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Facility fronts

A facility's front determines which side participates in PES → ES geometry — and a multi-face feature without a front cannot be analyzed. Bulk front assignment is the fastest way to clear front-related entries from the Requires Analysis list, and the right tool when an import or a bulk geometry change has left a layer of features without orientation.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson you should be able to:

  • Assign fronts to many features at once
  • Recognize the analysis errors that indicate a missing front
  • Verify front assignments are correct via the map

Why this is its own bulk tool​

Single-feature front assignment is fine for one or two features. For a freshly imported layer of fifty ECMs, single-feature assignment is a slog. The bulk tool exposes the same underlying operation across a selection — pick the orientation method, apply, done.

The Bulk Edit: Facility Fronts tool​

Open it from the map's apps Add/Edit menu > Bulk Edit > Facility Fronts. The footbar lists candidate facilities with a Feature Source filter (segmented facilities, facilities without segmentation definitions, or shape layers) and a Search box, plus running Total / Assigned / Unassigned / N/A counts so you can watch progress.

The assignment itself is spatial: select one or more facilities in the list, then click a segment (edge) on the map to set it as the front — or click Reset to clear the assignment. A Keyboard Shortcuts panel in the footbar lists the shortcuts for stepping through the list.

Path facilities (roads drawn as a centerline and width) are ordinary polygons since v0.32, so they appear and take a front like any other facility.

The tool keeps your search, sort, and selection if you detour into a feature's dashboard and come back, and closing it with unsaved changes prompts Save, Don't Save, or Cancel.

Work through the list in geometric batches — a row of ECMs whose doors face the same parking lot goes fastest when you step facility to facility clicking the same relative edge on each.

Verifying after a bulk assign​

Always verify on the map after bulk-assigning fronts. The map typically displays the front direction as a small indicator (an arrow, a tick, or a colored side). Look for:

  • Fronts pointing the wrong direction (e.g., away from the door rather than toward it)
  • Outlier features whose orientation does not match the rest of the set
  • Features that were missed by the selection

If a feature's front looks wrong, it is wrong — front orientation is not a "trust the engine" situation.

v0.31 front fix

Before v0.31, on facilities whose outline is stored counter-clockwise (drawn or imported that way), clicking an edge could save a different edge as the front. v0.31 saves the edge you click, in both the feature editor and this tool. Existing fronts were not changed, but on those facilities the highlighted front may now appear on a different side than before, because the tool now shows the stored front that analysis actually uses. Treat a project's first pass through the tool after upgrading as a front audit: if a highlighted front isn't the intended one, click the correct edge and save.

After re-running analysis​

Bulk front assignment invalidates the analysis on every affected feature. Re-run analysis and:

  • Confirm the front-related entries are gone from Requires Analysis
  • Confirm the resulting arcs project from the expected sides
  • Confirm violations are now meaningful (or genuinely present) rather than artifacts of arbitrary front placement

Try it​

In a project where several ECMs are missing fronts:

  1. Open Requires Analysis and confirm the front-related entries are present
  2. Open apps Add/Edit > Bulk Edit > Facility Fronts and use Feature Source and Search to narrow the list to those ECMs
  3. Select each facility and click its door-side edge on the map — watch the Unassigned count fall
  4. Save, verify on the map, re-run analysis
  5. Confirm Requires Analysis is empty for those features