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. Ensure the conductor has the correct Cable Count.

   1. Select the conductor and view its attributes in the Attribute Editor > Selection tab.

   2. Verify the Cable Count is correct. Continuing the example from above, this conductor’s Cable Count is 9 to accommodate 3 cables for A, 3 for B, and 3 for C.

      

      IMPORTANT: It is required to verify the Cable Count before opening the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor. If the Cable Count is incorrect, you are unable to save your edits within the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor. This situation (and error) is described after Step 10 in this topic.

3. 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.

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

   

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

6. 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.

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

   

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

   

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

   

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

Did you receive an error stating, “The total number of associated cables must match the feature’s Cable Count value before changes can be saved?”

This is the error Step 2 above was trying to avoid. This means the number of cables between the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor and the Attribute Editor do not match. In this topic’s example, each phase has 3 cables for a total of 9, but the Cable Count is currently set to 1. To correct this, click OK to close the error, then Cancel the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog (yes, you lose your edits). Return to Step 2 above to verify the Cable Count.

On occasion, you might see this error without making any changes in the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog. This is likely because somebody changed the Cable Count in the Attribute Editor, but never changed it in ArcFM Conduit Association Editor. If this happens, verify the number in the Attribute Editor, then return to the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor to make the proper adjustment.

Cable Count in Other Dialogs

The Number of Cables value updates beyond the ArcFM Conduit Association Editor dialog to other dialogs such as the ArcFM Conduit Configuration dialog, Attribute Editor, and Diagram Manager.