Routing Rules

Routing Rules are special PDMS rules which are used to control how components are selected, positioned and orientated as Branches are routed and how Pipes are packed on Pipe Racks and Routing Planes.

You can use the sample routing rules supplied with the Pipe Router, or define routing rules refer to Automatic Pipe Routing Administration.

Routing rules can be applied to individual branches or all branches within a particular site, zone, or pipe. Rules can be applied or removed to individual components, as required.

Expressions

A routing rule consists of PDMS expressions. PDMS expressions are described in detail in Attributes in Expressions.

PDMS expressions consist of the following:

• PDMS element types. For example, VALV, BRAN, TEE which also includes OWNER and MEMBER.

• PDMS attributes and pseudo-attributes. For example, HDIR, ABOR.

• Logical operators. The operators available are

  • EQ equal to

  • NE not equal to

  • GE greater than or equal to

  • GT greater than

  • LE less than or equal to

  • LT less than

• Keywords. There are a wide variety of keywords, for example, ALL, WITH, UP, IS.

Apply a Rule Set to a Branch

Once a rule set has been created, it can be applied to a branch. The rules will then take effect on the components in the branch. From the Pipe Router window, select the branch with which you want to associate a rule set.

From the Pipe Router window, select Settings > Apply Rules > To Branch to display the Apply Rules to SELECTED window.

You must first select the rule world which contains the rule sets to apply to the branch from the RULE WORLD list, which contains all the Branches selected on the Pipe Router window. From the Rule sets available in current world list, select the rule set. The rule set can be added as high priority or low priority.

Click Add HIGH to add the rule set to the High Priority Sets list or Add LOW to add the rule set to the Low Priority Sets list. Click Apply. You must then route the branch to apply the rules.

Pipe Router first checks to see if there are any rules that will apply to a component from the high priority rule sets. If there are none then Pipe Router checks if there are any rules that will apply in the low priority rule sets.

From the Settings > Apply Rules options on the Pipe Router window applies the rule sets to a site, zone or pipe. In these cases all branches which are below them in the hierarchy will also have the rule sets applied, unless they have rule sets specifically applied.

Note:
If rules are applied to an element which contains many Branches, for example, a Zone, then each time a Branch is routed, Pipe Router will check every Branch to see if the rules apply which may take some time.

By default, Pipe Router applies all the rules in the specified sets to a branch, providing they are appropriate. However, you can remove a rule from a particular component in a branch, or add one from another rule set.

Remove a Rule Set

To remove a rule set, you must first select the branch from the Pipe Router window, then select Settings > Apply Rules > To Branch. The Apply Rules to SELECTED window is displayed, the rule set to be removed must be selected. Click Remove HIGH or Remove LOW as appropriate. Click Apply.

If a Rule Set has applied to a Pipe, Site or Zone, it will be removed from all Branches in that Pipe, Site or Zone.

Include a Rule from another Rule Set or World

If required you can apply a rule to a component from another rule world or rule set, from the Pipe Router window, select the branches to apply the rule to, click Branch Detail. From the Branch Detail window, click Component Rules. The Component Rules window is displayed which you can use to add additional rules from the available rule sets, or from another rule world.

From the Rules applying to current component list, select the component that the rule will be applied to.

The letter that precedes the rule description shows where the rule was originally applied. The letters used are:

• B Branch

• PPipe

• Z Zone

• S Site

From the Rules available list, select the rule you want to apply to the selected component, then click Include. The rule is added to the list of rules which apply to the component. Click Dismiss to close the Component Rules window.

Disabling a Rule from a Component

You can prevent Pipe Router from applying a rule to a particular component in a branch, from the Pipe Router window, select the branch which contains the component. Click Branch Detail to display the Branch Detail window. From the Branch Detail window, select the component from which you want to exclude the rule. Click Component Rules, the Component Rules window is displayed.

From the list of rules that apply to the current component, select the rule you want to disable from the component, then click Disable. Pipe Router places an asterisk (*) to the left of the rule description to indicate that the rule is now excluded from being used.

If you want to re-enable a disabled rule, select the rule, then select Enable. The rule will now appear in the Rules applying to current component list, preceded by a plus sign (+) indicating that it has been included.