Number of Cables

In congested areas (such as a downtown network), some utilities use multiple cables per phase to spread the load. For example, a three-phase conductor might actually have multiple cables per phase (3 cables for A, 3 for B, and 3 for C). Conduit Manager allows you to represent multiple cables per phase with the “Number of Cables” field. To change the number of cables, follow these steps:

1. Ensure the conductor is associated to the conduit. See the help topic Associate Conductor to Duct.

2. If necessary, open the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor.

   1. Select the conduit.

   2. On the ArcFM Attribute Editor > Selection tab, right-click the conduit and choose Edit Conduit Associations.

3. Expand the Duct Position that contains the conductor with multiple cables. In the following example, a three-phase conductor is inside duct Position 1.

   

4. Click the conductor once to highlight it in blue.

5. Under Number of Cables, click the plus and minus signs to increase or decrease the number of cables. You can also type in the number.

   

   IMPORTANT: Is your Number of Cables field grayed out and not becoming active? The most likely reason is a missing piece of configuration. The underlying relationships require a field called “Cables” to track the number. See the Configuration Guide topics Conduit Manager > Create Relationships > Conduit_Cable and Underground Facility Manager > Create Relationships > Conductor_Duct for more information.

6. Notice the count appears by the conductor inside the duct.

   

7. If each phase occupies a different duct, click Break into Phases. Notice the cable counts now appear by the individual phases.

   

8. Click and drag each phase into its appropriate duct position.

   

9. Click OK to close the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog.

The CABLECOUNT field model name allows the Number of Cables value to update beyond the ArcFM Conduit Association Editordialog to other dialogs such as the ArcFM Conduit Configuration dialog, Attribute Editor, and Diagram Manager.

Once conduit and cable are associated, you can no longer change the Number of Cables value in the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog. If you do, an error message is displayed when you click OK.

If you are met this error message, the Number of Cables value in the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog differs from the feature’s Cable Count value. Before being able to exit from the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor you need to adjust the Number of Cables value to match the feature’s Cable Count value.

On occasion, you might see this error without making any changes in the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog yourself. If this happens, you are still required to change the Number of Cables value so it matches the Cable Count value as indicated in the error message.