Setup UNM structure best practice input.

[Maulingo]

Hello. We are in the process of combining all the information of our underground assets, and combining them in a UNM. We have a plethora of different types of assets, and I'm kind of hitting a wall when it comes to structuring the network. I'm coming at this from a road drainage perspective, but also has to think in other disciplines to add to the UNM. Sorry for the long wall, I'll get down to business.

Stormwater part:

* Should I add information about manhole dimension, to the structure table (Structure Junction - Sewer storm vault) or would that be more useful to add in another table?

* Should the information about "Last cleaned date" lie in the structure table?

* Most of our road drainage is via manholes that has a slottet inlet at the top of the manhole. I'm not sure if I should add inlets, and have them be contained inside the sewer storm vault, or if there is a way to have the manhole act as an inlet in it self. It seems rather risky to start messing about the structure tables, since I'm presuming the Structure tables will contain elements from other disciplines sometime in the very near future.

No matter how many times I read the descriptions for setting up UNM's etc. I can't get my head around the way the UNM is modelling assets and connections. It is very counterintuitive for a guy that has been used to "Place manhole dot -> define manhole dot (type, dimension, elevations etc.) -> Place next dot -> connect dots with line -> Next project."

I have access to FME, and got Python on a novice level ability, but something tells me I should not just throw all the current tabular information and dots directly into the Structure Junction -> Manhole asset group all nilly willy (do people still say that?) because I am bound to break something.

Sorry for the wall of text, and for any language errors (I'm from Denmark - Europe) but I think I have been swimming out for too long, and I can't even see the bottom anymore.

[SSMIC3038]

Just want to voice support for this thread, I'm having the same challenges with sewer, water distribution and electric distribution models.

The level of documentation on how the models work and the theory of "what should go where" is sorely lacking and patchy at best.

[Maulingo]

Thank you for the reply 🙂

[Maulingo]

I understand that there is different ways, different countries do their drainage etc. A curb inlet in the US might go straight to a stormwater line (I have not the slightest idea to be honest), but I somehow have to be able to keep attributes like diameter, the hight of the sump in the manhole (I might be using the wrong lingo here, but the 50 cm at the bottom of the manhole that allows for sedimentation), when was it last cleaned, etc. And I can't really see how I would go about telling the network, that water is allowed to enter the manhole, at the manhole location, without having to place inlets in each manhole that has a cover that allowed for water to enter. If that is what it takes, then I'll do that but I'm just a bit confused if it's something that is intended, and would hate to mess up something. I have been playing with the thought of adding "Manhole" or "well" as a stormwater type, since there are a lot of subtypes of manholes, and even more subtypes of those. subsubtypes?

For anyone interested, here is a link to a typical structure used in road drainage.
Inlet on well example It has different types of covers, top rings etc. And I shutter by the thought of having to place all those possible fields in the structure table, when I'm supposed to also add electricity, sewage, drinking water down the line. I have to somehow keep stormwater only structures separated. I understand that other elements such as pumps would have to reside in the structure table, since those things has a tendency to require electricity.

[Anonymous User]

These models can certainly be daunting! A few ways I have found to first understand and visualize the data better.
I would start simple and just get a general idea of the overall structure of the data before trying to make decision as to where you want your data to end up.
To achieve that I would suggest downloading the Sewer Utility Network v3.1 Open it in Pro and within the maps folder you will see several maps. In the database folder you will see the Asset Package. This is a file gdb which you can apply to a UN. Start with these instructions but disregard the portion about the enterprise geodatabase. Start at the stage utility network. The instructions are for water, but it is the same process for sewer. You also will not be able to publish services, but you can see the Naperville sample data and get an idea of how things are structured. Once you have run through those steps, download this Sewer v31 template. This is a pro editor template in which you can path to your un in a file gdb. Once pathed, you will see all symbology and can explore the model even further.
Download and install the Esri data loading tools. This will let you map your source to a target asset package and produce spreadsheets outlining how data will be mapped over. Here is where you can start making decisions about where you want your data to end up. Once finished run the "execute data load" to move data into an asset package. A few notes: run the Alter spatial reference on the asset package contained in the template in step 1. This will project it to your local coordinate system.
Sewer is a bit different in that manholes are contained in the Structure Tier. The structure tier does not actually participate in Analysis or snapping. There are no connectivity rules to snap manholes to lines. Think of manholes as a generic asset that you want to track attributes about. Then think about how you want things to "connect". To do this use the pipe connection in the Sewer Device FC. You can also include inlets inside the manhole. Manholes are containers and can contain inlets, connections etc.
Good luck and be patient!

[Anonymous User]

Sewer Utility Network

Instructions for Creating a UN.

Sewer Editor

Data Loading Tools

[Anonymous User]

For some reason I couldn't embed any of my links.  Geonet kept whining about bad html...

They don't appear in the text body like I would have preferred but rather in my first reply to myself.  Hope it helps.

[Maulingo]

Thank you for taking the time to write a long and in-depth reply Randall. I really appreciate it 🙂

I had a look on the data loading tools and the spreadsheet is rather nifty. I might be wrong about this, I often am, but the data loading tool will allow for "one to one" translation right? The data I am going to import will however have both the information about what kind of asset group and what kind of asset type the point will represent. This is just how the database is set up for the current scheme being used by the drainage discipline. So far I have been using FME to assign asset group, and asset type code values, based on one field in the source data.
Example: Source data have information about what type of drainage "point" is.
* KO is an X type of manhole, with Y type cover, sand trap filtration of Z cm, dimension of 1000 mm circular concrete well. 

In the same field it might say "I" which is an inlet point (from a dich or the like). Now I'm not sure if I should add that point to the construction table as well, or if that should reside in one of the Stormwater tables.

I'm thinking that I have to not only import data from the source data into the structure network, but also import a lot of that same data to the Stormwater Device tables as well, and hopefully if I set things up correctly, the pipe connections, inlets, outlets etc. will be contained within the structure containers.

I'm fearing that the structure network will be severely under pressure, when I have add all the other disciplines as well. But I guess it will be possible to add "views?" where I can sort on different asset groups, and or types, so the true heroes, the maintenance staff, can benefit from having the best possible information available on what ever mobile solutions we decide to go for.

Would there be any major issues in adding more fields to the structure network, like diameter, last cleanout date, cover diameter, cover material etc?

And I'm a bit confused about what tool that will put the Stormwater Device "Inlet", which is an assembly I thing, inside the Structure Junction "Manhole" that is a container. My initial thought is to import the same point features that displays the manholes into the inlet asset type along with pipe connection and then end up with having one entry from the source data, being loaded into several tables in the model. 

We have an enterprise server, and hopefully I'll be able to stage an UNM on the test environment on that very soon.

I'm keen to hear about user experiences, and practices that has is using the solution.

I can't change the structure of my source data, so I have to create something that will function in the UNM based on the source data, which means my translation has to be spot on. And that is where I'm starting to shake a bit, but I'm sure it's doable 🙂

[Anonymous User]

Hey Maulingo,

The data loading tools can accommodate a 1 to many mapping if needed. A workflow is here.  You will use a lookup key to define the new asset types/groups you need to map to.  This will allow you to map your source data over to multiple targets.  You can also you a definition query in the data reference worksheet to split out your source data if needed. 

[Maulingo]

Thank you so much for replying Randall.

Do you have any idea as to where I might find some resources for using python code directly in the workbook?

In my source data I have a string field type which has information about the point type (80 different abbreviations) which I would like to map to their respective tables. The points are not restricted to manholes, but also define in/outlets, elevation points of pipes, pump stations etc. 

I think the datamapping tool with the workbooks might be a good way to go, but I'm not sure on how to apply the python code directly inside excel. I'm thinking it would be beneficial if there was an option to tell the expression field in the workbook what .py file it should use.

All of the dataloading workflow, would ideally be something that can run automatically which is why I'm spending so much time trying to figure out what the smartest way to go about it would be. But I'll set fire to that bridge when I get to it. 

 Oh and another thing that sprung to mind. Would it be smart to save some time in the remapping process by defining rules for the different tables?
Example: If an assettype is of "X, Y or Z" value, set cover type to "X" value

Arcade expressions is not exactly my strong suite, but by looking at the rules that comes with the assetpackage I might be able to write some fairly simple rules. I'll go have a look and see if this is something that has already been answered prior to this.

I really can't thank you enough for taking the time to reply Randall, it really helps me to understand and reflect on things.