Flow Direction

The Flow Direction tool provides editors the ability to visualize which direction the network is being fed from the source. This proves useful when trying to determine which areas of the network can be isolated with the smallest impact on customers. For example, with electric networks, you can find where power is being fed and determine which switches can be operated to stop the flow of electricity. With gas or water networks, any device with a device status set to closed will stop the flow of service. The direction of flow also respects squeeze-offs in gas networks if Honor Squeeze-Off Points is checked in Trace Options

Flow Direction also symbolizes where loops exist in the network to aid in analyzing where to stop the flow of service.

You can control the size, transparency, and color of the flow direction graphics using the Trace options dock pane. The flow direction tool works on facility network data supported by ArcFM Editor XI for gas, electric, and water distribution networks.

To perform a trace with flow direction, follow these steps:

1. Use the Find Subnetwork tool to locate the area you want to run the trace on.

2. Click the Show Flow Direction button to start the trace. It may take a moment for the flow direction animation to start.

   

   Once the animation starts, the display should look something similar to this:

   

3. To turn off the animations, you can click the Show Flow Direction again or, close out the Find Subnetwork dialog. The Show Flow Direction button appears as a toggle. When the background is white, the tool is turned off. When the background is grey , the tool is turned on.