Is it possible to import a model from a competitor product such as InfoWorks ?

In addition to Scott's reply I would like to point out, that in the past, we have encountered INP files created by various 3rd party sources that are not consistent with the official EPANET v2 INP file format. WaterCAD and WaterGEMS are designed to import and export the official EPANET v2 format, so in some cases an incorrect file format exported by a 3rd party program may not work correctly when importing into WaterCAD/GEMS.

The historical reason for this is that EPANET, as a software program, has evolved its own format over the years and I suspect that 3rd party software developers verify the "correctness" of their exported format by importing into EPANET 2 and checking hydraulic results. The issue with this approach is that EPANET 2 itself supports older INP formats and upon opening an INP in EPANET 2, if it detects such older file formats it does silent fix ups to convert the data into v2 format. So what this means is that whilst some 3rd party exported INPs may work in EPANET 2, if they don't follow the officially documented v2 format when writing the INP, those INP files may not fully work in WaterCAD/GEMS, which is designed to support the official v2 format.

That all said, we have made some changes in our own INP import to cater for the most common errors in 3rd party exported INP files, but there still may be cases that remain, that we have not covered. If you do encounter such a case, the work around is to take the INP file that you have received, open it in EPANET 2, then re-export it to a new file name. This will write the file in the official EPANET 2 format, correcting any legacy content in the original INP. Once you have that file in the correct INP format, it will work fine with WaterCAD/GEMS.

Another thing to note about the INP file format is that it only contains hydraulic information supported by EPANET. So if there is information in the 3rd party program that is not supported by EPANET, it may not be possible to transfer that information via the INP file. This is also true in reverse. For example WaterCAD and WaterGEMS cannot export variable speed pump information, to INP format, since the format specification does not support it. We do, however, try to export as much information as possible. So for a variable speed pump, we would still export the pump and it's pump curve and so on.

You'll also find that in WaterCAD/GEMS when you import a file from INP, that we set the calculation option "Engine Compatibility" to "EPANET 2.00.12" (or "EPANET 2.00.10" depending on which version of EPANET the model is from) so that the hydraulic results will match EPANET. If you wish to enable the computational enhancements and improvements made by Bentley, be sure to change this calculation mode to "WaterGEMS 2.00.12".

Regards,
Wayne.

In addition to Scott's reply I would like to point out, that in the past, we have encountered INP files created by various 3rd party sources that are not consistent with the official EPANET v2 INP file format. WaterCAD and WaterGEMS are designed to import and export the official EPANET v2 format, so in some cases an incorrect file format exported by a 3rd party program may not work correctly when importing into WaterCAD/GEMS.

The historical reason for this is that EPANET, as a software program, has evolved its own format over the years and I suspect that 3rd party software developers verify the "correctness" of their exported format by importing into EPANET 2 and checking hydraulic results. The issue with this approach is that EPANET 2 itself supports older INP formats and upon opening an INP in EPANET 2, if it detects such older file formats it does silent fix ups to convert the data into v2 format. So what this means is that whilst some 3rd party exported INPs may work in EPANET 2, if they don't follow the officially documented v2 format when writing the INP, those INP files may not fully work in WaterCAD/GEMS, which is designed to support the official v2 format.

That all said, we have made some changes in our own INP import to cater for the most common errors in 3rd party exported INP files, but there still may be cases that remain, that we have not covered. If you do encounter such a case, the work around is to take the INP file that you have received, open it in EPANET 2, then re-export it to a new file name. This will write the file in the official EPANET 2 format, correcting any legacy content in the original INP. Once you have that file in the correct INP format, it will work fine with WaterCAD/GEMS.

Another thing to note about the INP file format is that it only contains hydraulic information supported by EPANET. So if there is information in the 3rd party program that is not supported by EPANET, it may not be possible to transfer that information via the INP file. This is also true in reverse. For example WaterCAD and WaterGEMS cannot export variable speed pump information, to INP format, since the format specification does not support it. We do, however, try to export as much information as possible. So for a variable speed pump, we would still export the pump and it's pump curve and so on.

You'll also find that in WaterCAD/GEMS when you import a file from INP, that we set the calculation option "Engine Compatibility" to "EPANET 2.00.12" (or "EPANET 2.00.10" depending on which version of EPANET the model is from) so that the hydraulic results will match EPANET. If you wish to enable the computational enhancements and improvements made by Bentley, be sure to change this calculation mode to "WaterGEMS 2.00.12".

Regards,
Wayne.