Adding a Note to Alternatives in watercad

Hello Dennis,

Which product are you using? What version of the product are you using?

I checked in the latest WaterGEMS CONNECT Edition (v 10.03.04.05) and can confirm that adding notes for Alternatives is not possible. I have filed a bug (#676140) for this issue with our developers who would look into this.

In the meantime, try adding the notes in the Scenarios itself. You can add additional lines / text to existing notes there for your alternatives.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks for the confirmation.  I am using Connect Edition (v10.03.03.72).  I tried the standalone WaterGems and WaterCad versions as well as the Microstation version with same results.

I understand i can add notes to scenarios, but that's not quite the same since different alternatives can be selected for the scenario.  The alternatives are really the 'fixed' options and that's where the labels are most important.

Also, i don't know if others are having the same issue, but the zooming with the mouse wheel in the standalone WaterCad and WaterGems is terrible. I don't know if there is some setting that will make that functional, but in the meantime, I can really only work in the Microstation version. 

Thanks for the confirmation.  I am using Connect Edition (v10.03.03.72).  I tried the standalone WaterGems and WaterCad versions as well as the Microstation version with same results.

I understand i can add notes to scenarios, but that's not quite the same since different alternatives can be selected for the scenario.  The alternatives are really the 'fixed' options and that's where the labels are most important.

Also, i don't know if others are having the same issue, but the zooming with the mouse wheel in the standalone WaterCad and WaterGems is terrible. I don't know if there is some setting that will make that functional, but in the meantime, I can really only work in the Microstation version. 

Dennis, I checked several versions of WaterGEMS going back 10 years and it appears that the Notes function in alternatives has never been exposed for editing. Our developers will review this and consider implementing in a future version. In the meantime, I would recommend using a naming system for your alternative labels that makes it easier to understand what they represent, and/or list notes for the alternatives in the notes field of the respective scenario. I understand that this is not ideal.

Dennis Funk said:

Also, i don't know if others are having the same issue, but the zooming with the mouse wheel in the standalone WaterCad and WaterGems is terrible. I don't know if there is some setting that will make that functional, but in the meantime, I can really only work in the Microstation version. 

I have not experienced this issue or heard of any other users mentioning this in recent memory, but we do have an article in our wiki on the general subject of mouse wheel issues in Standalone: Mouse wheel not working as expected

If the problem is not related to your specific mouse hardware or Windows settings, the problem is likely a display issue with the rendering of the drawing pane, in which case item 6 and 7 in the list in the above article may help (toggling the accelerated redraw option and updating graphics hardware drivers and settings).

Thanks Jesse.  I will review the issues with the mouse wheel.  I have been running the MIcrostation version anyway because i find the cad features useful.

I have always wanted that field to be useful for Alternatives because those are the foundational configurations, and Scenarios can use a variety of Alternatives.  I always assumed that this was just something i hadn't figured out, and i just had to keep lots of hand notes. 

In general, I feel that as the software has progressed, the documentation and configuration management have been really left behind.  It is quite challenging to pick up an older model for a new client and try to figure out all of the prior scenarios and alternatives.  I assume the previous engineer probably has a bunch of handwritten notes stuffed in a folder somewhere. The Alternatives Comparison could be much more useful. Currently, the only functional option is to dump reports into Excel, and then that takes so much manipulation.

Anyway, i appreciate the replies to my specific issues.

Dennis

Thanks for your honest feedback, Dennis. Our developers appreciate this and take it into consideration as we want to make sure our software enables our users to be successful. I have passed your message along.

Here are a few more additional thoughts:

Dennis Funk said:

It is quite challenging to pick up an older model for a new client and try to figure out all of the prior scenarios and alternatives.

This does in part rely on how well the previous modeler had organized and labeled their scenarios and alternatives, in addition to the notes. In case you have not used it yet, one notable feature to mention is the recent Change Tracking functionality, which helps modelers review what changes have been made to a model and by whom. See: Using Change Tracking for insights into model changes

Dennis Funk said:

The Alternatives Comparison could be much more useful. Currently, the only functional option is to dump reports into Excel, and then that takes so much manipulation.

Are you referring to the Scenario Comparison feature? This pinpoints specific changes in alternatives between two scenarios. See: Scenario Comparison

Jesse,

I do have the tracked changes turned on, but the previous work on this particular model was from at least 5 years ago.

Sorry, yes i did mean Scenarios comparison.  I create temporary scenarios so i can just compare specific Alternatives.

I'm specifically trying to understand how the C-factors were established and changed between Alternatives, but the Comparison Report only shows the specific fields that changed, but for example the Date Installed field would be useful to see in the report.  So the only option is to import data from the flex tables into Excel and then do my own comparison using formulas. But this takes a lot of manipulation to un-merge columns so it can be sorted and compared.

Dennis, the scenario comparison tool shows not only the alternatives and elements that are different between two scenarios, but the actual values. After choosing the two scenarios to compare (which have the two different physical alternatives storing the Hazen-Williams C), click the Physical alternative on the tree structure on the left, then click the green compute button. On the right side you will see the roughness values in both scenarios compared. See screenshot below.

I have a feeling you may have done this already and the problem is actually that you want to see additional data - in additional to the fields and values that have changed. Try clicking the "select in drawing" button above the table, then right click in the drawing pane, choose "edit group" and open the pipe table. This enables you to see all the other attributes for those elements. You can also do this on a per-element basis by right clicking on the row header in the comparison table and choosing "zoom to". For example if you see a particular pipe that has a different C factor and want to understand more by reviewing attributes like the installation year, you can right click > zoom-to on that row to immediately see those attributes in the properties grid.

With that said, we will certainly take your feedback into consideration for ways to improve future versions of the software to make it easier for users to manage documentation about their model. If you have any other specific ideas as to how this would help you in your workflows and use cases, please let us know.