Customizing FlexTables for viewing and reporting data

Product(s): WaterGEMS, WaterCAD, SewerGEMS, SewerCAD, CivilStorm, StormCAD, HAMMER, PondPack
Version(s): CONNECT Edition, V8i
Area: Output and Reporting

Problem

How can I add or remove columns from my FlexTable?

How can I customize FlexTable reports?

Solution

FlexTables are found from the View Menu > Flextables. To customize a FlexTable, click the Edit button at the top of the FlexTable to choose which fields you would like to be displayed.

This will open the dialog below, which will show the available columns on the left and the columns that are already in the FlexTable on the right.

You can now add columns by selecting the property from the Available column and click the Add button (">"). To remove unnecessary or unneeded columns, highlight the property from the Selected column and click the Remove button ("<"). You can also move the position of a column in the FlexTable by clicking the up and down arrows beneath the Selected column.

In addition to this, you can add and remove columns in another way. By right-clicking on a column header you can select "Remove Column" to remove the column from the FlexTable. In addition, you can select "Add Column" and then choose a column to include, as shown in the screenshot below. These features are available starting with WaterGEMS/WaterCAD V8i SELECTseries 6 and the SELECTseries 5 release of the storm and sewer products (such as SewerGEMS).

Creating new Flextables

You can create more than one Flextable if needed. For example you may have a need to create a separate conduit flextable in StormCAD with just the fields if interest for culverts, whereas the predefined conduits flextable could be used for general purposes.

In the Flextable manager, you will see multiple categories:

  • Tables - Hydraulic Model: these are custom flextables stored inside the model file that you are viewing. They will only be available in that model.
  • Tables - Shared: these are custom flextables that are stored on the computer and available for all models on that computer. See: How to create and share FlexTables between different computers
  • Tables - Predefined: these are the default flextables available with the product. They are the tables that open when you select a flextable from the dropdown in the Ribbon.

To create your own custom Flextable, right click on either "Tables - Hydraulic Model" (if it should only be available in the current model) or "Tables - Shared" (if it should be available for all models on that computer) and choose New > Flextable. Choose the desired fields, then click OK and customize column headers as needed. From the Flextable manager, you can rename the table as needed.

Sorting FlexTables

FlexTables can be sorted by right clicking on a column header and choosing Sort. You can sort ascending or descending. If the field you want to sort on is not already present, you will need to first add it to the table as explained further above. Note that sorting will only impact the table that the sort was initiated from; if you would like to sort multiple table (for example pipe and junction), you will need to sort them one by one.

To sort based on upstream/downstream order, see: Sorting and relabeling a flextable based on upstream-downstream order

Also, starting with CONNECT Edition Update 1 (10.01.01.04) of the storm and sewer products, a new sorting feature was added. When right-clicking on a FlexTable column heading there is now an option to "Sort Dendritic (Upstream->Downstream)". When this is selected rows are arranged not only by their upstream to downstream connectivity but also grouped by branch.  Links of a dendritic stormwater network can be well-labeled with the Branch Labeling tool, resulting in a clear designation of links organized into tributary branches.  After this sort, the first rows appearing will be the elements within the upstream most branch, and appearing in upstream to downstream order within that branch.

Filtering FlexTables

You can filter a Flextable to show only certain elements. This can be done by query or by selection. See more: How to filter a FlexTable by Query, Selection Set, or by selecting from drawing pane for reporting, global edits, etc.

Global Editing FlexTables

Data in a FlexTable can be edited in bulk / batch by using the Global edit option. This is found by right clicking on the column header and choosing Global Edit. For example you can multiply, divide, add or subtract all data in an editable field by a certain value. Filter the FlexTable first in order to global edit only certain elements. See more here: Global Editing Element Information

Creating reports from FlexTables

You can create a report from a FlexTable by select the Report button in the FlexTable. You may want to use some of the steps above to add or remove columns to make the report manageable when printing. 

In addition to adding and removing columns, you can also change the name of the column header by right-clicking on the column header and choosing "Edit column label". Also, you can click and drag the separator between each column header to change the column width. To customize the appearance of the Print Preview further, you can modify the header/footer and margin sizes under Report > Report Options.

If the appearance of the FlexTable report is still unsatisfactory, you have two options. First, you could copy the entire FflexTable to clipboard by clicking the gray cell at the top left corner and then click the copy button and select Control+C on your keyboard. You can then paste in an external application such as Microsoft Excel and format and print from there. In addition, you can export the file as a .CSV file by clicking the Export to File button in the upper left of the FlexTable. The .CSV file type can be opened in Excel as well.

The other option, which is available in versions 08.11.01.xx and greater, is XML reporting. In the FlexTable, when clicking the report button, choose "Report in XML". You can then apply a custom style sheet and thus have better control over the FlexTable printout. Note that the style sheet .XSL files are a standard Microsoft format - you can find documentation here, and look at the format of the default style sheet .XSL file.

Custom Reports

Starting with the CONNECT Edition (10.00.00.XX and later), a new Custom Report tool has been added to the Report tab. This tool enables you to quickly assemble a customized report which can contain user input, results, Flextables, graphs, etc. You can now define a template interactively instead of modifying an XML file manually (which can still be done). See more: Creating Custom Reports

See Also

Wiki: How to duplicate FlexTables

Wiki: What's new in SewerGEMS CONNECT Edition

Wiki: Creating Custom Reports

Blog: Creating and Reusing Custom Reports in the CONNECT Edition

Help: Custom Reports

Help: Report Options

Recommended
Related