after editing.  Verify Connectivity is your friend when issues are encountered.  In most cases this can be used in conjunction with manual editing and repair connectivity to identify problems and establish connectivity.  Rebuild can be used against small subsets of your GN using the map extent if needed where other tools fail to re-establish connectivity.  Rebuild is an intensive process that actually rebuilds the logical network for the area of interest and as such can be expensive.  

Hope this helps clarify,

Jon

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