OpenRoads Designer – Drainage & Utilities Tip: Annotating Invert Direction
The common practice of annotating the direction of pipes connecting to structures in storm drain and sanitary sewer systems is not natively provided for in OpenRoads Designer. Despite this limitation, this content can be annotated with the use of an Item Type. The basic premise is to use the Conduit # Angle property and evaluate the numerical value against the appropriate letter(s) designator with a series of nested “IF” statements. The example below is built using the four cardinal directions in a configuration using a Bearing Direction Mode.
- Begin by identifying (or creating) an Item Type Library and Item Type that will house the Direction Item Type.
- Create the desired Item Type. (Note: Due to the manner in which connecting conduits are stored in the Drainage and Utilities project, an Item Type will need to be created for each numbered connecting conduit, with a maximum of eight.)
Use the following Property Definitions settings:
- Type: Text
- Is Array: False
- Is ReadOnly: True
- Visibility: Hide
- Default Value: [Blank]
- Build the IF statements to evaluate conduit direction. In our example, a “N/A” option is added at the start to indicate that a given conduit does not exist and the East marker will require two statements one for elements that reside “north of” due East and one for those “south of.”
The syntax of identifying the angle is:
“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Label”()
This can then be evaluated against first “(N/A)” to identify the null marker for the conduit and then the angles as outlined below.
- The finalized Expression would resemble the following:
IIf(“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Label”() == “(N/A)”, “No Inv”, IIf(“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Angle”() <= 45 , “(E)”, IIf(“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Angle”() <= 135 , “(N)”, IIf(“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Angle”() <= 225 , “(W)”, IIf(“Civil Element Properties”.”Drainage and Utilities”.”Utilities”.”Storm Water Node”.”Conduit 1 Angle”() <= 315 , “(S)”, “(E)”)))))
- Finalize Properties dialog settings with:
Use Last valid value: True
Failure Value: [Blank]
Picklist Source: (None)
Settings: (None)
- Once completed, the Item Type Property can be duplicated for the remainder of inverts anticipated (maximum of eight) and one for the Outgoing invert.
- The Item Type containing these Item Type Properties will need to be applied to the desired nodes, typically by adding it to the Node Feature Definitions for all desired nodes. The Item Type can then be called in a Text Favorite as needed, using:
<Item Type>.<Item Type Property Name> e.g. Nodes – CMN.InvDir-1
