OK, this is really for Power users, but knowing how to work with WaterGems XML files can save you a lot of time in some situations.
However, before get into this, before editing an XML file, MAKE BACKUPS! Whilst not fatal, if you misedit one of these, you can end up costing you more time than you set out to save! ;-) If you find you've made a real mess of things and start getting application or model errors (and no back-ups available), deleting the XML file entirely will generally trigger WaterGems to create a new one in its place with default settings.
XML files are text files, and can be edited with any text editor, but they suffer from not being very human readable. But if you spend a lot of time editing raw HTML you probably won't mind! Personally I use an XML Editor to get the most out of XML files, and one I've found to be fairly good is a free one called XMLMind. It makes it FAR easier to read XMLs, and allows copy and pasting of entire XML blocks fairly painlessly. You can also drag and drop blocks between XML files, or re-order them in the same XML file (say in your ModelBuilder.xml file) etc. Even if you forget to do it, it also automatically makes a back-up of the unedited XML.
Let's start with a couple of main ones as an example:
1. *.wtg Files. Yes, they are XML files. These contain a heck of a lot of information, but no modeling "data". You can delete them and not hurt your model, but they contain all of your project metadata, your element display and symbology settings for the project, your custom Project settings in the Options->Project Tab etc. etc.
Some of the key elements I like to copy and paste from these files into other WaterGems projects are:
a. Symbology/Color Coding/Layer options. Mine have all been painstaking setup with Annotations, Color Codings, Zoom Display Levels etc. and I like to reuse these defaults through other WaterGems projects.
b. Query Selection Definitions (I have about 50 standard ones within our Master Model WaterGems project)
Each of these are in their own self-contained "block". You can copy and paste these on top of the corresponding blocks in other *.wtg files reasonably safely, but beware in that the wtg format can change between WaterGems versions (so can other WaterGems XML files, but generally they change less). Eg. If you copy a pre Build 08.09.400.34 <ElementSymbologyManager> block into a later WaterGems model file, expect to get errors!
2. ModelBuilder Definitions. C:\Documents and Settings\{Profile Name}\Application Data\Bentley\WaterGEMS\8\ModelBuilder.xml
Not matter what you do, your ModelBuilder list invariably ends up in a real mess, with 50 entries before you realise it that you just can't remember what they did, nor in the neat order that you would like. Another downside it is local to that PC only. Go to another PC (or you replace your PC), and you have to redefine your ModelBuilder definitions all over again.
Each ModelBuilder definition is self-contained in its own block, so it is relatively easy to copy/paste (into another XML file) or drag/drop these (within the same XML file). I generally keep a ModelBuilder.xml library of definitions on the network that I can go and retrieve from if I want if I need to move to another user's PC and need to do some ModelBuilder operations. I can then just drag and drop the definitions I need into the local ModelBuilder.xml file.
I was going to suggest something similar earlier, but you beat me to it :)
Creating a wiki entry is pretty simple... in fact, the hardest part is determing where it should be linked from. On that page, simply use the syntax [[Title]] (note that those are double [[ and ]] brackets) and then let the system do most of the work. If there is a point where you get stuck, post something in the Everything Else Forum and help will be on the way.
Kim/Phil,
Yep, wiki'ing this stuff was my intent too (Something like "WaterGems Tips" or something like that). It's an easy thing for me to copy/paste to a Wiki entry later ;-)
At the moment though, I think generally people are interacting through the forums more in BE Communities, and these are probably the first place people are searching for information or the signs of user group activity. So the forums are currently the place to stimulate interest among users in sharing information, and hopefully with enough people participating this will mature into group maintenance of wikis.
We are also going to need some stickies in this forum group to point to the key wiki entries, but I think that might be just a case of asking a forum moderator nicely?
Actually, we were thinking more along the lines of posting things like that in the wiki and then discussing them in the forums -- subsequent changes would then be made in the wiki article.
The ensuing discussion would keep the topic towards the top of the forum listing :)