Insulator

[Jose_Joaquin_Muñoz_Villarreal]

Hello:
I have several relative doubts and a reflection on how to model these elements that appear in this image:

Maybe I'm wrong, although I think they are the ones defined as Insulator. In the UNC model they appear in the Electric Junction layer, however in the EUNFC they are mapped with the Electric Junction Object table. How can I model the connectivity between the conductors between the High Voltage towers? How should I associate this type of features with the structural objects (Towers)?

In a workflow where I could integrate BIM data coming from an IFC we find these elements that I show in the picture. We are not concerned about interoperating between the IFC and any UN table using FME to carry attributes, what we are concerned about is the modeling and set of associations that we must generate to connect the different conductors between towers and with the towers (structures) themselves. In addition at the visualization level we would find gaps between the conductors between towers.Have you not considered at any time to define these objects as linear features? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Regards

[MikeMillerGIS]

The lines need an attachment point or line end(in case of a dead end) to attach to the pole.  We suggest containing the insulators as content of the attachment point.  There could be 1-3 insulators per conductor and with 1-N conductors represented by a single line in GIS, there is no easy way to map the insulators as features.  

The other challenge when trying to map GIS features to 3D is the location of the lines related to the tower.  As there are 1:N conductors in reality, but 1 line in GIS, how do you accurately show the N conductors?  

What we are discussing is a process that will use the attribute info of the attachment point and details of the content that will generate the 3D representation of the features at that location.

This is just a rough idea of the result.  The info to create this is stored on the attachment point and in the JO records.

[MikeMillerGIS]

To answer your question about Linear Insulators, we have discussed this and even played around with modeling these in the Electric Line class.  You will need to add a junction to the conductor to allow you to connect to the insulator, then add Jumpers to connect the conductors around the insulators.  The insulator needs to terminate at an attachment point, which will be attached to the to tower.

You can definitely extend the model to include these assets.  

[Jose_Joaquin_Muñoz_Villarreal]

Thank you @MikeMillerGIS for the responses. Totally agree that we need an attachement point to the pole. In fact with the interoperability process with FME (SBS Plugin) we can regenerate all these associations.

On the other hand, we will have to discuss with our client several issues, if we extend the model or model in another way the insulators and conductors, since the input data to UN will come from a BIM and in the IFC format, the insulators are objects identified with their corresponding ID, as well as the conductors that connect to the insulator. We have to see and discuss with our client which is the best option to manage also the conductors, since from the BIM we get different objects (state at rest and maximum wind) of the same conductors. Also we have to check the IDs of the conductors and how they are storing it in their current asset manager.
Best regards