How to Safely Clean Working and Results Files in ICM

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Nicole Hathorn

As you work in InfoWorks ICM, you may notice that you are running out of space on your hard drive. This can happen when you work in ICM often and make loads of changes to your model without cleaning out the working folder, but is mostly due to unused and temporary results files. This blog post will cover how to clean up both working and results files.

To clean out local working files (this also applies to InfoNet):

  1. Open a master database in InfoWorks ICM
  2. Commit your changes to all networks and close them in the GeoPlan (it’s OK to leave some uncommitted changes, but the files associated with those networks will not be cleaned out).
  3. Go to Tools>Options>Local Folders.
  4. Make sure that the Working Folder is selected from the dropdown as shown below.
  5. Click on the ‘Clean unused files from the folder for this database’ button to clean out the Working Folder.

6.  Repeat steps 1-5 for each master database.

To clean out the local results folder: Continue reading →

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    Updates to the Ground Infiltration Module in InfoWorks ICM 8.0

    Posted on July 25, 2017 by Duncan Kitts

      V8.0

    The release of InfoWorks ICM version 8.0 has seen a couple of additional features added to the Ground Infiltration module to improve efficiencies and assist with calibration to observed data.  These are:-

    • New constant evapotranspiration loss type,
    • New evapotranspiration depth at which evapotranspiration losses from the soil store cease,
    • Monthly evapotranspiration factors,
    • Option whereby the ground infiltration depends on the surcharge state in the pipe,
    • Ability to apply a ground infiltration event profiles to multiple subcatchments.

    The document at the below link describes in more detail how each of these new options work

    The Ground Infiltration Module

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      Operating InfoWorks ICM on Virtual Machines and in Cloud based environments

      Posted on July 24, 2017 by Andrew Walker

      There is nothing particularly special that you need to do to deploy InfoWorks ICM on a Virtual Machine or on a Cloud platform, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. It’s really no different to installing the software on a new physical machine.  InfoWorks ICM is capable of running on any (Windows based) host, whether that be a powerful physical workstation, a virtualised Application Server located at a data centre or Cloud based Products/Services from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others.  The software will be installed in the usual way and then pointed to the location of the Workgroup database and Licence Server. In the case of a full-scale deployment on a Cloud Platform, the Workgroup Database and Shared Results Store would also be hosted on the same virtual platform in order to keep data transfer times to a minimum.

      Some organisations have looked at installing just the ICM Remote Agent (Simulation Engine) on a Virtual Host and running the ICM User Interface locally. This is also fine.  As long as the chosen machine/platform has network access to the InfoWorks Licence Server to acquire a licence at start up, and any firewall rules allow data/results transfer to/from the host, the simulation will run as instructed on the Virtual Machine (VM).

      If you can run InfoWorks Simulations on a virtualised Application Server located at a data centre, why, you might ask, doesn’t everyone run their massive simulations on Cloud Products where the ‘hardware’ can be scaled to meet demand?  Well, it comes down to the connection speed/capacity between your office (where the core InfoWorks ICM application is typically running locally on desktop hardware) and the Cloud Server where the Remote Simulation is running.  If the ICM model is so big that it needs to run on an off-site Cloud Processor to get competitive runtimes, then the results will likely be absolutely huge.  And that’s the problem.  Any time you save by running in the Cloud is lost again waiting for the results to come back to the office for analysis within the core ICM User Interface.  Also, depending on your client, there may be issues with data security, as models will be pushed to unknown servers in unpublished locations for Simulation.  We’ve found that Water Companies and Government bodies are particularly sensitive to this issue. Continue reading →

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        2016 Innovyze Water User Group Meeting – Melbourne

        Posted on July 20, 2017 by Ann Pugh

        The 2016 Innovyze Water Modelling User Group took place on the 25th November in Melbourne Australia.

        About 30 delegates from around Australia and New Zealand attended to share knowledge through various case studies, new features and tips and tricks in the software.

        Innovyze wishes to thank all those who were involved in the conference and look forward to future user group sessions.

        Click on an image or text below to download a PDF version of each presentation. Continue reading →

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          2017 InfoWorks ICM / ICMLive User Group Meeting Report

          Posted on June 27, 2017 by Andrew Walker

          The 2017 InfoWorks ICM / ICMLive User Group Meeting was held on the 20th June 2017. The event took place at the Conference Centre on Howbery Park, Wallingford, UK. We had over 80 attendees for the day. The event was a resounding success, even the record high temperatures we experienced in the UK that week didn’t seem to put people off (the conference room did get a little warm towards the end of the day!).

          It was good to see that all the sessions ran to time, the room logistics worked well and the catering was to a high standard. All of the presentations were excellent and generated a high level of Q&A at the end of each session (copy of the agenda is available here).

          The feedback we got from delegates as they left the conference indicated that the meeting was highly successful.  Everyone I spoke to certainly felt the event was thoroughly worthwhile and extremely productive.  This has been backed up by several very positive e-mails that I received from delegates in the days after the event. Continue reading →

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            GPU runtime results for 2D InfoWorks ICM models (2017 update)

            Posted on June 27, 2017 by Andrew Walker

            This is the third instalment in a series of blogs I’ve written summarising run times for 2D simulations conducted on PC hardware and NVIDIA GPU cards. The first was in December 2012, I then followed up with a second in September 2016.

            NVIDIA continue to evolve their GPU technology, producing faster and more powerful cards in rapid succession, often making it quite hard to keep up with the constant stream of new cards coming to the market! The other major change within the last 12-18 months has been a move away from physical hardware in preference to the adoption of Virtual (Cloud based) hardware platforms within corporate IT environments.

            InfoWorks ICM is designed to leverage technological improvements as soon as new GPU cards and new hardware platforms come onto the market. The tables below show runtimes for two of our standard 2D testing models which were run on a high-end Workstation and a high-end physical Server equipped with two of the latest NVIDIA GPU cards, and a Cloud based system comprising of virtual Xeon processors and a virtual GPU card (NVIDIA GRID technology).

            Each model was run on the three hardware platforms, which between them contained a TESLA K40c card, a Quadro M4000 card and an NVidia GRID K2 GPU card. Continue reading →

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              Innovyze RDII Analyst 3.0 for the Analysis and Calibration of RDII, DWF, DWF Patterns and GWI in Sewer Collection Systems

              Posted on June 22, 2017 by Robert Dickinson

              One of the most powerful InfoSWMM, InfoSWMM SA and H2OMAP SWMM Application Tools from Innovyze is RDII Analyst. RDII Analyst will separate out the Groundwater base flow, Dry Weather Flow (DWF), DWF Patterns, estimate the Wet Weather flow component or RDII Rainfall -Derived Infiltration Inflow (I&I) and use a Genetic Algorithm to find the best fit 18 RTK parameters for RDII modeling.

              This powerful tool can be used for RTK flow in InfoSWMM, H2OMAP SWMM, InfoSWMM SA, InfoSewer, SWMM 5 and InfoWorks ICM. Figure 1 shows one of the end results of RDII Analyst – a correlation plot of Observed versus Calibrated RDII Volume for the simulated events. New to 2017 is the ability to show all 3 R values, do scenario comparison of computed R, save and open many existing calibration runs and have 1 to 10 solutions per run.

              RDII Analyst is a significant improvement over the EPA SSOAP program, performs QA/QC of rainfall and flow monitoring data and decomposes the flow data into Dry-Weather Flow (DWF) and Wet-Weather Flow (RDII) components using criteria such as rainfall threshold. The DWF component is further analyzed to construct a DWF pattern that can be used to simulate the collection system using InfoSWMM. The DWF pattern is then assigned to the source nodes that contribute DWF to the meter location in proportion to sewershed areas or based on other criteria. The RDII component is then analyzed to determine RDII events and to calibrate parameters of the RTK synthetic unit hydrograph so that the RDII flow simulated by the RTK method closely matches the RDII flow obtained by the decomposition process. The RTK unit hydrograph parameters are calibrated with genetic algorithm optimization. The calibrated RTK parameters and the DWF patterns are then passed to InfoSWMM to carry out detailed dynamic flow routing through the sewer system and evaluate system response to support the development of an optimal capital improvement program. You can read the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress paper by Misgana and Boulos (2008) with a complete description and validation of the RDII Analyst workflow process for both RDII Analyst and for the InfoSWMM Calibrator Add-On in the InfoSWMM Suite (Boulos, 2005)

              Figure 1. Correlation plot of Observed versus Calibrated RDII Volume for the simulated events.

              Continue reading →

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                Confused about WHILE, IF

                Posted on June 20, 2017 by Idris Nujjoo

                Clients often get confused about WHILE, IF etc. It is quite common for those unfamiliar with SQL often try to use IF/ELSE/WHILE when there is no need and normal SQL commands are more appropriate.

                The important thing is to understand is that they can only be used to control the overall flow of the SQL query, they cannot be used to make decisions for individual objects.

                So for example, when you write

                SET user_number_1 = 5

                That query is automatically applied to all objects of the specified type. Continue reading →

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                  Exporting results to binary files

                  Posted on June 20, 2017 by Rui Daniel Pina

                  InfoWorks ICM allows you to export results in various formats. Amongst all the options available you can export results to binary files. Have you considered using this format? Continue reading this blog post to find more details about this.

                  What is a binary file?

                  A binary file stores data in binary format which can be read by computers but is not readable by users. It is usually more efficient than other formats, because their size is generally much smaller and their input and output is much faster.

                  Why do we want a more efficient file format?

                  We want a more efficient file format to be more efficient! This is particularly important if gigabytes of results are being generate and analysed. For example, the Stochastic Flood Maps presented in this blog post required the analysis of runs with 200 simulations, each of them with more than 10 000 2D elements, which ends in the generation and analysing of 1.2 GB of results for each run. Under these circumstances, the size of results files exported and the time required for their analysis can be significantly reduced with the use of binary files.

                  This does not mean the binary format should always be used. The use of binary files require the development of third party applications to read them, which might not be convenient for common modelling tasks that do not involve much data. In this case, the use of other formats, such as csv files, can be much handier to use and easier to read and analyse. In addition, InfoWorks ICM has several tools that can be used for most modelling tasks, including displaying and analysing results. Continue reading →

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                    Introduction to InfoWater SA

                    Posted on May 24, 2017 by Shawn Huang

                    InfoWater SA not only provides almost all capabilities of InfoWater as a hydraulic modeling tool for drinking water systems, but also offers an outstanding interface for better user-experience.

                    InfoWater SA is a Stand Alone software package, which was not built upon on ESRI’s ArcMap as InfoWater. Its map functionalities are based on ESRI’s ArcEngine, but there is no additional cost for users.

                    InfoWater SA utilizes the Microsoft Office style ribbon, which separates functionalities into groups such as Edit, View, Data, Tools, and Application etc. The ribbon has differentiated icons and labels according to their importance and frequency of use. Users can hide the ribbon to open up space the network map.

                    InfoWater SA also supports the Quick Access toolbar, which is fully customizable and can be placed on top or below the ribbon. A user can add any icons and commands to the Quick Access toolbar according to his/her preferences.

                    InfoWater SA User Interface

                    InfoWater SA User Interface

                    For more information, please visit http://www.innovyze.com/products/infowater_sa/ or contact our friendly Innovyze staff in your region.

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