InfraWorks – New Updates for 2020!

By David Crowther

InfraWorks 2020 has been released and it comes with some great new updates. Here are 3 that you may find useful in your daily work.

1 - Save Back to ArcGIS Online:

If you have linked your InfraWorks project to geospatial assets stored via ArcGIS Online, InfraWorks 2020 now allows you to make spatial edits which can be saved back to the source data.

Having loaded your layer, e.g. Vegetation polygons, you can select the shape and use the pink nodes to reshape the feature.

Once the feature has been reshaped, select the layer in the Data Sources pane > right click and choose Save Back to ArcGIS.

The edits are then passed back to the source data in ArcGIS Online and a success message is shown.

Note – In order for the Save Back to work, your ArcGIS Online administrator will need to ensure that the layer can be edited by ticking the Enable Editing box within the features Editing section.

This is a great new enhancement as it now means that you can edit, update and manage your spatial assets via InfraWorks, without having to rely on using desktop GIS tools.

2 - Change Style of Cut and Fill in Road Design:

Having created a Component Road in your Model.

Select the new Road and in the Properties pane > Grading panel you can now choose a Colour for the CUT and FILL Material along the Component Road.

This is great as it now allows you to more easily visually assess where Cut and Fill will be required along your Road Design.

3 - Extended Schema:

Extended Schema allows you to add extra fields against any layer, which can then be used to record metadata and add extra attribute information. This extra data can ultimately be shared across your project teams to provide better BIM compliance.

Simply load a layer such as Buildings and in the Model Explorer > right click on the layer name and choose Add Extend Schema.

Using the Extend Schema Tool you can add extra fields/attributes for all types of layers e.g. Barriers, Coverage Areas, Parcels etc. In this example because we originally chose the OS buildings layer we are presented with the Add Extend feature bases on the Buildings type layer.

In the Extend Schema Tool on the right, you can rename the Feature Class Name e.g. BUILDINGS_Custom1 and then choose the ADD button to then add a new field e.g. Value, which will be a decimal number for the Cost of the Property.

Choosing Apply Schema will now save the changes and alter the Schema of the chosen layer.

Now select the building feature in the Model and in the Properties Pane you can now edit the newly added attribute – Cost of Property.

Change the value to be £255,000 and press Update to save the change.

Back in the Model select the same feature and choose Change Feature Class and choose the new Schema – Buildings Custom 1.

The Properties Pane for that feature now reveals the added attribute field – Cost of Property – with the £255,000 value now shown to the user.

The new field and saved values are also added to the DATA Table for the layer.

This is a great addition as it now means that you can edit the fields being used for any layer, including those from external sources, which means that this update now allows you to record even more information that may be beneficial to other project team members.