Designer XI Terminology

Before you begin using Designer XI , you should familiarize yourself with the following terms:

Work Location (WL): WLs specify the geographic locations in your design where work needs to be performed. WLs include addresses and information on site conditions (such as traffic, ground cover, etc.) and anything else affecting the way ground crews perform their work. Typically, a design will have several WLs, for example, one per pole, underground structure, or logical collection of services.

Equipment Catalog: A catalog of all hardware equipment. CUs can be mapped to any chosen piece of equipment. The properties of the equipment chosen determine how the application models the electrical or gas properties for design components.

Compatible Unit (CU): CUs are used to designate a specific unit of commonly used materials. CUs can include other CUs. They allow designers to quickly reference and arrange the material needs for their designs. CUs can also be used to measure labor needs and material costs.

These are the following CU subtypes:

Non-Drawn CU: Any CU with a cost, but no drawn feature on the map. A common example is labor, which can be added directly to a Work Location.
Driving CU: A CU related to an equipment specification that either creates its own component (when directly selected) or tells a Macro CU how to create the component.
Macro CU: Consists of a Driving CU that is drawn and represents the group in the map, in addition to any number of Non-Drawn CUs associated with it. For example, a pole usually includes bolts, brackets, support arms, assemblies, and guying in addition to the pole itself. Thus, a Macro CU could be pre-configured to include all these specs in proper quantity, making it easier to place common assets. The Macro CU can be placed and then modified by adding or deleting Non-Drawn CUs, or changing the drawn CU on the component representing the group in the map.
Modified Macro CU: Same as an ad hoc group. This is a Macro CU created on the fly in the application, starting with a single Driving CU, then adding other Non-Drawn CUs to it. In other words, your CU catalog has a variety of pre-configured Macro CUs, but in this case, you are creating a custom group to satisfy a specific design need.