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Export Hierarchy
There are a number of things to consider that all affect the results that are output from WinCan VX during the export process, and they are almost all handled automatically in the background during the data exchange routine without any user options available to the user.
Theses are driven by:
The difference in core data structures between HADDMS and WinCan where HADDMS stores all of its asset and inspection data in a single file (i.e. continuous, point and region etc) but WinCan VX (unlike WinCan v7) stores these very different types of data in different tables in its database.
The round tripping process where any assets imported into WinCan Vx at the start of the round tripping process that are not inspected are simply returned back out of the database and back into HADDMS via the shapefiles without any modification.
So, if we just import some HADDMS shapefiles and then export them back out again, there will be no changes in the data.
If we import 1,000 sections in a catchment and then only inspect 40 of them on a job, then we will export the new data for the 40 inspected objects and the remaining 960 sections will just be exported back out again without edit.
This is why it is crucial that sections laterals and nodes that were imported at the start of the process are not deleted from the WinCan VX project, and also why good use of the ‘Inspection Status’ field is crucial to managing the data efficiently.
In the HADDMS data files, there is only ever one combined inspection and asset data record of each object, but of course, WinCan VX has the concept of ‘multiple inspections’ and ‘combined inspections’, so how do we decide which inspection to export when there are several to chose from? This is where the Export Hierarchy comes into play, and the selected export order of the one inspection record to be exported (applies to all object types) is like this:
Combined inspection - if a combined inspection record exists on an object then it is exported and no other inspection data is exported for the current asset.
A complete inspection from end to end - this might not be the most recent inspection because maybe there was am abandoned inspection carried out after the complete one, but this does not matter under HADDMS rules - a complete inspection trumps an abandoned inspection regardless of date and time.
An abandoned inspection - the most recent abandoned inspection will be exported. Of course if there was at least one abandoned inspection from each end then there should be a combined inspection, so we are back up this tree to option 1.
The original imported data, untouched, unvalidated, not re-scored and unmodified.
At the end of this export process, every asset has an inspection record exported into the data regardless of whether it was inspected by the contractor during this package of work or not.
Creating HADDMS Exports
The files that are produced by the HADDMS export routine are described in the next section, but are essentially only the files required by HADDMS for upload and a .dxf file. The important part about this is that any other deliverables that your client may like to receive have to be created separately from the export routine.
WinCan VX has all of the tools and features to do this without the need for other software applications, but these commonly requested files are not part of the clearly defined upload data for the HADDMS system. They are additional requests made by the area clients, and the contractor should be pricing to deliver these over and above the standard deliverables.
Before running the export routine, the user is strongly advised to revisit and evaluate the following checklist in the order given and ensure that all items are 100% satisfied, because failure to do this will almost certainly result in critical rejection errors when the shapefiles are attempted to be uploaded to HADDMS:
Run the ‘Duplicates Finder’ tool on Sections and Nodes from the Tools → Misc Tools list and resolve issues.
Execute the ‘Delete Empty Inspections’ tool from the Tools → Misc Tools list.
Execute the ‘Regenerate Sort order’ tool from the Tools → Misc Tools list.
Run the inspection merging tool using the default options.
Run the ‘Calculate Invert Levels’ tool on the project.
Run the ‘Job Checker’ tool from the Tools → Misc Tools list and resolve issues.
Validate the Sections using the ‘All Assets’ validation ruleset and clear all Errors to zero.
Validate the Laterals using the ‘All Assets’ validation ruleset and clear all Errors to zero.
Validate the Nodes using the ‘All Assets’ validation ruleset and clear all Errors to zero.
The first step in the export process is to click on the ‘Export’ button in the ‘Data Exchange’ ribbon:
Launching the export module.
The options selected will be correct for the current project, so there is nothing more to do here except click the ‘Next’ button
At the next screen, there is also nothing to change except if you wish to export the data only without the media files. The default settings are fine as they are.
Click the ‘Next’ button for a final review of what is going to happen during the export process, and then ‘Next’ one more time to execute the export routine.
When the process has finished, you maybe presented with some warnings, but provided the final message says that the ‘Process has been finished’, then you are good to go, and clicking on the folder icon to the right will take you straight to the export file folder ([Project Folder] → Misc → Exchange → [Project Name]_Date_Time and the folder containing the export files will be named [Project Name]_DDMS_CD535. Inside here, you will find the export files as described:
Export final stage.
Understanding the Outputs
The HADDMS export routine creates two files for each catchment in the project and this is exactly the reason why it is essential to keep a solid grip on the job data within the WinCan project at all times during data processing and site analysis:
A zipped folder containing all of the HADDMS data files for upload including the inspection photos, shapefiles and observation .dbf file. You can try to upload this file to HADDMS and if the data is good, then it will be approved.
A .dxf file containing the shape geometry of the project including attribute data, but without any significant layer styling. This is not a HADDMS deliverable which is why it is saved outside of the .zip file, but it creates a geometrically correct representation of the data that is being uploaded in a generic layered CAD file from where the user can style and design their own CAD files for delivery to the area client.