A Message From Dr. Wood

A message from the late Dr. Wood

There is a continuing blitz of promotional material regarding water distribution system modeling. We continue to be very busy with our model and interface developments and have not really contributed anything to this blitz. We have been focusing almost exclusively on software development and have devoted virtually no time or money to marketing activities. The serious downside to our reluctance to participate in promotional activities is that thousands of current and potential new users may not be aware of our ongoing developments and our latest releases. Our prime objective is to provide the user with an extremely powerful steady-state and transient hydraulic analysis and design tool that is cost-effective and easy to use.

The proliferation of attractive promotional material includes many claims regarding modeling capabilities. Before investing a considerable sum of money in water distribution modeling software it is important that you are aware of the choices and carefully evaluate the claims, capabilities, and costs. Don’t be fooled by claims that by paying more you get a better capability. Evaluate the software. In order to do this properly you need to use the software. To this end we provide free fully-working demonstration versions of Pipe2000 and we provide any requested technical support during your evaluation.

Pipe network modeling consists of two components: the graphical user interface (GUI) and the underlying model engines. The GUI is used to develop the distribution model, enter data, and present results. The modeling engines perform all the underlying engineering calculations. Although it is the GUI that you see first and interact with, the embedded engines are actually the most critical components because they dictate the true engineering capabilities and limitations of your modeling software. Very high-level specialized engineering expertise is required to develop some of the advanced engineering capabilities currently available or greatly needed. Be sure to evaluate the current engineering capabilities of the pipe network software and find out what is under development. There is no way that the GUI can make up for deficiencies in the engineering models and the scope of the engineering calculations provided. There are several key factors that should be considered when selecting your modeling software:

  • Overall modeling capabilities.
  • Level and expertise of technical support.
  • Ongoing model development activities and the ability for you to add important future capabilities at a reasonable cost.
  • The range of capabilities and ease of use of the GUI.
  • Tightness of the integration of steady-state and transient modeling.
  • Are you comfortable recommending that your clients acquire the software you are using?

Obviously, I believe that as a result of the high level of expertise of our development and support teams and our primary commitment to developing advanced pipe network modeling technology that our technology and technical support is well ahead of others.

Steady-state and transient pipe network modeling is a complex engineering task and access to expert modeling support is essential. Our Pipe2000 GUI combines state-of-the-art graphics with many innovative features to speed up, improve, and add important capabilities to pipe network modeling. The main objective of our GUI is to provide a simple and intuitive interface for developing and analyzing hydraulic models and presenting results. Pipe2000 includes some very advanced graphical presentations, new and powerful dynamic data features, and very tight integration to important related capabilities such as pressure surge analysis and dynamic calibration. As always, we offer either free upgrades (same version) or reasonably priced upgrades (new versions) to current users and working evaluation versions at no cost. You do have choices that will provide significantly greater modeling capabilities at considerably less cost.