Purpose

This article will tell you about the added functionality with using the Drainage tools in OpenRoads Designer compared to the OpenFlows products.

Audience

OpenFlows users interested in OpenRoads Designer. 

Background/Content

OpenFlows is a powerful suite of hydraulic modeling applications used to analyze and design stormwater, wastewater, and water distribution systems. If you've been successfully using OpenFlows for hydraulic design, you may be wondering what additional value OpenRoads Designer (ORD) can bring to your workflow.

ORD builds on the hydraulic capabilities you already know by integrating directly into a comprehensive roadway and site design environment. Rather than working with hydraulic models in isolation, ORD connects your drainage network to alignments, corridors, terrain models, and other design elements, creating an intelligent digital representation of your project. This enables improved coordination across disciplines, enhanced visualization in both 2D and 3D, and a smoother path to digital delivery through technologies such as iTwin.

For OpenFlows users, designing drainage systems in ORD extends your workflows to take advantage of model-based design, automation, collaboration, and digital delivery capabilities that help teams design and deliver infrastructure projects more efficiently. This article highlights the added benefits to modeling your network in ORD.

Added benefits to designing a drainage network in ORD:

Node intelligence

• Elevation Reference. You can assign a node elevation from a terrain or element for automatic updates. When the referenced element’s elevation changes, the node will adjust with it.
  • Inlet catchment features can read the roadway cross slope and longitudinal slope from the elevation reference for reporting and analysis.
• Baseline-reference. Nodes can be linked to a specific alignment’s station and offset, helping drainage structures maintain their relationship to roadway design changes.
• Node rotation. Nodes can be rotated during and after placement. There is also an option to add a node rotation reference to an element so that it is always aligned along its path, relative to the element.
• Setting Out and Location Point coordinates. ORD can report a setting out point. It is built within the 3D top cell of a node and typically is used to define the top of curb location/elevation for inlets.
• Cross section nodes can read corridor and surface meshes, allowing its geometry to update as the roadway model changes.
  • OpenFlows doesn’t have the ability to create cross sections, so you can’t study the drainage relative to a terrain model / surface / corridor in a cross-section view.

Surface Drainage Tools

• Spread width polygons are created for gutter features using the Rational Method peak flow analysis. This visualizes the gutter spread and roadway encroachment.
• Show Overflows takes the overflow hydrographs from nodes that are flooding in an unsteady-state analysis and routes them over a terrain model.
• Pond Volumes can be generated directly from a terrain model. This reduces manual calculations and improves consistency between hydraulic analysis and project design. You can report on pond volumes using the Compute Pond Volume. There is also access to all of ORDs modeling tools to display the pond graphically in the model and generate terrain models, one being Create 3D By Volume.
• Analyze Catchment. This tool will delineate catchment areas of an entire terrain or from a specific point within that surface.

Conduit intelligence

• The connected conduits will inherit the node’s baseline reference station/offset values from the start/stop node values.
• ORD lets you connect a conduit to the nodes wall (not just the center) and has the option to do hydraulic calculations on the length and slope either center-to-center or wall-to-wall.
• ORD shows connected conduits at nodes on a profile run. These are conduits not in the profile run but connected to the nodes.

Review and Reporting intelligence

• ORD has an extra “2-Scenario” FlexTable allowing for comparison of conduits running two different scenarios.
• ORD has additional reporting and annotation functionality using Item Types (like UDX) and element information.
• Utility conflict and clash detection between drainage infrastructure and underground utilities. This gives earlier identification of design issues and better collaboration between roadway, drainage, and utility teams.

In conclusion, ORD integrates drainage elements as intelligent 2D and 3D design objects, enhancing visualization, improving multidisciplinary collaboration, and supporting digital delivery through automatic model updates. Read more from an OpenFlows perspective here: Understanding OpenFlows Drainage Functionality in OpenRoads Designer.

Considerations When Transitioning from OpenFlows:

While ORD incorporates many OpenFlows drainage capabilities, there are a few areas where standalone OpenFlows applications may remain part of your workflow.

• Displaying lateral connection position on a profile run.
• The ability to display a profile run without saving it.
• Active Topology on/off in the model. ORD can use Display Rules to view only the Active Topology: OpenRoads | OpenSite - How to turn off display of inactive topology? - Communities.
• 2D Hydraulic Analysis. ORD focuses on 1D hydraulic analysis and drainage system design. ORD can delineate catchments from terrain models, identify flow paths, and extract terrain elevations for hydraulic elements. However, ORD does not perform 2D hydraulic surface water and floodplain modeling. Projects requiring 2D analysis should export terrain and network data for use in OpenFlows FLOOD or SewerGEMS, where advanced flood and surface flow simulations can be performed.
• Terrain Extractor (TReX)
• SCADA
• Thiessen Polygon
• Element Property Inferencing
• Energy Costs
• Edit Group