WaterCAD and Civil3D

Question

Hello, 
 it will be nice and great if Bentley could add a function where pipe modelled in WaterCAD/WaterGem can be exported to Civil3D as pressure network object or pipe network. 
 I wondering if Bentley is considering to add in this function into their waterCAD future releases.

tlfoster56 · Accepted Answer

I have formally logged an enhancement request (#128897) for the product management team to consider your request for future versions. 
 The items mentioned by Mal Sharkey are for MicroStation users, however your request is for AutoCAD users which is why we have logged this enhancement.

tlfoster56 · Answer

You can open the model in WaterCAD/GEMS with the AutoCAD Civil 3D interface. From WaterCAD/GEMS you can export the model to a .dxf and in Civil 3D create a pipe network with the .dxf.

Mal Sharkey · Answer

Are you set on using Civil 3D, or would you consider using Bentley software for your civil needs? Because you can export the WaterCAD/WaterGEMS model to a 3D 'i-model' which you can then open in MicroStation (as well as other Bentley products). 
 We have a great new product called Bentley Subsurface Utility Engineering which is ideal for clash detection of utilities. You can read a bit more about it here: www.bentley.com/.../top+advantages.htm 
 Regards, 
 Mal

Jesse Dringoli · Answer

If Civil3D can consume other data types such as Shapefiles, you can export your model and use that in Civil3D:

http://communities.bentley.com/products/hydraulics___hydrology/w/hydraulics_and_hydrology__wiki/9509.converting-your-model-elements-to-shapefiles

Regards,

Jesse Dringoli
Technical Support Manager, OpenFlows
Bentley Communities Site Administrator
Bentley Systems, Inc.

Mayowa · Answer

It seems you are not getting the point. The longsection/profile we are talking about will be used to design air valves, washouts etc... this cannot be achieved in WaterCAD using the WaterCAD profiles tools. It is counter productive by exporting polylines from WaterCAD to Civil 3D and rebuild the pipe network. All we need is the interface where we can build the model in Civil 3D Export the model to WaterCAD/WaterGEM and perform all the analysis and export back the results into Civil 3D model. Thereby updating the pipe diameter in Civil 3D using the latest pipe diameter from waterCAD.

Jesse Dringoli · Answer

Manish, 
 
You can include the Elevation field in your node flextable to export Z to the shapefile. 
 
Mayowa, 
 
We understand the concern. The Enhancement request to directly import/export to LandXML in our Water products has been passed along to product management for consideration in a future release. I've included your points above as well as Manish's interest. This will be prioritized along with other features and requests. We appreciate the feedback and additional points.

Jesse Dringoli · Answer

Hello Manish, 
 As previously mentioned, there is currently no direct way to export a WaterGEMS model to another Civil Bentley product for profiling purposes. As far as Bentley products, it looks like the best bet may be Bentley's Subsurface Utilities Engineering along with one of the Civil Design products (GEOPAK, MX or InRoads). 
 Bentley's Subsurface Utilities Engineering (SUE) can import Shapefiles (which can be exported from WaterGEMS as explained further above) and can generate profiles that are more what you are looking for, but there are a few things potential concerns. 
 First, a WaterGEMS model contains only one elevation, stored in the nodes. This could either represent ground elevation or actual pipe elevation. If it represents actual pipe elevation, you could overlay a terrain model of ground elevation on the profile. If it represents ground elevation, one option would be to use OpenRoads tools to drape the WaterGEMS model geometry on a terrain model, then lower it by a certain offset. 
 This highlights one of the reasons why WaterGEMS currently doesn't have the same profiling capabilities as our Storm, Sewer and Civil Design products. Hydraulic models in WaterGEMS typically don't need additional physical details such as inverts of all devices, etc in order to provide typical required results like flow and pressure. They also typically don't require elevations to be as accurate since the results that are typically of interest have a larger tolerance to elevations when compared to storm and sewer systems. Therefore since they don't have this information, since the elevations typically aren't as accurate, and since pipes operate under pressure whereby the pipe slope isn't a concern, users often do not look for detailed profiling (longitudinal sectional) and physical modeling. 
 The second potential concern is that the profiles in SUE cannot show annotations. You can however export them to one of our Civil products (MX, GEOPAK or InRoads), and use it to calculate ground elevations along the pipes. You might also be able to overlay the two profile drawings for printing purposes. 
 Also, WaterGEMS does give you the flexibility to add custom fields using the User Data Extension (UDX) feature. So, you could create UDX fields for other physical parameters that you might want to annotate on.