What is changing? 

Previously, the following individual products were offered for stormwater modeling:  

• StormCAD Standalone 
• CivilStorm Standalone 
• PondPack 

The StormCAD and CivilStorm products share many common elements, including the file format and aspects of the standalone interface. Consolidating into a single product line will eliminate the need for users to purchase multiple standalone licenses while enabling us to serve users more efficiently and improve the buying and user experience. 

The following product outlined in the table titled OpenFlows Storm: Capabilities by Tier below this FAQ will be consolidated into a new product license/subscription offering. Please note that as a result of this consolidation, future licensing and usage of the OpenFlows products will utilize the consolidated product lineup effective July 1, 2024. 

All current commercial models (perpetual licenses under SELECT subscriptions; Virtuoso subscriptions; term licensing and Enterprise 365 (E365), EPS 365, and ELS subscriptions) will continue to be available for the new OpenFlows Storm product line.

Who is impacted by this change? 

All users on active contracts for OpenFlows StormCAD, OpenFlows CivilStorm, and OpenFlows PondPack are impacted by this change. Existing users can continue to use the product versions and feature levels they are currently using. There is not a need to reinstall products or select different feature levels. Depending on your contract, the benefits and timing of consolidation impacts will vary. Please read the response below to the question "How does this change impact existing contracts and license entitlements?"  

These changes will NOT impact users with inactive (non-SELECT) perpetual licenses or users of non-commercial versions such as those available via our textbooks. 

Why is this change being made? 

This consolidation is part of a Bentley initiative to simplify our product portfolio and improve the buying and user experience for our products. We've received frequent questions about the overlap and difference in functionality between our legacy products StormCAD, CivilStorm, SewerGEMS, and PondPack, with specific confusion about the integration of these products within CAD and GIS platforms. Users performing pond analysis have asked for access to methodology in both CivilStorm and PondPack without having to choose which of these products to license. 

Additionally, the licensing of these products sometimes created confusion in terms of selecting the "pipe level" and the inclusion (or not) of the AutoCAD integration from the separate "Feature Level Selector" tool. This consolidation should minimize the confusion in the future so that users can more easily utilize the appropriate license tier for their contract and project.

What is the value of this change for OpenFlows StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack users? 

After the consolidation, users will: 

• Better understand what's included in the licenses and be able to determine what licenses are necessary for their work. 
• Have the capability to run in standalone mode as well as using multi-platform integration with common CAD software  
• Have a price range that enables cost efficiency when modelling smaller systems. 

Additionally, users in the Advanced tier will benefit by having access to both steady-state and transient modeling without having to purchase separate products. The new simplified billing will also help users better understand the impact on project costs.

How does this change impact existing contracts and license entitlements? 

Users with enterprise and term-license enabled contracts will have access to the expanded functionality of the new product line when the administrative change takes place in July 2024. Effective July 1, 2024, all term license and enterprise license usage will be allocated under the new product tiers and pricing. Users of prior version products and discontinued feature levels will be charged according to the product equivalent in the table below. 

All SELECT and Virtuoso subscriptions will be subject to the new product name and yearly price established by the consolidation, effective upon their renewal anniversary. SELECT users may enjoy the expanded functionality of the new product tiers before renewal; however, continued access to the new product tiers will require renewal of the SELECT contract for at least one year. SELECT subscriptions that are not renewed will have perpetual licenses issued only for the originally owned product and feature level and not any additional products or increased feature limits or functionality gained by the consolidated product. Virtuoso subscribers will only have access to the expanded functionality after renewal. 

If you have any questions about this consolidation that aren't addressed in any of our Communities pages linked above, we encourage you to engage with our webchat on www.bentley.com, where a member of our team will guide you through any remaining inquiries you may have.

Does this change impact configuration of OpenFlows license usage alerts and Default Access?  

Bentley's Subscription Entitlement Services allow you to set threshold limits to trigger warnings when you are about to overuse a license. However, following this consolidation, you should reset the threshold limits for this new license based on your new entitlements, even if you had previously set the threshold limits for the individual legacy applications. If you do not reset your threshold limits, your engineers will not be notified when they are about to overuse the number of licenses you're entitled to.  

For instance, users with access to both StormCAD and PondPack may have a combined license pool under OpenFlows Storm (depending on tier equivalence), so instead of two groups of users each sharing one license, they may have a larger single group of users sharing two licenses.  

For more information on how to update these threshold limits in the Subscription Entitlement Service (SES) Entitlement Management center, please visit this Communities page: How to enable and configure license alerting

We strongly advise account admins to reset these threshold limits before installing and running OpenFlows Storm 2024.  

Note that because the quarterly term license fees (the overuse charges) are now based on the new OpenFlows product equivalent and license price rather than on the legacy product and the old license price, concurrent usage fees have the potential to affect a larger base of users than in the past (though depending upon your renewal process, your license count will also increase to reflect the total quantities of all subproducts).

Similarly, if you previously had Default Access set to deny access to all products except for a list of exceptions, your Administrator will need to change this in Entitlement Management to allow access to the new products.

What if I already own both StormCAD and PondPack (or any other combination of products within this bundle) or if I use SewerGEMS exclusively for stormwater modeling? wwwwwwwwwwwww

Existing users of StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack will see each license they own upgraded to a license of OpenFlows Storm with a tier (Essentials, Standard, Advanced, Ultimate) equivalent to the license they own today. This means that users who license both StormCAD and PondPack (or any combination of the included products) will receive an equivalent license of OpenFlows Storm (see below table) for each license currently active in SELECT or via Virtuoso subscription.  

For instance, a user with one active license each of StormCAD 25 inlets and PondPack unlimited ponds will upgrade to having an OpenFlows Storm Standard license (equivalent to StormCAD 25 inlets) and an OpenFlows Water Advanced license (equivalent to PondPack unlimited ponds). Since OpenFlows Storm Advanced includes the functionality of both PondPack and StormCAD, this user may decide to keep only the OpenFlows Storm Advanced license (if the same person uses both StormCAD and PondPack and they would not be used concurrently on different machines) or they may decide to keep both. 

Your initial renewal statement will always have a one-for-one license equivalency.  You may wish to consult with your Bentley renewals representative once you receive the initial statement to determine the optimal number of licenses to move forward with considering the needs of your users and any redundancies in the consolidated product line. The following diagrams outline a straightforward renewal as well as a renewal that may benefit from license reduction.   

Note that if you use SewerGEMS exclusively for stormwater modeling, you should consult with your Bentley renewals representative to determine if OpenFlows Storm is a better fit for you than OpenFlows Sewer. We will accommodate license migration of SewerGEMS to either new platform, but functional considerations are needed to determine which is appropriate for your users.

What happens if I continue to use the versions and feature levels I am currently using? 

After July 1, 2024, any usage of the existing products StormCAD, PondPack, and CivilStorm will automatically be recorded as usage of their corresponding OpenFlows Storm tier. All users with owned perpetual licenses can continue using those licenses without any upgrade or reinstallation of the product. Entitlements to licenses will also automatically be updated to enable usage of the appropriate OpenFlows Storm tier. 

Any users in enterprise contracts or contracts using term licensing should be aware that continued use of pre-consolidation product versions and feature levels will be recorded as usage of the new product line (and appropriate tier), and term license and enterprise pricing will exist ONLY for the new product levels. For instance, a user continuing to use StormCAD 25 inlets can absolutely continue to use the product and feature level, but under term licensing and enterprise contracts that usage will show in reporting and invoice as use of OpenFlows Storm Standard.

How will new releases of StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack be made available to me after July 1? 

Following July 1, 2024, all new releases of StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack will be made available under the installation for OpenFlows Storm. There will not be a need to download these subproducts separately.  

Versions of StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack available before July 1, 2024, will remain in the individual download pages for those products. OpenFlows Storm will have releases from July 1 and beyond.

Is there a fixed date when I have to begin using the newly released OpenFlows Storm? 

We always encourage our users to use the latest product version to take advantage of functional and security improvements. Users are not required to migrate to using OpenFlows Water, but those who don't will miss out on the latest product updates. 

We recognize that many of our users will want to continue using pre-July 1 versions of StormCAD, CivilStorm, and PondPack for various reasons. We will continue to support of these products through our standard support life cycle. Currently, no date has been set to retire these products.

What are the pricing impacts of this transition, and can I expect higher subscription costs? 

The pricing impacts of this product transition will vary significantly depending on which products and tiers you currently license. For many users, the new product pricing will be consistent with their current subscription costs.  Other users may have an increased cost but will have gained product functionality and/or the ability to analyze larger systems.  

We encourage you to engage with our webchat on http://www.bentley.com, where a member of our team will guide you through any remaining inquiries you may have. Also, note that you will get a renewal advice summary detailing changes well in advance of your renewal date.

Current Product Name 

New Product Name 

Capabilities 

OpenFlows StormCAD Standalone 5 inlets 

OpenFlows StormCAD Standalone 10 inlets 

OpenFlows PondPack 1 pond 

OpenFlows Storm Essentials 

(<=10 inlets and <= 1 pond) 

• Analyze projects with less than 10 inlets and 1 pond  
• Ability to utilize interconnected pond methodology (via PondPack) for pond modeling (1 pond capacity)  
• Model Building from GIS/CAD/other sources 
• Overflows and peak flows dynamic solvers (GVF Convex only)  
• Automated pipe design (sizing, elevation) 
• Multiple What-If scenario management 
• Synthetic and gauged rainfall events 
• Interconnected pond / variable tailwater modeling 
• Detention level pool routing 
• Automated catchment delineation 
• Storm event simulation and analysis  
• Integration with OpenRoads 
• Integration with OpenRail 
• Integration with OpenSite 
• Integration with Autodesk AutoCAD/Civil3D 
• Integration with MicroStation 

OpenFlows StormCAD Standalone 25 inlets 

OpenFlows CivilStorm Standalone 10 links 

OpenFlows PondPack 3 ponds 

OpenFlows Storm Standard 

(<= 50 inlets 

<= 50 links and <= 3 ponds) 

Same as OpenFlows Storm Essentials 

• Increase in size of projects that can be analyzed to <= 50 inlets, 50 links and 3 ponds  
• Pond sizing 
• Channel sizing 
• Pipe sizing 
• Free/Surface flow modeling 
• Overflows, peak flows, flow splits, dynamic wave solvers (EPA SWMM (Explicit) and Bentley-Implicit)

OpenFlows StormCAD Standalone unlimited inlets 

OpenFlows CivilStorm Standalone 50 links 

OpenFlows CivilStorm Standalone 250 links 

OpenFlows PondPack unlimited ponds 

OpenFlows Storm Advanced 

(unlimited inlets, 

<=250 links, unlimited ponds) 

Same as OpenFlows Storm Essentials PLUS: 

• Increase in size of projects that can be analyzed to unlimited inlets, <=250 links and unlimited ponds  

OpenFlows CivilStorm Standalone 1,000 links 

OpenFlows CivilStorm Standalone unlimited links

OpenFlows Storm Ultimate 

(unlimited inlets, 

unlimited links,  

Unlimited ponds) 

Same as OpenFlows Storm Advanced 

• Increase in size of projects that can be analyzed to unlimited inlets, unlimited links and unlimited ponds