The Relationship Manager tool maintains two types of relationships between objects:
- Hierarchical (structure-equipment)
- Peer to peer (collections)
With the Relationship Manager tool, you can create, edit, and delete structure-equipment and collection relationships in your data. The Relationship Manager tool is on the Maritime S-57 tab that appears when you add maritime data to the Contents pane.
Hierarchical relationships
Hierarchical relationships have designated structure and equipment features. A structure-equipment relationship is created to relate features comprising a navigational aid. Navigational aids are composed of two basic types of objects: structures and equipment. The structure object is considered the primary feature, and the related equipment are considered the secondary features. A lighted buoy is an example of a structure-equipment relationship. The buoy is the primary structure with various equipment attached to it, such as lights and navigational devices, which are considered secondary features.
To create a structure-equipment relationship between two points, the two point features must share the same x,y location. When line, area, and point geometry type features are grouped into a structure-equipment relationship, they must intersect. There may be more than one secondary feature, but only one primary feature is allowed in a structure-equipment relationship.
The following tables list the allowable structure-equipment feature objects:
| Structure feature | Geometry |
|---|---|
BCNCAR | Point |
BCNISD | Point |
BCNLAT | Point |
BCNSAW | Point |
BCNSPP | Point |
BOYCAR | Point |
BOYINB | Point |
BOYISD | Point |
BOYLAT | Point |
BOYSAW | Point |
BOYSPP | Point |
BRIDGE | Point, line, area |
BUISGL | Point, area |
LITFLT | Point |
LITVES | Point |
LNDMRK | Point, line, area |
MORFAC | Point, line, area |
OFSPLF | Point, area |
PILPNT | Point |
SLCONS | Point, line, area |
CRANES | Point, area |
FLODOC | Line, area |
FORSTC | Point, line, area |
FSHFAC | Point, line, area |
HULKES | Point, area |
PONTON | Line, area |
PYLONS | Point, area |
SILTNK | Point, area |
| Equipment feature | Geometry |
|---|---|
DAYMAR | Point |
LIGHTS | Point |
FOGSIG | Point |
RADSTA | Point |
RDOSTA | Point |
RETRFL | Point |
RTPBCN | Point |
SISTAT | Point |
SISTAW | Point |
TOPMAR | Point |
Peer-to-peer relationships
In peer-to-peer relationships, no feature's existence is dependent on another feature. Collections are considered a type of peer-to-peer relationship and can be grouped into two object classes: aggregations (C_AGGR) or associations (C_ASSO).
Association objects depict at least one feature that, when associated, better represents certain navigational situations. For example, a buoy that marks a wreck can be associated in S-57 to help the mariner see that a danger lies in the area. The buoy is not dependent on the wreck and the wreck is not dependent on the buoy.
Aggregation objects are collections of features that form a higher-level collection object that better describes a system or defines a larger area. For example, an aggregation relationship can be used to form a traffic separation scheme from traffic separation lane parts, boundaries, and so on. In the geodatabase, the collection object is stored in the PLTS_COLLECTIONS table, and its relationships to the features that compose the collection are stored in the PLTS_FREL table.