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Managing Cables and Ducts in Butterfly Diagram

 
This section covers the following actions related to Cables and Duct Pathways in the Butterfly Diagram:
Managing Cables and Ducts in Butterfly Diagram
1

Nested Pathways and Cables tree panel

This panel displays all Walls, Duct Groups, Ducts / Inner-duct and associated Cables in a (hierarchical) tree view. If a Cable is selected in the central drawing panel or in the tree panel, that Cable and all of its parent Ducts are highlighted in both the tree panel and butterfly diagram:
1. Nested Pathways and Cables tree panel
and the drawing:
2

Cable context menu

  • Properties / Type Properties- opens the Cable Properties / Cable Type Properties dialog
  • Add Label - creates a new Label object with the default format and places it near the Cable object within the butterfly layout (see Object Labeling in Butterfly Diagram for more Label options)
  • Insert / Delete Vertex - inserts a vertex symbolized by a small hollow circle. The context menu below it allows removing the vertex it's opened for.
  • Create Service Loop... - creates an ad-hoc Service Loop for the selected Cable as per specified in a pop-out dialog:
  • Add Snip... / Splice... - A Splice is represented as a hollow rectangle icon indicating a Coupler Equipment object. A Coupler is automatically added to the Maintenance Hole's list of Equipment objects when the Splice is created, but needs to be placed by the user in the Butterfly View on a desired location using the Place.. context menu under the Equipment panel:
    .
    A Snip is indicated with an additional Vertex and a Label and can be later Deleted using the context menu, similarly as Cable Vertex:
 
  • Remove - removes the drawn cable line  from the butterfly layout allowing it to be re-drawn, it is not used to remove the cable from the duct overall
 
Draw Cable: If the Cable object is not represented in the butterfly drawing the Cable can be drawn and positioned as needed
 
Note: A Cable Line that is displayed in the Butterfly Diagram is just an associated Line object, meaning any change to that cable / line made in this dialog will not affect the real Cable object which it represents. Specifically, selecting to Remove the selected Cable's Line in the Butterfly Diagram does not delete the Cable, it just removes its representation from the Butterfly Diagram.
3

Cable graphical representation

When adding a Cable, if either the Equipment or Pathway object associated with either Cable End is not first placed in the Butterfly Layout, the drawing operation is aborted and a warning message is shown - "This Cable cannot be drawn because the Pathway or Equipment associated with one of its ends is not available in the Butterfly Diagram. Please add that object first."
 
Note: when drawing the Cable Line it is terminated with a double-click. If the double-clicked location is away from the the duct/equipment endpoint then the last line segment will be auto-drawn. If the cable does not end at an equipment or duct then the endpoint will be where the user double-clicked.
     
Drawn Cables within the butterfly layout can be later manipulated in a similar way as in the Design World. Once a Cable is selected, its anchor points are also displayed and highlighted (separately, in a different color). Clicking and dragging on the cable's anchor point moves the attached cable segment(s) along with the cursor.
 
Note: any change to the routing of a cable in this dialog will not affect the real route of the cable object in the Design World.
 
The following special features are enabled in the Butterfly Layout, to help with drawing Cable Lines:
  • When selecting a Duct, the selection is in the pulse highlight state in the central Butterfly drawing
  • When selecting an inner duct, the parent duct in the central butterfly layout is highlighted by pulsing the selection.
  • When selecting a Cable, both Cable and Duct endpoints within the butterfly layout are highlighted by using a pulse highlight.
  • If the Cable is routed via an innerduct the parent Duct that is placed in the butterfly layout is pulsed.
     
 
When the user draws the Cable Line in the Butterfly View the correct start and/or end points for the Cable Line are automatically highlighted and selected allowing the user to just specify the route between the 2 endpoints. However, there are three possible scenarios where a cable is not routed between ducts and this will change the routing as specified in the following 3 scenarios:
   
Scenario1: Cable enters the Maintenance hole via a duct but exits  as a buried cable
In this case the beginning of the Cable Line is placed at the Pathway's representative circle in a Duct Group and the other end of the cable is paced in the center of the butterfly allowing the user to specify the route the cable takes to the point where it  exists the Maintenance Hole:

 
Scenario2: Cable enters the Maintenance hole via a duct and connects to an Equipment within the Maintenance Hole
In this case the beginning of the Cable Line is placed at the Pathway's representative circle in a Duct Group and the other end of the cable is paced in the center of the equipment within the butterfly layout, allowing the user to specify how the cable is routed between the two endpoints by selecting routing points within the butterfly layout.

Scenario3: Cable enters the Maintenance hole via a duct and is not connected or routed any further
In this case the beginning of the Cable Line is placed at the Pathway's representative circle in a Duct Group and the other end of the cable is placed in the center of the butterfly layout, allowing the user to specify how the cable is routed.