Feeder Manager Step 13: Initialize FeederID Fields

Feeder Manager includes a Trace All Feeders option to initialize the FeederID, FeederID2, and FeederInfo fields for all features in the network. Trace All Feeders must be run on a versioned database. For a large network model (upwards of 100,000 junctions or so), this step is the most delicate. Here are some hints:

Trace one feeder at a time to improve the odds of success the first time around.
Run Trace A Feeder once for each feeder source in the database (you must choose from the list of circuit sources to determine which feeder will be processed on a given run). If running inside of an edit session in ArcMap, be sure to save the results after each run of Trace A Feeder.
Run Trace All Feeders to get proper initialization of fields for de-energized features and for tie devices. The function will run much faster (one or two orders of magnitude) and more reliably now than when run on a completely uninitialized network, since the majority of features will already have the correct FeederID, FeederID2, and FeederInfo values and those records will therefore not have to be rewritten to the database.
You may run Trace All Feeders by right-clicking the geometric network and selecting Feeder Manager | Trace All Feeders or select TraceAllFeeders.exe from the Bin folder in the ArcFM Solution install directory. If you run the executable file in the Bin folder, the database will be automatically compressed as the network is traced. Also if you use the executable file, you must have a connection with a saved version, user name, and password. Details on how to set this up are available on the Trace Feeders page.
You may run Trace All Feeders and NOT be an SDE user, provided you own the version or it is public. However, the Compress phase may only be performed if you are connected as the SDE user. See Trace Feeders for SDE connection requirements and database compression strategies and error messaging for both the ArcCatalog-hosted and standalone versions of the trace feeders utility.

Notes on Compression:

The Compress phase of TraceAllFeeders will be of critical interest to any site with more than 30 or so feeders in their database. If the Compress fails, it may take many days for TraceAllFeeders to complete.
In order for the Compress phase of TraceAllFeeders to be successful, the standalone TraceAllFeeders.exe program must be used. In other words, Compress CANNOT succeed when TraceAllFeeders is run from within ArcCatalog.
Even within the standalone TraceAllFeeders.exe program, Compress can only succeed when you are connected to the geometric network as the SDE user and you have exclusive access to the geodatabase.
A failure to compress will be made evident via the text at the top of the TraceAllFeeders progress dialog, and again in the message that appears after TraceAllFeeders has completed.