Setting Up WinCan VX for GDMS
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Setting up WinCan VX for GDMS Data Entry
There are some key settings that must always be applied inside WinCan VX to ensure good data, which are different to the default settings for WRc inspections or similar. When you load a GDMS project in WinCan VX, it will not change the options for you, so you must set them manually to ensure the best results.
From the ‘Home’ menu in WinCan VX, click on the ‘Settings’ option on the upper left side.
In the settings panel, uncheck the option ‘Don’t auto create lateral records' in the General → General Settings tab:
Don’t auto create laterals.
In the Data Exchange/Reporting area of the User Settings:
This option ensure that when you create PDF files from the printing centre, they are recorded in the database (which is particularly useful for manhole cards) and can be added to the ATT_DOCS field in the exported shapefiles. Without this setting active, they will not be added.
In previous documentation, we recommended setting the Auto naming format to ‘None’ due to the way that other features inside the application interact with each other, but this is no longer the case. It does not really matter what it is set to anymore, so it can be ‘None’ or ‘PLR Suffix’ if that is what you use for other non-GDMS work.
More important (but personal choice) is the option below where you set the naming pattern where no naming pattern is specified.
The default WinCan VX setting here is Date and time stamp, which usually works Ok but it is not user-friendly. It doesn’t really look like an asset ID.
The 3rd option here in this list is actually just the same as the 1st one, the date and time stamp, but it has no spaces and no special characters, so it just creates a 17 character string of numbers, which can be used if you wish.
Our recommendation is to use the 2nd option that creates an 8 character random string, unique inside the current WinCan project.
Whichever option you select, the SUPP_REF can always be edited inside the section or lateral form here when you are filling in the data:
In the Tools ribbon, open the settings from the Auto Create Connections button, select the GDMS option and all the options below as in the following picture.
Auto create connections.
This last option simulates the feature that used to happen in WinCan v7 GDMS where connector node forms would be send down from GDMS after test upload, which could then be imported into the WinCan v7 project. This doesn’t happen anymore, and the connector nodes are created on the fly inside WinCan VX as you are carrying out the inspections of the pipes and this feature enables the naming convention of these nodes to be CN_[ID of the connected point item]_[SUPP_REF of the current pipe].
Of course, if the connector node already exists in the data, then it can simply be reused and there is no need for a new one. This tool is for creating new connector nodes only.
Setting up WinCan Map for GDMS Data Entry
In WinCan Map, we need to ensure that we have the correct node profile for plotting assets:
From the File menu, go to Settings and then in the Settings panel that opens, select the ‘Node Templates’ tab from the options at the top. In here you will see the default option already listed, and all you need to do is create some new lines for different object types that you may wish to create in the Map environment. You should add at least the ‘GDMS Point’ option, and the other two are optional. Click the green tick to set.