Expert designer system virtual plug-in interface

[0002] Portions of this patent application contain materials that are subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document, or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

[0003] Included are two appendices to this patent application. Appendix A includes Expert Designer System Version 3.0, Virtual GIS, Application Programming Interface (API), Technical Specification, Version 1.0 (Feb. 24, 2000). Appendix B includes Expert Designer System Version 3.0, Virtual WMS, Application Programming Interface (API), Technical Specification, Version 0.2 (Jan. 4, 2000).

[0004] 1. Field of the Invention

[0005] The present invention relates to expert designer systems, and more particularly to interfaces for expert designer systems for use in the utility industry.

[0006] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0007] Expert designer systems allow a user to design a real-world facility on the computer and to analyze the resulting computerized model of the facility to enhance or change the design. As described herein, a facility is made up of features, real-world components such as transformers and telephone poles. A feature may be a compound feature containing other features; for example, a switchbox contains and cutouts, each switch and cutout itself being a feature. A facility is designed for a particular work location, defined by physical boundaries of the land.

[0008] Expert designer systems automate developing, planning, modeling, and managing large facilities. In the utility industry, expert designer systems are used to manage, for example, gas distribution utility systems and electric utility distribution systems. Expert designer systems often access and make use of geographic information systems (GIS) information. Geographic information systems provide spatial information describing existing land and facilities to be incorporated into proposed designs. For example, an expert designer system may be used to design facilities in coordination with a variety of sources of geographic information, such as Automated Mapping and Facilities Management (AM/FM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), and related information technologies for utilities, government agencies, and other organizations concerned with land records and facilities management. These geographic information sources will be referred to collectively herein as “geographic information systems,” or “GISs.”

[0009] It is known to provide an expert designer system for use with geographic information systems. One example of such a system is available from Cook-Hurlbert, Inc. under the trade designation CH-Expert Designer, v. 2.0. FIG. 1, labeled prior art, shows a block diagram of such an expert designer system for use with geographic information systems. The expert designer system of FIG. 1 includes an expert designer 102 and an expert designer database 108. Expert designer 102 is coupled to a GIS core 104. The GIS core 104 is coupled to a GIS database 106. In operation, a user accesses the expert designer system 102, which interacts with the GIS core 104 to obtain information from the GIS database 106. The expert designer 102 is designed specifically to interact with a particular GIS.

[0010] The expert designer 102 also integrates GIS with work management applications (not shown), offering a standard, cost-effective way to close the loop between design and mapping. Expert designer 102 allows GIS-based spatial information describing existing land and facilities to be incorporated into proposed designs.

[0011] The expert designer system of FIG. 1 includes a plurality of analysis tools including an electrical distribution system analysis tool and a gas analysis tool. The electrical distribution system analysis tool helps utilities reduce expensive losses in current systems and design maximum efficiencies into future installations. The gas analysis tool is used for natural gas and other hydraulic systems, giving engineers a complete tool kit for a wide range of network modeling tasks

[0012] The electrical distribution system analysis tool helps utilities ward off damaging voltage fluctuations in radial electric distribution systems. The software's short-circuit analysis program offers information on what happens in an electric distribution system when a fault occurs. The product also offers graphic user interface independence. CH-Analysis leverages existing technology by using the front and back end of a current GIS, keeping information access under one umbrella. The electrical distribution system analysis tool includes VAR Optimization and Motor Starting, providing a more robust electric analysis package.

[0013] The gas analysis tool provides for load flow analysis, pipe sizing, valve coefficient calculation, pressure drop calculation and tail end pressure calculation. The gas analysis tool enhances the GIS to provide maximum benefits. The ability of these tools to link AM/FM/GIS software to analysis tools keeps all information accessible under one umbrella.

[0014] The CH-Expert Designer system also includes a quality analysis tool that allows utilities to easily verify connectivity, object placement, and object attribute values in a trail boundary network, or an entire GIS. The quality analysis tool allows users to verify that the data meet very high quality standards and to identify recurring problems.

[0015] The expert designer system provides user interfaces to link AM/FM/GIS software to analysis tools. The user interfaces allow users to employ their AM/FM/GISs to create and import analysis data, drive analysis programs and accumulate or reduce network variables.

[0016] The expert designer system described above provides excellent tools for modeling and designing facilities. However, the expert designer systems described above are designed to interact with a specific GIS and/or work management system. Most expert designer systems cannot be adapted to operate with more than one type of GIS or more than one type of work management system. What is needed is an expert designer system that operates independently of the type of GIS and the type of work management system.

[0017] In accordance with the present invention, an expert designer system for managing facility designs and work requests is presented. The expert designer system includes an expert designer system core to request information from database systems. The expert designer system also includes a virtual plug-in interface that enables the expert designer system to seamlessly integrate with multiple types of database systems, including geographic information systems and work management systems.

[0018] The virtual plug-in interface may include a virtual GIS plug-in interface which communicates with the expert designer system core and with a geographic information system. The virtual plug-in interface may include a virtual WMS plug-in interface which communicates with the expert designer system core and with a work management system. The expert designer system operates independently of the type of geographic information system and the type of work management system. The expert designer system includes a plurality of functions including design process management, offline design, configurable rule based feature placement and quality control, configurable rule based unit assignment, design editing tools, and structural, electrical and gas analysis.

[0019] The virtual GIS plug-in interface includes at least one of the following interfaces: a GIS modeling interface, a GIS database interface, a GIS workspace interface, a GIS events interface, a GIS topology interface, a GIS active view interface, and a GIS plot interface.

[0020] The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference number throughout the several figures designates a like or similar element.

[0021] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a prior art expert designer system and a geographic information system.

[0022] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an expert designer system in accordance with the present invention, a geographic information system, and a work management system.

[0023] FIG. 3 shows an example of an object model of the virtual geographic information system interface of the expert designer system of FIG. 2.

[0024] FIG. 4 shows an example of an object model of the GIS plot interface of FIG. 3.

[0025] FIG. 5 shows an example of a virtual work management system interface.

[0026] Overview

[0027] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an expert designer system 200 and a geographic information system and a work management system with which the expert designer system interacts. Expert designer system 200 includes expert designer user interface 207, expert designer core 210, ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) 219, and ED Database (RDBMS) 220. The expert designer system 200 includes a presentation layer 202, an application layer 204, a communications layer 205, and a database layer 206. Presentation layer 202 includes an expert designer user interface 207.

[0028] Application layer 204 includes an expert designer core 210 which includes at least one module such as design editor module 208, work management module 209, design QC module 211, and business rules module 213.

[0029] Communications layer 205 includes a virtual plug-in interface 214 and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) 219. Virtual plug-in interface 214 includes a virtual geographic information system (GIS) interface 216 and a virtual work management system (WMS) interface 218. Design editor module 208 makes all calls to virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 and work management module 209 makes all calls to virtual WMS plug-in interface 218.

[0030] Database layer 206 includes an expert designer system (ED) database 220 for storing persistent data for the expert designer system 200. ED database 220 is preferably implemented using a relational database management system, although databases implemented using non-relational database management systems are also within the scope of the invention. Also shown at the database layer 206 level, although not a part of the expert designer system 200, are two types of database systems with which the expert designer system 200 is designed to interact: a native geographic information system (GIS) 230, including a native GIS core 232 and a native GIS database 234, and a native work management system (WMS) 240, including a native WMS core 242 and a native WMS database 244.

[0031] In operation, the expert designer user interface 210 interacts with the expert designer core 212. The expert designer core 212 is coupled to the database layer 206 via the virtual plug-in interface 214. The expert designer core 212 is also coupled to the ED database 220 via ADO 219.

[0032] The expert designer core 212 performs a plurality of functions. More specifically, the expert designer core 212 exposes common data to the expert designer user interface 207, interacts with the virtual plug-in interface 214, abstracts features in the GIS and/or WMS, contains a knowledge of business rules, and performs expert designer core logic functions.

[0033] Examples of common data which may be shared between the expert designer system 200, the GIS, and the WMS include designs, work requests, work locations, work location facilities, compatible units, material items, cost, and associated labor. A compatible unit is a standardized specification of labor and material including material items. For example, in an embodiment for a gas distribution facility, the three systems share information about the design of the gas distribution facility, work requests for changes to the gas distribution facility, the work location of the gas distribution facility, any components of the gas distribution facility already in place at the work location, compatible units, and material items.

[0034] When abstracting features in the GIS, expert designer core 210 may use configurable abstraction modules 217 to abstract the shape of tables in the GIS, store database relationship information or contain attribute defaults for feature creation.

[0035] The expert designer core 210 also includes a design QC module 211 and a business rules engine 213. Business rules engine 213 defines feature placement rules and stores quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) information. More specifically, the feature placement rules handle attribute dependencies, manage device aggregation and restrict incorrect feature placement. Design QC module 211 is used to ensure that a design meets quality standards for feature connectivity and attributes.

[0036] FIG. 3 is an object model of virtual GIS plug-in interface 216. The expert designer system of FIG. 3 is based upon a Component Object Model (COM) architecture. The COM architecture is an open architecture which provides the expert designer system with independence from specific GIS and WMS implementations and specific programming languages. Other embodiments of the expert designer system may use other architectures that provide independence similar to that provided by the COM architecture.

[0037] For those unfamiliar with object-oriented frameworks, a brief summary is presented here. The building block of an object-oriented framework is an object. An object is defined through its state and a behavior. The state of an object is set forth via properties of the object, which are included as fields in the object. The behavior of the object is set forth by methods of the object. Each object is an instance of a class, which provides a template for the object. A class defines zero or more fields to store properties of an object and zero or more methods.

[0038] Each field is a data structure that contains property information defining a portion of the state of an object. Objects that are instances of the same class having the same fields, but where the particular property information contained within the fields may vary from object to object. Each field can contain information that is direct, such as an integer value, or indirect, such as a reference to another object.

[0039] A method is a collection of computer instructions that execute in a processor using computer system software. The instructions of a method are executed and the method is performed when software requests that the object for which the method is defined perform the method. The object performing the method is the responder or the responding object. When performing the method, the responder consumes one or more arguments, i.e., input data and produces zero or one result, i.e. an object returned as output data. The methods for a particular object define the behavior of the object. When a method of an object is called, the method that is accessed may be defined in a class of which the object is a member or in any one of super-classes of the class of which the object is a member.

[0040] Interfaces are modeled as objects in the expert designer system described herein. An interface is implemented by writing function calls, or modules, of a computer program. As used herein, modules are equivalent to methods to communicate with a database system such as a geographic information system or a work management system.

[0041] Returning to the invention, the virtual GIS COM model for the embodiment of the expert designer system 200 shown in FIG. 3 includes three co-classes, one class for accessing the native GIS 230 and two classes for plotting GIS information. The virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 exposes seven interfaces. The virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 is implemented differently for each native GIS 230, and each implementation has a unique identifier. The identifier for the virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 is stored in the registry and accessed by the expert designer system 200 upon initialization. The interfaces exposed by the virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 co-classes are identified using an interface identifier. Each interface identifier is the same for all implementations for the virtual plug-in interface 216. These interfaces are discussed in more detail below.

[0042] Virtual GIS plug-in interface 216 is a collection of services intended to provide isolation from specific GIS implementations. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the services are provided as a set of Component Object Model (COM) interfaces. GIS model interface 315 provides a limited set of operations focused on the creation and maintenance of GIS features that contain graphics. GIS active view interface 340 provides a limited set of services to control and query the user's view of the GIS map. Services include panning the map to specific map locations, query of the user's tap points, and query and control of the user's selected features. GIS database interface 320 provides basic operations on records in the native GIS database 234. GIS topology interface 335 provides both connection and attachment capabilities for features in the GIS. GIS workspace interface 325 provides the capability to manage the workspace of GIS model data. A workspace corresponds to the user's current working session within native GIS 230. The GIS workspace interface 325 provides management of that workspace including creation, deletion, and merging different users' workspace to allow different users to make simultaneous changes to the same geographic map. GIS plot interface 345 provides the capability to plot images from the GIS. Each of these interfaces uses geometries and is described in more detail below.

[0043] The GIS model interface 315 controls feature manipulation including feature addition, feature update, feature movement, feature deletion and feature retrieval. A feature represents a real-world object which cannot be further divided into similar objects, such as a pole or a street. A feature includes the real world object's cartographic geometries and database elements (e.g., attributes).

[0044] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the GIS modeling interface 315 exposes the methods that act upon objects in a single COM interface.

[0045] The GIS modeling interface 315 uses several objects exposed as a geometry. A geometry identifies spatial data used to create graphical elements. A geometry is one of the following objects: an ILine object which includes a collection of coordinates made of line segments, arc segments, and bspline segments; an IText object including a coordinate along with a string buffer, orientation, and justification; or an IPoint object including a coordinate, orientation, and scale. The ILine, IPoint, and IText objects all implement IGeometry, and the ILine, IPoint, and IText objects are passed to the virtual GIS plug-in interface 216.

[0046] A feature object consists of a geometry and a database record. A compound feature object is a collection of features in a containment relationship. The container (or parent object) has a database record and a geometry. The child features do not have geometry.

[0047] The GIS database interface 320 controls standard database manipulation. More specifically, the GIS database interface 320 includes modules for connecting to the native GIS, inserting records, updating records, deleting records, and retrieving records from the native GIS database. The GIS database interface 320 also includes a module for obtaining the shape of a table in the native GIS database 234.

[0048] The workspace interface 325 controls the GIS workspace environment. More specifically, the workspace interface controls subscribe/publish functions, open/close functions, undo/redo functions, start transaction/end transaction functions and commit/rollback functions.

[0049] The GIS events interface 330 detects and notifies other components of the expert designer system 200 that an event has taken place. Events that are detected by the GIS events interface 330 include a change in one or more of the following: a component of the active view, the native GIS database 234, and a component of the GIS model.

[0050] The GIS topology interface 335 establishes two types of connectivity to the native GIS. The first type is a direct GIS connection, where the GIS views and stores the features as connected. The second type of connectivity is an attachment, where additional features or tables are added to a native GIS database (utility schema) to form associations between facilities (such as a structure to device attachment or a structure to conductor attachment). These two types of connectivity allow a feature to connect to another feature and to be attached (but not connected) to another feature.

[0051] A GIS connection is established using the virtual GIS plug-in interface by calling GIS connection primitives when needed. Expert designer system 200 also provides the opportunity to customize functionality so that attachments can be included in a design.

[0052] The active view interface 340 controls standard GIS view manipulation. The active view interface 340 evaluates the active set of user defined points and creates a geometry object to represent them. If a single point is placed, then a point geometry will be returned. If a series of points have been defined in the GIS, then a line type geometry will be returned, including arcs and curves.

[0053] More specifically, the active view interface 340 controls the following functions: retrieve/clear user-defined points, retrieve/clear user-selected features, highlight/remove highlight, pan to coordinate, pan to feature, pan to geometry, draw on, and offset path along feature.

[0054] GIS plot interface 345 is discussed in further detail below.

[0055] FIG. 4 shows an object model of the GIS plot interface 345. The GIS plot interface 345 includes two co-classes for plotting GIS information, virtual GIS plot layout co-class 410 and virtual GIS plot layouts co-class 430. The GIS plot layout interface 420 is retrieved from the native GIS through the GIS plot interface 345 contained in a virtual GIS plot layouts 430 collection.

[0056] FIG. 5 shows an interface for the virtual work management system 510. The interface includes modules to retrieve a work request initiation from the WMS, retrieve work request cancellations, retrieve work request completions, retrieve design estimates, retrieve design approvals, retrieve as-built data, retrieve work request updates, retrieve unit updates, submit work request initiations, submit design data, submit as-built data, submit work request cancellations, submit work request completions, submit design approvals, and submit work request updates.

[0057] Other Embodiments

[0058] Other embodiments are within the following claims.

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