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SewerGEMS in ArcMap - Disappearing Fields

Hello,

I have been working on a sewer model from within the ArcMap interface, and I'm running into a consistent bug with respect to my symbology displaying correctly. A lot of the feature symbology I am using is dependent on the "Is Active" field. However, each time I re-open the sewer model from within the ArcMap mxd, the "Is Active" field is dropped from the attributes of my features, and therefore the symbology is messed up. I have found a small workaround where I can remove the "Is Active" field and re-add it in the flex tables, and it will then transfer to the attribute table and display correctly, but I have to do this within each flex table for multiple features (gravity sewer, force main, manholes, pressure junctions, etc). Is there something I'm missing here, or is it really just a bug between the SewerGEMS and ArcMap interface?

Thanks!

Parents
  • Hello Connor,

    It seems that what you are experiencing is explained in the following article.

    How do I use and display Active Topology for elements on the ArcGIS/ArcMap Platform?

    Please let us know if one of the two options in that article help with controlling the active topology in SewerGEMS for ArcMap.

     

    Regards,

    Craig Calvin

    Bentley Technical Support

  • Hi Craig, thank you for the reply. This article did have a solution to my issue. Instead of referencing the "Is Active" attribute through the ArcMap symbology editor, I have since turned on SewerGEMS rendering and am defining the symbology through Tools > Layer Symbology. This way I can control how all inactive elements are shown rather than trying to control Active/Inactive elements through the symbology tab under the properties of a feature class. This is a much more streamlined approach, and I will be using this for all of my symbology definitions from here out! I hope this helps someone with the same issue of handling inactive elements. Thanks again.

  • Hello Connor,

    I am not sure why you encountered that error when trying to open your model, but if you need to re-add the model and recreate the geodatabase in order to access the model again, that could indeed break the connection between the geotable and ArcMap. This would simply require you to re-add the appropriate field to the geotable, which should then automatically add that field to the geodatabase, making it available to use symbology on. See the link in my previous reply for an alternative to applying color coding.

    What were the exact steps taken to reopen the project? (Open MXD, then open the model from the hydraulic model manager?) Do you recall what may have changed between when the project worked and when the error started occurring? Is it possible that one or both programs were upgraded or that any of the involved files (MXD, MDB, STSW, SQLITE) could have been moved? Or, was this the first time you tried reopening the project after saving it? Are you able to re-open it without error now?

    Regarding the synchronize drawing command - this should not be necessary to keep the geotable in sync with the geodatabase, but it cannot hurt to try in the event that something appears to be out of sync. First though, confirm whether or not the field in question is present in the geotable. Next, open the attribute table for the respective element type's layer in the table of content (and check to make sure there aren't any duplicate layers) and check if the respective field is present. If so, save the project, close ArcMap, then reopen ArcMap, reopen the project and reopen the hydraulic model. Then, check the above things again.

    If the attribute is no longer present in the Geotable, then the "synchronize drawing" command will not bring it back and you will need to re-add it to the Geotable to synchronize things again (to be able to use symbology with the respective field). If that is indeed the case, please try the "run as admin" suggestion, as this would indicate that somehow the change to the geotable was not saving (this is saved to a file called AttributeFlextables.xml under C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10).

    If the attribute is still present in the geotable but not in the attribute table of the respective element in the ArcMap Table of Contents, check to make sure that there isn't an exclamation point next to that layer, which would indicate a problem with the way that the information was populated in the ArcMap session. If the layer seems to be OK, try the Synchronize Drawing command.

    Regarding ArcMap 10.5, yes, official support was added in version 10.00.00.45 as mentioned in Platform Compatibility. I would indeed recommend upgrading; the latest version is 10.01.0.70. If I recall correctly, the version you currently have will integrate with ArcMap 10.5, but we added more "official" support for it in the 10.00.00.45 release. Although I suspect something else may be going on (please check everything above), it is possible that the version may be related to any problems you're experiencing.

    Of course, you always have the option to do your modeling work in the Standalone environment, then if you have the need to do something in the GIS environment, you can add the same model there. If you are using the ArcMap environment for something specific, let us know and we might be able to help you accomplish it in the Standalone environment.


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.

  • Hi Jesse, I just successfully saved the model, closed ArcMap, re-opened ArcMap, then opened the hydraulic model through the hydraulic model manager. I am still noticing that some fields are not showing up in the attributes table that are in the geotable (I've attached a screenshot to this message). You can see the model has successfully opened and loaded, but the side by side comparison of the attributes and geotable is different. My theory is that both of the fields missing are binary (True/False), and for some reason GIS is having trouble reading these when the file is initially loaded. If I remove and re-add the columns, they will then appear in the attribute table. Quite the strange issue. I also don't have the authorization to run progams as admin due to how our network is set up.

  • Connor have you already upgraded your SewerGEMS? Did the Synchronze Drawing command help? I am not able to reproduce this issue, though I have not yet tried testing on a virtual machine with limited rights. I suspect the problem may be with your version, or permissions. I will plan to take a deeper look this weekend if I am able to.


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.

  • I am waiting on Helpdesk to install the latest version of SewerGEMS. The synchronize drawing command didn't seem to have an effect. I've also noticed that when View > Apply SewerGEMS renderer is checked when I come back in the model, my symbology seems to be detached from the model (see screenshot below). I do believe this is a symptom of a larger issue; maybe we can set up a remote access session on Monday if that would help. I appreciate all the work you've put into this analysis, and I wish I had better news for you!

     

  • Connor,

    I do agree that these are symptoms of a larger issue, and I suspect it is related either to permissions or to the older version that you're using.

    Upon closer inspection of your previous screenshot, it looks like the fields were added to the regular, predefined flextable, not the GeoTable. It looks like the GeoTable section is not showing up in your Flextable manager? (are you able to scroll down further to see it?) Here is what it should look like:

    From some experimentation, I see that fields added to the regular predefined flextables also appear to be synchronizing to the intermediate geodatabase (and thus attribute table seen from the ToC) which could cause some complication if both those and the GeoTables were edited.

    I suspect that your limited permissions and/or older version of SewerGEMS are causing the GeoTables to not appear, thereby causing these sync issues.

    My recommendation would be as follows:

    1) Close SewerGEMS and ArcMap and rename the following files by adding a ".bak" to the end (let me know if they do not exist):

    C:\ProgramData\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\AttributeFlexTables.xml  (you might not be able to delete this without admin rights)

    C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\AttributeFlexTables.xml

    2) Navigate to the Samples folder within the SewerGEMS installation folder and copy both the Sample-1.stsw and Sample-1.stsw.sqlite file to a folder within your Windows user profile, such as a folder on your desktop or within your my Documents.

    3) Reopen SewerGEMS for ArcMap and start a new Map (MXD)

    4) SewerGEMS > Project > add existing > Select the model from step 2

    5) When prompted, click the blue folder button to save a new geodatabase - save the .MDB file to the same folder as the sample model

    6) Check to see if the GeoTable section shows up in the FlexTables. if so, try adding the desired fields, then open the respective attribute table to confirm if they show up

    7) Save the MXD file to the same folder as the sample, then close out of ArcMap, choosing Yes when promoted to save anything.

    8) Reopen ArcMap and open the MXD from step 7

    9) Open the Hydraulic Model Manager, choose the .stsw file and click the Open button

    10) Check the GeoTable and attribute table again to see if the changes saved.

    11) If the above works out OK, try opening your actual model, open the model from the hydraulic model manager, add the desired fields to the GeoTable, check the attribute table, close and save the project, reopen it, reopen the model from the hydraulic model manager and check if the changes stuck.

    12) If the above still does not work out, please locate and provide a copy of your log file, (zip it first) from C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\SewerGEMS.log

    13) Ideally, have your Helpdesk upgrade your SewerGEMS version as discussed above. If they are able to, I would recommend a "clean" reinstallation in this case, which involves cleaning out a few things after the uninstallation of the old version and before installation of the newer version. First, uninstall SewerGEMS, then delete the folders mentioned in the wiki article if they exist (including the folders that contain the attributeflextable.xml file) , then install the new version.

    For the Renderer issue, I experimented with this and I do see that when the renderer is enabled/checked (which needs to be re-checked upon re-opening the model), the Symbology tab of the layer properties does appear as you showed in your screenshot. However, changes to the model do still change drawing pane according to the symbology. For example I tried setting up color coding based on diameter from SewerGEMS > Tools > Layer Symbology, and when the Renderer is enabled, changing the diameter of a pipe still changed the color. From further testing, I did encounter some cases where the applied symbology did not appear to apply (at one point my conduits disappeared), which was resolved by re-applying the Renderer. Are you experiencing something different? Did re-applying the Renderer help?

    If this does not help or if you prefer the desktop sharing session, we will open a Service Request and contact you to make the arrangements.

    I would also still consider if you can do what you need to do in the Standalone version - please elaborate on your needs and we'd be glad to assess.


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.

Reply
  • Connor,

    I do agree that these are symptoms of a larger issue, and I suspect it is related either to permissions or to the older version that you're using.

    Upon closer inspection of your previous screenshot, it looks like the fields were added to the regular, predefined flextable, not the GeoTable. It looks like the GeoTable section is not showing up in your Flextable manager? (are you able to scroll down further to see it?) Here is what it should look like:

    From some experimentation, I see that fields added to the regular predefined flextables also appear to be synchronizing to the intermediate geodatabase (and thus attribute table seen from the ToC) which could cause some complication if both those and the GeoTables were edited.

    I suspect that your limited permissions and/or older version of SewerGEMS are causing the GeoTables to not appear, thereby causing these sync issues.

    My recommendation would be as follows:

    1) Close SewerGEMS and ArcMap and rename the following files by adding a ".bak" to the end (let me know if they do not exist):

    C:\ProgramData\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\AttributeFlexTables.xml  (you might not be able to delete this without admin rights)

    C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Local\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\AttributeFlexTables.xml

    2) Navigate to the Samples folder within the SewerGEMS installation folder and copy both the Sample-1.stsw and Sample-1.stsw.sqlite file to a folder within your Windows user profile, such as a folder on your desktop or within your my Documents.

    3) Reopen SewerGEMS for ArcMap and start a new Map (MXD)

    4) SewerGEMS > Project > add existing > Select the model from step 2

    5) When prompted, click the blue folder button to save a new geodatabase - save the .MDB file to the same folder as the sample model

    6) Check to see if the GeoTable section shows up in the FlexTables. if so, try adding the desired fields, then open the respective attribute table to confirm if they show up

    7) Save the MXD file to the same folder as the sample, then close out of ArcMap, choosing Yes when promoted to save anything.

    8) Reopen ArcMap and open the MXD from step 7

    9) Open the Hydraulic Model Manager, choose the .stsw file and click the Open button

    10) Check the GeoTable and attribute table again to see if the changes saved.

    11) If the above works out OK, try opening your actual model, open the model from the hydraulic model manager, add the desired fields to the GeoTable, check the attribute table, close and save the project, reopen it, reopen the model from the hydraulic model manager and check if the changes stuck.

    12) If the above still does not work out, please locate and provide a copy of your log file, (zip it first) from C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Bentley\SewerGEMS\10\SewerGEMS.log

    13) Ideally, have your Helpdesk upgrade your SewerGEMS version as discussed above. If they are able to, I would recommend a "clean" reinstallation in this case, which involves cleaning out a few things after the uninstallation of the old version and before installation of the newer version. First, uninstall SewerGEMS, then delete the folders mentioned in the wiki article if they exist (including the folders that contain the attributeflextable.xml file) , then install the new version.

    For the Renderer issue, I experimented with this and I do see that when the renderer is enabled/checked (which needs to be re-checked upon re-opening the model), the Symbology tab of the layer properties does appear as you showed in your screenshot. However, changes to the model do still change drawing pane according to the symbology. For example I tried setting up color coding based on diameter from SewerGEMS > Tools > Layer Symbology, and when the Renderer is enabled, changing the diameter of a pipe still changed the color. From further testing, I did encounter some cases where the applied symbology did not appear to apply (at one point my conduits disappeared), which was resolved by re-applying the Renderer. Are you experiencing something different? Did re-applying the Renderer help?

    If this does not help or if you prefer the desktop sharing session, we will open a Service Request and contact you to make the arrangements.

    I would also still consider if you can do what you need to do in the Standalone version - please elaborate on your needs and we'd be glad to assess.


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.

Children
  • Jesse, I'm not seeing the exact path you specified in your first point (see screenshot below):

    The main things I wanted to take advantage of through the ArcMap interface was being able to quickly apply loads from various point shapefiles and to quickly create figures from model results as opposed to having to export results as shapefiles, mess with the symbology, and then generate the figures in my layout. However, it seems like the convenience of merging the two programs is being overshadowed by these technical issues... I think I am going to work in the standalone version for now until I get the latest version of SewerGEMS and do a clean uninstall/reinstall. The worst case scenario is that I have to bring in the loads to SewerGEMS and export the results; I was just hoping to take full advantage of the SewerGEMS/ArcMap capabilities.

  • Connor, it looks like you are looking at C:\Program Files (x86)\. Item #1 in my previous reply points to C:\ProgramData\.

    If you do not see this folder, it might be hidden from view, either due to your settings, or your permissions. Under organize > folder options > view. For "Hidden files and Folders", select "show". Also, uncheck "hide protected operating system files".

    If you don't have access to this folder, skip that step. You should still be able to access the second folder though (under C:\Users\) since that is part of your Windows profile.

    Thank you for providing the background information. As you may know, LoadBuilder can be used in Standalone to import loading data from your Shapefiles.

    You may want to look into the sync-out capabilities of ModelBuilder in standalone, where you can essentially export the model results back to the shapefiles with one button press. I believe you should be able to simply reopen your ArcMap project and it should pick up on the changes in the shapefiles.

    Also regarding the creation of figures - depending on what you need them to look like, you may be able to use the Element Symbology features in Standalone (color coding, annotations, sizing, etc) along with background layer capabilities (if you need to bring in external references) to achieve the figures you want.


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.

  • I am getting the latest SewerGEMS installed on my machine tonight. I will update you on whether or not the syncing issue is resolved. I didn't know there was a sync-out function through the standalone version; that is good information to have! My plan now is to use the ArcMap extension to build the loads for the alternatives I need, then run all of my scenarios in the standalone version and export from there, taking advantage of the sync-out capabilities. Again, I will update you if the new version solves my issues.

  • Thanks for the update, Connor. If possible, it would be best to have your helpdesk/IT perform the full "clean" reinstallation as part of the upgrade, then have you test the workflow while admin rights are enabled (be sure to "run as admin". This will allow you to test if limited rights is a factor (check if the problem comes back once your permissions are back to limited rights).

    Also, you will find that we have added some other helpful enhancements in the latest version, which you can read about here:

    What's new in SewerGEMS CONNECT Edition Update 1


    Regards,

    Jesse Dringoli
    Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
    Bentley Communities Site Administrator
    Bentley Systems, Inc.