Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

Have you used the Measure tool in WMS? You probably have, but would you like to know more about the tools capabilities? This post will review the capabilities of the Measure tool and give some tips for using it.

The Measure tool allows you to measure distance, slope, and in some cases angles along a path you define. It is designed to give you real-world measurement sizes, and can be useful when the scale of parts of a model aren't immediately apparent. When the tool is selected, you will be able to define a series of line segments along a path. This path can be continually defined until it is terminated by double-clicking. When the path is terminated, it will disappear from the Graphics Window, but along the bottom of WMS, in the Help Message window, the relevant values will be displayed in red text. These will be updated whenever the Measure tool is used, reflecting the most recent path that was defined.

The units for distance and slope will depend on the units set by the projection, or by the project defaults, either ft and ft/ft (feet) or m and m/m (meters). It is recommended to make certain you have set the correct units for your project before using the Measure tool.

Angle will only be reported when a line only has two points, whereas distance and slope are always reported. Angle will be measured in radians. Angle will be calculated by measuring an angle starting from a reference line pointing south from the first point, and ending at the line segment defined by the two points.

If you have a TIN or DEM loaded into the project, the Measure tool will be able to get slope values. When the Measure tool is used on an area without elevation data, the slope will be given a value of zero. Slope will be calculated by taking the distance-weighted average of the slopes of all the segments. For each segment, slope will be calculated by dividing the change in elevation across the points by the xy distance of the segment.

The Measure tool can help you build and design your project with accuracy. Try out the Measure tool in WMS 11.1 today!

Have you needed to create precise drawing on your map coverage for your groundwater modeling project in GMS? Using the Drawing Grid display options can help with this. This post will review what these are and how they can be used in your GMS project.

When the drawing grid is turned on, you will have a grid which can be used to reference and measure positions in the project.

To access the GMS Drawing Grid display options:

1. Open up the Display Options dialog, either by going to the Display | Display Options command or clicking on the Display Options macro.
2. Once the dialog has opened up, select Drawing Grid from the list on the left, and the dialog will populate with the relevant options.

The following is a list of the GMS Drawing Grid display options and what they do.

This Spacing option allows the user to specify by how many units each grid point is separated. This will determine how dense or scattered out the points are, so it is useful to set a value that won’t either be too cluttered or too open.

When the Snap option is selected, all new (not previously existing) vertices, nodes, points, etc., will snap to the nearest grid point when they are being created, or will interactively snap to grid points if they are being dragged. When this is not selected, the drawn grid will have no impact on where they will be placed. Turning this on can be useful when constructing certain features that are meant to conform to the more rigid structure of a grid.

When the Display Grid Lines option is selected, grid lines will be displayed, using the Line spacing increment to determine how many grid points are passed over before another line is drawn. There are also two buttons to the right of this option which will allow the user to customize the look of the lines. Using grid lines can help complement grid points by giving more of a structure to the drawing grid rather than it being just a set of points, especially when the lines are separated at a good distance.

When the Display Grid Points option is selected, grid points will be displayed similar to how the grid lines are displayed, except using the Point spacing increment instead of the Line spacing increment. Grid points not displayed are still functioning as intended within GMS, they just aren’t visible. There are also two buttons to the right of this option which will allow the user to customize the look of the points. Using grid points can help quantify in the Graphics Window where everything is placed and give it orientation, especially when the points are separated at a good distance.

Try experimenting with Drawing Grid display options in GMS 10.5 today!

Do you want to understand more about how SRH-2D uses no flow boundaries? Occasionally, you can encounter various challenges regarding no flow boundaries. This post will review how no flow boundaries interact with SRH-2D in order to avoid potential issues with your SRH-2D model.

SRH-2D includes different types of no flow boundaries such as:

• Boundary condition arcs assigned to be a "wall".
• The elements touching a void in a mesh.
• The boundaries of a mesh that are not assigned to be inflow, outflow, etc.

Make certain to review all of your no flow boundaries. In particular, if you used a shapefile or another coverage to create your boundary condition coverage review all of the arcs on the coverage. In SMS, the default SRH-2D boundary condition is a "wall", so any arcs on the boundary condition coverage that are not meant to be no flow arcs should be changed or removed. A wall arc will snap to the nearest mesh boundary or void boundary. A wall arc should not be used to define an internal no flow area.

An important aspect to understand for no flow boundaries is that for every element they touch, SRH-2D is essentially being told that water can't flow past the boundary. This changes how SRH-2D computes the flow of water through the model. Large elements that are part of no flow boundaries can impact the model flow more than desired, because the smallest unit SRH-2D can process is a single element. SRH-2D is not designed to assign multiple flow values to a single element.

With this restriction on flow for single elements in mind, large elements can have a disproportionate effect on the model if left in key areas. Therefore, in most cases it is important to make sure that elements around key areas of the model should be more refined. Larger elements should be left in less important areas where they will have less impact.

Now that you understand a little more about no flow boundaries, try out SRH-2D in SMS 13.1 today!

Have you needed to specify the location of a temp directory when working with WMS? Starting in WMS 11.1, you can do this when necessary. It isn’t a feature many users will likely need to bother with, but it will come in handy when you need it. This post will review how to specify the temp directory that WMS will use, and why you might want to.

So what is the significance of temp files and temp directories? Temp files are often used in programs that are dealing with files that use larger amounts of data, such as graphics or video editing software. They help save changes, help programs run efficiently, and can restore progress in the case of a sudden crash or shutdown. They are also designed so that they will be deleted automatically when they are no longer needed.

Your computer should have automatic temp directories that it uses, but sometimes it is required to work with these directories yourself. This may be required for security purposes, to troubleshoot issues, to fulfill legal requirements, or for some other reasons.

This can be done by using the following workflow:

1. Within WMS, click on Edit | Preferences... to bring up the Preferences dialog.
2. Go to the General tab of the dialog.
3. Towards the bottom of the dialog, activate the checkbox for Temporary directory.
4. Click the Select… button that has now been made active to bring up the Browse For Folder dialog.
5. Use this dialog to locate which folder will be the new temp directory. This dialog also allows a new folder to be added to your file directory with the Make New Folder button.
6. The textbox next to the Temporary directory should now be populated with the new temp directory address.
7. It is recommended to restart WMS for the changes to take effect.

Please note that most users should not play around with this feature. Changing the temp directory typically does not speed up performance or improve functionality. Unless you have a specific reason to change the temp file directory, do not change it as doing so indiscriminately can cause some of WMS’s functionality to stop working.

Besides being able to change the temp directory, check out what else can be done with the Preferences in WMS 11.1 today!