Details & Highlights

PCSWMM.NET is a fully featured urban drainage system modeling package, with no limitations on model size or complexity. PCSWMM.NET contains a complete GIS system (no third party software required) tailored to urban drainage modeling which supports most projections, datums, and ellipsoids, provides interaction with a large number of GIS formats, as well as topological operations and querying.

PCSWMM.NET provides advanced versions of all of the standard urban drainage modeling visualization techniques, including animated hydraulic grade line and energy grade line profiles, plan-view static and temporal thematic rendering, powerful plotting tools, as well as on-the-fly statistical and error analysis.

PCSWMM.NET automatically maintains standard US EPA SWMM5 models from GIS data and synchronizes in both directions, thus providing complete data compatibility with any other SWMM5 GUI (including the US EPA GUI).

Highlighted below are some of the more prominent features of PCSWMM.NET.
 

Next generation interface

• Windows Vista interface (also supports Windows 2000 and XP)
• Multi-threaded application with support for multiple cores (dual-core, quad-core and greater) for significant speed improvements
• Written from the ground up in C# for .NET, utilizing many new Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. Google Earth^®, etc.)

Open standards based

• SWMM model natively stored in your choice of open GIS format (e.g. Shape file, Personal Geodatabase, OpenGIS SQL, GML, etc) *
• Hydrology / Hydraulics engine is public domain (official US EPA SWMM5) – well written and well documented object-oriented C+ code
• Standard US EPA SWMM5 input file automatically maintained at all times - models are editable by both interfaces (SWMM5 GUI and PCSWMM.NET)
• Comprehensive support for GIS layer types (over 30 formats)
• Flexible importing from Microsoft Excel^®, CSV and virtually all database formats, incl. Access^®, SQL Server^®, Oracle^®, MySQL^®, XML, OLE DB and ODBC sources, plus direct importing from 17 common GIS/CAD formats.

Complete support for all USEPA SWMM5 engine capabilities

• Dynamic wave, kinematic wave, or steady state modeling
• Natural river/stream modeling and macro-scale watershed modeling
• Sanitary sewer, storm sewer, and/or combined sewer modeling
• Backwater effects, surcharging, pressure flow, looped pipe network modeling
• Culvert, natural channel, pump, orifice, weir, storage pond/tank modeling
• Dual drainage (major/minor) system modeling, including dynamic interaction
• Rainfall-runoff modeling via non-linear reservoir routing and/or triangular unit hydrograph methods
• Dry weather flow (DWF), rainfall derived inflow and infiltration (RDII), and/or direct inflow modeling
• Continuous and/or single event modeling
• Pollutant modeling (land-use based build-up and wash-off, including treatment)
• Global optimal and/or passive real time control (GO RTC) modeling, including modulated controls and PID controllers

Unlimited model sizes and unrestricted modeling

• No limits on number of entities (e.g. model 100,000 entities or more)
• No limits on number of non-visual model objects (i.e. rain gages, pollutants, land uses, real-time control rules, etc)
• Scalable GIS engine supports fast editing of extremely large data sets - real-world speed comparison tests suggest that some of PCSWMM.NET's geospatial operations run 5 - 50 times faster than competitive GIS products
• Infinite zoom ability
• Up to 50 character entity names/IDs

Smart GIS engine

• Stand alone, fully functional GIS (no third party software/licensing needed)
• Direct support for opening/editing/saving ESRI ArcGIS data
• Model data can be simultaneously edited and shared by PCSWMM.NET and third party GIS/CAD software (ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcGIS, MapInfo, Microstation, AutoCAD, etc) and third party SWMM5 software (USEPA SWMM5 interface, etc.)
• Streamlined GIS operations for efficient urban drainage modeling
• Support for most projections, datums, and ellipsoids
• Topological operation engine (intersections, unions, joining, splitting, area weighting, etc.)
• Full SQL querying (incl. query builder) of any layer (model or other layer)
• Thematic rendering of any layer (model or other layer), incl. plan view pie and bar charts
• Animated thematic plan view rendering of computed time series
• Advanced label placement, overlap avoidance, styles, fonts
• Transparency support for all raster and vector layers
• Raster (pixel) layer operations, such as histograms equalizations, color coding
• Full editing capability provided for a large number of vector layer GIS formats (see feature list below for supported formats)
• Efficient handling of large raster and vector files (e.g. 2 Gigabyte shape files)

Importing / exporting

• Flexible entity/attribute importing from all common GIS, CAD, spreadsheet and database data source formats (direct support for over 50 formats)
• Time series importing/exporting to/from MS Excel and other graphing/analysis utilities.
• Model merging (combining smaller models to form a larger 'macro' model)
• Model splitting (extracting a portion of a model for separate editing/running/analysis)
• Exporting of model layers (and/or other layers) to most common destination formats (GIS, CAD, SQL, KML, etc)

Automated model input development and quality assurance/control (QA/QC)

• Automatically create model connectivity (i.e. assign inlet and outlet nodes for links) for imported entities based on node proximity and relative node invert elevations 
• Model-wide validation and reporting on attributes outside of expected ranges
• Frequency distribution analysis for all input and result attributes
• Compute inlet and outlet offsets from conduit invert elevations and connected node invert elevations
• Compute max depth attributes from node ground (rim) elevations
• Compute subcatchment width attributes from user-defined overland flow paths
• Design utility to create drainage networks meeting minimum slope requirements
• Find orphans (nodes, links and subcatchments not connected to drainage system)
• Calculate and fill in missing data (e.g. manhole invert or rim elevations)
• Compute area and length attributes from map (any map units supported, incl. degrees)
• Identify conduits with negative or low slopes, and more
• Identify confidence (or uncertainty) for all applicable numeric input attributes (both for model entities and non-visual model objects) and color-render table cells to illustrate the level of data uncertainty

Tables

• Table editing of all applicable visual entities and non-visual model objects as well as background vector (GIS/CAD) layers
• All computed results for all model entities included as attribute data in entity tables
• Attribute uncertainty (or confidence) displayed/editable in tables - cell colors thematically rendered to show uncertainty
• Table sorting by attribute, synchronizing map extent with table selection, etc.
• Full query support with query builder
• Multi-entity attribute editing, incl. mathematical operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide, apportion, etc.)

Dynamic Hydraulic Grade Line (HGL) plots

• Plots and animates both the hydraulic grade line (HGL) and quasi-energy grade line (EGL)
• Animates HGL for multiple scenarios on a single profile for comparison
• Displays input profile plots (i.e. before model run) and provides full entity selection and attribute editing capabilities for model development or 'what if' scenarios
• Allows graphical drag-and-drop editing of entities in the profile plot (conduit depths, offsets, node inverts, max. depths, etc.)
• Displays and animates observed head/depth data along with computed head
• Displays cross connections, natural channel overbanks and user-defined labels
• Provides full zoom and pan control with intelligent label overlap prevention
• Saves profiles for quick recall

Comprehensive and customizable attribute sets

• All applicable model data (input and computed results) is stored as GIS layer attributes to support GIS operations, querying and thematic rendering
• Both SWMM5 and background GIS/CAD layers can be restructured (attribute fields defined, edited or deleted)
• Support for any number of additional user-defined attributes for SWMM5 layers and other vector layers, with full editing, querying, thematic rendering and data analysis support

Scenario management tools

• Multiple event / design storm analysis
• "What-if" scenario analysis and comparison
• Compare/animate multiple scenario HGLs on the same profile
• Scenario manager for creating, deleting and switching between scenarios
• Dynamic hydraulic grade line (HGL) animations of multiple scenario results on the same profile
• Scenario comparison graphs for all SWMM5 time series
• Statistical comparison of any scenario time series (i.e. compare objective functions, with the same time period and event selection tools as before)
• Scenario comparison tables for model inputs and computed results
• Support for multi-core processors and computational grids (i.e. local network of computers) when running scenarios, cutting computational time by approx. 1/n where n = number of cores utilized

Dual drainage creation wizard

• Streamline major/minor system modeling with new Dual Drainage Creator
• Editor for managing, creating, graphically editing, importing and assigning street cross-sections and other major system conveyance channels
• Inlet controls modeled with SWMM5 outlet entities, with inflow/head relationship and modulated control
• Automatic roughing out of the major system, based on minor system to streamline model development
• Solve both systems simultaneously with dynamic interaction of flows between the major and minor systems

Radar-rainfall tools

• Synthetic individual hyetograph generation for every subcatchment/sewershed from radar cells (area weighted)

Design storm creation tools

• SCS, Huff, AES and Chicago design storm generation automated
• Regional design storms (e.g. Hurricane Hazel, Timmins, SA SCS) with areal reduction computed
• Your local design storms added upon request (free service)

Dry weather flow (DWF) pattern creation and DWF allocation

• Hourly, daily, monthly pattern creation from observed flow
• Dry weather event identification for pattern creation
• Tools for assigning patterns and apportioning DWF to model nodes, based on topological assigning of meter records, and/or observed flows.
• Reports generated on pattern derivation and apportioning

Automated pipe sizing

• Sizing method uses Manning’s formula calculated using hydraulic slope under peak computed flow for circular pipes

Pond design

• Computes storage volume required to meet peak flow reduction objectives

Graphical time series manager

• Manipulation / statistics / error analysis

Parameter uncertainty / confidence tracking

• Parameter uncertainty estimation available for all numeric model input parameters (both entity attributes such as subcatchment parameters and non-visual object parameters such as RDII parameters, pollutant build-up and wash-off parameters, DWF patterns, etc.)
• Thematic color rendering of table cells to visually display uncertainty / confidence

Sensitivity, Calibration and Error Analysis (SCEA)

• Genetic algorithm calibration tool for any SWMM5 parameter (requires PCSWMM 2006)
• GA calibration tool calibrates either to a specified objective function or to entire response function (e.g. hydrograph shape - requires PCSWMM 2006)
• Observed vs computed error analysis on objective functions and/or response functions

Web 2.0 technologies

• Support for on-the-fly KML creation - allows the 3D visualization of your model in Google Earth^®, complete with all SWMM5 entities and their attributes
• Support for embedding external resources into the modeling environment, either as general notes & documents, or as geo-referenced points of interest (POIs) on the map
• Embedded external resources can include locally stored (on LAN) documents, images, video, as well as Internet resources such as images, video, documents, web pages or applets (e.g. Flash^®) from HTTP sites, secured FTP servers, or from public Web 2.0 file storage services like Flickr^®, YouTube^®, etc.)

* multi-format SWMM5 layer saving scheduled for Q4, 2008. Current GIS format for SWMM5 layers is the open standard ArcView shape file format.

PCSWMM and PCSWMM.NET are trademarks of CHI, Microsoft, Excel and Access are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, ArcGIS and ArcView are registered trademarks of ESRI Inc., MapInfo is a registered trademark of Pitney Bowes MapInfo, Microstation is a registered trademark of Bentley Systems Inc., Google Earth and YouTube are registered trademarks of Google Inc., Flickr is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc, AutoCAD is a registered trademark of AutoDesk Inc.