The Location Hierarchy

The Location hierarchy is the only hierarchy that is pre-installed in your ARDI system.

It is intended to describe the location of your assets - if an asset is inside or part of another.

By detailing which asset is within which asset, you eventually form a 'tree' structure - like that found below.

In this example, the sensor is inside Cabinet 1A, which itself is in Building B, which is in turn in our main site.

Note that not all of your assets in your location hierarchy need to be physical assets. In many cases, a site may be broken up into logical areas that encompass a number of buildings (or a building will be broken into areas that encompass multiple machines). These are excellent logical assets to create and place in your location hierarchy.

The location hierarchy is special, as it's used to create the full name of your asset.

It also determines what assets are visible in the 3D environments created by ARDI-VE.

A common question is 'Do I put asset 'A' inside asset 'B' in my location hierarchy?'

The answer lies in how you speak about your assets.

Let's try a few sample phrases.

The pump is part of the water distribution system

The level switch is part of the tank

Language such as in, inside and part of will almost certainly mean you should put one inside the other.

The pump is next to the tank.

The valve is just up from the pump

Language such as next to, near, upstream from etc. are letting you know what asset it's near, but not what it is actually part of. In these cases, you don't connect the two with the Location hierarchy - in most cases, they'll be connected by other, physical relationships anyway.

The level transmitter is attached to the tank

Some language - such as attached to, welded on to etc - can be a a grey area.

To help you resolve these questions, it's best to ask yourself “are the assets directly connected in other ways?”

So let's take a look at an example.

There's a tank that has both a level transmitter and an air-valve attached to it.

Since level transmitter measures the level of the tank, they are obviously connected. In this case, the transmitter should be part of the tank on in the Location hierarchy (it should also have a monitors relationship with the tank as well).

However, the air valve has been attached to the tank purely out of convenience - the air passing through the valve doesn't go to or come from the tank, the tank was just a very convenient mounting location. In this case, the valve should not be considered part of the tank in the Location hierarchy - instead, place under the system it is part of.