Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

Have you ever wanted to compare model results between SRH-2D and HEC-RAS models? The SMS 13.2 interface allows you to view both SRH-2D and 2D HEC-RAS results for the same model at the same time.

Say, for instance, that you have created an SRH-2D simulation in SMS and you want to compare results using HEC-RAS. First, if you do not have the project in both SRH-2D and HEC-RAS, you will need to create an HEC-RAS simulation in SMS and use it to export the SRH-2D mesh into a file format that HEC-RAS can use. Then you can import the mesh into HEC-RAS and set up the boundary conditions and other attributes of the simulation.

Once you have a completed simulation for both SRH-2D and HEC-RAS, you can import the results of the HEC-RAS simulation into the SMS project containing the SRH-2D solution. To do this, simply open the "*.p**.hdf" file generated by HEC-RAS in SMS. This will import the HEC-RAS solution into your SMS project. The HEC-RAS simulation solution will appear on a 2D UGrid.

There are many different comparison options available, a few are listed below:

• The first comparison is often a quick visual check. Switching between the two models in the Project Explorer will let you make quick visual comparisons. You may need to adjust your contour display options to make this easier.
• Using the Data Calculator, you can make a comparison dataset. Since the HEC-RAS solution will be on a UGrid and the SHR-2D solution will be attached to a 2D mesh, you may need to convert data to be in the same module in order to do this.
• Observation Plots are another way to compare the models. You can plot the solutions from both models using the same observation coverage.

Try out comparing SHR-2D and HEC-RAS models in SMS 13.2 today!

Have you noticed that in GMS MODFLOW 6 uses a different model wrapper than other MODFLOW versions? This model wrapper is the SImulation Run Queue and it has a few new options. Since MOFLOW 6 in GMS allows having multiple simulations run, the Simulation Run Queue helps you manage the different simulation runs.

The new Simulation Run Queue dialog functions a little differently from the Model Wrapper dialog. Some of the changes include:

• You must click Load Solution to load the desired simulation solution into the project. This does not happen automatically when you click close as it does with the MODFLOW model wrapper.
• If you try to run a simulation already in the queue, you will be prompted to remove the simulation from the run queue before it can be run again.
• If changing an active simulation’s settings, renaming the active simulation, or taking any action that affects a simulation currently in the queue, you will be asked to remove the simulation from the queue prior to making the changes.
• The maximum number of concurrent processes allowed can be as many as you want. However, it should be noted that the more complicated the simulations the longer it may take for the processes to complete. Therefore, allowing a large number of processes to run concurrently may slow down processing time if you are running multiple complex simulations.
• Turning on the Monitoring data will allow you to see the command line run for each process. This can be used to troubleshoot issues that may have occurred during the simulation run. If the simulation encounters an error look to the Command line to see what has caused the error. If there are no errors then your simulation should show 100% in green instead of red (denoting an error).
• Another important note is that you can still work while the simulation is running. You can move the Simulation Run Queue to the side and continue to work on your project while it runs. Right-clicking on the simulation folder in the Project Explorer provides a command for opening the Simulation Run Queue if you accidentally close it.

Now that you know a little more about the Simulation Run Queue dialog in GMS 10.6 try it out today!

ADCIRC is a popular numeric model that works with the SMS graphical interface. The SMS interface adds a number of tools and features to improve and enhance the use of the ADCIRC model. When building an ADCIRC model in SMS, there are a few items to keep in mind. This article will review some of the best practices for building an ADCIRC model in SMS.

1. When importing a fort.22 file, the ADCIRC control file must be imported to read the data in the fort.22 file. If the fort.22 happens to be a best track format file (NWS=8,19,20), add the ".atcf" extension to the file name so that SMS can import the file and create a wind track coverage. This is the only format of fort.22 that is independent enough of the fort.15 to reasonably expect anything to happen on import.
2. It can be tempting to create an ADCIRC mesh in SMS, then manually edit the fort.14 file to fine-tune some aspects of the mesh/grid. This is not recommended. Doing this may cause the mesh to not be usable once imported into SMS. It may also cause certain functions to fail such as converting mesh features to a coverage or mapping tidal components. This is not always the case, but care should be taken when editing the fort.14 file outside of SMS. In general, it is not advisable. The model checker may catch these issues, but in some cases the model checker will miss the error.
3. It is usually best to make certain that the mesh/grid has what you need before adding it to the simulation. Editing the mesh in SMS after it has been linked to a simulation may require that the mesh be unlinked and re-applied to the simulation.
4. Older ADCIRC projects can be added to the most recent version of SMS. When doing this, SMS will convert and update the project. It is recommended that you review the project once it has been converted. Projects created in newer versions of SMS typically cannot be imported into older versions of SMS.

For additional support in using ADCIRC with SMS, contact our technical support team at: support@aquaveo.com

ADCIRC and SMS gives you greater flexibility in coastal modeling. Try out ADCIRC with SMS today!

Do you have an image that you would like to add to your project, but that image doesn’t have any coordinate information? Many projects require that you have an image or map that defines the proposed location for structures, wells, or other objects. In XMS (GMS, SMS, and WMS) the image needs to have coordinate information in order to correctly align with the project data. If your image does not have coordinate information, the Register Image dialog will appear.

To use the Register Image dialog, designate three points on the image and enter the coordinate information for those points. XMS will then use those coordinates to create the coordinate data for the entire image. It is possible to register an image using only two points, but three points is recommended.

If you do not know the coordinate information for any points on the image, here is a tip for getting coordinate information for the image.

1. Click the Add Online Maps macro to open the Virtual Earth Map Locator dialog.
2. Search for the area of your image by putting the name into the search bar and click Jump to Search Location.
3. Be sure that the entire project bounds are within the window and match the area of your unregistered image.
4. Download the new image and set the projection for this image.
Note: you could just use this new image, but if the image you are trying to import shows the location of proposed structures, boreholes, etc., then you may need to still import the unregistered image.
5. Outside of XMS, use a photo viewer to open the unregistered image.
6. Compare both images and find three places where you can easily tell that the images match up.
7. Now, in XMS, place your mouse over one of the three locations that you will need the geographical coordinates for.
8. At the bottom of XMS you can view the coordinate information. Write down the coordinate information, then repeat in two other places.
9. Now that you have all of the location coordinates you need to register the image, open the unregistered image file in XMS to bring up the Register Image dialog.
10. Click the three points you have coordinate information for and enter in the coordinates that you wrote down earlier.
11. After registering the image, check the alignment of the images if needed.

Try registering an image for your project in SMS, GMS, or WMS today!