Manual demand allocation of customer points

The Static Demand Allocation Wizard is a useful tool for allocating large amounts of demand data imported as Customer Points to nodes in the network.

However, the user may wish to carry out some manual allocation for a small number of points, or to adjust allocation carried out by the Demand Allocation Wizard.

Manual allocation of customer points can be carried out by:

• Entering allocation manually using the Customer Points Grid or the Customer Point Demand Page on the Customer Point Property Sheet
• Using the Allocate Selected Customer Points button on the Tools Toolbar

Allocate Selected Customer Points Tool

To use the Allocate Selected Customer Points button:

1. Select customer points to be allocated. These may either be currently unallocated or already allocated to a node. The Allocate Selected Customer Points button will now be available.
2. Click the Allocate Selected Customer Points button.
3. Click the pipe to which the selected Customer Points are to be allocated. An Allocation dialog will be displayed.
4. Set options on the Allocation dialog:
• Check the Use nearest point on Pipe option to set Customer Point connection point coordinates at the point on the pipe clicked on which is nearest to the selected Customer Point. If this option is unchecked, connection point coordinates will be set to the location clicked on along the pipe.
• Select a user defined flag to be applied to the Allocated Pipe ID, Connection Point and Demand at From Node fields of the Customer Point. This may be used to identify points that have been allocated manually and can be viewed in the Customer Points Grid or on the Customer Point Property Sheet of individual points.
5. Click OK to carry out the demand allocation or Cancel to cancel the operation.
6. InfoWorks will allocate the customer point to the pipe in Step 3. Demand will be assigned to the nearest node on the pipe to the connection point of the customer point. If the customer points selected were already allocated, the original allocation will be removed and reallocated to the chosen pipe.

Important Notes

The following notes describe special cases that may occur when using the Allocate Selected Customer Points tool:

1. The allocation fields of Customer Points that were previously allocated via the Demand Allocation Wizard will be unlocked when re-allocation takes place.
2. If the nearest node to the customer point connection point is a node that does not support customer point demand (for example, a Transfer Node or a Well), the demand will be assigned to the further connected node. If both connected nodes do not support customer point demand, allocation will not be carried out.
3. Children of a manually allocated Parent Customer Point will be allocated to the same pipe as the Parent Customer Point (providing the allocation fields of the children are flagged #D). Only the Parent Customer Point will be flagged with the flag selected on the Allocation Flags dialog.
4. Child Customer Points may be allocated using the Allocate Selected Customer Points tool. This may result in a child being allocated to a different pipe to its Parent.