What's New in Version 14.5 - December 2013

Rehabilitation planner

(Applicable to Collection Networks)

The Rehabilitation Planner is used to assess pipes for the purpose of scheduling CCTV Surveys and Pipe Repairs where required.

The planner checks for pipes at high risk of failure. For each high failure risk pipe identified, assessments are carried out to determine whether the pipe requires repair, or a survey is required before repair can be recommended. The planner suggests survey and repair plans that can then be selected by the user and scheduled.

See Rehabilitation Planner for details.

Risk assessment tool

The Risk Assessment object is a new tool that is used to assess overall risk of structural failure. The tool calculates a pipe risk score based on consequence of failure and likelihood of failure scores.

The Risk Assessment Editor is used to specify a matrix defining the relationship between pipe risk score, likelihood score and consequence score. The Risk score field of pipes in the network can then be updated using the risk score matrix.

See Risk Assessment for details.

Lifetime estimator

The Lifetime Estimator is a new tool that carries out a statistical analysis on pipe failure data in order to estimate pipe expected lifetime and likelihood of failure. The estimator fits a Weibull curve to the lifetime data of different classes of pipe, using the Maximum Likelihood method, to provide an estimate of failure probability over time. The estimator uses the curve to estimate likelihood of pipe failure values which can then be used to update the Likelihood score field of pipes in the network.

See Lifetime Estimator for details.

Consequence calculator

The Consequence Calculator is a new tool that is used to assess consequence of pipe failure. The consequence calculator determines ratings for individual service failure risks and updates the Consequence score of the pipe with the highest of these ratings.

New risk factor and risk score fields have been added to pipe objects for use during the consequence calculation process.

See Consequence Calculator and Calculating Consequence Scores for details.

Valve shut off scheduling tool

(Applicable to Distribution networks)

A new Schedule valve shut off tool has been added to the Scheduling Tools Toolbar.

Click on the tool and then on a repair in the GeoPlan to generate a valve shut off for the repair clicked on.

See Repairs and Scheduled Tasks for further information.

New inference rule to create nodes at pipe ends (Distribution networks)

A new inference rule has been added for Distribution networks.

The PIPE: Add and name fitting if node is blank rule, allows fittings to be created at the ends of pipes with unspecified Start node ID and/or End node ID.

See Inference Rules - Pipe Parameters (Distribution) for details.

Extension to cost estimator to allow for pipe depth

A Pipe Depth Factor grid has been added to the Cost Index page of the Cost Estimator Editor. This grid can be used to specify a multiplying factor to be applied to installation/rehabilitation costs based on the pipe depth from cover.

See the Cost Estimator topic for details on calculation of installation and rehabilitation costs.

Import from EACSD file format

(Applicable to Collection networks)

It is now possible to import network objects from files in EACSD v3.2 format.

Water course centre-line points are imported as a channel, cross section data points as cross section surveys and long section data points as general survey lines.

See Importing from EACSD Format Files for details.

Write permissions on asset network tables and object data fields can now be assigned to specific roles and users

InfoAsset Manager now provides the ability to manage users and roles for the current master database or a specific asset network, with users assigned to one or more network roles, and different permissions associated with each network role. These network roles are applicable to asset network users only and this new functionality is fully backwards compatible with previous versions of InfoAsset Manager.

These restrictions can be implemented in addition to the existing user permissions and determine what a user can and cannot do at network object and data field level.

The Users and Permissions Dialog now contains an option allowing database owners to enable / disable the use of network roles for asset networks. By default, this option is disabled, indicating that no network roles are being assigned to asset network users. This default behaviour preserves the backward compatibility as Asset Users with no network role(s) assigned to them and Asset Users configured in previous versions both have the same permissions.

Database owners can assign one or more network roles to users in the Users and network roles Dialog. This dialog is accessed via the Master database settings | Users and network roles option of the File menu. Role configuration is implemented in the Network roles and write permissions dialog, which is accessible via the Network roles button of the Users and network roles Dialog. Data remains visible to all users but restrictions can be placed on the following:

• network object creation
• network object deletion
• editing particular network object data fields

See User Permissions for more information.

As part of this new functionality, the Custom Scheduling Dialog has been enhanced to allow users to override role assignment during custom scheduling.

SQL expression themes

The ability to display the results of an SQL expression by a theme has been added to the Layer Theme Editor.

Create a sub-theme for a network object and click the SQL button to add or edit SQL expressions for that object type. Once expressions have been saved, they can be selected for use in a theme and also for use in the display of labels.

See Managing Themes and Displaying Labels on the GeoPlan for further information.

Ability to use video attachments for CCTV and manhole surveys

Video file attachments can now be used to provide video data for CCTV and manhole survey defects in collection networks.

If a video file has not been specified in either the defect Video file field or the InfoNet video file field for the survey, the survey defects page will now display the first attachment with Purpose set to CCTV Video.

See Viewing CCTV Video Data for further information.

Likelihood score field added to CCTV surveys

A new Likelihood score field, used to indicate the likelihood of pipe failure, has been added to CCTV surveys in collection networks.

The field is calculated as part of the CCTV scoring process.

When Updating Pipe Condition from CCTV Data, the values in the fields are used to update the Likelihood score field of the pipe.

Connection pipes added to link type field in manhole survey pipes tables

This functionality is applicable to Collection Networks only.

It is now possible to define connection pipes in the Incoming pipes and Outgoing pipes tables of Manhole Survey objects by selecting cams_connection_pipe from the Link type field.

Improvement to horizontal scale display on long section view

In previous versions of InfoAsset Manager, the horizontal scale for a long section was displayed at manhole locations only.

In this version, the horizontal scale is shown when zoomed in, even when there are no visible manholes.

Ability to create a new base network from a scenario

It is now possible to make a copy of an existing scenario and make that copy a base network, by using the new Duplicate button of the Manage Scenarios Dialog. Invoking this functionality creates a brand new network with the selected scenario as the base network. The selected scenario and base network it originates from do not get overwritten and exist side by side with the newly created base network.

Creating a new base from a scenario has the advantage of making a clean break as the scenario heritage does not get brought across to the new base. See Scenarios or Manage Scenarios Dialog for further details.

Improvements to Resolve Update Conflicts Dialog

A conflict can occur if two or more users make changes to the same fields in the same objects and this results in the fields being set to different values. Although conflicts can be difficult to resolve, they must be fixed before changes made in the current network can be committed to the master database. To help users identify the user whose edits are conflicting with their updates for the current object / field, the Resolve Update Conflicts Dialog has been enhanced with a Commit history button. Clicking on this button displays the Commit History dialog for the network object currently selected in the Resolve Update Conflicts dialog. In there, the object commit history can be seen, as well as commit details for each version, including user ids.

Enhancement to links between base and scenario objects

When working with Scenarios, if changes are made to a field of a network object in a scenario so that the value of the field in the scenario differs from the value of the field in the base, subsequent changes in the base network to the same field are not carried over to that scenario.

An enhancement to the scenario functionality has been made for this release, so that if changes are subsequently made to the same field in the scenario so that the value of the field in the scenario is set to the same as the base, the link between the objects in the base and scenario is re-established and changes made in the base will be visible in the scenario again.

Snap mode enhanced to allow snapping to objects in GIS layers

When digitising and editing network objects with Snapping Mode on, it is now possible to also activate GIS snapping mode.

With snapping mode on, press the g key to toggle GIS snap mode on and off. GIS snap mode allows network object vertices to be snapped to the vertices of objects in background GIS layers.

GIS snap mode can also be used when using the Survey Triangulation Tool to allow snapping of the centre point of the triangulation circle to a GIS background layer vertex.

The current snap mode is displayed in the Status Bar (when snap mode is relevant).

Ability to generate custom reports in .xslm format

When creating a Custom Report it is now possible to select a file of type .xslm as the report template. Reports created from a .xlsm template will be generated in .xlsm format.

Reports created from .xls or .xlsx templates will be generated in .xlsx format (as in previous versions of InfoAsset Manager).

(Applicable when using versions of Excel 2007 and later.)

New SQL FIXED function

A new FIXED function is now available for use in SQL queries.

FIXED(number_to_convert,number_of_decimal_places) converts a number to a string with a fixed number of decimal places (from 0 to 8), rounding up or down as appropriate. If the number of decimal places is 0 the string will have no decimal point.

See SQL Syntax and SQL in InfoWorks ICM and InfoNet for more detailed information.

Graph database objects improved to allow saving of properties

When working with Graphs stored in the Master Database, it is now possible to save the properties of a particular graph by using the Save button displayed on the Graph Properties Dialog.

CSV network data import and export now support UTF-8 encoding system

It is now possible to use UTF-8 encoding when importing network data from CSV files and exporting network data to CSV.

UTF-8 is a character encoding that is of particular relevance to customers using non-Western Latin characters.