InfiniteGIS™ Asset Management

Asset Creation - Sanitary and Storm Pipe Networks

This page will outline some best practices when creating assets that are part of a sanitary or storm pipe network (gravity systems). In a pipe network, topology is very important for proper attribution and feature visualization.

Drawing Pipe and Structure Geometries
Pipe networks contain structures represented as points and pipes represented as lines. Structures should be coincidental with the end points of the pipes. To ensure the pipe network topology is correct, use the following tips when creating pipe network assets.

Create structure points first. Structure points are much easier to accurately locate, whether it is by GPS or by aerial imagery and it is much easier to snap lines to a single point rather than a point to a group of intersecting lines.
Each pipe segment should begin at a structure and end at the next structure in the network. Meaning structures are always at the endpoint of a pipe as opposed to midline vertices.
Draw pipes in direction of flow. The direction of the pipe is automatically determined by the line geometry and therefore if the pipe is drawn in the opposite direction the up and downstream structures will be incorrect as well as the up and downstream pipe direction. Furthermore, the symbology of the pipe shows the flow arrow pointing in the direction that the pipe is drawn, so if the pipe is drawn backwards the flow arrow will point in the opposite direction as well.
Use the snapping tool to ensure the pipe end perfectly intersects the structure. See the snapping tool help page for more information on snapping. Pressing the "F" key will toggle snapping on/off.

Auto-populated Pipe Attributes
InfiniteGIS has spatial functionality that will automatically populate pipe attributes based on their spatial relationships to other structures in the pipe network as well as the geometries of the pipes themselves. Ensuring that features are connected accurately and properly will allow the appropriate data to be automatically populated when the pipe is created. The following is a list of pipe attributes that are automatically populated based on feature geometries and topology.

Upstream and downstream structure numbers (automatically pulled from the structure attributes based on spatial relationship)
Pipe ID (concatenation of upstream and downstream structure numbers)
Pipe Length
Direction of upstream and downstream invert from the respective struture

Since pipes and structures have a spatial relationship with one another, some of the attributes of the features are dynamic. For example, if the structure number is changed, the appropriate upstream and downstream structure numbers of the connected pipes will automatically be updated, as long as the features are properly snapped together.

Sanitary Pipe - Special Function
In the Sanitary Pipe asset management form, if the Purpose of the pipe is "Lateral", two additional fields are provided for inputting the distance from the upstream and downstream structures.