BIM on the Rocks

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencasts

Yesterday, I posted about the new Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis 2012 Technical Capabilities and Functionalities (pdf) document.

James Wedding recorded a series of on-demand screencasts that bring that document to life. The first screencast in the series goes through an overview of the technical capabilities of SSA.

James and I worked with Chris Maeder to make sure that these screencasts included enough information to help you understand the capabilities of the product and make a decision about how best to use the tools in your office.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Overview Screencast

Meeting Regulatory Standards with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencast presents the hydraulic and hydrology methodologies used in SSA. View this video to better understand these capabilities, learn more about the customizable reporting features in SSA, and be more confident that SSA can meet the requirements of regulatory agencies.

Rainfall Definition with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Screencast introduces you to the design storm definition capabilities available in SSA. Watch this presentation to learn about the rainfall designer functionality and the built-in database of site-specific rainfall data, the rainfall intensity options, and the batch analysis capability for easily comparing the results of multiple storm events.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is part of Civil 3D 2012 and Map 3D 2012. It is available as a subscription download for Civil 3D 2011 and Map 3D 2011 in select regions.

All posts on this blog tagged SSA.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Technical Capabilities and Functionalities

There is a new document available: Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis 2012 Technical Capabilities and Functionalities (pdf)

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis is part of Civil 3D 2012 and Map 3D 2012. It is available as a subscription download for Civil 3D 2011 and Map 3D 2011 in select regions.

We put this document together as a quick way for you to find out information about which methodologies are supported in SSA. We get a lot of questions like “Which hydrology methods are support in SSA?”, “Which time of concentration methods are available?”, “How can I input my rainfall into the Rainfall Designer?”; “Does SSA support arch pipe?”

Find out the answers to these questions and more by downloading the document today. It is riveting reading. This brief but robust document contains lists, charts and explanations of how things work in SSA. If it doesn’t answer your question, ask it here, and I will make sure it gets covered in a future version.

Using Civil 3D Stage Storage information in SSA

I’m in Novi, Michigan this week working with the Vault team and learning more about Vault Collaboration AEC. I noticed Matt tweet about using the results of a Civil 3D Stage Storage analysis in Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis, so I asked him to write it up.

Here is Matt:

I despise the unnecessary duplication and manual process of transcribing data for analysis. The case in point that I want to discuss is the construction of Stage-Storage Curves. Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Sewer has the ability to load a text file to construct the stage storage curve. AutoCAD Civil 3D’s Stage Storage tool has the ability to export the analysis to a text file. Let us see how these two come together in 2012.

The Stage-Storage tool moved from the Toolbox into the Ribbon -> Analyze Tab, below the fold at the bottom of the tab.

In launching the Stage-Storage Tool, you can query or build your Stage-Storage table from the surface, or a family of polylines extracted from the surface. After defining the basin, the Stage-Storage Volume Table will contain the Elevation-Area and Volume information, or Stage-Storage tabular data. Below the Volume table is a Save Table button that will allow you to export the information to a text file with the Stage Storage File *.AeccSST file extension.

This file extension can be loaded into a Storage Node within Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis 2012 so that this pond,

is loaded into SSA as this Storage Curve,

Happy Modeling!

Adding Flow Arrows to your SSA Links

I am working with a citywide sanitary sewer dataset in Civil 3D (using the Map 3D tools) and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

In SSA, I am trying to isolate a neighborhood in the dataset for some rehabilitation, but I was having a hard time following how the network was draining. I remember seeing an option for flow arrows somewhere…

1. Right-click anywhere in the background.

2. Choose display options.

3. Choose an arrow size and style.

4. Now I can follow the arrows and figure out where my sewage is flowing with a quick visual check.

Dig into some of the other display options to customize how you see your links, nodes and even the results of your analysis. More to come on this subject as I dig deeper- you know me and pretty colors.

In the meantime, I’ll be getting back to work- and also the other project I have on the go…

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis now Live for UK, Benelux, Nordic and Baltic Regions!

I am sure Jack will mention this in more detail (today was his big Event at the Thames Barrier), but just a quick announcement about Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis (former StormNET).

In addition to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the subscription extension is now available to the following countries:

Benelux

Belgium

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Nordic & Baltic

Denmark

Estonia

Faroe Islands

Finland

Greenland

Iceland

Latvia

Lithuania

Norway

Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands

Sweden

UK & Ireland

Ireland

United Kingdom

For the rest of the world- stay tuned!

Importing Shapefiles into Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

It’s day three over here in Manchester at our internal water training, and everyone is getting a little punchy.

Tanya West, one of our North American Technical Specialists, taught a great session on Sanitary Sewer Planning using Map 3D and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

In her session she pointed out something that had given me a hard time.

SSA includes a GIS import wizard that will import a shp file. It takes an educated guess at which fields match to SSA properties- such as PIPELENGTH might get matched to length, MANHOLE might get matched to node id, etc.

Two fields that it seems to have trouble matching well is Upstream Node ID and Downstream Node ID. The sticker is that if these aren’t properly matched, your shp won’t import.

It’s easy enough to fix those fields (and make matches on any others) using the drop-down menu. The menus read into your shp file and show you available fields.

Press Next to work through the wizard, and here is my model- ready for me to clean up, set up and analyze.

Once I am finished, I can export the analysis results back to shp for use in Map 3D. I show a high level view of the Map 3D to SSA and back to Map 3D workflow in this video.

Creating an IDF Curve in Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

This week, we’re training some of the internal technical folks at Autodesk in Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

One of the things that Matt Anderson taught the group was creating an IDF curve from local rainfall intensity data.

I found data for my home county here: Rainfall Intensity table from DelDOT Road Design Manual: Drainage and Stormwater (pdf) page 18.

First make sure you set the Project Options to Rational Method.   

Next, go into the IDF curve dialog (double click on the IDF entry on the left pane)

Right-click to delete/add return periods and storm durations.

  

You can save the curve for use in future projects.

Sample Data for Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

Some of the data that I have been using in my webcasts about Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis installs as sample data in the SSA Stand-Alone 2011 directory (remember x86 on 64 bit machines.)

If you missed the webcasts, you can watch the archives here:

Water Infrastructure Design Using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011

Water Infrastructure Planning Using AutoCAD Map 3D 2011

There are a lot of folders in there, so use the Sample Descriptions pdf to figure out what is what.

 

Explore different model configurations, different methods. Let me know what you come up with!

Civil 3D with Storm and Sanitary Analysis Webcast Thursday 9-9-2010

I spent my summer digging through piles of work, harassing James everywhere from Park City to Waltham, and helping Panorama with her first State Fair entries. One of the contests was a LEED certified gingerbread dwelling.

We’re back to school now, so I suppose I need to get into the habit of slapping something up here once in awhile instead of getting my social media fix on twitter.

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 1PM EDT, I will be leading a webcast on using Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis with Civil 3D.

Water Infrastructure Design Using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011

Thursday, September 9, 2010

In this session, we'll take the recommendations from the drainage planning study presentation to design a stormwater management system for a neighborhood. We'll build upon data from the drainage planning study and show how to do a surface analysis and determine drainage catchments in Civil 3D, design a drainage system in Civil 3D, share pipe network and catchment information, and more! > Register Now

 

If you are interested, I did one a few weeks ago on using Map 3D and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

Water Infrastructure Planning Using AutoCAD Map 3D 2011

Thursday, August 19, 2010

In this session, we'll use Map 3D 2011 along with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Stand-Alone to do regional planning for a citywide stormwater drainage system. See how you can aggregate data from multiple sources including SHP and raster imagery using Map 3D 2011, share data with Storm and Sanitary Analysis to build analysis model, run simulations and analysis in Storm and Sanitary Analysis, and more! > Watch Now

 

Also reference:

Technical orientations to Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis in a youtube playlist

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Users Guide (pdf - 37237Kb)

Autodesk Stormwater Discussion Group

Excel Reports from Storm and Sanitary Analysis

Contributing Subbasins and Links in Storm and Sanitary Analysis

Civil 3D Pipe Networks to Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

Using Hydraflow Express for Channel Calculations

I was working through a predevelopment time of concentration yesterday using Civil 3D and Autodesk SSA, and I needed a cross sectional area and wetted perimeter for a natural channel.

In Civil 3D, I had my TC path drawn, and using the terrain model, I could see where I entered into channel flow. I used some quick profiles across the channel, some surface analysis and slope arrows to help me get my bearings. 

Then, I made a short alignment across a representative section of the channel. You could make as many as you’d like.

By making an alignment, I could make a profile and profile view as well as labels. I traced the existing ground profile with a layout profile to get more crisp tangent lines, then used profile labels for 1:Z slopes. I used Seth’s trick of using line labels as dimensions to give me some of the other pieces I needed to calc the CSA and WP.

Then, I launched Hydraflow Express from the Analyze tab in Civil 3D.

It was easy to enter the bits I needed for the calculation thanks to my profile view labeling. I could have added a few more labels- such as invert elevation, etc. if I wanted to get more information from the calculator.

As you experiment with Autodesk SSA, don’t forget about the tools in Hydraflow Express. There is no wrong way to use the tools in your toolbox- find the combination that gets you what you need for your design.