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Customer Loads, Supply Mains, & Maintenance

Contents

This article covers seven model-wide maintenance commands for customers and their supply mains: automatically assigning service lines, reassigning a customer’s supply main (one at a time or by correcting supply main numbers model-wide), refreshing pipe Customer Counts, scaling customer or node loads by a multiplication factor, and purging customers with invalid coordinates. Multiplying customer or node loads changes the underlying data permanently — this is different from the Design Factor, which only scales load temporarily during solving without touching the stored values.

GDI Commands

Assign The Customer Service Lines

Automatically assigns customer features to their nearest supply main, drawing a service line and placing a tap for each.

  1. With a model open, the GDI Window displayed, and at least one pipe and one customer in the model, select Assign Customer Service Lines from the GDI Command List.
  2. Respond Yes to assign every customer to their closest supply main (including customers already assigned to a different main), No to assign only unassigned customers, or Cancel to end the command and preserve the model.
  3. At the Maximum Service Line Length prompt, type a value in the default Length Values units and press Enter. Customers beyond this distance from a pipe are left unassigned.
  4. A message may report when the assignment is complete. Click OK to clear it. A service line is drawn from each customer to its assigned main, with the tap placed at the intersection.

Also runs by typing ASSIGNCUSTSERV or ASSIGNSERVICE on the GDI Command Line.

Notes

  • Only pipes with an “Active” Facility Type are considered when searching for the nearest main (set on the Facility Settings screen, Edit menu).
  • To move a placed tap along its main afterward, use Move A Service Tap or its grips. To graphically pick which node a customer’s load applies to, use the Select Supply Node option in the Actions section of the Data Panel.

Reassign A Customer’s Supply Main

Moves a single customer’s tap to a different pipe, redrawing the service line to match.

  1. With at least one pipe and one customer in the model, select Reassign Supply Main from the Customer branch of the GDI Command Tree.
  2. At the Select Customer To Reassign prompt, left-click the customer. It is highlighted.
  3. At the Select New Supply Main prompt, left-click the pipe to reassign it to.
  4. The tap moves to the closest point on the new pipe, and the service line is redrawn between the customer and the new tap location.

Also runs from the GDI Command List, or by typing REASSIGNCUSTOMER or REASSIGNC. To reassign more than one customer at once, use Edit Multiple Customers instead.

Notes

  • The customer’s load is reassigned to the new main’s nodes based on the Node Load Application setting in the customer’s Hydraulic Data Items.
  • If a customer’s Supply Main Number becomes corrupted, use Reassign The Customer’s Supply Main Numbers to correct it.

Reassign The Customer’s Supply Main Numbers

Reassigns the supply main (pipe) numbers for every customer feature in the model at once.

  1. With at least one pipe and one customer in the model, select Reassign Customer Supply Main Numbers from the GDI Command List.
  2. A message reports how many customers were Unchanged, Reassigned, and Unassigned. Click OK to clear it.

Runs by typing REASSIGNSUPPLYNUMBER. Use this after importing or merging data if you suspect Supply Main Numbers have become corrupted.

Update The Pipe Customer Count

Refreshes the Customer Count value for every pipe feature in the model.

  1. With at least one pipe in the model, select Update Pipe Customer Count from the GDI Command List.
  2. A message may report when the update is complete. Click OK to clear it.

Runs by typing UPDATEPIPECOUNT or UPDPIPE.

Notes

  • Customer Count normally updates automatically as customers are added or deleted; this command is useful for repairing a value that’s become corrupted.

Multiply Customer Loads

Multiplies every customer’s Per Unit Load value by a specified factor.

  1. With at least one customer in the model, select Multiply Customer Loads from the GDI Command List.
  2. At the Multiplication Factor prompt, type a value and press Enter.
  3. A message may report when the routine is complete. Click OK to clear it.

Runs by typing MULTIPLYCUSTLOAD or MULTICLOAD.

Notes

  • Imported load data with a positive value can distort the model, since the solution treats positive load as gas entering the system rather than leaving it; enter “-1” as the Multiplication Factor to flip the sign without changing the magnitude.
  • This changes the customer data itself. The Design Factor on the Solution Data screen (Solve The Model) scales load only during solving and doesn’t affect the stored customer data.

Multiply Node Loads

Multiplies every node’s Base Load value by a specified factor.

  1. With at least one node in the model, select Multiply Node Loads from the GDI Command List.
  2. At the Multiplication Factor prompt, type a value and press Enter.
  3. A message may report when the routine is complete. Click OK to clear it.

Runs by typing MULTIPLYNODELOAD or MULTINLOAD. Use Multiply Customer Loads to adjust customer load values instead — this command doesn’t touch them.

Notes

  • This does not affect the External Load values associated with a node’s assigned customers.
  • As with customer loads, imported data with a positive value can distort the model; enter “-1” as the Multiplication Factor to flip the sign without changing the magnitude.
  • This changes the node data itself. The Design Factor on the Solution Data screen (Solve The Model) scales load only during solving and doesn’t affect the stored node data.

Purge Customers

Deletes every customer feature with an invalid (zero or out-of-range) coordinate value.

  1. With at least one customer in the model, select Purge Customers from the GDI Command List.
  2. Respond Yes to delete all customers with zero or out-of-range coordinates, or No to end the command.
  3. If Yes, a message may report how many customer records were deleted. Click OK to clear it.

Runs by typing PURGECUSTOMER or PURGEC.

Notes

  • Customers with invalid coordinates — which can occur when importing or merging customer data — can’t be selected or deleted graphically. This command targets them directly, as an alternative to Delete All Customers; the Customer Data Report (Report menu > Customer Data) offers another way to find and remove them.
  • This removes all unassigned customers with invalid coordinates from the model at once; to remove a single customer instead, use Delete A Customer.

Notes & Considerations

  • Multiplying customer or node loads changes the underlying data permanently; this is distinct from the Design Factor, which only scales load temporarily during solving without altering the stored data.
  • Only pipes with an “Active” Facility Type are considered when GASWorkS searches for the nearest supply main (set on the Facility Settings screen, Edit menu).
  • If Allow Undo Of Data/Graphic Changes is enabled (Utilities > Options & Settings > Environment), click the Undo icon to reverse the last data or graphic change.

See Also

  • Adding Pipes & Nodes
  • Adding Customers & Services
  • Editing Customer, Node & Pipe Data
  • Deleting Model Features
  • Moving Customers, Nodes & Pipes
  • Solving & Tracing the Model
  • Example: Selecting, Moving & Viewing Features
  • Example: GDI Coordinates, Commands & Grips
  • Example: Fittings, Panels & Palettes
  • GDI Utilities: Undo, Redo, Cancel & Housekeeping

FAQ

  • What kinds of tasks live under Analysis & Model Utilities?
    This subcategory covers running and interpreting the hydraulic analysis itself — solving and tracing the model — along with the calculations built on top of it (pressure drop, design factor, flow efficiency), routine load and supply-main housekeeping, and general-purpose model utilities like undo, redo, and node renumbering.
  • When should I use Solve versus Trace?
    Solve calculates the full hydraulic results for the model — pressures, flows, and related values at every feature. Trace instead follows the gas flow path through the system from a starting point without running a full solution, which is useful for quickly confirming connectivity or flow direction before committing to a full solve.
  • Where do I go if I made a change I want to undo, or need to renumber nodes after editing?
    Both live in GDI Utilities: Undo, Redo, Cancel & Housekeeping. Undo and Redo step backward and forward through your data and graphic changes, while Renumber The Nodes and the other housekeeping commands there handle cleanup tasks like reducing redundant nodes or resetting the numbering sequence after a lot of editing.
  • Can I calculate pressure drop or design factor without re-running a full solve?
    Yes — Calculating Pressures, Design Factor & Efficiency covers these as standalone calculations: Calculate Delta P (Linear), Calculate Delta P (Squared), Calculate The Design Factor, and Calculate The Flow Efficiency can each be run on their own rather than requiring a full model solve.
  • How do I bulk-update customer loads or move a batch of customers to a different supply main?
    Customer Loads, Supply Mains & Maintenance covers both. Multiply Customer Loads and Multiply Node Loads scale load values across a group at once, while Reassign A Customer’s Supply Main and Reassign The Customer’s Supply Main Numbers handle moving customers between supply mains.
Updated on July 29, 2026

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