Strategies for Building the Asset Tree

Before building your asset tree in AssetWorX, it is important that you put together a strategy for building it. The structure that you ultimately create must reflect all of the needs for all of the providers you will be installing for use in the AnalytiX configuration database. You do not want to have to change its structure once it is built. Also, you should be aware of all of the tools available to you for building it so that you can exploit features that will help you.

 

This topic describes the following:

Plan Before You Start!

First of all, make sure you are familiar with what the asset tree is and what it provides for you. This means reviewing all of the documentation for setting it up before you actually build the asset tree.

 

Then, if you will be using Energy AnalytiX, FDDWorX, or other providers, refer to the online help and documentation for those providers before you construct the asset tree. This is important to do up front because once your asset tree is created you can no longer take advantage of templating capabilities that are available with equipment classes and aliasing. You can apply uniform information only while building the nodes of the asset tree; after that you will be maintaining each node individually. For that reason, set aside time to plan before you move ahead.

 

Of particular importance are the following considerations:

Equipment Classes -- Critical Tools for Building the Asset Tree

Take advantage of the templating capabilities that are available to you with equipment classes. Before creating your asset tree, make sure you are familiar with equipment classes and all of the capabilities that they offer. For more information, refer to the Introduction to Equipment Classes (Templates) topic. For example, you might create multi-tiered equipment classes for:

Before putting equipment classes to use, consider all of the providers you will be using in your AnalytiX configuration. Include all additional provider definitions in the equipment classes you configure. For example, if you will be installing the Energy AnalytiX provider, you may want to install it sooner rather than later in order to be able to add the Energy AnalytiX tab (where applicable) to the equipment classes so that they are defined at the same time you create the asset tree. This will save you having to return to every node in the tree later on to define Energy AnalytiX information for each energy asset. For more information, refer to the documentation for each individual provider.

 

Equipment classes provide a multitude of features that you can use to your advantage:

How to Proceed

Follow these general steps in order to build the asset tree:

  1. Review the AssetWorX documentation as well as the documentation of all providers in the Workbench, and then plan what the tiers and structure of the asset tree will be. Also, plan how you will use equipment classes and aliasing as a tool for helping you build the asset tree.

  2. Create the equipment hierarchy (Defining Tiers for the Asset Tree).

  3. Create the equipment classes you will need (Creating Equipment Classes for Use as Templates).

  4. Start adding equipment nodes to the asset tree (Adding Equipment to the Asset Tree).

See also:

Overview of AssetWorX

FDDWorX Overview

Overview of Energy AnalytiX