Error features are generated by the system when a feature in a utility network is in violation of established rules and restrictions. Upon creation of an error feature, a dirty area is created encompassing the feature geometry. Descriptions associated with error features help you understand what violation is occurring. Error features can be inspected and fixed by making edits to the feature geometry, attribute values, network rules, or subnetwork definition. The next time the network topology is enabled or validated, error features are evaluated.
For more information on error situations and solutions, see Error management.
What are error features?
The Point Errors, Line Errors, and Polygon Errors feature classes manage all error features for a utility network. These feature classes are noneditable sublayers of a utility network layer. The Contents pane is used to access these sublayers after adding a utility network to an active map view.
When a violation in the network is detected, an error feature is created that encompasses the network feature geometry.
Attributes of error features allow you to adjust the symbology and execute queries to highlight information on a map, for example, the feature class they are associated with, or the type of error they are tracking. Information about a problem network feature is stored in attributes on an error feature. If applicable, information about the neighboring feature participating in the problem is also retained.
For instructions on accessing error features, see View error features.
When are error features generated?
Error features are created when a topology is enabled or validated and when subnetworks are updated. Error features are created for a variety of reasons, from identifying empty geometries to discovering invalid asset types in a subnetwork. For a full list of error situations and solutions, see Error management.
Rules supporting geometric coincident-based connectivity are checked when the network topology is validated or enabled. Therefore, after a network topology has been validated or enabled, error features appear for any network features that cause issues.
Rules controlling associations are checked when you try to create or import an association as well as when a network topology is enabled or validated. Error features are not created for associations when creating or importing associations; instead, an error is returned in the tool and pane. Error features are generated for associations when a network topology is enabled or validated.
There is a third case where associations cause error features. This is when reconciling takes place and there is an association to a feature present in the child version, but in the default version, the same feature has been deleted. After reconciling takes place and the network topology is validated, an error feature is generated to indicate there is an association that is only affiliated with one network feature.
Error features can be discovered during the initial setup and configuration of a utility network. This is done for the purpose of discovering error features in your network and correcting data before it is published. This process is completed before registering the data as versioned, by using the Only generate errors option in the Enable network topology tool. See Enable a network topology for more information.
Examples of error features
In the example below, a point feature has been placed geometrically coincident to a line feature. There is no rule to allow the two asset types to connect. When the network topology is validated or enabled, error features are generated. In this example, since no rule exists, a point error feature is created coincident to the point network feature, and a line error feature is created coincident to the network line feature. In addition, the network features are not connected (not snapped together).
Another example of a situation that violates restrictions of a utility network is coincident features that create ambiguity with regard to connectivity. These are cases where there are three or more coincident features and connectivity rules allow any of them to be connected. For example, a dead end and a riser are located at the same endpoint on a medium-voltage line. There are two connectivity rules: one to allow the medium-voltage line to connect to the dead end and one for the line to connect to the riser. Since there are two possibilities, the utility network tracks this as an error. The utility network will not exhibit random behavior in terms of which feature is connected to which other feature. It will, however, tell you where you need to make that decision by flagging the features with error features.
In the example above, there is a third example of a violation: those two types of network point features (riser and dead end) cannot be geometrically coincident. Two additional point errors would be created to track this violation. This situation is illustrated below.