Showing pipeline networks in 3D-view

Version: 1.0
Date: 11.07.2018

1 Introduction
1.1 Lateral sections in WinCan8
1.2 Visualizing lateral sections in WinCan3D
2 Prerequisites
2.1 Hardware
2.2 Software
3 Installation
4 Licenses
4.1 New section as a lateral section
4.2 Existing section as a lateral section
4.3 Manhole structure displayed in 3D
4.4 Pipe inclination displayed in 3D
4.5 Examples
4.5.1 Section with bends
4.5.2 Sections linked together by manholes
5 Items of the WinCan3D window
6 Functions of the 3D toolbar
6.1 Working with building maps
6.2 Moving and rotating pipe systems
6.3 Rotating pipe bends and lateral connections
6.3.1 Undoing transformations
6.4 Pictures and WinCan3D report
6.4.1 Getting pictures
6.4.2 Printing current 3D View
6.4.3 Printing WinCan3D Report
6.5 Exporting 3D data
7 Options in WinCan 3D
7.1 Preferences
7.2 Keyboard shortcuts

Introduction

Welcome to WinCan3D, the additional software module that is drawing a 3D pipeline network visualizing the position of every lateral section (or satellite section) that has been inspected together with the main section in WinCan8. Even the 3D structure of the manholes can be displayed on the same pipeline network if all the required data have been entered in the manhole mask.
The module WinCan3D is automatically installed with the WinCan8Setup.EXE. If licensed it's immediately available after launching the WinCan8 application.
Click on this button to get the highlighted section 2 displayed in 3D view as a part of a pipeline network.
WinCan3D is using the data you entered in the corresponding section, inspection and observation fields of WinCan8 (see page 25) before drawing a 3D graph of a pipeline network. The single sections must be linked together logically to the correct main pipe they belong to in reality.
WinCan3D does NOT recognize automatically which sections are linked together at which position. To simplify the manual linkage you may use section names according to a hierarchically pattern. The example below is showing how this could be realized:
2_3: main pipe/main section: (the numbers represent the manholes).
2_3_SAT1:1st level satellite: (1st satellite linked to the main pipe 2_3).
2_3_SAT1_1: 2nd level satellite: (1st satellite linked to SAT1 that itself is linked directly to the main section 2_3).
2_3_SAT1_2:2nd level satellite: (2nd satellite linked to SAT1 that is linked itself directly to the main section 2_3).
2_3_SAT1_3: 2nd level satellite: (3rd satellite linked to SAT1 that is linked itself directly to the main section 2_3).
4_5_SAT3_2: 2nd level satellite: (2nd satellite linked to SAT1 that is linked itself directly to the main section 4_5).
You may use any other hierarchical name pattern that looks more logical for you. Certain standards (e.g. EN-13508) require at least a unique name for each section.

Lateral sections in WinCan8

The link between lateral sections and the corresponding main section is managed via the SAT column in the observation part of the WinCan8 main screen. Double click on the symbol set in the SAT column to show the meter/feet position where the corresponding lateral section joins the main section: WinCan immediately highlights this lateral section as shown below:
Main section with lateral sections (satellite sections)
Lateral section linked to section 4
Click on the SAT button to jump back to the corresponding main section.

Visualizing lateral sections in WinCan3D

WinCan3D is always visualizing the pipeline network which the currently highlighted section (section 2 in the example shown below) belongs to. A pipeline network always consists of main pipes linked together by manholes and the lateral sections joining a main pipe at a given position.

The current position of the camera is displayed in WinCan8 accordingly.These buttons allow the navigation within the WHOLE pipeline network.

Prerequisites

To guarantee a smooth operation of WinCan8 with the module WinCan3D mind the hardware and software recommendations listed below.

Hardware

Memory (RAM): 1 GByte or higher
DirectX graphic board (DirectX 9C)
VideoRAM: 256 Mbyte or more
Hard disk: 100 GByte free disk space or more.
Screen with a colour resolution of 24 Bit or more
Mouse with 3 keys including a mouse wheel

Software

Windows XP, SP3 or Windows 7, SP1 (latest updates downloaded and installed)
DotNET 2.0, SP2
DirectX redistributable package from march 2009 (directX_mar2009_redist.exe)
Latest driver version for the graphic board

Installation

Please follow the steps as described in the documentation System Administration (page 5 to 6) that you may download from www.wincan.com\support (Link Documentation).
The installation files can be downloaded from the same page (Link Updates). Just fill out the contact form to get your personal Login data via e-mail.

Licenses

WinCan3D requires several dongle licenses to be activated. Click on the menu command Info, Hardlock in the WinCan8 main screen and check the licenses highlighted in the panel below:

New section as a lateral section

Double click on the orange bullet (1) in the SAT column. In the message box that follows click on the button YES (2) to create a new section that will automatically be treated as a lateral section:
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Fill out all the important section/inspection fields and start recording of the damages:
Click on this button to finish the inspection of this lateral section and confirm the message that will follow with YES.
The icon appearing in the SAT column tells you that the lateral section that has just been created before is definitely linked to the corresponding main section (e.g. section 3):

Existing section as a lateral section

Create a new section as usual (1) and move to the section whose observations will show you where connections will have to be defined (2). Double click on the orange bullet in the SAT column (3) and click on the button NO in the message box that follows (4):
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A list of all unlinked sections in the current project will then automatically be displayed in a new window:

Select the recently created section (1) in this list to link it to the corresponding main section highlighted above (2). The link between main and lateral section (satellite) may be deleted at any time grabbing the SAT icon with the mouse and dragging it to the toilet icon.

Manhole structure displayed in 3D

Sections are always linked together by the corresponding upstream and downstream manhole. A manhole itself may have at least one inlet but always just ONE outlet. So the manhole names listed in the column upstream manhole only have to appear once:

If the manhole fields highlighted below contain values the manhole will be correctly displayed in 3D. If these fields remain empty a circle is shown instead:

Confirm all the entries and run WinCan 3D. The examples below are showing manholes with a circular and a rectangular shaft shape.
Total DepthChamber WidthShaft WidthChamber LengthShaft LengthCHAMBERSHAFTCONELength/WidthDrop

Pipe inclination displayed in 3D

To visualize the inclination of the current pipe section WinCan 3D is checking several criteria following the order listed below:
1. The inclination measured with a camera sensor (during the inspection of a lateral section this is usually NOT the case).
2. The altitude of the manholes that has to be entered in the section mask (fields _S_PipeStartY_ und _S_PipeEndY)._ Double click in the corresponding manhole field in the section mask to get the manhole information dialogue box:

If the exact altitude of the manhole is NOT known keep this field EMPTY.
3. The estimated average inclination (in %) entered in the section mask (field _S_AverageIncPct){_}:

4. The clock position entered for each lateral connection.

Examples

Once all the parameters mentioned in the previous chapters have been entered in the corresponding database fields WinCan3D may be launched hitting the icon . The following two examples illustrate the close interaction between WinCan8 and WinCan3D.

Section with bends

The observations below refer to a 200 ft long main section inspected against the flow. A lateral connection is linked to it at 180 ft:

WinCan3D is going to display this as follows:
The red cone stands for the current camera position that is simultaneously highlighted in the observation table of WinCan8.
The 25 ft long lateral section inspected with the flow is bending after 3 ft to 90° and after 10 ft to 45°:

WinCan3D is going to display this as follows:

Sections linked together by manholes

ALL the pipe sections with the SAME map file name in the inspection field SI_MapName can be visualized together in WinCan3D on the same plot. If the manhole information needed have been typed in the corresponding fields of the manhole mask the 3D structure of the manholes is displayed too:
The lateral sections 2 and 9 are linked to the main section 1 (GREEN).The main sections 1, 10, 11, 12 und 13 are linked together by manholes.These manholes are displayed in 3D as the data therefore needed have been typed into the manhole mask.The lateral section 2 itself is linked to several 2^nd level lateral sections [3-8].Section 14 is NOT linked to the other sections. The 3D structure of its manholes is NOT displayed either since the information needed have NOT been typed into the manhole mask.
The following chapters will describe all the items and tools available in the WinCan3D window to make additional changes directly on the 3D graph.

Items of the WinCan3D window

Moving the 3D view: Moving, Rotating, ZoomingTool barChanging the viewMoving within the currently displayed pipeline network:

Forward/Backward
Change to lateral section

All these items can be hidden or unhidden using the context menu:

Keep the mouse wheel pressed to rotate the 3D graph in all directions.

FUNCTIONS OF THE 3D TOOLBAR
This chapter is going to explain you in detail the meaning of the icons in the 3D toolbar and the functions lying behind them:

Working with building maps
Maps can be scanned and saved as files in the JPEG or GIF format. These files can be rescaled at any time in the future. If provided in the DXF format (i.e. as CAD files) such maps/plots won't be able to be rescaled.
WinCan3D is using the industrial standard OpenGL to draw the 3D graph. A smooth real time display of the graph strongly depends upon the graphic board currently used in your PC. The dimension of the map image may influence the performance of the PC too: if necessary the map image imported into WinCan3D will be downsized and thus undergo a certain quality loss.

Add a map and lay it underneath the 3D graph

Remove the map from the WinCan 3D window

Rotate the map clockwise; Control -
: rotate counter clockwise

Adjust the map scale to move the 3D graph and match the positions of the pipe network precisely with the positions indicated on the map.
Either use an existing reference line on the map with a given value or measure directly the REAL distance between 2 points within the building to scale the map.

Confirm with OK and click on the start (1) and on the end point of a known distance within or outside the building (2). Finally set the distance you have measured (3).
Reference line whose distance can hardly be read. So you will have to measure another distance and type the value into the dialogue box shown on the right hand side.213

This symbol is highlighting the point 0/0/0 of the coordinate system and is used as a reference point for modifications of coordinates during a DXF/DWG export.
Moving and rotating pipe systems
WinCan8 doesn't provide any information about the exact position of a section on the map used in the current project. When launching WinCan3D for the first time all sections will therefore be aligned on the X axis per default.

Move a pipe network according to the point 0/0/0. This is especially important when a known reference point from a geographic information system (GIS) doesn't fit to a manhole which is part of the 3D network.

Rotate main sections at their lowest or highest point respectively until they match the reference line/positions on the map.
The following examples are visualizing how this may be done:
Rotation of section 11 at their lowest point in the center of the manhole

The sections 12 and 13 situated upstreams keep their positions per default.

Keeping the Control key pressed during rotation will also rotate all the sections situated upstreams.
Always move to the lowest point of the pipe system to be rotated!
Satellite sections are automatically implied in the rotation.
Rotating pipe bends and lateral connections
The same button allows rotating a pipe at a bend or at a lateral connection. You will have to activate the following 2 columns in the WinCan observation table to show the technical angles:
SO_BendAngleDeg: connection angle / pipe bend
SO_BendClockH: clock position of a lateral connection

Move the camera to the position where you want to rotate the pipe in a certain direction. The example below is showing you how to rotate at a lateral connection:
Make sure that the camera symbol is set in the main pipe before dragging the end of the lateral connection with the mouseMove back to the main pipe to enable pipe rotation!
The example below is showing you how to rotate at a pipe bend:
All the lateral connections linked to the current pipe and situated upstreams will be rotated respectively.
The modified angle value will ONLY be changed in the field SO_BendAngleDeg.

Undoing transformations

Undo scaling and moving of the map as well as moving and rotating of pipe systems.
Any kind of modification done with the toolbar functions is continuously saved in WinCan3D during the current working session. When closing WinCan3D any changes are saved automatically.

Pictures and WinCan3D report

Getting pictures

Click on the icon to take a picture of the current view in the WinCan3D window. The dialogue box that follows is providing the following options:

The image file name is also used as the legend in the WinCan3D report.
The aspect ratio of the image file is defined by the current 3D view on the screen.
The image scale factor allows raising the resolution: to get a good printing quality the image resolution should be higher than the current screen view.
The image file is saved in the subfolder …\WinCan3D\Pictures of the current WinCan8 project.

Printing current 3D View

Click on the button to print the current screen view directly at a default printing resolution of 600 dpi. Use the program options to reduce this value especially if your PC is working with a low capacity graphic board.

Printing WinCan3D Report

Select the options All sections and WinCan3D report in the WinCan8 Docu-Center to get a page printed for EACH 3D image that has been saved in the subfolder …\WinCan3D\Pictures. The image file name is used as a legend:

Exporting 3D data

The 3D graph of the pipeline network can be exported in the DXF- or the DWG file format that are both compatible with AutoCad released by the company Autodesk. The plan is excluded from this export.
Click on the button to open the export dialogue box:
In this part you may enter new coordinates (X/Y/Z) for the export. The new coordinates always refer to the point (0/0/0) of the project, that is represented by the symbol .
The layer group is showing you which type of layer you may export. These layers correspond to the items you can hide or unhide via the context menu in the WinCan3D window (p. 16).
The list box is providing the most common export formats (DXF or DWG) as well as their version. Every GIS should be able to read files in the DXF format at least.
Contact the end user (e.g. engineer office) to be sure that the data can be imported with the software he usually works with.
It's also possible to test yourself the quality of the export opening the DXF/DWG file with the freeware DWG TrueView from AUTODESK (www.autodesk.com):

Options in WinCan 3D

Preferences

The pipe and manhole colours as well as the aspect of the text labels applied in WinCan3D can be customized: Click on the button to open the WinCan 3D preferences:
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Activate the option Save as standard preferences (1) to save your individual changes also for future WinCan3D projects.

Keyboard shortcuts

[SPACE key] Zooming the camera in order to set the WHOLE pipeline network and the map in the center of the WinCan3D window.
[Moving up] Moving forward against the flow
[Moving down] Moving backward with the flow
[Moving to the right] Enter a lateral section or select NEXT pipe from a manhole
[Moving to the left] Enter a lateral section or select PREVIOUS pipe from a manhole
[R] Activate of pipe rotation
[T] Activate of pipe moving
[Control - Z] Undo transformations of map and pipe sections
[F9] Change display mode
[F10] Show environment cube
[Control – ALT - D] Run auto rotation
[ESC] Stop auto rotation
[Control - SHIFT-] Rotate with mouse wheel: +/- 1%
[SHIFT - ALT] Rotate with mouse wheel: +/- 0.1%
[Control – 3D button] Shows only the current section in the 3D window
[Control- ]Shows ONLY the 3D view of the section currently highlighted in WinCan8

Service & Support

08_WinCan3D_EN