WMS

Tips for Finding Information on the XMS Wiki

The Aquaveo XMS Wiki contains over 8000 pages of information and images about SMS, GMS, WMS, and other Aquaveo products (collectively called "XMS"). While we try to make the information as easy to find as possible, sometimes the sheer volume of available information can make a particular search term harder to locate. Here, we discuss a few ways to find the information you need using the XMS Wiki.

Help Button

Most dialogs in SMS, GMS, and WMS contain a Help button at the bottom of the dialog window. Clicking this button will generally take you directly to a page on the XMS Wiki about that dialog. This is the quickest way to find information about a dialog.

Navigation Links

When you visit any page on the XMS Wiki, an "XMS Projects" menu is found at the top left of the page. Click on any of the products listed there to be taken to the main page for that product. Once there, click on any of the links in the Wiki Sections section on the lower right to be taken to a table of contents listing all of the pages discussing the features of that product.

Example of the XMS Wiki

At the bottom of the main page for the product, there is also a navigation template listing main topics for that product. This allows you to quickly navigate to any of those main topics.

Search Field
Example of the XMS Wiki Projects menu

Directly below the "XMS Projects" menu is a search field. If you start typing in that field, the XMS Wiki will attempt to locate a page containing what you type. To find a page about a particular product, preface the search term with that product's abbreviation, followed by a colon and the search term. For example, if you are searching for information about the bridge scour features in SMS, type "SMS:Bridge Scour" and a list of articles will appear below the search box. Simply select the desired article to be taken directly to it.

You can also enter only the search term and select the "containing…searchterm", where "searchterm" is the term you entered in the search box. This will bring up a list of pages containing the term you entered. This can be useful when you don't know what the page might be named, but you know a term that might be used on that page.

Categories

At the bottom of every page on the XMS Wiki is a list of one or more categories. This provides another way to locate information on a given topic. Simply click on the category to find a list of pages, images, and additional categories related to that topic.

Google

One option that is often overlooked is to use the power of the Google search engine. To search for pages or information on the XMS Wiki, enter "searchterm site:xmswiki.com", replacing "searchterm" with the word or words you are seeking. This tells Google to provide results only from the XMS Wiki. Click this link for an example.

Page Prefixes

Most pages on the XMS Wiki are prefaced by a product abbreviation. When reviewing search results, make sure the page you are on has the appropriate abbreviation at the beginning of the page title (e.g., "SMS:Display Options", "GMS:Display Options", "WMS:Display Options"), as similar pages may be found for various products.

Page Notices

Sometimes when searching for information or a feature, you may find pages that document obsolete or future features. These pages will have notices at the top indicating this status. There are other types of notices that may appear at the tops of pages, as well, so always be sure to read any notices that appear.

Try out these search methods today by visiting the XMS Wiki today!

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Changing the Hydrograph Display in WMS

One of the more useful functions of WMS is displaying hydrographs. But did you know that WMS provide a multitude of ways to display each hydrograph?

Using the hydrograph display options allows you to alter the display of each hydrograph to better show the hydrograph data. To customize the WMS hydrograph display, right-click on the open hydrograph and select Display Options. This brings up a dialog with options to change the display for that hydrograph.

Below is a summary of the items that can be customized on each of the Display Options tabs.

Hydrograph display example
  • The General tab allows changing items such as the hydrograph title and subtitle as well as the border style and viewing style. It also allows for changing the font size. The grid lines are also controlled here to let you decide the line precision and if the x and y lines will be shown.
  • The Plot tab contains a number of present plot options to adjust how the hydrograph data is shown. Some of the options include changing to a bar graph, only displaying points, using 3d display, or selecting different line graphs.
  • The Axis tab define how x and y axis are displayed. Specifically, the values range shown on these axis can be truncated or adjusted.
  • The Font tab controls the font used for the title, subtitle, points, axis, etc.
  • The Color tab allows changing the color of the plot labels and area. A number of preset color options are also included.
  • The Style tab changes the size, style, and color of the point and lines used in the hydrograph.

Once you have set the hydrograph displays to best show off the data, you can export your hydrograph. Hydrographs can be exported either by right-clicking on them and choosing Export/Print, or by choosing the Export button from within the Display Options dialog. Export formats include JPG, PNG, and text files. Hydrographs can be printed, copied to the clipboard, or saved to a file location.

Now that you have more tools for working with hydrographs, try them out in WMS today!

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Common Installation Issues with XMS

Are you having trouble installing GMS, SMS, or WMS? Here are three common installation issues, and how to overcome them.

Virtual Machines

The main issues when using virtual machines is selecting the correct type of installation. Single-user locks are not compatible with virtual environments. If you are trying to install XMS with a single-user lock and a virtual machine is detected, XMS will not install. You will need a network lock to get around this issue. Network locks are designed to be used with virtual machines. Single-user locks are not capable of being used as a network lock.

Firewalls and User Permissions

Sometimes, a good password will fail to install XMS, This is because your computer actually needs to contact our servers to verify the authenticity of the password. When an internet error comes up, it's typically related to a firewall, user permissions, or antivirus software blocking the connection to our servers.

Try one of these solutions to resolve this issue:

  • Whitelist which ever XMS program you are trying to install and the registration wizard.
  • Temporarily disable the firewall/antivirus software.

Note that firewalls are typically something each company's IT department handles.

If you are running Windows 8 or 10, and you are not running in a virtual environment, then the issue could be caused by a Windows feature called Hyper-V. Disabling Hyper-V can resolve the problem. You can find instructions on how to disable Hyper-V by reading this article.

Hardware locks

When installing a hardware lock, be sure to have your drivers installed and running before attempting to register the lock. Additionally, please also ensure that the lock is plugged into the computer at the time you are attempting to register. (Note that as a security measure, the reburn cannot take place remotely.) For instructions on how to install your specific type of hardware lock please visit our page here.

Feel free to contact our technical support team at support@aquaveo.com for more individual help in troubleshooting any of these problems. Please recognize that Aquaveo technical support can only help troubleshoot individual machine issues to a certain point.

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Tips for Managing Cross Sections in WMS

Cross sections are commonly used in 1D models within WMS. Here we discuss a few things to help you better model using cross sections.

When you create cross sections in WMS, you must create them on "1D-Hyd Cross Section" coverage. You then create the arcs on this coverage to represent the cross sections.There are a few things you should remember when setting up your cross sections:

  • Cross sections should be located at fairly frequent intervals along the river. This makes sure the characterization of the stream channel and floodplain flow and capacity is accurate, which gives you better results.
  • You should place cross sections especially at locations of significant change, where levees begin and end, at hydraulic structures, and around stream junctions.
  • The cross section arcs should generally stretch from one side of the river floodplain to the other.
  • They should be generally perpendicular to the river arc where they cross.
  • Cross section arcs should not cross each other.
Hydraulic Model Example with Cross Sections

In addition to the above, each cross section should have the following required information:

  • River name
  • Reach name
  • River station
  • Description
  • Station–elevation data
  • Downstream reach lengths
  • Manning’s n values
  • Main channel bank stations
  • Contraction and expansion coefficients

It is recommended that the station number be visible on the map view to make the cross sections more identifiable. This can be enabled in the Display Options dialog. When numbering stations, they must be in ascending numerical order from downstream to upstream. If changes are made, be sure to renumber the stations.

Converting an arc into a cross section arc can be done automatically or manually. You can automatically do it by taking the following steps:

  1. Define or import a TIN.
  2. Create an area property coverage, a centerline coverage, and a 1D-Hyd cross section coverage.
  3. Use the Extract Cross Section command to extrude the cross sections from the 2D arcs.

To manually create a cross section arc:

  1. Double-click on the cross section arc and select Assign Cross Section.
  2. Define the various elevations and data as desired.

Try out these tips and procedures today in the WMS Community Edition!

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