[2021 R1] Utility Properties not available in drawing model for profiles

You are not missing anything, although like you I swear this used to work.  But maybe not.  I have a thread here somewhere about the same problem. 

Here's what is happening: (NOTE in 2022 R1, one of the release announcements noted improvements in this area.  I haven't yet had time to investigate)

Some utility properties are exposed in both the MicroStation property panel as well as the Utility property panel. Whatever is shown in the MS panel will also be available (for annotation or whatever) when the utility feature is in a reference file. If the property is shown only in the Utility property panel, it is not exposed for use when the utility feature is in a reference. 

The solution is straightforward.  Bentley could combine the two property panels (everything available in the MS properties) but they seem disinclined to do so.   So, we have to do it ourselves by way of item types. 

Example: you want to label the time of concentration of catchment in your drawing model. Since Tc is only listed in the Utility properties it is not available in the drawing model.  So, you make an Item Type whose sole purpose is to duplicate the Tc property in the MS properties.  Thus, you can see it in the drawing model and label it.

Not too horrible, but still annoys me some.  

But, there is another wrinkle.  One of the powerful tools for drainage and utilities is bulk editing in the flex tables.  So, (in NC for example) the utilities group very specifically define pipe materials for water lines.  Wham Bam - make a user data extension for the 10-20 pipe materials they use which makes a handy pick list as well as bulk editing capabilities.  But, UDE are not included in the MS properties panel.  So, you have to make an Item Type which serves only to duplicate the custom property you have already created as UDE.  

So, to solve your problems, I think you'll need to consider the following:

• For native properties (utility or drainage) you'll need to make Item Types to expose them in drawing models.
• If it is a project specific or organization specific custom property, then you will have to decide whether you need the value of flex table views and editing capabilities. Then:
  • If you need/want flex tables make a UDE, then also a matching Item type
  • If you don't need flex tables then use Item Types by themselves for the custom properties.

One additional note:  Even after doing all the above, I discovered (just this week) that the properties still do not flow into projected profile runs.  All the work I had done to get necessary properties exposed in the drawings worked fine for profiles runs, but not the projected profile runs.  I had to attach items again to the features in the projected profile.

A few follow-up questions:

1. A colleague at NCDOT told me that Bentley told him that Item Works "don't work for drainage".  Well, I experimented and found mixed success.  I found that I could attach an item type to a stormwater conduit, and I could see in the Explorer that it was attached when I went to the list under the Items category in the Explorer. But, when I selected the conduit and looked at its Properties, the Item Type was not shown.  I submitted an SR to Bentley and got this response:

Bug 819764: [D&U] Item Type assigned to a Feature Definition will not apply to the Pipe when it is placed.

How have you gotten around this issue?

2. Like you, my goal here is to annotate drainage profiles projected onto roadway plan and profile sheets.  So, you attached Item Types to the drainage nodes and conduits AFTER they were projected?

3. I thought one way around this was to have ORD import the utility properties for the referenced drainage.  I trigger this by selecting the referenced drainage element and from the flyout selecting Utility Properties.  ORD then pops up a warning asking if I want to import the drainage database properties.  If I click YES, then those properties become available.  I thought that was the intent.  Could this be an alternative to using Item Types?

1. I find that they work well in various DOTs  However, the bug you noted make sense to me now. I did have problems with item types for pipes. It didn’t register immediately as a bug because I encountered it while developing a training dataset and the pipes predated the item types so I assumed that was the problem.  The solution is the same though. Attach the item types afterwards.
2. I do not have to manually attach item types ever except for the above bug and for dgn files which predate the item types. AND…projected profiles.  Then as you noted, I attach them after projection.  For the current client, this only affects pipes since those are the only labels dependent on item type
3. Once upon a time this was Bentley’s plan.  About two versions ago, this behavior was turned off by default.  You’ll need a cfg variable to enable.  Using this method comes with very high risk however because it will duplicate the DU database all over the place inevitably leading to synchronization or corruption issues.

Thank you Robert.  This is very helpful.

Hi Robert,

Although I see the Item Type properties for drainage elements in the active file, when selecting drainage elements in a referenced file, the Item Type properties are missing.  The Item Types are there, but the property values are blank.  Any idea what could be causing this?  I'm working in a design model, not a drawing model.

Also, when in a drawing model for a profile in that same file which contains the drainage (not a reference) the Item Types are not there at all.  If I attempt to attached Item Types to the drainage in the profile drawing model, I get the message: "Element in reference that is not currently active."