Aquaveo & Water Resources Engineering News

August 2011 Sprint Highlights

By mkennard on September 8, 2011
Some of the more interesting accomplishments from the August  2011 sprint:
  • Fixed over 36 bugs
  • Posted a new video about the Text Import Wizard on our YouTube channel
  • Posted a new video about the automated parameter estimation with PEST on our YouTube channel
  • Posted the video from July's "What's new in GMS 8.0" webinar
  • Completed phase two of the ADH interface for the Army Corp of Engineers
  • Made progress on the MODFLOW-NWT interface
  • Assisted the consulting group on several projects

July 2011 Sprint Highlights

By mkennard on July 29, 2011
Some of the more interesting accomplishments from the July 2011 sprint:
  • Fixed over 29 bugs
  • Did a live webinar on what's new in GMS 8.0 and 8.1. Unfortunately we don't have the recording posted yet but hope to soon.
  • Posted a new video about interpolating MODFLOW layer elevations on our YouTube channel
  • Completed phase one of the ADH interface for the Army Corp of Engineers
  • Started the MODFLOW-NWT interface
  • Finished the 3D grid display option to contour a second specified data set
  • Fixed a few FEMWATER bugs
  • More wiki clean up and progress on Wiki to PDF feature
  • More manual testing of 64 bit GMS
  • Assisted the consulting group on several projects
  • Visited the University of Michigan to discuss an "Environmental and Ship Motion Forecasting" project for the U.S. Navy
  • Added an image in the image gallery

GMS Webinar July 21, 2011

By alemon on July 27, 2011

The GMS team held its first webinar on July 21, 2011. The webinar highlighted new features in GMS 8.0 and 8.1. We wanted to thank everyone that took time out of their schedule to attend the webinar. If you have any feedback please send it to us at webinar@aquaveo.com. We hope to post a recording of the webinar shortly. Here is a list of some of the features that were demonstrated:

  1. General Features
    1. Learning Center - www.aquaveo.com/gms-learning
    2. YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/aquaveo
    3. GMS Community Edition - www.xmswiki.com/xms/GMS:Community_Edition
    4. Import from Web
    5. ArcGIS map server layers
  2. Improved 3D Graphics
    1. Transparency
    2. New lighting options
    3. Faster data set switching
    4. Faster frame rate (real time pan/rotate)
    5. Block Fill contours
    6. Save to Google Earth
  3. New Modeling Features
    1. MODFLOW 2005
    2. UZF Package
    3. LMG3 package - Parallel Versions of MODFLOW 2000 & 2005
    4. Open Containing Folder
    5. Parameter Estimation - Different types of regularization
    6. SEAWAT
    7. Regional to Local model enhancements
  4. 64 bit Version of GMS
    1. Coming with version 8.1
    2. Load larger models
    3. Work with larger data sets
    4. 64 bit versions of MODFLOW


June 2011 Sprint Highlights

By mkennard on July 19, 2011
Some of the more interesting accomplishments from the June 2011 sprint:
  • Fixed over 37 bugs
  • Got "Learn GMS" help menu command working for 32 and 64bit
  • Fixed issues with 64bit and small allocations
  • Found and fixed several memory leaks
  • Added units tests for all the projection and reprojection stuff
  • Almost completed the 3D grid display option to contour a second specified data set
  • Tested and debugged 64bit version with a large MODFLOW model
  • Fixed order of Annotations tool bar and fixed north arrows to open installed north arrows folder by default
  • Cleaned up the wiki and made good progress on the Wiki to PDF feature
  • Added some unit tests for kriging and fixed some kriging bugs
  • Fixed slow drawing of rasters
  • Attended the MODFLOW & More conference in Golden, Colorado
  • Completed designs for MODFLOW-NWT and MODFLOW-MNW2
  • Added a new video to the YouTube channel about the free GMS Community edition

May 2011 Sprint Highlights

By mkennard on June 8, 2011
Some of the more interesting accomplishments from the May 2011 sprint:

  • Added three new GMS videos on the YouTube channel.
  • Fixed 24 bugs
  • Created an installer for GMS 8.1 for 32 and 64 bit
  • Created 64 bit versions of MODFLOW
  • Got 64 bit tests of MODFLOW running
  • Added a preference for 64 bit MODFLOW
  • Made good progress on restoring ability to contour and block fill at the same time
  • Finished fixing the annotation bugs to be included in 8.1
  • Created a local help page, similar to the online learning center, which will direct users to the tutorials installed locally
  • Created a table of contents for the wiki and got PDF generation of the wiki working. A locally installed PDF version of the wiki will be available with GMS 8.2.
  • Added code to MT3D model checker to look for missing species in the conceptual model
  • Almost finished basic raster implementation (raster objects coming in GMS 8.2)
  • Wrote a design for MODFLOW-NWT
  • Changed some MODFLOW dialogs to conform to the standard for variable names
  • Made lighting dialog display changes instantly in graphics window

GMS Resources for Educators

By mkennard on June 7, 2011
We recently created the GMS Resources for Educators page at aquaveo.com. There you can find sample lectures, in-class exercises, and homework assignments for a one semester, college level course in groundwater modeling. The course teaches groundwater modeling principles with an emphasis on MODFLOW and MODPATH. GMS is used as one of the software tools in the course and a lot of time is spent building real models on the computer. From the course description, "This course is application oriented. We cover the fundamental equations and the modeling theory but the emphasis is on teaching you how to solve real world problems. At the end of the semester, you should feel confident in your ability to develop and calibrate a complex 3D groundwater model."

Dr. Norman L. Jones has taught this class for years at Brigham Young University as CE 547 - Groundwater Modeling. He continually updates and improves the material. To obtain the entire curriculum with a syllabus, tests, and answers to the homework assignments and the tests, email Dr. Jones njones@byu.edu.

At the end of the course students complete a case study of the Woburn site described in the book A Civil Action. If you are familiar with the book or the case, you might be interested in the excellent Woburn Hydrogeology Data page maintained by Dr. Jones which includes all sorts of raw data for use in building a groundwater model, as well as photos of the area and even photos of many of the key players in the book. The case study is designed to be done with the students divided up into small teams - some teams working for the prosecution, and some for the defense.

MODFLOW and More 2011

By alemon on June 6, 2011

Members of the GMS team recently attended the MODFLOW and MORE 2011 conference in Golden, Colorado. The conference was great. There were many presentations related to MODFLOW modeling and groundwater in general. One interesting development was the announcement of MODFLOW USG (Unstructured Grid). This version of MODFLOW is not yet released but it looks quite different from current versions of MODFLOW.

It was good to meet current GMS users and get feedback on improvements that can be made to GMS. Thanks to all those that came by our booth.

Contouring and block fill improvements

By alemon on May 27, 2011
In GMS 8.0, the contour options were updated and improved. Most of the changes were behind the scenes in code that results in faster contouring which uses less memory and is more accurate. But the interface changed too. The old and new dialogs are shown below. The new dialog is cleaner and easier on the eyes. It also includes a new option - Block fill - for the Contour method. This option only applies to cell-centered grids and results in cells filled with a single color based on the value at the cell center. Block fill was previously only available for 3D grids as a separate display option and limited range and color ramp options. Now block fill is available for 2D and 3D grids and, because it's part of the Contour Options, the full suite of range and color ramp options are available.

Unfortunately by merging the block fill option in with the Contour Options we lost the ability to do both at the same time - that is block fill one data set and contour another data set. But the soon to be released GMS 8.1 restores the ability to do both at the same time.

Old Contour Options dialog.

New Contour Options dialog.



April 2011 Sprint Highlights

By mkennard on May 27, 2011
Some of the more interesting accomplishments from the April 2011 sprint:
  • Fixed 22 bugs.
  • Created 64 bit versions of MODFLOW.
  • Taught the GMS training course in Dresden, Germany.
  • Updated the tutorial docs and files on the wiki for GMS 8.0.
  • Fixed some issues with the IUZBND array in the UZF package.
  • Documented MODFLOW world files on the wiki.
  • Simplified code behind Contour Options and Raster Options dialogs.
  • Added tests for the Set Arc Directions From Stream Data feature.
  • Researched converting the wiki to a pdf or chm file.
  • Fixed some coding problems that were resulting in compiler warning.
  • Changed the Visual Studio project for 64 bit GMS to follow pattern of 32 bit property sheet.
  • Added to the suite of 64 bit test.

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