Setting up D&C Manager

I would recommend that you do a Save As and create your own ddb file.  That way you can always "go back" to the original.   Take note of things such as Attributes and Compute Quantities that may be set.   Another option is finding a copy of a DOT's ddb file that may be close or exactly what you want.   Most DOT's that have standardized on Geopak provide these to their consultants.

We don't do DOT work so their standards would not be of any use. My main concern is not knowing what tools are preconfigured to work with the D&C Manager DDB that comes with the software. I have not worked with the drainage, survey, sewer & Water tools tools to any extent so I don't know if they are set up to look for DDB settings in the default DDB. Is there any easy way to find out?

Neil

Drainage, Water and Sewer can all use the DDB file but it is not mandatory.  All three can define symbology from the basic settings and preferences.  But if you use the DDB file the settings are a little more automatic and most importantly, D&C can then be used to compute quantities.

I would pass along 2 tips:

1. It is best to make sure that items in the DDB file have unique names.  For example, you might have a 6" PVC pipe for sewer and a 6" PVC pipe for water.  If they must be tabulated and paid seperately or if they will have different symbology (probably do) then make 2 different entries with unique names.  For exampe, 6PVC-Water and 6PVC-Sewer.
2. Make sure the attributes defined for each item are unique, if you use them.  Attributes are not manatory but helpful.

Survey does not use the DDB.  It uses an SMD file which serves similar function of control symbology.  But is also controls DTM attribute and does not compute quantities.

Hi Neil,

The Site DDB file (D&C Mananger file) delivered with PowerCivil has items created for Water/Sewer/Drainage to enable us to conduct training. These items will match up with the delivered DGNLIBs, delivered CEL files (PowerCivil.cel)  and the Drainage and Water/Sewer libraries.

These items (within the D&C Manager) are within the folders: PayItems>WasteWater Utility, PayItems>Water Utility and PayItems>Drainage.

 As Sera suggested, make a copy of the Site.DDB and then modify it as you need.

Hi Neil,

The Site DDB file (D&C Mananger file) delivered with PowerCivil has items created for Water/Sewer/Drainage to enable us to conduct training. These items will match up with the delivered DGNLIBs, delivered CEL files (PowerCivil.cel)  and the Drainage and Water/Sewer libraries.

These items (within the D&C Manager) are within the folders: PayItems>WasteWater Utility, PayItems>Water Utility and PayItems>Drainage.

 As Sera suggested, make a copy of the Site.DDB and then modify it as you need.

Seeing that there are various components of the software configured to use the default DDB, what would be an efficient way to synchronize them with my new version of the DDB? I plan to copy the default DDB and modify it per our standards. Would I need to go through all the default DGNLIB, CEL, drainage libraries etc. and remap the settings one by one or is there a better way?

 I will also want to create an SMD file per our standards as well.

Hey Robert - have you guys made a change to the latest Water & Sewer so that it does not require the DDB file to work? 

Robert Garrett:

Neil

Drainage, Water and Sewer can all use the DDB file but it is not mandatory.

The D&C Manager automatically loads the default DDB file unless, there is a different one that has been manually selected from the D&C Manager file > open command which then remembers that in a resource file. If there is no resource file and the variable GPK_ACBOOK_DDBFILE is set to load a custom DDB file, this is the DDB file GEOPAK will load. To force the user's custom DDB file to always load the variable can be forced by adding the variable GPK_FORCE_ACBOOK_DDBFILE=1 following the GPK_ACBOOK_DDBFILE variable. If this is set all of the tools in GEOPAK that use D&C Manager will automatically load this DDB file.

Thanks for the guidance on setting the default DDB file Esther. Once I get the drainage and sewer tools to use my DDB file I also need to map the settings in those libraries to my customized D&C setup. That is where I am needing guidance at this point. It would be nice to make those edits globally or in some type of external editor for global edits if possible.

You can make most of the edits you have mentioned in external files. There are a couple different options and my recommendation for which one you should use depends on the version of GEOPAK you are running and also the different types of edits. If you are simply going to use the same item but you want it to look for a different cell name, you can export the database or only a portion of the database to an external ASCII file. However if you are editing drafting standard items, only the top 3 dialog' information is maintained in this option. If you are using GEOPAK XM or GEOPAK V8i you have the option to export to an Access table and do global edits in Access and then reimport. But you most be careful to maintain the table formats. You can access these options from the D&C Manager Dialog File > Save As and then File > Merge to reimport. Another thing I would mention is that D&C Manager will look for cells, linestyles and levels according to your configuration variables, so you should have these paths set prior to editing the DDB file. Also if you are defining key-in commands, don't include paths, let your configuration variables do that. I hope this helps you get started. D&C Manager can be very powerful and do much more than most users realize but of course all of that is dependent on the setup of the database.