8. Project dialogs

The Project menu opens one dialog per section that is not a map object. The menu item and the window it opens:

Every OK or Apply is one command and one undo step; Cancel or closing the window discards the draft. The same dialogs open from the Project browser's Edit… button and by double-clicking an entry there.

8.1 Title/Notes

The [TITLE] section as free text. Lines beginning with ; and blank lines are not part of the title as the engine reads it (it skips them), so the browser's count is of data lines only.

8.2 Options

[OPTIONS] grouped the way the EPA GUI groups them, five tabs:

A key the file does not have is written when you set it; a key it has keeps its spelling and its place, including the blank-line grouping the GUI writes. Every value is written as text; the engine's own rules for each (UM §3.4 and Appendix D [OPTIONS]) decide what is valid.

Three of these change how StormSewer itself reads the file:

• FLOW_UNITS decides the unit labels everywhere, and whether the storm-sewer design tool will accept the model (it refuses metric models);
• LINK_OFFSETS decides whether a link's InOffset/OutOffset are depths above the node invert or absolute elevations, for the profile and the design mapping;
• INFILTRATION decides the column layout of [INFILTRATION] rows (a row may also end with its own method keyword, which wins).

The unit-switch wizard. Changing FLOW_UNITS changes only a keyword: the engine reads every number in the file as if it were already in the new system. So when you OK a change of FLOW_UNITS, the Flow units changed window opens and says so (FLOW_UNITS is now CMS (was CFS).). A change within one system (CFS to GPM) affects only flow-valued fields; a change of system (US customary to SI) affects lengths, areas, depths, rates and coefficients as well. The wizard lists each group of values the engine does not convert, with how many rows it would touch:

Node elevations and depths · Conduit geometry · Weirs, orifices, outlets · Storage units · Pump start/stop depths · Subcatchment area, width, storage · Infiltration parameters · Rain gage time series · External inflows · Dry-weather flows · Evaporation · Curves (by type).

Tick what to convert and click Convert ticked: one undo step, using 1 ft = 0.3048 m, 1 acre = 0.40468564 ha, 1 in = 25.4 mm, 1 cfs = 0.028316847 m³/s = 448.83117 gpm = 0.64631689 mgd. Manning's n is the same in both systems; orifice discharge coefficients are dimensionless; weir coefficients are not (3.33 ft^0.5/s against 1.84 m^0.5/s) and are in the Weirs, orifices, outlets group. Copy report puts the list on the clipboard; Revert puts FLOW_UNITS back and changes nothing else. §16.7 is the checklist behind the groups.

The offsets note. On the General tab, next to LINK_OFFSETS, a note explains that DEPTH means each link offset is a height above its node's invert and ELEVATION means an absolute elevation, and that the keyword alone changes what every offset means. Changing it offers Convert existing offsets with the node inverts (same undo step): every InOffset/OutOffset is rewritten with its node's invert (conduits from the from-node and to-node; orifices, weirs and outlets from their inlet node) so the pipes stay where they are. Leave it unticked only if the numbers in the file are already in the new convention.

8.3 Rain Gages

The list of [RAINGAGES] on the left; + adds one (Add a rain gage), − deletes the chosen one. The fields are the row's columns: Format (INTENSITY, VOLUME, CUMULATIVE), Interval, SCF, Source (TIMESERIES with a series picker, or FILE with a file name, station id and rain units). A new gage is placed on the map by the browser or the Gage tool; this dialog edits the row.

8.4 Curves

[CURVES]. + adds a curve (Add a curve), − deletes. Choose the Type: STORAGE, SHAPE, DIVERSION, TIDAL, PUMP1–PUMP5, RATING, CONTROL, WEIR. The points are a draft table with Add row, plotted beside it; Apply writes the whole curve back as one undo step, keeping its rows in their place in the file; Revert discards the draft; Close closes. The type is written on the first row only, as the engine expects.

8.5 Time Series

Project → Time Series is a submenu: Edit…, Import…, Export to File….

Edit… — [TIMESERIES]. + adds a series (Add a time series), − deletes. Rows are time value or date time value; edit them in the draft table (Add row) or paste a block into Paste rows and click Replace with pasted or Append pasted. From an external file turns the series into a FILE reference the engine reads at run time (UM §11.5 for the file format). Apply writes the series back; Revert; Close. The plot under the table draws the draft. Times are the engine's hours:minutes (or days:hours:minutes past 24 h); a series without dates is relative to the simulation start.

Import… — the Import Time Series window. Load file… or paste a delimited table: a date column, a time column (or a combined date time cell), and one value column per series, so a hundred radar cells import as a hundred series in one go. Detected without options: comma, tab, semicolon or space delimiters; an optional header row; dates M/D/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYYMMDD, D.M.YYYY; times H:MM or HH:MM:SS; a table with no date column is a relative series. A NOAA GHCN-Daily station csv (STATION, DATE, PRCP in tenths of a millimetre) is recognised and imported as a daily VOLUME series. Names longer than SWMM's limit are cut and suffixed, and the preview says so. Tick Also add a rain gage per series (and place on the map) to get [RAINGAGES] rows whose format and interval match; click Import. One undo step.

Export to File… — the Export Time Series to File window: choose a series, Save As… writes it as SWMM's external time-series file (date time value lines with ; comments), and, when asked, replaces its rows in the .inp with a FILE reference. For series too long to keep in the model.

8.6 Patterns

[PATTERNS]. + adds (Add a pattern), − deletes. Kind is MONTHLY (12 factors), DAILY (7), HOURLY (24) or WEEKEND (24); the table has that many cells. Apply, Revert, Close as for curves.

8.7 Controls

The [CONTROLS] section as text, with OK and Cancel. The rule syntax is the engine's (UM §3.3 and Appendix C); StormSewer does not parse it, except that a rename patches the object name after NODE, LINK, PUMP, ORIFICE, WEIR, OUTLET, CONDUIT or GAGE. Each IF needs its own RULE name line; a second IF inside a rule is the usual cause of the engine's clause invalid or out of sequence error (chapter 16).

8.8 Pollutants and Land Uses

[POLLUTANTS] and [LANDUSES] as grids with OK and Cancel. The related [BUILDUP], [WASHOFF], [COVERAGES], [LOADINGS] and [TREATMENT] sections have no dialog: [COVERAGES] and [LOADINGS] show on a subcatchment's sheet, and all five are preserved as written.

8.9 Design Storm…

Builds a hyetograph and writes it as a [TIMESERIES] plus a [RAINGAGES] row in one undo step. The Distribution choices, each with its source printed on the dialog:

The plot shows the hyetograph and its cumulative curve; the table lists each interval; the line under them totals the depth and names the peak. Name the Series and the Gage, choose the Series format (INTENSITY or VOLUME), and optionally Assign to every subcatchment (or to the selected ones) and Place the gage symbol on the map. Add to Model writes it all. Depths are in the model's rain unit — inches for a CFS/GPM/MGD model, millimetres otherwise — and nothing is converted. §15.7 has the equations.

8.10 Compute Conduit Lengths…

The geometric length of every conduit from the map against its stored Length, with a factor from [MAP] Units, and one batch that writes the ticked ones. Described in §3.10. Nothing runs on its own: drawing writes a length once and nothing touches it again until you ask.

8.11 Backdrop and Map Dimensions

View → Backdrop → Load Image…, Georeference…, Show, Remove; and View → Map Dimensions…. They edit [BACKDROP] and [MAP]. Described in §3.9.

8.12 What has no dialog

[EVAPORATION], [TEMPERATURE], [ADJUSTMENTS], [AQUIFERS], [SNOWPACKS], [HYDROGRAPHS], [LID_CONTROLS], [TRANSECTS], [STREETS], [INLETS], [REPORT], [PROFILES], [EVENTS]. All are kept byte for byte and listed in the Project browser where they have a node; edit them in a text editor. The engine reads them; StormSewer's validator does not check their contents.