WebFlex User Guide & Overview.
WinCan WebFlex Quick Start Guide; will guide you through the setup and configuration and general layout of WinCan WebFlex. This document will also guide you through the creation, publication and sharing of projects that were either, created from scratch within WinCan WebFlex, imported into WinCan WebFlex from WinCan VX or imported from a camera system that has an embedded WinCan Client.
15:52, 12/07/2023
WinCan WebFlex Overview
WinCan WebFlex, is a subscription service which is paid for monthly.
WinCan WebFlex is a cloud-based software platform used by Industries with extensive pipeline networks that require a periodic inspection to ascertain the pipeline networks serviceability and physical integrity. This is achieved by inspecting the pipeline network using either and ROV or Push Camera system that creates a video of the assets, these videos are then imported in to a WinCan Web project where they can be interrogated, observations are made and a report can later be generated. The reports are created within the WinCan WebFlex platform by using the video footage obtained during the camera surveys and then making detailed observation of each asset and any service or structural defects. The WinCan WebFlex platform is an operating system agnostic cloud application accessible from any computer system that has a good stable internet connection and a suitable Web browser.
WinCan WebFlex Account Creation.
Account creation
The WinCan Web login page can be found at WWW.Web.Wincan.Com .
WinCan Web login URL
Where you can create your account
log in to your account using your username and password
Change your password
Launch the WinCan Web demo site
If you have not already done so go to WWW.Web.WinCan.com and create your account by selecting “Create Account” and fill out all relevant details,
Company Registration page
Company name
Your email address (this is where the confirmation email will be sent so it must be a valid email)
Voucher number, if you have one
“Hosting Region” leave as default
Read the Terms and conditions then Tick the Terms and condition box
Select register
The screen will now change and display “Confirmation Email has been sent” this conformation email is sent to the email address you entered earlier.
Confirmation Email link.
Go to the email in box of the aforementioned registration email and click the “Register company link” to confirm your email address, this will take you to the Company Registration page.
Company Admin Registration page.
Email address will be populated for you and will be the email used when you registering for the WinCan WebFlex Account (at this point you can create a user alias by entering it below the admin email. This will give you the option of using either the “Admin email or Admin Alias” as the login users id)
Admins first name
Admins Last name
Password
Password confirmation
Register your details
Sign In.
When logging in to your WinCan Web account for the first time the privacy policy will be displayed which you should read and, if you would like to continue, you should accept, you will then need to accept the cookies policy which will complete your registration of your company.
WinCan Web Account.
When you have finished registering for your WinCan WebFlex account you're presented with the WinCan Web landing page. The landing page is a free to use WinCan Web trial account which has limited time, storage and features, these limited features are there to demonstrate how WinCan VX (PC Based application), and Camera manufactures who have Camera Systems which use an embedded WinCan client in conjunction with WinCan Web to import completed project from the aforementioned application. These completed projects are then shared via the WinCan Web portal (the free WinCan Web Portal does not have the ability to manipulate projects, the service can only be used to share completed projects for a trial period)
WinCan Web Account landing page
On the WinCan Web landing page you can add all relevant account details for your Web account however, first we need to upgrade our account from WinCan Web to WinCan WebFlex by clicking;
Upgrade
Then copy and paste the Sales@WinCan.com email address and send an email requesting a call back, or, by calling you local WinCan regional sales office (contact details can be found at www.WinCan.com) and speak to one of the sales team to discuss your requirements.
WinCan WebFlex
Once your account has been upgraded to WinCan WebFlex you will need to “log off and log back into your account” for the previous changes to take affect (we’ll need to do this again a little later to affect another global change when selecting your WebFlex Account user)
WinCan WebFlex landing page
Now that you've logged back into WinCan WebFlex any changes to your account will have taken affect. The most obvious change will be the amount of available space for your projects
Assigning user Accounts the “WebFlex” feature
What is the Flex feature
The flex feature gives a user (After the WebFlex featured has been Assigned to them) the ability to create projects from scratch and/or manipulate existing projects that have been uploaded to WebFlex from either WinCan VX or a WinCan Embedded camera systems.
Who gets the Flex feature by default?
Great question! The Flex feature in not assigned to any one account by default. The Flex feature can either be taken by the Company Admin or given by the Company Admin to any one of the other users as and when they get created.
Available Flex Seats
Before you can assign a user a Flex seat you must have a seat/s available to assign. To check this go to
Management/User
Flex seat Allocated
If no flex seats are available and all current seats are in use by other users, please contact Sales@wincan.com who will be guide you through the purchase of extra WebFlex Seats.
The above example has 0 seats allocated and 1 available
Inviting/Creating a WebFlex User
New WebFlex users are invited via their email.
If a WebFlex user has registered for another WebFlex user account, the user can still use the same email to register however, they MUST create an “Alias” for the second account which can be used in place of the registered email address when logging in. When logging in to WinCan WebFlex using an Email address that has more than one account registered against it you will be presented with an account selection screen.
(Due to both of the below accounts using the same Email address “if” you choose to use the Email address to login rather that the Account Alias you will be presented with an account selection when logging in.)
Types of WebFlex Users
For each user added to WinCan WebFlex the Company Admin can assign those users to different Account groups, a description of those groups are below.
End User, view assigned projects or Group projects on Hosts WinCan web account
End User Download, View & download assigned project or Group projects from Hosts WinCan web account
End User (all projects visible). View all projects within the Hosts WinCan Web Account
VX Operator, Upload projects from WinCan VX to Host WinCan Web
Company Operator, View/Share/Download/Upload projects that have been specifically to them or assigned to their group/s and manage their own account settings
Company Operator (all project visible), View/Share/Download all projects on the company WinCan Web Account, however they can only upload projects that have been assigned specifically to them! They can also manage their account settings
Company Admin, WinCan WebFlex complete site management
The company Admin is the only account that can Give and Take Flex Mode from any user
Each of the above user groups can have multiple members “including the Company Admin”, however, no one user can be a member of multiple user groups.
Setting up a WebFlex user
Once a user has been created and assigned an Account group you're free to assign that user the flex feature and change other settings that were set when creating that user account, just tick the box against the feature you require for that specific user.
Select the management tab on the left pane, Select the users, .
Select the Edit pencil for the specific user you would like to add/change feature
Where you change the Account group/role of the user
Add a Company logo/pic for the user
Amount of days an assigned project is accessible by this specific user
2 factor authentication
Flex Mode Tick box
Mobile App Tick Box
“Flex Account Features” (the flex feature is “flexible” and can be moved from user to user by the Company Admin)
Using WinCan WebFlex to Create Projects
As previously mentioned, projects can be created from scratch or imported into WinCan Web from a suitable camera system using a WinCan embedded client. Creating a project from scratch will require a user who's been assigned the WinCan WebFlex feature (flex feature) on his user account. If you are uploading a project created on a Camera system using the embedded WinCan Client you will require a user account with limited rights, however once the project had been uploaded, any further manipulation of that project (e.g. creating a Project Report, adding observation, section header etc,) will require a user with the WebFlex feature to create that report.
What is a WinCan Web Project
A WinCan Web Project; is a survey of a selection of assets (Section, laterals or nodes) where Digital Video and images are captured and reviewed, then, observations on the structural, service & operational characteristics of each asset are recorded against those assets. When the project has been completed, a PDF project report can be generated and delivered/forwarded to all interested parties.
Creating a WinCan Web Project
Browse to www.web.wincan.com and log in using an account previously set up whit the flex feature.
The below screen will open.
WinCan Web Menu Pane
Work Pane Header
Work Pane
Your Account, settings and log off
Just above the “2” you will see the New Project button, this buttons signifies flex mode has been assigned to my account and I have logged off and on for the changes to take affect.
Selecting New Project opens the new project window
Select “Create Project”
The Project Creation wizard
Will appear on the right of the screen
from any in
This is where you can,
Define the name of you new project
Select the country
This step will define the language and project standard you will be working in
Language has automatically been changed to that of the defined region, this is a drop menu and can be changed to your preferred language
Standard will be the most current for your defined region, this is a drop menu and can be changed to your preferred standard for your selected region
Fill out these details and select create project.
The project creation process will begin, when completed, the progress bar will at 100% and the “Open Project” will be highlighted.
Select open project which will open the project, where you will land on the “Section” tab
WinCan Web Menu Pane
Project Header Menu
Project Work pane
Job Tab
Section Tab
Lateral Tab
Node Tab
Even though you land on the “section tab” this is not where you begin to refine your project.
WinCan WebFlex Workflow
Project Creation, Flow Chart
Below is a basic summary of what should be completed to create a project, this will produce a good basic Project Report which has all relevant fields filled out.
This is not a guide or explanation on the Project standard for your region, or on how to code structural or service defects using that standard.
Most of the bullet points can be complete in the order you prefer, however the ideal time to upload Media Files is as early as possible (Media files take time to upload and process), which allows time for the media to be uploaded and transcoded which takes time due the nature of the transcoding and the size of the videos being uploaded and transcoded.
Job Tab
Project, media bucket
Project Details Page, images, summary and notes
Project Participants
Creating Sections header, inspection header, WinCan Draw
Sections, (Add sections and make observations and adding video to your observations)
Nodes
WinCan Draw
Project Sharing & Project Reports
Job Tab
Each project can have multiple jobs. For this project we will keep it simple and only define the one job against our project.
Select Job Tab
Select “three dots” and edit job
Edit Job Details
(Everything you do within the Job tab adds detail to you Project Report, the less detail here the less detailed you report will be!xrp2329)
Add a job number or name (this number or name is used later to assign inspections to specific jobs)
Job Description, is just that!
Add your client Reference
Add your Reference
Job Status is a drop down menu which you can choose from
Inspection standard was set when you created you project (We can see this later in the project button)
TV inspection is set as per default
Job Purpose is a drop down menu you can choose form.
Select Save
Job Tab now complete.
Project, Media Bucket
The media bucket is a repository of media files for this specific project and this project only, each project has it own specific media bucket.
Why upload to the Media bucket so early
Media files take time to become available within a project, uploading at an early stage will allow some of the Media file processing to be completed. While the Media files are being processed you are free to complete other tasks within the project that do not require the media files.
Also
Media files are large and take time to upload to the web, once uploaded, these file need to be Transcoded/processed from their current video format to a “Web Friendly” video format suitable to be viewed via a Web Browser. The original video is never changed, only copied and processed to a Web friendly format, which leaves the original video exactly as recorded and ready for the client to download when the project is completed and shared.
Media Bucket Rules
NEVER Upload multiple videos with the same name, this will cause no end of problems. The usual outcome is; the first video is over-written by each subsequent video that has the same name.
NEVER trust anyone who says “hold my beer, and watch this”, the next person they talk to is usually a nurse, law enforcement, or both. (not a media bucket rule, but good advise all the same!)
Project & Project Details Page (images, Summary and Notes)
Selecting project and then the project tab will open the project details page.
The project details page (below) allows you to add picture which will be printed on the project report, these pictures may be used for Project overview Pic’s e.g. location pics, Site picture, Drone pictures of the site for given day (this could show the weather or overview of the site layout), Start node location etc,
Select Files; will open up file explore where you can browse to the location of the files to be uploaded
Selected; all files selected for upload will appear as and when they have been selected
Upload; Will upload and process any file in the select files window
after successful upload the files will appear in the “Project Pictures” section
Will open an expanded view of the project details window
However; if you click the edit project tab in the top right, You will be presented with the expanded view of the project details window where you will be able to add note and summary notes.
Project detail page (expanded View)
The expanded project detail is used for adding “ Project Notes” such as; Why you were asked to attend site and what you were asked to do
If you want to add summary information and project notes which can be done at the same time as adding the pictures
The name of the project and the standard the project was created in (WRC MSCC5-UK in the above example)
Where you can change inform about your projects
Note, (Limited to 1500 words)
Summary, (Limited to 1500 words)
Where you can assign a GIS projection system (limited to the region you crated your project in) and where you can associate a WinCan Support ticket.
The Project detail file upload window, (you saw this earlier as an independent window) where you can upload your Projects supporting images.
Project, Document Folder.
What is the “Documents folder”
The documents folder has 2 functions
Any Project print reports that are generated are stored in the root of the Documents folder.
Any document that are related to the Project and need to be included within the Project can be uploaded to the documents folder or a sub-directory of the documents folder.
All project document that are either, uploaded or, created within WinCan Web are stored in documents folder.
The Document folder (below) consists of;
se
Name of the project the folder is attached to
Select Files ; will open “File Explorer” where you can browse to the location of the desired files. Upload, will upload the selected files.
Upload Into New Directory; Creates a new sub folder in the documents folder for the specific file you have just chosen to upload
List of file that are queued for upload
Search feature
The below screen shot is the outcome of the above process, “subfolder called Price list where I have stored my new document”
Project Participants
All projects should have at least one Participants. The participants tab is a repository for “Client, Site & Contractor details” and can be accessed from every project. As Participants are added they will appear in the repository and can be selected from any other project at a later date (no project can have more than one of each participant).
WinCan WebFlex you has 3 types of Participant that can be attached to a project, (Each project can have 1 or each participant), they are;
The Client (who you are working for)
The Site (some clients may have multiple sites)
Contractor (you, or whomever did the project)
Selecting Projects and then Participants will open the Participants window.
Adding Participant (Client, Site and Contractor)
Client, Site, and Contractor tab, (In the pic above, the tab in white is the tab in focus),
Add participant will display the participant details area
Participant details area, (where you add details about this specific participant).
Upload Logo/Image will open up a file browser.
Please be aware ”Small and Poor quality logos” will be displayed “Small and in Poor quality!”.
For “big and poor quality logos” please replace the the word Small in the above sentence with Big.
File browser where you can browse for “Small or Big good quality logos” and upload them to your participant
Default Cover Page, you may select this if you would like the desired Logo you are uploading to a Participant to be the Default Image for “every report” if you select “NO” the default option for WinCan is to use the Clients logo for this specific survey on the centre of the main page for this report.
Assign Participant to project;
Projects participant that have been created, will need to be assigned using the option button and selecting “assign” once assigned they will appear within the specific project and in the specific project report.
Contractors, Can be assigned and made default for every project and will no longer need to be assigned if “assign and make default” has been activated on any project.
Sections Nodes & Laterals
Sections; Are made up of section headers and inspection headers. The section and inspection headers should include all relevant details about the specific section and it’s inspection.
Nodes; When an section is created it’s created between 2 points. These 2 points are nodes and created automatically when the section start node and end node are added to the section header.
Laterals; are inspection of pipes that join the main section.
Section Header, Inspection Header
To open the Section and inspection header
Make sure the Section tab is highlighted
Select “Add Section”
Selecting Add Section; will open the Section/Inspection header window (below)
Section/Inspection Header
(Rule of thumb; the more data you input the more detailed the report will be)
Filling out the “Section & Inspection Header”
Mandatory fields (yellow boxes).
Save or Save and Add Observation
Fill out all relevant fields, or, fill out as many fields as you have data for.
Once completed, you can save and make an observation, OR save, which will take you back to the “Add Section/Inspection Tab.
I saved my data and returned to the Add Section/Inspection, which allows me to create multiple sections for my specific project one after another.
(I segment my tasks, creating a production line of identical tasks one after another)
Section/Inspection header 2,
After completing the first section/inspection header, any subsequent section/inspection headers, will have non specific mandatory header data pre populated (see Below)
My second section for this project
Pre populated non specific section data
Data added from information within the Job template we edited earlier
Show only Mandatory Field, (see below)
If you’re happy with all non-section/inspection specific data you can hide these fields and only edit the Mandatory data fields (As in the above screen shot)
Rince and repeat until all sections and inspection headers have been completed, when completed it should look like the picture below.
Section inspection header complete and section 1 highlighted
Add observation tab is now available to add an observation to the highlighted section above.
(Video can only be attached to observations. As soon as the first observation is made you can attach a video from the “ Media Bucket” to that observation)
Pipe graph, will populate with observations as and when they are added
(the pipe graph is functional; which means you can click observations codes on the pipe graph which take you to that specific part of the video in the observation video window)
Creating Observations and adding video to your observation.
Select “Add Observation” and the below window will appear
The Observation Window consists of;
Project Video window, also doubles up as access to media bucket videos
Access to media bucket
Media Bucket
Observation code, distance, photo capture and create observation window
As mentioned above;
(Video can only be attached to observations. As soon as the first observation is made you can attach a video from the “ Media Bucket” to that observation)
Create your first observation with video attached
Select “Media Bucket”
Tick the desired Video (white tick box inside the video)
Select “Attach to observation”
Once the selected Video file has been attached to you’re observation, you will return to the “Add Observation” window where the selected video will automatically started playing, I pause the video and drag the video control scroll bar back to the beginning so I can add my first observation against the beginning of the video.
From the Observation Code window you can look up relevant codes for your observation by;
Selecting from the 4 code headings “Structural, Service Construction Miscellaneous” and searching through the list of available codes.
Adding the short code for the specific defect in the Search window
By entering the name/type of the code in the search window (start, manhole, abandoned etc,)
Once the relevant code has been selected you may need to add additional information in various fields that may or may not appear, this is completely dependant on the code you use.
If in doubt, please consult the manual for the Coding standard you are using, this is where you can find out what additional information is expected for any specific code you’ve decided to use.
Code Entry Window
Below is an example of what you will see once you’ve entered a code and added all relevant details
The type of code and it’s associated item
Path to the code that was selected in the earlier code selection screen
Type of code and remarks
Meter is manually set to reflect what is displayed on screen
A photo has been captured and can be updated or a second photo can be captured
Update observation will update and allow you to continue adding codes and until the completion of the survey
After finishing you coding you can return to the section tab by selecting “GO BACK”.
When you return to the “Section Tab” the view will have changed to reflect the new entry you have made, these are below
An entry in the observation window reflecting the newly created observation. You will also notice a video playing in the video window top right
A pipe graph will now appear with codes that have been entered, the more codes entered the more you will see, flow direction and end node are also present.
you may wish to edit delete or remove the video
Add more observations to this specific section
View, change, delete or edit the picture and draw or add text
Below I have added some lines and circles to the picture that draw your attention to a rather dull patch on the screen that has absolutely no structural of service defects!
Imagine just how effective the Picture drawing tool could be if there was a defect or structural problem located at this point in the below picture that you needed to bring to the customers attention!
Drawing Tool for Projects or Sections
The drawing tool, allows you to select a map image, uploaded pictures, PDF or create your own diagram//graphic for a project or specific section using the drawing tool which can better explain/highlight certain aspects of your project or section. This can be done at the Project lever, lower down at the Section level or, at the very lowest level, the observation picture draw and edit screen (please see above) . Project draw and Section Draw are identical in terms of functionality, however the drawing will appear in different location within the PDF report we will generated later.
Due to the Drawing tool being identical in both project and section we will show you the different locations where Draw can be accessed for Project and Section, after this, we will cover the drawing tool as one item
Project Draw
Selecting the project tab will display the project tool window
You can now select the project drawing tool.
Section Draw
Select the section you would like to add a Drawing too
Select the section menu button (three dots in a circle) at the end of the desired section where a drop-down menu will display various different selections, draw will be one of those options.
The Drawing tool: Creating a Basic Drawing for your project or section
When you open your drawing project you will presented with the drawing configuration box (please be aware the drawing you create will be incorporated into your project report. Your project report is built using the A4 page size (which is portrait and can’t be changed) and the drawing will be inserted into the usable space on that page. The usable space is roughly 66% of a page due to header, footer and boarders.)
Page, Is the name you give the page, if not entered the default is “Page”
Layout, “In a nut shell” Whatever you choose here is going on an A4 page, so have a play and see what happens!
Page Width & Height, I leave this as is and go with the flow. Incidentally, if you have a background image you wish to use on your page (we’ll discuss background images a little later) Draw will ask if you would like to resize your Draw project if you select yes the entire project is resized, if you select no the image is resized and the project stays as it was….again this is your choice so choose wisely!
Calibration Unit, Your draw project can be calibrated in “Meters or Inches” and is measured across the page.
Calibration Width (Incrementation units), you can change this to whatever, default is 100 which means the page is 100meters from edge to edge. If you set calibration width to 10000 the page will be 6.213712 miles from edge to edge.
Please be aware this is a drawing package and therefor only accurate to within a quatre of a light year plus or minus a few lightyears or so, if the wind is in the correct direction so on and so forth, in short if you need CAD accuracy you will need a copy of CAD. However, if you have the correct PLAN, Background or drawing which has an accurate and clearly visible scale you can get some good results.
Show Grid, puts grid squares on the page
Snap to Grid, Will snap icons to that grid (snap to grid works even if “show grid” is unticked)
Draw Window & features
Below is the WinCan Web draw tool which has many of the features of Windows Paint, and some added extras specific to WinCan Web
The Page Name you added when creating this document
Draw tool selection tab
Draw Tools Menu tab
Fills and lines colour selection
Section draw
Work Window
Sketch tool
The Draw sketch tool below, allows you to freehand draw on the page you have selected
Select sketch
select your colour from the colour management palette. either by selecting,
The colour selection slider at the top of the window, or, selecting the default colours in the colour swatch boxes at the bottom of the colour management tool
The second line changes the shade of your colour
The third line changes how dark the colour is
The forth line turns you colour from solid to transparent
The colour swatch boxes can be added to, deleted from , reset back to the standard or a selection can be taken from the picture (if you hover over the icons in the lower portion of the colour swatch selection tool you get helpful hints
3 In the main window you can see a finished picture, with a little time and effort you can produce so really effective results!
Above all have a play with draw, create random icons, lines of different colours, attach images, use maps backgrounds and add multiple pages then see how this affects printing
Scoring of Observations
Scoring a project
Your project will have various assets, those asses may have been inspects, and if so, observation may have been made. Some of these observation made may generate a score based on the defect/observation TYPE, LENGTH, SIZE and many other types of criteria, these specific defect codes, will generate a score which will be seen with in the project and project report and set against a scorable code.
(WinCan does not control the scoring. WinCan only applies the scoring template for the regional standard you are coding in to the project and the assets observations, thus obtaining a score for the aforementioned observations)
The below screen shot show a project standard that scores between 1 and 5 for structural and service (this will be different for the different standards)
If your project has Structural or service code that have not been scored (projects that may have been imported from 3rd party systems) you can re-run the scoring process from the PROJECT TAB, SCORING
Project Report Creation/Generation
Types of Project Reports
When a project has been completed to ”you or your customers” specific requirements a PROJECT REPORT can be created. these project reports can be either active or passive (with or with out weblinks).
Passive Project Reports
Are reports where the project is not shared and therefore WILL NOT have “Active Web links on the report”
To create a Passive report
Create and complete your project, then, create the report using;
Project Tab
Reporting
Generate report
Report is create with no active weblink
Active Project Reports (reports with hyperlinks)
Are Reports that active hyperlinks that can be either unlimited or limited in duration.
To create an active report, you will need to first enable or create a Project link for that specific project prior to creating the report.
The “project link”, can be either set at a global level (across all projects within your company WinCan Web account) and will add an “Unlimited” duration link for all projects created ‘post’ enabling of this option.
Or, created for each individual project as and when you choose to add one. Individual links take precedent over unlimited links and have custom durations from 1 day to when ever you choose to expire that link.
Create a unlimited project link for all projects.
Prior to printing/generating the report for your project you will need to share the project (reports created before the project is shared will not have active hyperlinks and will need to be regenerated again after the link has been created).
From the main window select Account setting- Company Profile, slide edit mode to the right, scroll to the bottom of company profile and tick box “Create project link after uploading”, complete the edit by moving the edit button back to the left.
This is a global setting and only needs to be completed once for the entire account, however project that have already been uploaded with reports will need that report regenerated.
Create a link per project.
Go to the main project Window,
select the link icon for the specific project,
select new link,
decide on your options