BIM on the Rocks

Cumulative Hatch Area and Stormwater Management Plans

I’m working on that Master Planned Community again. This time, my colleague Brian and I are designing some green Best Management Practices for a townhouse/condo courtyard.

This is just a quick tip that is useful in a variety of circumstances. Whenever you need a cumulative area of something, create hatches. Then, pick each of the hatches. The property window will give you the cumulative area.

There are quite a few ways to tackle the study of “areas”. I like parcels and catchment objects for many things, but sometimes you just want a quick benchmark. If your hatch is associated with its boundary, this area will be dynamic if you adjust the boundary.

What are some of your best workflows for figuring out different cover types for stormwater management analysis?

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.

Three Customer Stories around Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

I was cruising around the Autodesk website and noticed we have a few new stories published.

The first story is about Bolton and Menke in Mankato, Minnesota. You may remember Tim Olson of Bolton and Menke talking about a 30 square mile metropolitan stormwater plan using Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis on a CE News webcast last year. Tim shared his knowledge about the project in an Autodesk University class: CV223-4 Using Autodesk® Storm and Sanitary Analysis on Large Stormwater Projects, and I also mentioned his firm’s work in this post about Citywide Drainage Studies.

You can’t really argue with the lead in to this story:

Bolton & Menk, Inc. meets aggressive five-week deadline on storm water management plan for Ramsey, Minnesota, by cutting modeling time in half with Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Extension.

 Bolton & Menk Customer Story (pdf - 1620Kb)

The second story profiles 4Site, Inc. which is a firm based in Huntsville, Alabama. You have to love an engineering firm that quotes Buckminster Fuller on their website. The story profiles a LEED project that features green BMPs. Can you spot the stormwater management in this picture? The sexiest civil engineering is always invisible.

What I was really pleased to see is that 4Site models and designs using Civil 3D and takes advantage of the workflow between Civil 3D and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis. A great quote from the story:

"With Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Software, we can model the entire project as a whole instead of in parts," says Jackie Whitaker, project manager at 4Site. "It handles flow calculations and hydraulic grade lines, and enables us to update pipe sizes—all within the Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis, in a single step, and without lengthy manual calculations." -Jackie Whitaker, project manager at 4Site.

 4Site, Inc. Customer Story (pdf - 1220Kb)

The third story looks at Greengard, Inc., a civil engineering, surveying and land planning firm in suburban Chicago. Greenguard is another firm that takes full advantage of the interaction between Civil 3D and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis.

"We don’t have to draw pipes or manholes twice," says White. "All the information from the pipe network in Civil 3D is there when we import it." -Douglas M. White, P.E., DECI,

 Greengard Customer Story (pdf - 971Kb)

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis part Map 3D 2012, Civil 3D 2012 and therefore also part of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2012.

If you’d like to dig deeper into Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis, check out these links:

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Videos

A Technical Tour of Storm and Sanitary Analysis (former StormNET) from Chris Maeder, MS PE

CV220-1L Introduction to Autodesk® Storm and Sanitary Analysis with Chris Maeder

CE News Webcast: BIM and Sustainability for Roadway Drainage Design

If you work in a firm where the project managers don’t quite understand what BIM means for your road, highway and drainage work, this is the webcast you’ll want them to see.

Round everyone up on October 21, 2010 at 1:00PM EDT for BIM and Sustainability for Roadway Drainage Design with James Wedding, P.E.

This webcast won’t go into technical nitty gritty- it is focused on understanding how a change in process can bring more value to your designs. What are your clients demanding? Who is getting the work these days? Can you give more value for the same effort?

If that isn’t enough to persuade them to tune in, you could mention that watching the webcast live earns continuing education credits. (See www.stagnitomedia.com/cedu/ for more information.)

Looking for a webcast geared towards Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis specifically? Check out this archived CE News webcast with Chris Maeder, M.S., P.E.

Automation Innovations in Stormwater Modeling

Automation innovations in Autodesk’s recently released water resource engineering software allows civil engineers to more efficiently and economically complete stormwater analysis and design projects. This presentation showcases a stormwater project in which a major engineering firm was able to complete a 30 square mile metropolitan stormwater management plan in half of the time that it would normally have taken.

⇒ Click here to view the archived presentation!
⇒ NEW! Click here to view the Water Infrastructure Design & Management Whitepaper!

For more information about Autodesk products and drainage:

BIM on the Rocks posts about Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

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

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!

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.

SCS Type II vs Huff Distribution and Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis

I was working on something using some data from the Chicago area. Since all of my stormwater experience is limited to a few Mid-Atlantic states, I am glad that Matt Anderson could help me out yesterday. He explained the difference between SCS Type II distributions and Huff distributions. He was kind enough to record this short video for me in Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis. I just love listening to his casual, friendly Chicago accent it makes me want to grab my overcoat and head out for some deep dish pizza somewhere with a lake view.

There are a ton of distributions available in the SSA rainfall designer- SCS, various counties, Florida DOT, Seattle… many more.

You can learn more details about the rainfall designer in the Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis Users Guide (pdf - 37237Kb).

Have questions? Visit the Autodesk Stormwater Discussion Group.

For a detailed technical orientation, see the Overview of Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis videos on youtube.