Manhole Diagrams for Underground Electric Distribution Network

[TimHayes]

We are mapping our facility's underground electric distribution network. Duct banks intersect at manholes. Each manhole has a hard copy manhole diagram showing the conduits in each duct bank (2 x 4, 6 x 3, etc...) at each manhole. Any ideas on how to represent this in GIS?

[SSMIC3038]

We represent ours schematically (duct simply connects to manhole) and the plans are hyperlinked, trying to maintain the duct configurations to reality is a difficult task, especially when there are various generations of mapping protocols and quality of accuracy. Duct configurations change and don't always make it to the GIS editor, made worse by other utilties having ducts in the configuration as well.
On certain things we purposely generalize the GIS configuration and rely on scanned and hyperlinked documents to show a greater level of detail.

[MicahManuel]

We represent ours schematically (duct simply connects to manhole) and the plans are hyperlinked, trying to maintain the duct configurations to reality is a difficult task, especially when there are various generations of mapping protocols and quality of accuracy. Duct configurations change and don't always make it to the GIS editor, made worse by other utilties having ducts in the configuration as well.
On certain things we purposely generalize the GIS configuration and rely on scanned and hyperlinked documents to show a greater level of detail.

This sounds good. With there being so many combinations you would spend a huge amount of time trying to get each manhole perfect. If you have some type of CAD file or other diagram just link it.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Maybe you should also have a look at ESRI's ArcGIS Schematics product. It allows you to represent your network both schematically as well as geographically.

See here:
ArcGIS Schematics

And especially the pages on Key Features:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/extensions/schematics/key-features