I have a simple exercise that addresses a sizable percentage of the skills required for Fiber Manager™ digitizing. 

This exercise is called the Flux Capacitor, and can be used to train new employees and/or test new implementations and fiber favorites. 

It is simplistic by design, and is by no means an exhaustive training document.

Have your new staff conduct the following procedure:

1. Load a standard fiber project (*.mxd) or ArcFM™ Stored Display.
2. Start an editing session either via ArcGIS methodology or ArcFM™ Session Manager.
3. Using the ArcFM™ digitizing technique, place a Patch Location from a previously created ArcFM™ Favorite.  Name this Patch Location “Point A”.
4. Digitize two additional Patch Locations as a “Point B” and “Point C” as shown in Figure 1.

5. Digitize a Fiber Optic Cable from Point A to Point B as shown in Figure 2.

6. Digitize a Splice on Cable A.  Verify that the cable splits into two (excellent test on an Autoupdater), and name the southern half “Cable B” (Figure 3).

7. Digitize a “Cable C” from the Splice to Point C as shown in Figure 4.

8.  Using Connection Manager, make the necessary connections  to enable tracing and/or circuit creation for the following routes:  Point A to Point B, Point A to Point C, Point B to Point C, and Point A to Point C going through Point B.

9.  Observe the Glass Length and Length Source attributes of Cable A (Figure 5).

10.  Digitize a slack loop on Cable A (Figure 6).

11.  Observe the impact of that slack loop to the glass length based upon changes to length source (see Slinky Associated Post).

12.  Digitize a Riser on Cable B (Figure 7).

13.  Change the southern half of Cable B to Overhead (or Underground).

14.  Utilize the reporting tools on the Fiber Manager™ Toolbar, as desired.

To conclude, the Flux Capacitor not only makes time travel possible.  It also provides a non-complex training tool and test plan.  

Will this solution change how you work with ArcFM™?  Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!