The Demand Allocator user interface consists of a section of the InfoWater Pro ribbon under the Allocator section where all of the available Demand Allocation Manager functions reside. The Demand Allocator toolbar is activated through the InfoWater Pro ribbon under the Project section by selecting the Allocator command and selecting Run.
The large Allocation Manager \ button will open the Demand Allocation Manager, which is used to Allocate demands from the model.
The Edit drop-down menu can be used to edit Loading polygons directly with the software.
The Edit options provided in InfoWater Pro Demand Allocator menu are explained as below:
- Add Rectangle - Draw rectangular polygons. Polygon attributes will need to be specified.
- Add Polygon - Draw multi-vertex polygons. Polygon attributes will need to be specified.
- Append Polygon - Create a new polygon by appending new edges to existing polygons. If the new polygon does not intersect an existing polygon at any location, then a completely separate polygon will be created.
- Split Polygon - Split a polygon into two distinct polygons. First select a polygon to be split, than draw a line through the polygon identifying the split location.
- Union: Join two separate polygons into a single polygon. Adjacent polygons must have a common side. Common sides will be dissolved as part of the merge process.
- Subtract: Cookie-cut the first selected polygon with the second selected polygon.
- Intersect: Reduce two overlapping polygons to their overlapping area only. Select two overlapping polygons one by one (via left click to select and right click for Enter). A single polygon corresponding to their overlapping area will be returned.
- Delete Polygon: Delete selected polygons.
- Move Polygon: Move selected polygon from one location to another. First click on the polygon, then right click, and select Enter. Left click on the location to move "from" and then left click again the location to move “to”.
The Assign Meters command allows you to review which meters are currently assigned to which pipes and nodes and to assign meters to specific meters and nodes. Clicking on the Meter Assignment icon launches the Meter Assignment dialog box as shown below.
The More drop-down menu contains additional commands used by the Demand Allocator such as registering Polygon Layers, Importing Meter data, developing Water Duty factors, or creating Thiessen Polygons.
The More options provided in InfoWater Pro Demand Allocator menu are explained as below:
- Active Layer: Use this function to select the active layer.
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Water Duty Developer: Use this function to determine Water Duties (demand per unit area, i.e., gpm/acre, Lps/hectare, etc.) automatically based on spatially located demands and polygonal land use boundaries. Clicking on this option will bring up the Water Duty Developer dialog box. There are no existing standards for Land Use Water Duty Factors; they vary from City to City and from Water Agency to Water Agency. As an example, there are typically multiple Land Use designations for a Residential Land Use and are typically separated based on densities (R-1, R-2, R-3, etc.). However, an R-2 Land Use in one City may be defined as 3-6 dwelling units per acre (du/ac), in another City as 2-5 du/ac, and in a third City as 3-5 du/ac – this makes determining specific water duty factors a daunting task. The Water Duty Developer combines the areas present in a polygon coverage of Land Use data with either (1) geo-coded billing data or (2) junction demand data to automatically determine Water Duty Factors for every Land Use polygon.
- Edit Polygon Attribute: Edit the current active polygon attributes. Make sure that the shapefile of interest is first registered.
- Import Meter Data: Use this icon to import existing meter data. This feature allows you to convert any text file into a point theme shapefile representing your meter data. The text file must have coordinates (X,Y), ID and a demand for each record. Optionally, a usage type may be included (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial). After conversion, a demand field (HX_DMD) and a usage type field (HX_USAGE) will be created as part of the resultant shapefile.
- Create Thiessen Polygon: Use this icon to create Thiessen polygons. Thiessen polygons provide a means to divide an area into polygons by creating regions that bisect known points. Imaginary lines are first drawn between the different junction nodes and then perpendicular bisectors are constructed from each of these imaginary lines. The bisectors are then extended to one another to form Thiessen polygons. This process is also known as dynamic segmentation, whereby polygons are dynamically created from nodal topology.
- Auto Junction Assignment: Automatically assign the first encountered junction ID within each polygon to be the demand junction for that demand area polygon.
- Assign Contributing Polygon: Allows you to manually assign a junction node ID to selected contributing polygon(s).
- Add Demand Nodes to Domain: Place all junction nodes with assigned contributing polygons to the current domain. This feature is helpful to visually identify all junction nodes that have been assigned contributing polygons. Junction nodes will be added to any existing domain.
You can also find all commands for the Demand Allocator tool via InfoWater Pro > Apps > Apps Manager.