topic Re: Automating Inlet/Outlet Assignment for Waterline in Utility Network in ArcGIS Utility Network Questions

Automating Inlet/Outlet Assignment for Waterline in Utility Network

wanfarihah — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:59:17 GMT

Hi all,

I’m currently working in the ArcGIS Utility Network environment for a water utility project.

Some of our assets have been configured with terminals, and for connected waterlines, we need to assign the correct inlet and outlet terminals. At the moment, this process is being done manually, which can be time-consuming and prone to inconsistency.

Is there any way to automate the assignment of inlet and outlet terminals for waterlines?

Are there any recommended workflows, tools, or scripts (e.g., Attribute Rules, Python/ArcPy) to handle this more efficiently?

Any guidance, best practices, or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Re: Automating Inlet/Outlet Assignment for Waterline in Utility Network

PatrickGCowan — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 11:34:59 GMT

Try the Assign Terminal Connections tool that is part of the Utility Network Package toolbox. It can automatically assign the to and from device terminals.

Re: Automating Inlet/Outlet Assignment for Waterline in Utility Network

PierreloupDucroix — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 23:01:52 GMT

It is important to note that terminal connectivity adheres to topology rules. This allows you to specify that certain types of main lines can only connect to specific terminals on a given device.

For example, a distribution line will only connect to the outlet of a tank, while a transmission or production line will connect to the inlet.

During a migration, using tools like "Assign Terminal Connection" will automatically detect the rules and assign the appropriate terminal. You can also directly specify the fromTerminal and toTerminal values when adding the water line if you are certain of the digitization direction of your geometries. For example, select any main line connected to a system meter. If it's connected to the first node, you can assign the outlet terminal value in the "FromTerminal" field of the main, and vice versa.

If you are drawing network features in an existing dataset, the rules will also apply, and terminals can be automatically assigned if there is no ambiguity. If there's any ambiguity, you can use tools like Snap Chip (https://pro.arcgis.com/fr/pro-app/3.4/help/editing/use-the-snap-chip.htm) to connect to the correct terminal.

Finally, I assume it's possible to use attribute rules to detect and connect to the appropriate terminal, but I don't have an example. You can find similar rules for managing associations here: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/utility-network/electric-gas/advanced-attribute-rules-creating-utility-network-associations-with-attribute-rules