Each Network Type may have a property of Inclusion. This is the Inheritance of Group membership based on the association of a member with the 'parent' group via a common network Attribute, Unique Name, Admin Unit etc.

Multiple Type Inclusions are also permitted whereby a network element, or Group may be automatically included in more than one 'parent' Group.

When a Network Type Inclusion is applied to a Datum Network Type, any network elements of the Network Type will be automatically included as members of its parent group(s). If the 'parent' group is a Linear Group, connectivity rules will be used to derive the elemental offsets or displacements along the Route. Note that the 'parent' Network Type specified in a Type Inclusion for a Datum Network Type may be the Network Type associated with a NON-Linear group.

Network Type Inclusions may also be defined for Network Types associated with Network Groups, whereby a Group is automatically added as a member of another Network Group, thus forming a Group of Groups.

If when creating a new network element or Group which has a 'parent' Type Inclusion defined, the 'parent' group does not already exist, it may be created automatically by the system if the 'Auto-Create' checkbox is selected for the appropriate Network Type inclusion. .

The Control Column field is used to ensure the uniqueness of the network element reference within the group. Consider two examples:

Example 1

A Datum Network Type of 'DOT' has a prescribed naming convention, which uses the following network type columns:

A Network Element of this type may have the Unique Reference H001/1-S. These 'DOT' Network Elements have an automatic inclusion into their 'parent' Route group.

The Datum Network Type has the following Type inclusion defined.

The parent Route is created using Network Type ‘CRT’ and the unique Route reference is held in table column NE_UNIQUE, e.g., H001.

When a new Datum Network Element of type ‘DOT’ is created, the NE_GROUP attribute will be entered by the User. The NE_GROUP of a Network Element of type ‘DOT’ equates to the Unique reference (NE_UNIQUE) of it’s parent route (Network Type ‘CRT’). Defining the NE_UNIQUE and NE_GROUP columns in the ‘Parent Column’ and ‘Child Column’ fields respectively for Network Type ‘DOT’ will result in the Network Element being auto included as a member of it’s parent Route group.

The Control Column (NE_NUMBER) will ensure that the number attribute is unique and will start at ‘1’ for each new Group.

Example 2

An Organization is sub-divided into 6 Regions, each with a different Admin Unit. When a Network Element is created it is given the Admin Unit of the Region it is within. A Network Group exists for each of the Regions, each with it’s given Admin Unit.

The Datum Network Type has the following Type inclusion defined:

When a new Element is created it will automatically be included as a member of the appropriate Regional Group by virtue of its Admin Unit number.