Integrating ArcFM™ & iVUE with a Multispeak Model

January 8, 2014 — SSP Innovations

Recently, I have been exposed to an absolutely fantastic way for a small public utility to afford an ArcFM™ implementation.  I learned of the Multispeak electric utility data model’s usefulness while mapping a new client’s Microstation CAD files and NISC database (which feeds the iVUE application), to the ArcFM™ Feeder Manager Multispeak model.  Every single table and relationship used in the NISC database can be mapped into the Multispeak model with the same cardinality as is in the source database.

I suppose this isn’t all that surprising, since both ArcFM™ and iVUE are in use by large numbers of small and large utilities.

iVUE is a very useful customer information system (CIS), and has tools for keeping up with your material inventory as well as a myriad of other accounting tools.  Unfortunately, it is significantly lacking in its integration with GIS.  There are fields to store X,Y coordinate information as well as very simple iVUE mapping tools available, but they fall far short of the tools that are offered by Esri GIS solutions coupled with Schneider Electric’s ArcFM™.

To learn more about what ArcFM™ can do for your utility, click any of the the ArcFM™ links in this article or just peruse the other blogs that are here on the SSP Innovations website.

The small utility that we are serving on the project that I am writing about in this article seeks to implement ArcFM™ Feeder Manager and ArcFM™ Fiber Manager™, while continuing their use of iVUE for managing their customer, billing, and inventory information.  It strikes me that this may be a scenario that is common to a lot of other utilities, and yours may be included.

We selected the ArcFM™ Feeder Manager Multispeak model to minimize the cost to implement Feeder Manager, to migrate the spatial data from Microstation to GIS, and to allow for easy integration with iVUE.  The levels, colors, and annotation text of the Microstation CAD files have been mapped to the different feature classes and subtypes of the Multispeak target data model.  Spatial data will be migrated from the Microstation files to the target geodatabase using the data mapping plan we have written.

More complete attribution of the converted spatial data features stored in the geodatabase will come from the records stored in the NISC Oracle database.  The use of Microstation for creating simple maps for the utility will cease after the production data conversion is completed and the end users are trained in the use of ArcFM™.

The iVUE data stored in the NISC database will be migrated to the target data model during the data migration and changes to the NISC data will be written to the geodatabase on a nightly basis using the SSP Innovations Nightly Batch Suite (NBS).

The data being stored in the NISC database and managed with the iVUE application includes transformer locations, service locations, attributes for the transformers and service locations, and tabular records that represent meters and other customer-related information.  This data will be used to create and maintain the transformers, secondary (service) conductors, and service locations in the geodatabase.

All of these features will be used by ArcFM™ Feeder Manager to model the electrical distribution system of the utility and as input for ArcFM™ stored displays, page templates (for automated map generation), and eventually map services and field data collection tools.

I will hope to share a follow-up to the project once it has been completed. For now, I hope you find this conceptual description helpful!

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