Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

Are you an IT administrator needing to perform a silent install of GMS, SMS, or WMS in a classroom or office? We have gone over the process to do this in the past. However, our licensing methods have changed since those instructions were first written. Because of this, we have felt it would be useful to update our users on the new method of configuration so they will be able to properly set up their silent installs. This post will review registration for the new licensing method and how to perform silent installs with it.

This silent install (or quiet install) workaround requires each user to have the rights to modify the registry. If registry access is restricted, a network administrator can do this by opening the Group Policy Management Editor and creating a startup script that automatically runs the batch file whenever the computer is restarted.

Note: Editing the Registry in Windows is a very advanced administration step. Please always create a backup of the Registry before making changes.

It can be a burden to manually update the local code in HKEY_CURRENT_USER for each user on each computer. The silent install process is simplified by creating a Windows Registry file that contains the license information and a batch file that can be executed to insert the registry information and launch WMS. The batch file automatically updates the registry for the user and then opens the WMS application. This is the safest way to edit the registry key, as well. The batch file can then be placed on each computer that needs to be updated, and the individual users can execute it as needed.

This workaround uses WMS as an example. This information also applies to GMS and SMS. You can see an example of a registry file in step 1 and the batch file in step 2, below.

1. Create a file, "Netenble.001.reg", as follows:
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00M
"ALS"="1"
"ALSHost"="127.0.0.1"
"ALSPort"="56789"

   ALS = 1 specifies the new registration wizard, with new "Local" codes beginning with L, F, or E, instead of 0 for the old network lock. ALSHost = 127.0.0.1 because the code is being located on the local machine. And ALSPort = 56789 should be the default - you can alternatively specify your own port if you would like. You could also specify an ALSCode (license code) as well if you don’t want registration to be required when first launching WMS.
   Note: This information was created using Windows 10. Because different Windows versions can have different REG file formats, we recommend you install WMS on one machine, register it to the correct local code, then export the registry key. Open the registry file in the text editor and remove every line except those similar to those shown in the image above, and save the file as "Netenble.001.reg".
2. Create a file, "wms11.bat", that will update the registry and start WMS:
   reg import Netenble.001.reg
wms.exe

3. Place these two files in the WMS folder in the image that will be distributed to the affected computers. For example, for the 64-bit version of WMS 11.1, the default location for the folder is “C:\Program Files\WMS 11.1 64-bit\”.
4. Create a desktop shortcut to the batch file for the convenience of the user. If doing this via a startup script in the Group Policy Management Editor, this step can be skipped.

This silent install workaround can save you significant time as a network administrator. If you experience issues while performing a silent install, feel free to contact Aquaveo for assistance.

Have you wanted to incorporate the TOB package while running MT3DMS in GMS? We have a workflow that can help with this, as part of building an MT3DMS model in GMS with a conceptual model approach. This post will review how to incorporate transport observation points into your MT3DMS model in GMS.

To do so, use the following steps:

1. With your MT3DMS model already open in GMS, right-click the conceptual model and select New Coverage... to create a new coverage and bring up the Coverage Setup dialog.
2. While in the Coverage Setup dialog, turn on whichever options you want to be observing for in the Obs. Data column of the Observation Points section.
3. Once done with the Coverage Setup dialog and with a new coverage created, create some points within the coverage.
4. Using the Select Points\Nodes tool, select the points you have just created, right-click on one of them, and select Attribute Table… to bring up the Attribute Table dialog.
5. Set the Type drop-down in the All row to obs. pt in the Attribute Table dialog to set the BC type to Observation Points for the points.
6. Once done with the Attribute Table dialog and with the points set as observation points, right-click the new coverage and select Map To | MODFLOW/MODPATH to map the new coverage to MODFLOW.
7. Now select MT3DMS | Basic Transport Package… to bring up the Basic Transport Package dialog.
8. Select the Packages... button to bring up the MT3DMS/RT3D Packages dialog.
9. Turn on the option for Transport observation package.
10. Now select MT3DMS | Transport Observation Package... to bring up the Transport Observation Package dialog.
11. Now you will have the ability to turn on the option to Compute concentrations at observation points and select coverages with concentration observations to be used.

Try out incorporating transport observation points into MT3DMS models in GMS 10.5 today!

Do you want to know more about what happens when SMS completes post-processing for SRH-2D? When running SRH-2D, it helps to understand what exactly is happening during the post-processing phase of the SMS model run. This post will review how post-processing uses interpolation as it goes through SRH-2D.

To understand how post-processing fits into the SRH-2D process, first we need to look at what comes before it. When creating an SRH-2D model in SMS, the data is assigned as nodal data. This means that the boundary conditions, materials and other data is assigned to the nodes of the mesh. SRH-2D requires that the data be assigned to the center of the mesh elements (the centroid).

To allow the nodal data to be used by SRH-2D, SMS uses a pre-processing step that utilizes linear interpolation to interpolate the data that has been modelled in SMS into centroidal data for SRH-2D to use. After SHR-2D has finished processing the data, it creates results that use centroidal data. This is where the post-processor comes in.

The post-processor for SRH-2D takes the SRH-2D results and interpolates the data from centroidal data and converts it into nodal data. This allows SMS to import and display the solution data.

If the post-processor fails in its attempt, this usually means the centroidal data generated from SRH-2D is not valid. In this case, it could be possible that the model failed to converge even if SRH-2D managed to completely finish its model run. It could also be possible that SRH-2D was made to run an invalid model that resulted in empty solution sets.

For more information on how to use SRH-2D with SMS, see the XMS Wiki article on SRH-2D in SMS. Future versions of SMS may make use of centroidal data without the need to interpolate data.

Now that you understand a little more about how SMS handles post-processing, try out SRH-2D in SMS 13.1 today!

Have you been wanting to change the order that objects are displayed in the Graphics Window for your watershed projects in WMS? Within WMS, there is an option that can allow users to play around with this. This post will review how to utilize the Display Order functionality found in the Display Options dialog within WMS.

To locate the Display Order options in WMS, open up the Display Options dialog, either by clicking the Display Options macro or going to the Display | Display Options... command. Display Order should then be visible as one of the options on the left. There will be a checkbox for if Display Order should be activated or not. By default, this should be turned on.

As might be expected, turning the "Use Display Order" option on will cause objects to be displayed in the order laid out in the Display Order List. When the "Use Display Order" option is turned off, objects will be displayed in front of others based on which have XYZ coordinates closer to the user's eye rather than further. Depending on the scenario, it may be more visually helpful to have the option turned on or off.

For instance, in plan view, a delineated watershed may look better with display order turned on because when it is turned off, objects may look cluttered and bleed through each other. But for another example, in an oblique view, a delineated watershed may look better with display order turned off because when it is turned on, contours may look cluttered because objects are displaying primarily using display order instead of closer ones displaying in front of further ones.

When the "Use Display Order" option is turned on, the Display Order List will be active. The following options can be used to modify the order:

• Move Up: Moves the selected item one spot higher on the list.
• Move Down: Moves the selected item one spot lower on the list.
• Move To Top: Moves the selected item to the very top of the list.
• Move To Bottom: Moves the selected item to the very bottom of the list.

When an item has been moved as far high or low as it can go, any attempt to move it further higher or lower will result in a warning message that you have selected the top or bottom of the list, and to select an item below or above the current selection.

Try out experimenting with display order in WMS 11.1 today!