Water Surface Plotted in Cross Section Data Dialog Box

When exporting out the HEC-RAS model, the project name was not correctly defined. This is fixed.

The user can now specify that the energy gradeline, water surface, and critical water surface be plotted in the cross section plot within the Cross Section Data dialog box and the roadway crossing plot within the Bridge & Culvert Data dialog box.

Build Bridge Opening

To speed up the creation and editing of bridge openings, the software can automatically construct the bridge opening by defining the basic dimensions and parameters for the opening. For example, the bridge opening can be defined by specifying a bridge span and a corresponding left abutment station, center station, or right abutment station, or by specifying a bridge abutment left and right station.

Bridge & Culvert Comparison Analysis

The software will display an analysis results comparison between a proposed and existing bridge or culvert structure, showing the computed energy grade elevation, water surface elevation, velocity, and flow area for the opening structure and for several upstream cross sections. The user can interactively adjust the proposed bridge or culvert design for the roadway crossing and the software will automatically update the comparison results.

Realistic 3D Rendering of Roadway Crossings

Near photorealistic real-time 3D rendering of roadway crossings, inline structures, and lateral structures are now constructed. Changing dimensions, culvert spacing, and elevations automatically updates the rendered structure. This allows the user to easily interact with, maneuver around, and change the structure design to gain perspectives impossible to capture in 2D. This improves how the HEC-RAS model is communicated inside and outside of the company. For example, it is simply easier to understand a bridge design when you can see it in 3D—as opposed to a 2D plot.

Online Elevation Data

The software will automatically stream elevation data to your computer for the area that you are working in. For the United States, available elevation resolution is 10 m (elevation grid point every 10 meters). For areas outside of the United States, elevation resolution is 30 m. The software will automatically merge online elevation data with higher resolution elevation data loaded from the local computer. Both US elevation units (ft) and metric elevation units (m) are provided.

Current Drawing Layer

Within the Map Data Layers panel the user can explicitly select the layer that new entities (other than HEC-RAS entities) are drawn to. This helps the user by “locking” the selected layer for digitizing new entities.

FEMA NFHL Shapefile Download

Download FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data as shapefiles on to the local computer for a user-specified region. The NFHL provides users with the ability to determine the flood zone, base flood elevation and floodway status for a particular geographic location. It also has National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) community information, map panel information, cross section and hydraulic structure information, Coastal Barrier Resource System information (if applicable) and base map information, such as road, stream and public land survey data. A full list of available NFHL layers is provided in the download data dialog box.

LIDAR Support

Digital terrain models can be quickly constructed from bare-earth (Light Detection and Ranging) LAS and LAZ formatted LIDAR elevation data files. LIDAR data can often contain millions of points for a given area. The LIDAR elevation processing tools are extremely fast, utilizing multi-core processing for extremely large datasets.

MicroStation Drawing Support

Full support of Bentley MicroStation V8 (import and export) and V7 (import only) DGN drawing files is provided. The import process handles DGN objects and properties that have a direct correlation to DWG objects and properties without any issues. For example, levels in MicroStation translate directly to AutoCAD layers. However, DGN objects and properties that have no direct correlation to DWG objects and properties may not translate completely.

Merge DEMs

This command can be used to merge two or more adjoining polylines into a single polyline. This is useful, for example, when the user has stopped digitizing a long river reach and then started up again later. The user can merge the two river reaches into a single river reach.

Merge Polylines

Full support of Bentley MicroStation V8 (import and export) and V7 (import only) DGN drawing files is provided. The import process handles DGN objects and properties that have a direct correlation to DWG objects and properties without any issues. For example, levels in MicroStation translate directly to AutoCAD layers. However, DGN objects and properties that have no direct correlation to DWG objects and properties may not translate completely.

HEC-RAS User-Defined Summary Profile Tables

User-defined summary profile tables are now supported. The software will automatically synchronize with any user-defined tables that are defined for the US Army Corps of Engineers HEC-RAS software.

Enhanced Flood Mapping

Several major and minor enhancements have been added to the flood mapping command. The software can now construct an approximate or precise flood map. The precise flood map takes longer to compute than the approximate flood map. The user can specify the clipping boundary limits as well as whether to clip out any building footprints. In addition, river junctions for large river network models are better supported. Finally, for large river models, the user can restrict the flood map to be created for smaller regions so that a detailed flood map can be created.

Incomplete HEC-RAS Model Profile Plots

The software is able to generate a river profile plot without the HEC-RAS model being completed. This allows the user to check that the defined cross section geometry and flow lengths are matching what was entered.

Metadata Tab for WMS Layers

A metadata tab is now provided for most WMS (Web Map Service) layers, which provide details of when the web map was created, the originating data, and contact information for the map data.

Bridge Plot for Hydraulic Parameters

The dialog box used for defining the unsteady flow hydraulic parameters for bridge structures now includes a plot of the bridge opening to assist the user in defining the necessary parameters.

Expansion and Contraction Coefficients Editing

The user can directly edit the expansion and contraction coefficients within a single table for the entire river reach. For example, this allows the user to quickly adjust expansion and contraction coefficients at a roadway crossing.

Flow Length Editing

The user can directly edit the left overbank, channel, and right overbank flow lengths within a single table for the entire river reach.

Data Grid Fill Handles

Data grids now provide a fill handle allowing the user to replicate an entry into the other rows within the data grid, similar to what is provided within Microsoft Excel. For example, the user can easily fill-in the same downstream boundary conditions for all of the defined profiles in the Steady Flow Data dialog box.

Map Layers Selection Locking

The Map Data Layers panel now allows the user to lock a layer from selection. This allows the user to still view the layer, but not be able to click on anything on that layer for selection. This eliminates the problem when there are a lot of elements from various layers displayed in the Map View, and the user wants to select only elements from a single layer.

Toggling of Map Layers While Digitizing

The software now allows the user to toggle various properties of the map layers within the Map Data Layers panel while digitizing. For example, the user can toggle the display of a layer ON or OFF file digitizing a polyline as long as the layer is not the layer being digitized.

Automatic Computing of Junction Flow Lengths

The software now automatically computes the flow distance at a junction between the upstream and downstream river reaches. The user does not need to manually measure the flow length unless the flow traverses a path different than the defined river reach.

Ortho Measure Tool in Cross Section Plot

The software provides an ortho measure tool for measuring distances in the Cross Section, Roadway Crossing, Inline Structure, and the Lateral Structure Plots.

Optional Geometry Extraction for Georeferenced Cross Sections

The software now provides an option to automatically extract the cross section geometry for georeferenced cross sections. In addition, the software will automatically update the flow lengths for the georeferenced cross section and the next upstream cross section.

Improved Display of Cross Section IDs

The software now takes into account the width and height of the cross section ID (river station) on the Map View, and will place the cross section ID slightly offset from the end of the cross section so that the ID does not overwrite the cross section line.

Linked Selection of Cross Section Geometry Points

Selecting a ground point within the Cross Section Plot will also highlight the selected ground point within the Cross Section Data dialog box data table. The same behavior occurs within the Roadway Crossing Plot, Inline Structure Plot, and Lateral Structure Plot, by highlighting the corresponding geometry point within the data table.

Delete Multiple Points in Cross Section Plot

The software allows the user to drag a window to select ground geometry points for deleting within the cross section plot of the Cross Section Data dialog box. The same can be done for roadway and bridge geometry points within the roadway crossing plot of the Bridge & Culvert Data dialog box, weir crest geometry within the inline structure plot of the Inline Structure Data dialog box, and levee weir geometry within the lateral structure plot of the Lateral Structure Data dialog box.

Real-Time Feedback while Measuring Distances and Areas

While measuring distances and areas on the Map View, the software now provides real-time feedback on the distance or area that has been measured. For example, this is helpful when attempting to accurately place a modeling element on the Map View.

Develop HEC-RAS Model from GIS Shapefiles

The software can construct complete HEC-RAS geometry models from external GIS shapefiles. For example, river reaches, cross sections, bank stations, flow lengths, Manning’s roughness, levees and more can be automatically assigned from GIS shapefiles. All the user needs to do is assign flow boundary conditions and the HEC-RAS model is completed.

Automatic Mapping of GIS Attributes

The software will now “guess” at which attribute field should be used based upon the field label name and field type. For example, assigning roughness regions using a GIS polygon shapefile using the Assign Manning’s Roughness command, the software will review all of the attributes contained within the shapefile and select what it thinks is the attribute to be used for assigning roughness to the cross sections.

Summary Profile Output Table User-Defined Locations

The summary profile output tables now allow the user to define specific locations (i.e., cross sections, roadway crossings, inline structures) to include in the output table. In that way, the user can specify only those locations that are of key interest and the software will not display results for any of the other locations.

Extract Cross Section Geometry from 3D Polylines

The software can generate the cross section geometry directly from 3D polylines. For example, 3D polylines from AutoCAD or MicroStation can be used to create the cross section geometry.

Map Scale Bar in Printed Output

The software will now optionally include a map scale bar in the 2D Map View that is printed. Work is going on to implement this same functionality with exported PDF files.

High Chord and Low Chord Drawing

The software allows the user to draw the high chord and low chord geometry on the roadway crossing plot in the Bridge & Culvert Data dialog box.

Double Click Middle Mouse Button to Zoom Extents

Similar to AutoCAD, double clicking the middle mouse button will cause the software to zoom extents for the current layer or HEC-RAS layer if there is HEC-RAS data defined.

Dynamic Loading of Geodatabases

To improve performance for large GIS geodatabases (i.e., GDB and MDB files), the software will load layers only when they are turned on. In that way, the software does not load the entire database at the time of selection, but only when necessary.