Contributing Subbasins and Links in Storm and Sanitary Analysis

I learned how to design drainage networks using a spreadsheet. It took some time, and creative use of color coding in Excel, but I somehow became capable of understanding which pipes and areas were cumulatively contributing to each other, but it was disconnected to a physical representation of my site which was in AutoCAD or Land Desktop.

I was working with a model in Storm and Sanitary Analysis (former StormNET) and I noticed something interesting. If you select a junction and right-click, you can highlight all of the contributing subbasins.

This would have been extremely helpful for answering questions like- “Why is this pipe so big?” or “Where can I make changes to my impervious area to really make a difference in runoff?”

Another choice on that right-click menu is contributing links. It highlights all of the pipes that contribute to the flow at that node.

It really would have been nice to have a tool like this when working on things like drainage plans for Neighborhood Design Reports that I wrote about here..

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is available for North American subscription customers of Civil 3D and Map 3D. You can download SSA at www.autodesk.com/subscription, and learn more about SSA, including demonstration videos, here.

You might also want to read: Moving Civil 3D Pipe Networks to Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

Comments

[Wesley Ashworth]

Dana,
I'm working on a Master Drainage Plan for a Parish in Louisiana. I've delineated my drain basins and land uses. I'd like for Civil 3D to automatically give me my composite Land use. Is this possible? Should I use SSA?

Wes

[Dana Probert]

For composite land use, you might look into using a Map topology or Map overlay Analysis. This should combine the drainage areas with land uses. I did an AU class on a procedure like this a few years ago, it could use some updating for some of the new overlay analysis using the FDO, though.