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Relationship groups

A relationship group is a named set of facilities that share a relationship context — typically the members of a single operating line or the facilities that make up one operation. Groups scale better than per-facility edits the moment a project has more than a handful of relationships. The Relationship Group Editor is where groups are defined, populated, and connected to each other via the per-criteria matrix.

Learning objectives

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

  • Define and name relationship groups
  • Author the per-criteria matrix that sets the relationship code between groups
  • Run the build to materialize the matrix into pairwise relationships across the project — from the editor or in one step from the map's Analysis menu
  • Recognize when a per-pair override is in play and how to clear it later

The four working areas of the editor​

The Relationship Group Editor opens as a dialog with four working areas.

1. Pre-flight banner. Surfaces blockers before a build can run. Two common conditions:

  • "Run analysis before building relationships" — encumbrances haven't been built yet. The spatial-analysis pass must run first so the engine knows what PES → ES pairs exist (see Spatial Analysis (encumbrances)).
  • "Project features have changed since the last spatial analysis" — re-run spatial analysis before building so relationships reflect current geometry.
warning

The relationship group builder uses the project's encumberances to determine what PES -> ES pairs need to have a relationship assigned. The spatial analysis must be up to date for accurate results.

2. Sidebar (Relationship Groups). List of groups, each with:

  • A drag handle to reorder
  • An inline-editable name
  • A feature count (how many facilities belong)
  • A delete button
  • An Add Group button at the bottom to create a new empty group

3. Matrix pane. The per-criteria authoring surface. A criteria-set selector at the top; below it, a grid where rows and columns both list the project's relationship groups. Each cell holds the relationship code (unrelated, related, sameline, integral, idsessential) that applies between the row group and the column group under the chosen criteria. The diagonal (group-to-itself) typically holds the within-group code — usually sameline for an operating line.

Right-clicking a cell exposes "Apply this value to all criteria" — useful when the same relationship pattern holds across DCMA, DESR, NATO, etc.

4. Footer. Action row with three controls:

  • Build Relationships — materializes the matrix into pairwise relationships across the project. Shows a progress bar while running, with a Cancel Build option. Disabled until the spatial analysis is current.
  • View Report — appears after a build completes; opens the conflict report listing contradictory rules between groups a feature belongs to.
  • Clear Overrides menu — Clear User-Override Flags drops per-pair overrides while preserving matrix-derived relationships; Reset All Relationships wipes every relationship (relationship notes are kept).

Assigning features to groups​

A feature can join a group from two places:

A feature can belong to more than one group; the build resolves the resulting pairwise relationships across every group the feature participates in. Where multiple groups would assign different codes to the same pair, the build surfaces a conflict report.

Running the build​

Once groups are defined, populated, and the matrix is authored, click Build Relationships in the editor footer. The build:

  1. Walks every encumbrance the spatial-analysis pass produced
  2. Looks up each PES → ES pair against the group memberships of both
  3. Applies the matrix's relationship code for the (PES group, ES group) combination, per criteria
  4. Surfaces a conflict report if any pair has contradictory rules

Re-run the build after any matrix edit, group-membership change, or spatial-analysis re-run.

Build Relationships from the map​

You do not need to open the editor to rebuild. Click the check/calculate Analysis button on the map toolbar and select Build Relationships: Siter runs the spatial-analysis pass and then the build, back to back, with no banner to clear. A Build: progress indicator appears beside the Analysis button while it runs, with buttons to open the editor or cancel the build.

This is the everyday path once a project's groups and matrix exist — edit features or assignments, select Build Relationships, then run a full analysis. Reach for the editor's own button when you are already authoring the matrix. Either way the spatial analysis is only a spatial pass, and it removes the full analysis results of the facilities it re-runs, which then show under Analysis Required: run Analyze Project afterwards to get results back and see the effect on violations.

User overrides​

Per-pair overrides — relationships set directly on a feature outside the matrix — are flagged as user-override and survive subsequent builds. The Clear Overrides footer menu offers two cleanup operations:

ActionEffect
Clear User-Override FlagsDrops the override marking but does not delete the relationship — the next build will overwrite the pair with the matrix value
Reset All RelationshipsWipes both matrix-derived and override results; start clean

Use Clear User-Override Flags when you want a re-run of the matrix to take effect without losing the underlying relationship data. Use Reset only when you want a fully clean slate.

Neither operation, nor the build itself, touches relationship submittal notes. Notes document the pairs rather than drive the analysis, so they stay in place through a reset, and undoing a reset restores only the relationship and barricade rows.

Try it​

In a project with at least two operating lines:

  1. Run spatial analysis if you haven't already
  2. Open the Relationship Group Editor and create two groups: Line A and Line B
  3. Assign three features to Line A and two to Line B (via the dashboard chip list or the bulk dialog)
  4. In the matrix, set Line A → Line A and Line B → Line B to sameline, and Line A ↔ Line B to related
  5. Click Build Relationships and wait for the progress bar to complete (or close the editor, click the check/calculate Analysis button on the toolbar, and select Build Relationships to run the spatial pass and build together)
  6. Run analysis and verify:
    • Pairs within Line A evaluate as sameline (barricaded ILD reductions available)
    • Pairs within Line B evaluate as sameline
    • Cross-group pairs evaluate as related (no barricaded reduction)

This is the full power of groups — and the K9-vs-K18 distinction from the barricaded exercise playing out across the whole project at once.