Lateral links are used to connect Customer Meter elements (e.g. houses and other sources) to elements in a model without the need to divide the downstream link elements into separate links in the model. This can significantly reduce computational effort since laterals are not included in hydraulic calculations. Laterals merely connect a customer meter to the hydraulic network for the purpose of assigning demand.

If the Lateral is being used to connect directly to a link element, then a Tap node must be placed at the connection point.

Laterals can be automatically placed between Customer Meter elements and the hydraulic network using LoadBuilder and selecting Customer Meter Load Data as the Available LoadBuilder Method (see LoadBuilder help). They can also be created manually or be imported using ModelBuilder if laterals are contained in the data source.

While some physical dimensions such as diameter and length can be assigned to laterals, they are not used in hydraulic calculations. If the user wants to perform hydraulic calculations for the lateral pipe, the lateral pipe should be modeled as a pipe element.

When you lay out a lateral the Associated Element attribute of the connected customer meter is updated.

For a lateral connected to a node, the node becomes the customer meter's Associated Element.

For a lateral connected to a tap, the element referenced by the tap becomes the customer meters Associated Element.