Create New Favorite

When creating favorites, keep the following in mind:

• The best favorites are those that can be used repeatedly, so it is recommended to build your most common configurations first.

• If possible, build your most expansive (or largest) fiber asset first. For example, build your highest-count cable first. Then, you can create copies of it and remove buffer tubes to scale it back for lower count cables. Similarly, build your patch panels that have the most ports first. Then, you can create copies and remove patch panel cards for fewer ports.

• When setting attributes within favorites, stick to attributes that do not change with each installation. For example, do not pre-save attributes such as Name, Date Installed, or other unique fields.

• You must be a Fiber Admin to create and manage fiber favorites.

• Only appropriate relationships are presented when you right-click. If you right-click a fiber cable, it allows you to add a buffer tube but not ports or panels.

• Right-click any part of the favorite to delete or duplicate.

• You can drag and drop parts of the relationship to re-order it.

To create a new favorite, follow these steps:

1. Verify you are editing. Click the Edit tab and see if your Edit tool is currently enabled. If not, click the Edit tool once to enable editing.

2. In Fiber Builder > Favorites, right-click the folder that should contain the favorite, then choose New favorite.

3. In the Favorites Builder dialog, choose the appropriate fiber Type (the following image is just an example).

4. Type a Name for the favorite. The name is visible to all users.

   

5. On the right-hand side, populate as many attributes that are most likely to be the same as possible for this fiber asset type.

   IMPORTANT: Required attributes are outlined in red, but that does not necessarily mean you need to populate them within the favorite. Many required attributes such as Global ID, Object ID, etc. are not known at this time and are populated once the asset is actually sketched. Further, a required field set by your company might also change with each new asset, and it should be set when the Editor sketches the asset. You can safely leave null the auto-generated fields that are also set to required, and use your best judgement when it comes to other required fields.

6. Click Apply. This applies your changes, but leaves the dialog open for more work.

7. To create the relationship structure for your favorite, right-click the fiber asset and choose the appropriate “child” relationship.

   Nearly ever fiber asset has relationships. A fiber cable relationship structure would be Fiber Cable > Buffer Tube > Strands. A patch location relationship structure would be Patch Location > Rack > Patch Panel > Patch Panel Card > Ports.

   

8. On the right-hand side, of the window populate attributes. Choose the strategy that works for you for populating attributes and building out relationships.

   • Populate as many attributes as possible each time you add a relationship. Fully build out all the related objects before moving onto the next. For example, you would populate all the attributes for the first buffer tube, then add all the fiber strands and their attributes inside that buffer tube. Repeat for each buffer tube in the sequence. This linear approach is a good idea if this is your first time building favorites, but it takes longer.

   • Populate only the common attributes shared by the fiber relationship, then duplicate it as many times as needed. Then, return to each fiber object and add the unique attributes. For example, you would create a buffer tube with 12 fiber strands in a basic setup. The strands would have the same color pattern, naming convention, glass grade, and other common attributes. So, you could build a buffer tube with 12 strands, but not yet add strand numbers or other unique attributes. Then, you could duplicate it to create more buffer tubes. Finally, re-visit each buffer tube and strands to add the unique attributes. This approach is ultimately faster, but it does increase the chance of an error. This approach is a good idea if you are comfortable with the creation process.

9. Click Apply each time you add a new relationship or finish adding attributes. This saves your favorite.

   If you have left a required field null, the application provides validation feedback in a Feature Validation Errors Found dialog (it looks like this administrator has a lot of work to do...).

   

10. Continue to build the favorite as needed.