4.3.10.4. Pathway hierarchies

IRM supports Pathway products (i.e., Pathway Types) that come with built-in child Pathways. It is also possible to add a child Pathway to a Pathway that does not have any built-in children.

The Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments tab in the Pathway Properties dialog enables creating Pathway hierarchies and is used to create parent/child Pathway configurations to represent duct / inner duct configurations or tube cable within blown fiber environments.

An example of the tab for a Duct Pathway object is shown in the screenshot image, while the text below explains its main features:

The tab consists of a grid with a tree structure that allows expanding and closing multiple rows of nested (child) elements. The selected (opened) Pathway object is displayed as the top (parent, or root) object and its contained Cable and Pathway objects are displayed as its children, or nodes.

Each row item can be viewed in more detail by click on the object name, which opens the appropriate Cable or Pathway Properties dialog. In addition, the Type column enable quick access to the associated Pathway or Cable Type Properties dialog:

In addition, it displays the following Pathway properties:

Length - sum of lengths of all lines that this objects consists of
Space Utilization - indicates the amount of occupied space, including any child Pathways or Cables
Weight Utilization - indicates the amount of occupied weight of the Pathway, including weight of any child Pathways or Cables
Type - Pathway Type / Cable Type, depending on the type of the object, either Pathway or Cable

and Action buttons that enable different operations are displayed for each row entry:
Add nested Pathway - opens the Add Pathway pop-out sub-dialog, which displays a list of Pathway Types and creates a new Pathway object instance.
Add a Cable - opens the Add Cable pop-out sub-dialog that displays a list of nearby Unassigned Cables.
Delete - enabled for Cable objects and empty nested Pathway objects. If a Cable is removed, it's added to the list of Unassigned Cables - the Cable is not actually deleted. However, if an empty nested Pathway is removed, the object is completely deleted.
Locate Cable / Pathway end A / B / A+B - opens the appropriate Area in the Design World and highlight the selected Cable or Pathway end(s).

Note: The Add nested Pathway and the Add a Cable buttons are enabled only for Pathway objects with sufficient capacity.

The following use case covers the task of adding several child elements to an existing Pathway object - the one created in the use case in topic Insert and route Pathway in Design World, to be specific. The idea is to add a nested Pathway and a Cable to the existing Duct, as well as a nested Pathway to the built-in child element of that Duct. In order to make all those operations in a single iteration of editing the Pathway Properties, the first step is to create and insert the cable that will be added as a child element.

The process is as follows:

Create and draw a Cable in Design World

The first step is to create and draw a new Cable over the

Create Cable button in the Design World toolbar

opens the Create New Cable dialog:

This dialog enables defining and drawing single or multiple Cable instances of different Cable Types in a single operation. For this example, a standard twisted pair Cat 5e patch Cable will be used. This Cable configuration is available as a default when the By Cable Type selections radio button is selected. This Cable Set entry is selected by click on the checkbox under the first grid column, which enables the Save Cable Set & Create Cable button. Clicking on it closes the Create New Cable sub-dialog and brings focus back to the main application screen and the Design World. When moving the mouse cursor over the Design World area, the cursor changes its appearance from arrow to crosshair, indicating that IRM is in drawing mode.

The first single left-click on the Design World canvas sets the starting point of the new Cable:

The Cable drawing process is completed when the left mouse button is double-clicked. The newly created Cable object is drawn and left selected:

Open Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments tab

A single-click on the Duct Pathway in the Design World selects the object, while the right-click on it opens its context menu. Click on the Edit Properties... option from the context menu opens the Pathway Properties dialog.

Click on the Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments tab opens the grid displaying the default Pathway nodes:

We are using a "Duct" Pathway Type, which has an inner Pathway, so the parent node contains a child Conduit Pathway object by default. The following steps cover the process of adding additional nested elements to the parent (i.e., Duct) and the child (i.e., Conduit) nodes.

Add a nested Pathway to the parent Duct

In this step we want to add a nested Pathway object to the parent Duct Pathway. Clicking on the Add Nested Pathway action button opens the Create New Pathway pop-out sub-dialog, which displays a list of Pathway Types:

Click on the 4 Inch Duct Pathway Type enables the OK button on the bottom of the dialog.

Click on the button closes the sub-dialog and brings focus back to the Pathway Properties dialog and the Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments grid, where the newly created Pathway object is added as a nested, or child, element of the parent Duct Pathway object:

Add a nested Pathway to the default child Pathway

In this step we want to add a nested Pathway object to the child Conduit Pathway element. Click on the Add Nested Pathway action button opens the Create New Pathway pop-out sub-dialog, which displays a list of Pathway Types:

Click on the Tube Pathway Type enables the OK button on the bottom of the dialog, which closes the sub-dialog and brings focus back to the Pathway Properties dialog and the Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments grid, where the newly created Pathway object is added as a nested, or child, element of the default child Conduit Pathway object:

Add a nested Cable to the main Duct Pathway

In this step we want to add a nested Cable object to the parent Duct Pathway element. Click on the Add Cable action button opens the Add Cable pop-out sub-dialog, which displays a list of Unassigned Cables:

Click on the newly created and inserted Cat 5 patch Cable 1A enables the OK button on the bottom of the dialog, which closes the sub-dialog and brings focus back to the Pathway Properties dialog and the Cable and Nested Pathway Assignments grid, where the newly assigned Cable object is added as a child element of the parent Duct Pathway object: