Skip to main content
View and set a conductor's properties
Updated over 9 months ago

When you have placed your conductor down you can select it with the Move & Select tool on the toolbar. You can then view and edit the conductor on the Properties tab.

Conductor properties are grouped into four sections:

  1. General

  2. Poles

  3. Spans

  4. Materials

General

In the general tab we can change the physical characteristics of the cable:

  • Type

  • Voltage

  • Number of cables

  • Creep offset

We can also change the catenary definition - we enter in the temperature definition value in the textbox to the right:

  • Maximum Tension: The tension will be such that the maximum tension across all cables at all attachment points does not exceed this value

  • Horizontal Tension: The horizontal component of the tension will be set to this value. This is a constant along the entire cable, given the assumptions that tensions equalize.

  • The ratio of Sag to ruling span: The tension will be such that the conductor sag is equal to a percentage of the span length. This sag percentage will be maintained as the span length is modified. To give meaningful results when there are uneven spans, the span length used to define the sag is the ruling span

  • Separate constrains per cable: The cables are locked to a given length. A starting tension must also be specified so that the conductors may be considered to be strained at the locked length. The length may then extend slightly due to further strain under increased load.

As you change the catenary definition different fields are provided below to enter in values such as CBL%, Tension, Sag%, Constraint, Length.

The tension in environments section informs us about the nominal and factored CBL% or Tension and whether this is greater than or less than the environment maximum defined in the environments table and strength states table and whether this results in a pass or fail.

Note that the strength states table define the allowable maximum strength in the conductor's column - in some template example the conductor factor will be 0.5, therefore, in the environment max column, you will see the 50%.

Poles

In the poles tab:

  1. Enter in the top distance/height of the cross arm on the poles (click on top dist to interchange between the two)

  2. Define the construction used, the phasing of the cables and the rotation of the crossarms

  3. Select the boxing on the left to do Bulk changes - these options appear at the bottom

Spans

In the spans tab users can select between environments to observe the sag, blowout and H. departure.

The properties highlighted on the Spans tab are:

  1. Select Environment: Select from available environments for sag and blowout details in that environment

  2. Span information: List of all the spans within a selected conductor group, the spans are denoted by the pole labels for each end

  3. Span length: Span length is shown and editable here - editing this will move the location of a pole to accomodate the new change

  4. Sag detail: Sag detail of selected environments is shown here, for calculation details see Sag-Tension Calculation

  5. Blowout detail: Horizontal blowout detail of selected environment is shown here. For calculation details see Blowout Calculation

  6. Horizontal departure: Detail of how far conductor moves from center point

  7. Span clashes: Select from available environments for span clash details in those environments

  8. Span clash table: Tabulated form of conductors, labelling yes or no for clashes occurring.

Materials

You can set the status of the cable here (existing, new, replace, remove, retention).

Depending on status your conductors will appear a set colour with a legend when you have selected Status for Asset Coloring.

For more information about setting and displaying asset status, see Manage an asset's status

Did this answer your question?