Custom Reports
A Custom Report is a customised Microsoft Excel report template which can be used to generate reports on the data in the InfoWorks ICM database.
Simulation results can also be exported to Excel via the Custom Report.
The Custom Report is based on a Microsoft Excel file. When the report is first created it must be associated with an existing template. There is a basic example included in the Template directory (below the InfoWorks ICM install directory) for this purpose. Files of type .xls, .xlsx or .xlsm may be used as a template. When using versions of Excel 2007 and later: .xls and .xlsx report templates will generate .xlsx reports and .xlsm templates will generate .xlsm reports.
Once the Excel file is associated with a Custom Report, a copy is saved in the Master Database and this copy can be worked on from then on. This makes the reports fully portable.
New reports can be created by:
- Copying an existing report in the Master Database and then editing the underlying Excel file
- Going back to an external Excel file template
When a report is created, the InfoWorks ICM data is exported to Excel in a standard format. The best way to see this is to create a simple report and view the results. You can set up the template to carry out whatever analysis is required on this data.
Creating a new Custom Report
A new custom report can be created by using the Master Database tools to copy an existing custom report and rename it.
To create a report from scratch an Excel file is required to base it on. A simple example is included in the InfoWorks ICM installation.
- Create a Custom Report.
The new report is displayed in the Explorer window. In this window:
- Open the new Custom Report. The Custom Report dialog is displayed.
- In this dialog, you can:
- Select the Excel template to be associated with the custom report
- Select the location to which the generated report is to be saved
- Specify a filename for the report
- Open the associated template for editing and save it to the Master Database
- Click Save.
- Click
to close the dialog.
Editing an existing Custom Report
- Open the relevant Custom Report. The Custom Report dialog is displayed. In this dialog:
- Click Open to open the underlying Excel template file for editing. A temporary file is created on the computer for this purpose.
- After editing, click Save to save it to the Master Database.
- Click to close the dialog.
Generating Custom Reports
Once a custom report has been set up it is very easy to use:
- Drag the custom report from the Explorer Window and drop it on the network. This displays the Choose Objects dialog.
- Choose the data source type for the report. Reporting can be carried out on:
- The entire network
- The current selection
- Click OK to continue. The report will be saved in accordance with the options selected in the Custom Report dialog.
InfoWorks ICM then opens the report file in Excel.
If the custom report is dragged onto a network with simulation results, the results will also be exported to the report file. An extra worksheet containing simulation results will be included in the Excel spreadsheet for each type of object.
