Adding Detailed Project Costing Analysis to Communications Data Management for ArcGIS Online
The Communications Data Management for ArcGIS Online solution offers a fully hosted cloud solution for GIS based PNI management. The solution includes a configurable web app for managing network facilities and editing assets. This 'Communications Editor' app leverages ArcGIS Web AppBuilder which offers an easy to use framework for configuring web apps, and includes a variety of drag and drop tools and widgets to add additional functionality to your apps.
One of these available out of box widgets in the Cost Analysis widget. The Cost Analysis widget allows you to assign a cost factor for each feature you create. These costs are automatically tallied and provide an overall project or job cost. Additional cost factors can be applied, or the entire cost can be scaled based on factors not captured in the data. Costs can be assigned for the edit templates of each layer, and they can be different depending on the area in which the features are created.
The Cost Analysis widget requires a project or job polygon layer to store the location of the cost analysis boundary and costing information. Since the the Communications Data Management solution does not include a project or job boundary layer apart of the hosted feature layers that are deployed with the solution, the attached GDB below includes a 'Job Area' polygon layer that can be published as a hosted feature layer and used with the Cost Analysis widget. The GDB also includes the additional cost tables required by the Cost Analysis widget.
Once the Cost Analysis layers have been published to your organization, the layers can be added to the 'Communications Editor' web map. Then, edit and configure the 'Communications Editor' app in ArcGIS Web AppBuilder. Add the Cost Analysis widget to the app, and select the appropriate map layers in the Project Settings tab of the widget configuration.
Under Layer Settings tab, select all the Communications Data Management asset groups that should be included in the costing of a project. If you would like the status of the project or job to update the Lifecycle Status of the assets associated with the project, select the settings gear for a layer and update the Layer Attribute Settings to have the status in the 'Project Phase' field for the project layer to be passed to the 'Lifecycle Status' field of your asset group layers.
Then, under the Costing Info tab you can set up the costs for each of your assets. For example, setting up a cost of $3 per foot of fiber. The costs of your assets can also vary based on Geography or Scenario. For more information on using cost multipliers, refer to the resources doc for the Cost Analysis widget. https://doc.arcgis.com/en/web-appbuilder/create-apps/widget-cost-analysis.htm
Finally, configure Additional Settings if you would like to see additional project summaries in the widget, like the total overhead or underground mileage. Under this tab you can also add additional project cost to be added to the total cost of the assets, such as permitting or construction costs.
Once the Cost Analysis widget has been configured, users can start creating cost analysis projects, digitizing in assets associated with a design or job, and automatically have the total cost calculated by the widget. Cost information is stored with the project or job, and projects can be loaded back into the widget at any time. Assets can also be drawn in manually or copied from another feature layer. And lastly, the widget also allows for a high-level bill or materials to be exported to CSV.
Feel free to reply to this blog with any questions or enhancement requests to the Cost Analysis widget.