Skeletonization and Active TOpology

Question

Hi Everyone, 
 
 I'm using the Skeletonator to merge pipes in series. However I'm having a problem with the skeletonator ignoring inactive topology. To quote the help article for this: 
 "Skeletonization occurs on only active topology but considers all topology." 
 "The two series pipes still may not be skeletonized if any inactive topology could be affected by the execution of the skeletonization action. For example, if the two series pipes have an additional but inactive pipe connected to their common node, and if the series pipe removal action was allowed to proceed, the common node would be removed from the model, and the inactive topology would become invalid. This is prevented from occurring in Skelebrator" 
 But this is not what I'm experiencing at all. The skelebrator is repeatedly removing nodes connected to inactive pipes. 
 Why is this happening? 
 
 Regards, 
 Ryan

Jesse Dringoli · Accepted Answer

Hi Ryan, 
 Just to clarify - we understand the issue with the inactive elements and I was able to reproduce it. As Scott mentioned, we have reported this to our developers to look into in a future release. We'd like to know if you are OK with waiting on a fix. In other words, can you work around this temporarily? 
 Thanks for your feedback regarding protected elements. I have passed this along to our development and product management team for consideration, as Enhancement request # 907494. I have also attached this to your related Service Request.

Jesse Dringoli · Answer

Hi Ryan, 
 Just a few notes that might help on the Skelebrator side: 
 1) There are some queries you can use to identify and add controlled and controlling elements. Under View > Selection and Query > Navigator , click the ">" button and choose Input > Controlled elements. This selects elements that are in control actions. Click the select in drawing button at the top of Network Navigator, then right click in the drawing and choose to create a selection set. Then, repeat the steps, choosing the "controlling elements" query to select elements that are in control conditions. This time, after selecting in drawing, right click and choose to add to selection set, then pick the selection set that you had created. Now, when choosing to select protected elements in Skelebrator, click the dropdown in the "Select" toolbar and choose the selection set you had created, to select pipes and nodes that are a condition or action in a control. Click the check mark to add them to the list of protected elements. 
 2) For the issue with the inactive elements, you could also use a combination of queries to protect these areas. For example you could try this: 
 a. Run a query for pipes with is active = false b. Right click in the drawing and choose to create a selection set c. Right click in the drawing, choose Edit Group, then open the pipe flextable d. Global edit the "is active field" to true (temporarily) e. double click the selection set to re-select the elements f. Run the Network Navigator query Network Trace > Find adjacent nodes. This will select the nodes next to the inactive elements g. right click in the drawing, choose to create a new selection set, give it a new name h. In Skelebrator, choose to select elements in the drawing to add to the protected elements list, then select the selection set from step 'g', click the check mark to complete adding them as protected elements i. Re-select the inactive elements selection set that you created in step b, repeat step c to open the pipe flextable again, then global edit the "is active" field back to False. 
 You could also look into exporting the inactive elements to a submodel (file > export > submodel), delete them, run Skelebrator, then re-import the submodel and fix up connectivity (there are some tools to help with this such as right click on a junction overlapping a pipe and choose "split") but this may not work out well in all situations. then run the Network Navigat

Scott Kampa · Answer

Hello Ryan, 
 One of my colleagues found a case where the issue you are mentioning is occurring. If the inactive pipe is at a tee, there are cases where the active pipe connected to the inactive pipe will be removed. Is that the case you are seeing? 
 I have opened defect 906377. Is this something you might be able to work around. If so, this is something that should be resolved in the next release of WaterGEMS. 
 Regards, 
 Scott

Skeletonization and Active TOpology

Top Replies