Dynamic Parcel Name/Property from Field Expression

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon, all,

I am looking for a way to link parcel names to gravity pipe network structure names. Basically, I have a robust spreadsheet that I paste pipe network data tables into from C3D to do my storm sewer calculations. Recently, I realized that if I did all of my drainage areas as parcels and named the parcels the same name as the structures they are draining to, then I can also just paste in the data table for the parcels as well, rather than enter the areas manually. The catch, of course, is that as the pipe network evolves, structures may move or need to get renumbered and I will need to keep my drainage areas up-to-date. Ideally, I would like to link the names of the parcels, or at least some user defined property, to the name of their associated structure so that if I rename the structure, the parcel also gets renamed.

This would be a simple solution if I was allowed to Insert Field into the name or properties of Parcels, but I don't see a way to do that. Can anyone confirm if this is possible or not?

Thanks!

[KirkWM]

There aren't any functional links that I know of between parcel and pnet structure so, there wouldn't be a method to directly link the 2 automatically. Also, do you need drainage tables to be in the plans or exported to excel?

Option #1, if you were using catchments, there is a functional link within C3D to pnet structures that you could utilize with Dynamo. In Dynamo, I'd call up all catchments on a layer (actually layer with only catchments objects on it), get their reference structure parameter, then rename civil object name based on that, no excel tables needed.  This option is contingent on you initially linking catchments to pipe network structures which could be laborious depending on size of project. Then you could write a script to gather that data and make an Autocad table or you can export all the catchments and their respective data to excel, (which I have done and shared the script on the  Dynamo Forum). You also need C3D 2021 at least for catchment API.

Option #2, Don't change the name of the parcels, instead, utilize the parcel description to keep track of the reference structure but there won't be a link, so you'd have to continue to maintain the spreadsheet which matches parcel name to pnet structure name. You then use Dynamo to quickly search the spreadsheet for the old parcel name, lookup the associated structure name, set the parcel name to the same as structure name, but then you'd need to update the excel file afterwards, likely by hand, or have 2 columns for parcel name, one for "current" and one for "rename to" so if "rename to" is empty, code the script to not rename the parcel. 

Future, it's possible that the Project Explorer add-in may get an update to recognize catchments and that just might be the ticket.

Additionally you may be interested in my AU class from last year about pretty similar subject but also involves the "Analyze Gravity Networks" tool. https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Analyze-Gravity-Networks-Beyond-Basics-2020 

Here's a link to join the Dynamo forum if you want to learn about leveraging C3D, https://forum.dynamobim.com/invites/Yck4ZkSsvH 

Hope this gives some food for though 🙂

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the thoughtful reply, Kirk, but unfortunately both of those options are nonstarters. Regarding Option #1, catchments have very limited usefulness and I do not want to lose the functionality that parcels offer. For Option #2, the effort outweighs the benefit. Seems like a more difficult way of doing what I'm already doing, which is manually changing the parcel name if/when the corresponding structure name changes.

Crazy to me that I can't use field expressions to define C3D object names. I can think of 1,000 uses for this beyond what I'm describing here. Meh, not the only thing on my wishlist that will likely never happen.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Bump. 

I have been looking for something like this as well.  I did write a very rudimentary .Net to place the parcel name in the structure.  Still lots of clicking and it was a little buggy, so we just do it by hand.

Catchments are pretty limited.  They were added, then forgotten.

We use parcels because we can push them out to GIS with Attributes to do intersections with Impervious Cover.

Thanks,

[samir.rezk · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

I was inspired by @KirkWM idea! so following through with Dynamo as a possible workflow. The attached Dynamo graph will identify the structure that is within a Parcel, then write the structure name in the associated Parcel User-defined Property. This doesn't reference Excel but rather the structures names in the drawing themselves. Note that the drawing must contain UDP created already, (Property Set Data is another option to save the data as well, but requires graph modifications) Feel free to use the graph if you like.

Hope this helps,

[Anonymous]

Gotta give it to you two. Looks like I have a lot to explore. Dynamo has not been on my radar, and that does precisely what I'm looking for. I did not see in the video how it handles multiple structures within the same parcel area, but I will be taking it for a spin soon. Thank you for putting this together!