Link Management
The aim of the Preprocess Spool and Advance Revision Spool commands is to first prepare the spool for release by moving engineering connections, or freezing contextual imports and replacing them by engineering connections. In a second time, a revision of the spool and its components is created and all connections are restored either by moving them under the right parent or by reactivating contextual imports.
Contextual Imports
External references are a type of link created at the ends of a route. They allow the connection between the route and piping/tubing, HVAC, or raceway ports. A frozen contextual import is no more sensitive to any modifications and this capability avoids impacts between spools.
The Preprocess Spool command freezes the contextual imports and replaces them by an engineering connection. Creating an engineering connection avoids losing the connection between the route and the ports.
The Advance Revision Spool command reactivates the contextual imports and deletes the engineering connections.
Engineering Connections
To avoid other constraints in the network, the app uses the contextual engineering connections. In the spool revision process, contextual engineering connections generate too many impacts because they are not created under the common parent like standard engineering connections.
The Preprocess Spool command transforms contextual engineering connections into standard engineering connections. Standard engineering connections are created under the common parent of the connected spools to enable spool modifications without impacting the other one. This command also lets you validate or not the creation of the standard engineering connection under the common parent if this parent cannot be modified.
The Advance Revision Spool command allows you to recreate the contextual engineering connections from the standard engineering connections that still exist.