A Database provides a flexible hierarchy for managing data.
The top level of this hierarchical structure is the Group or Model Group. All other database items within a database must be contained in a Group or Model group. Groups or Model groups may be nested within other Groups or Model groups.
Data items of a particular type can be grouped together by storing them in one of the available groups nested within the relevant top level group.
For a full list of all the database item types available in InfoWorks ICM, see Database Items.
Create a group
To create a Group or Model group
- Right-click on the Database icon in the Explorer Window.
- Select New from the popup menu.
- Click on the type of group you want to add from the list of available group types. A New name dialog is displayed.
- Type a name for the group.
- Click OK.
Create a database item
To create a database item
- Right-click on a Group or Model group in the Explorer Window.
- Select the new database item you require from the
following section of the popup menu:
- New InfoWorks or New SWMM for a Model group
- New for a Group.
- A New name dialog is displayed.
- Type a name for the item.
- Click OK.
Open a database item
You can open an item either by right clicking and using the popup menu, or by drag and drop.
Popup menu
- Right-click on the item to display the popup menu.
- Click Open.
Some items also have an Open As menu item. If you click this you will be given a list of options for opening the item in different formats. For example, a simulation can be opened for replay with the GeoPlan Window displayed, or as a text report.
Drag and drop
- Click on the item and hold the mouse button down.
- Drag the item onto the main window background. The mouse cursor will change from
to
if you are in a valid location for the drop operation.
- Release the mouse button to open the item.
Some items, such as a selection list, need to be dropped onto an existing item (usually a GeoPlan View of a network) to ensure that they are associated with the correct item.
Import a database item
Many database items can be imported from external files.
To import an item
- Right-click on the Model group of interest.
- On the popup menu, select Import InfoWorks or Import SWMM then the type of database item to import. If import is not possible for a given database item, that particular database item will not be available from the menu.
- There may be additional import options available from a subsequent context menu. These are generally related to the source format for the data. Select the desired option.
InfoWorks ICM will import the item, and give it a name based on the source filename. If this name clashes with an existing database item of the same type, InfoWorks ICM adds successive '!' characters until a unique name is created. You have the option of changing this name after the import process.
Export a database item
Many database items can be exported to external files. Depending on the number of file formats to which the data can be exported, there may be more than one menu option available.
To export a database item to a file
- Right-click on the database item and choose Export (or Export
To destination file) from the popup menu.
- Browse to the location where you want to save the file. InfoWorks ICM suggests a filename based on the database item name. You can change this if you wish.
- Click Save to export the data.
Rename a database item
To change the name of any item in the database
- Right-click on the item in the database tree.
- Select Rename from the popup menu.
- The Rename dialog is displayed. Type a new name for the item.
- Click OK.
Copy a database item
You can make a copy of any item in a database except a version controlled item. For more information about version control, see Managing Version Controlled Items.
To copy an item from a database (except for a version controlled item)
- Right-click on the item in the database tree.
- Select Copy from the popup menu.
- Right-click on the item under which you would like to paste the copy.
- Select Paste : with children from the popup menu. If Paste is unavailable, you are trying to paste the item into an inappropriate place in the database.
- If necessary, rename the new item. (Where the new item has the same name as an existing item in the same location, an exclamation mark (!) is added to the new item's name).
Delete a database item
To delete a database item from the Explorer window
- Select an item for deletion:
- Right-click on it in the database tree and select Delete from the popup menu or
- Click on it using the left mouse button and press the DELETE key
- If the selected object is being used by other objects a warning message is displayed, informing the user that these other objects may become unusable if the selected object is deleted. Click Yes on the message to proceed.
- If the selected object is not being used by other objects, a confirmation message of the type
Are you sure you want to delete this object? is displayed. Click Yes to confirm deletion.
If you are deleting an on-premise database item, it will be sent to the Recycle Bin and will remain there until the Recycle Bin is emptied or the item is deleted or restored.
If you are deleting a cloud database item, a message is displayed warning you that the item will be sent to the Recycle Bin and will remain there for 30 days unless you restore it from the bin. If you do not restore the item, delete it from the bin, or empty the bin, then after 30 days it will automatically be permanently deleted.- Check the Do not show me this dialog again box if you do not want this dialog appearing every time you delete a
cloud database item.
Note: This dialog will be displayed again the first time you delete a database item after the cloud database has been updated.
- Click OK to acknowledge the warning and complete the deletion.
- Check the Do not show me this dialog again box if you do not want this dialog appearing every time you delete a
cloud database item.
- Delete local results. Available for on-premise simulations. Selecting this option permanently deletes all the associated results files. A simulation object remains in the tree view, and the colour of its icon indicates its status.
- Delete all local results. Available for cloud simulations with full results or summary results. Selecting this option permanently deletes all the associated local results files. A simulation object remains in the tree view with its status icon displayed with a faded colour, indicating that full results are available in the cloud.
- Delete local non-summary results. Available for cloud simulations with full results. Selecting this option permanently deletes all results files except any time-varying results files and the status and log files. The simulation status icon is displayed with a full colour, indicating that results are available locally. Full results will also be available in the cloud.
If deleting a group (such as Group, Model Group, Asset Group or any user-defined group) remember that all items within the group will also be deleted. A warning message will be displayed to the user if some of the objects selected for deletion (or their children) are used by other objects in a Database. The message warns users about these dependencies and informs them that these other objects may become unusable as a result of the deletion. Click OK in the dialog to complete the deletion process or Cancel to abort it. The Confirm Deletion dialog is displayed regardless of the existence of dependencies. It lists all the objects that are about to be deleted. Click Yes on that dialog to confirm deletion.
Delete several database items at the same time (Bulk delete)
It is possible to delete multiple Database Items at the same time. To simultaneously delete several items from the explorer window:
- Select multiple items in the database tree. Select an item then:
- with the SHIFT key held down, click on another item to select contiguous items, or
- with the CTRL key held down to select non-contiguous items
Tip: The deletion of multiple database items is not permitted for selections including the top-level database or the Recycle Bin.
- Then do one of the following:
- Right-click one of the selected objects and select Delete from the popup menu, or
- Press the DELETE key
- If some of the selected objects or their children are being used by other objects in the database a warning message is displayed, informing the user that these other objects may become unusable if the selected objects are deleted. Click Yes on the message to proceed.
- The Confirm Deletion dialog is displayed. It lists the database items about to be deleted.
- Click Yes to confirm deletion.
The on-premise database items are sent to the Recycle Bin and will remain there until the Recycle Bin is emptied or the items are deleted or restored.
A message is displayed for cloud database items, warning you that the items will be sent to the Recycle Bin and will remain there for 30 days unless you restore them from the recycle bin. If you do not restore the items, delete them from the bin, or empty the bin, then after 30 days they will automatically be permanently deleted.- Check the Do not show me this dialog again box if you do not want this dialog appearing every time you delete a
cloud database item.
Note: This dialog will be displayed the first time you delete a database item after the cloud database has been updated.
- Click OK to acknowledge the warning and complete the deletion.
- Check the Do not show me this dialog again box if you do not want this dialog appearing every time you delete a
cloud database item.
If deleting, amongst other items, a group (such as Group, Model Group , Asset Group or any user-defined group) note that all items within the group will also be deleted. A warning message will be displayed if some of the objects selected for deletion (or their children) are used by other objects in the database. The message warns you about these dependencies and informs you that these other objects may become unusable as a result of the deletion. Click OK in the dialog to complete the deletion process or Cancel to abort it. The Confirm Deletion dialog is displayed regardless of the existence of dependencies. It lists all the objects that are about to be deleted. Click Yes on that dialog to confirm deletion.
View the properties of a database item
Every item in a database has some basic properties associated with it. These include:
- user comments - these can be made at any time as long as the item is not read only. They are especially useful for adding notes to a version controlled item.
- hyperlinks - these allow you to associate external files or internet addresses with any item in the database. See the Using Hyperlinks section.
To open the property sheet for a database item
- On the Explorer Window, right-click on the item.
- Choose Properties from the popup menu. This opens the Properties dialog.
Hide / show database items
Database items displayed in the Explorer View can be flagged as 'Hidden'.
- Right-click on the item in the database tree and select Advanced
Hide from the popup menu.
- The icon of the item will be faded. To remove the Hidden flag from an item, right- click on the item and select the Advanced
Hide option again.
Right-click in the Explorer View and select Show Hidden Items to turn the display of objects flagged as Hidden on and off.
Find database items in the tree
The Find Window that can be started from the Explorer Window toolbar can be used to search the database tree.
- Click Find (
) on the toolbar. The Find in Database dialog is displayed.
- Type in the text to be searched for and the item property to be searched (e.g. name, type, user and description).
- The Find Window displays the results of searches carried out on the database tree.
- A context menu with different options is available for each search result:
- Open
- Select in Tree
- Properties
See the Find Window section of the Explorer Window topic for detailed information on each of these options.
Edit data in grid windows
For some database items, the data that describes them is contained in a grid window. The topic, Editing Data in Grid Windows, describes the basic operations that can be used when editing data in these type of windows.
Download full results or summary results from the cloud
Results for a cloud simulation, which are not available locally, can be downloaded from the cloud using either of the following options from the popup menu in the tree view:
- Download full results. Available when you right-click on a simulation that has either no results or only summary results available locally.
- Download summary results. Available when you right-click on a simulation that has no results available locally.
There are other methods you can also use to download results from the Explorer window, which are described in Downloading Results.