SMS

Best Uses for the Clip and Trim Coverage Tools

By aquaveo on November 19, 2024

Did your Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) project end up with an excessive amount of arcs, nodes and points in a coverage? Maybe the shapefile you imported converted many more details than your project needed, or extracting features from your raster did the same. There are several ways you could go about simplifying the project to ensure the simulation only covers what is needed. We have a couple of tools that can help you simplify the amount of feature objects your project will deal with: the Clip tool and the Trim Coverage tool.

Both located in the Toolbox under the Coverages folder, the Clip and the Trim Coverage tools allow you to limit the feature objects within an area and create a new coverage containing what is desired.

The Clip tool limits arcs to only those inside a selected separate coverage that has a polygon which defines where to trim the feature objects on the target coverage. This trim coverage will typically be a coverage you create and can be of any coverage type. The Clip tool quickly creates a new coverage with arcs, nodes, and points located within the polygon desired. Where the arcs are “cut” at the polygon edge, a new node is created at the new endpoint.

Example of the Clip Tool before and after

The Trim Coverage tool works similar to the Clip tool but has a few more options. The extra options allow you to choose to trim to the inside or to the outside of the selected coverage polygons, trim to the inside being the default. And also, you can specify a buffer distance to trim to: how close to the polygon boundary you want the arcs, etc. to be trimmed to.

For either of the tools, you will need the coverage containing the arcs, nodes, and points needing to be limited, and also, the coverage containing the polygons which will define the boundaries of where the clipping or trimming will occur. For the Trim Coverage tool, you have the two additional parameters to define, if desired.

After entering a name for the soon-to-be created coverage, run the tool. For both the Clip and Trim Coverage tools, it will clip all the arcs to the limits of the polygon, creating a new endpoint or node at the point where the original arc intersected the polygon boundary.

Head on over to SMS and see how these tools can help your project today!

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Is a Paid or Community License Right for You?

By aquaveo on October 29, 2024

For us at Aquaveo, we seek to provide state-of-the-art software for your water resources projects. We’d like to see as many hydrologists, civil engineers, and more using our software to better the community and the world. For this reason, we provide with our Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) software, both a trial, community, and paid editions.

The trial version grants you full access to all the features of SMS for a limited time. Typically, this trial period is for two weeks. During the trial, you can use any of the models or functionalities in SMS. This lets you decide what features of SMS you will need for your project.

After the trial period, or when you are ready, you can contact our sales team for a pad license. WIth a full license, you can select what features you want included. Aquaveo has two primary editions: Riverine, and River and Coast. Add-ons are available for each for the packages, or you can custom build what is unlocked so you have exactly the tools and modules you need for your work.

For some of our users, only a limited number of features are needed. The community edition of SMS includes only some of the core components, such as the GIS and Mesh modules, and a few of the more common surface-water models available, such as SRH-2D, ADCIRC, and CMS-Flow. Some limits have been added to these features, for example the number and size of meshes is limited in community edition. The community edition mostly supports small or simple projects and is not intended to support large or complex models.

There are several advantages to having a paid license over relying on the community edition, including access to newer tools and functionality. Furthermore, a current paid license allows access to Aquaveo's technical support and other resources. Fortunately, it is possible to upgrade to a paid license at any time. Once you have a paid license, you retain access to all the features for the version of license you purchase.

Download SMS today and see what version works best for you!

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Benefits of 3D Structures

By aquaveo on October 15, 2024

Does your Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) project require simulating the effects of bridges or culverts? For some time we have had the capacity to simulate these structures in 2D or 1D for use with numeric models such as SRH-2D and TUFLOW. More recently, we have added the ability to create and insert these structures in 3D thus improving your modeling capabilities and visualization options.

When running a model, having a bridge or other structure in the model can change the results of the model run. 3D structures provide more detail for how the structure will fit into the landscape. SMS allows the creation of the structure and inserting it into the 2D model, so you can see how and where it fits into the project. This potentially makes for a more accurate model. Furthermore, an unstructured grid of the 3D structure can be generated to visually show how the structure fits into your model..

Currently, SMS has the ability to create two kinds of 3D structures: bridges and culverts. It can also customize each one to include multiple configurations. 3D structures provide extra flexibility in the simulation, such as being able to have variations in the bridge ceiling along the entire width, which can match the reality of bridge structures much more closely. Your model can also include more than one 3D structure and a mix of types of structures as well. But note, multiple 3D structures could slow down your simulation. Currently, 3D structures can only work with SRH-2D models.

Creating a 3D structure will also automate some things you would have likely needed to do manually beforehand, like create the voids necessary for piers and walls. This reduces the potential for errors that manual void creation can have and improves the reliability of the model.

The 3D structure can be used as part of an observation plot and can also generate a new dataset for the maximum water surface elevation (ceiling elevation) in the model. Overtopping is, of course, included, as well as pressure flow through the culvert or under the bridge.

Head on over to SMS and see how adding 3D structures can improve your project today.

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Incorporating Inline Steering in CMS

By aquaveo on October 8, 2024

Are you wanting to internally couple a CMS-Wave model with your CMS-Flow model? The Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) offers the Inline Steering Model Control option, which allows CMS-Flow steering using CMS-Wave data. The steering is controlled by the CMS-Flow model executable and not SMS. The steering tool is useful in facilitating the process of launching models multiple times. Furthermore, the steering module automates repetitive user tasks. Using the steering tool for CMS will enable data sharing between circulation and wave propagation numerical models.

In SMS version 12.1 and later the Inline Steering option is reached by going to the CMS-Flow Model Control dialog:

Build and run a successful CMS-Wave model.
Right-click on the CMS-Flow simulation in the Project Explorer and select Model Control.
Select the Wave tab and select the Inline steering option under the drop-down in the Wave information heading.
Import the specific CMS-Wave solution file.
Enter the inline steering value.

Coupling of models is an efficient and accurate means of calculating wave-driven currents, setup and setdown, and wave-current interaction in nearshore regions, including tidal inlets. In SMS version 12.0 and earlier the steering tool can also be used to facilitate the transfer of data from wave models to circulation models and back. In versions 12.1 and later, the CMS-Flow Model Control is used for steering.

When using Inline Steering, it is necessary to build a CMS-Wave model prior to incorporating any data into CMS-Flow. Following that, it is then possible to build a model in CMS-Flow using the stored data and solution files. If you encounter problems with the CMS-Flow simulation results, and notice that neighboring outputs are not quite right, check the Steering Interval option in the CMS-Flow Model Control Dialog. If this option has a number less than 0.25 inputted, it causes problems as there is no proper indication for CMS-Flow to include CMS-Wave solutions in its calculations. To fix this, set the steering interval to a number greater than zero, and the CMS-Flow simulation should respond to the CMS-Wave inputs.

Try Inline Steering for your CMS-Flow models in SMS today!

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