Using WinCan VX with WinCan Map

Owned by Steve Peregrine
Last updated: Dec 05, 2020
4 min read
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Introduction

This chapter aims to describe how to work quickly, efficiently and accurately with WinCan VX and WinCan Map together at the same time to save time and reduce human errors. This is important for both CCTV truck operators and back-office data processors. Being fluent, accurate and dynamic with these techniques will greatly speed up the workflow and improve data quality.

Can we work on HADDMS in WinCan VX without using WinCan Map?

Yes, but the chances of making mistakes are very large when there is imported shapefile data for round tripping inside the WinCan project, so it is not recommended. However, then can be situations where there is no data to round trip because there is no drainage inventory data available on the HADDMS website for the selected area. In this case, working without Map is a good way to operate, but working with it is even better. Even without round trip data, you can still plot points and create drainage networks which ‘make sense’ on screen and help to keep a track of work that’s been completed.

For the remainder of this chapter, we will assume that the WinCan VX project already has imported data for round tripping inside, and additionally that all the project setup controls described in like marking assets as ‘To be Inspected’ have been done.

Select and Object in VX and Show it in Map

  1. Open your WinCan VX project and use the column filters on ‘Inspection Status’ in the grid view panels for Sections, Laterals and Nodes to filter the data to those objects that are ‘To be Inspected’. If this part has not been done, then you can carry on anyway without any filtered data.

  2. Launch WinCan Map from the launcher button in the lower left corner of the WinCan VX user interface.

  3. In WinCan Map, go to the ‘Tools’ ribbon and click on the ‘Network’ button.

  4. You will see a new panel on the right side of WinCan Map that includes an area called ‘Select MSG Action’. MSG refers to ‘Message’ and the options here control what happens in Map when you select an object in WinCan VX. In newer versions of WinCan Map, this text will be changed to ‘Message Action’.

    1. None - no action is taken by Map on receiving the message from VX.

    2. Select - the selected object in WinCan VX is also selected in Map.

    3. Select Zoom - the selected object in WinCan VX is selected in Map and the workspace zooms to that object.

    4. Flash - the selected object in WinCan VX will flash a couple of time quite quickly on the screen in WinCan Map. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Map1

Message action controls in WinCan Map.

User should be dynamic with the use of these options. There is no one fixed suggestion of which is the best option for any one situation, so switching between them should be considered common. As an example, maybe you have ‘Select Zoom’ active and you are looking at 1 pipe in Map and then you go to WinCan VX and select a different pipe, then back to Map and the screen has changed completely. This is because the ‘Select Zoom’ has taken you to the new selection in WinCan VX.

Select Zoom focuses the selected item from WinCan VX in the centre of the screen.

 

Select and Object in Map and Show it in VX

So far we know how to select an object in WinCan VX and easily display that object in WinCan Map. Now we will consider the same idea but the other way around, so we want to click on an object in WinCan Map and be taken straight to it in WinCan VX.

Using both of these techniques eliminates human error caused by trying to manually search for an object in either application.

In this example, we are looking to find the pipe in WinCan VX that flows from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock across the screen:

Showing an object in WinCan VX from WinCan Map.

  1. Select the layer that contains the object that you would like to find.

  2. Click on the ‘Show in VX’ button in the ‘Select’ panel of the Home ribbon.

  3. Click on the object.

Now look at your WinCan VX:

The section that is highlighted blue in the middle of the grid view is the object that was selected in WinCan Map.

This works equally for laterals and for nodes and VX will jump to the correct view grid for whichever object you select in WinCan Map.

Now, you can create an inspection of this asset or inspect its data.

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