Tuflow as Innovzye's XPSWMM next step
Fallout: Autodesk's style...
Innovzye
I kept this one a bit separate as a blog post. While the product remains part of the Innovzye acquisition by Autodesk, it's slated for retirement, as most of the salespeople have likely told you for years. Autodesk even calls it a legacy product. While I no longer work at or for Autodesk and I do not know of the existing plans, I can only tell you what I see today as a customer as to the future.
Resources were redirected from the XPSWMM development team to InfoWorks years ago to bring the SWMM network into InfoWorks, however very little effort has been put in toward maintaining XPSWMM. The latest releases add a version of last year’s Tuflow engine that contains a crippling issue. This drives me toward Tuflow.
XPSWMM was uniquely positioned in the US market. It enjoys approval with FEMA for Hydrologic, 1D Steady & Unsteady Hydraulics, and 2D hydraulics and is a valuable stormwater tool despite FEMA indicating that approval shouldn’t be used for marketing software.
XPSWMM, as I have been told, was a bit of a bear to work the Runoff mode, then Hydraulics mode prior to my arrival at XP. This, for many purists like to point out is a remnant of its highly customized SWMM4 roots. For most customers, the question should be is it easy to use, and will it get the job done. In both cases, the answer is undoubtedly yes - and the code base for SWMM is less a concern. Had we moved from SWMM4 to SWMM5 engine, I would have hoped that no one would have noticed beyond certain benefits of multiple core solves and SuDs.
Alas - back to the design questions.
Design
XPSWMM does size pipes. There is a nice Modify Conduits sizing routine that has a set of pipe diameter which the application will perform iterative analysis until the criteria is met; some percent of depth, or freeboard and cover values. The engine will rerun with the next available pipe in its place until the criteria is hit. The opportunity here is you get time-varying runoff - all with design.
In both the other Autodesk platforms of InfoDrainage, Analyze Gravity Network (AGN), and Hydraflow - design is a function of the standard step set of calculations.
Hydraflow Design Codes are pretty simplified, which is why I think this would always generate very deep pipe designs for me.
XPSWMMs iterative simulation - or -try-catch-loop until satisfied is a slightly different approach to iterate to a solution via automation. We’ve had lots of debate around which would be the best approach.
XPSWMM / XPSWMM
XPSWMM has a long history, well earlier than when I joined the XP team. In product manager-speak - its customized interface, and engine logic speaks to a very accommodating development practice. The difficulty however, is maintaining that amount of customization. XP does include Rational and Modified Rational calculations, including some vary basic WSPG calculations (Water Surface Pressure Gradient) performed for LA County and few other occasional methods. This reminds me of a Swiss army knife of stormwater tools - design, optimization, and simulations.
In chatting with various regulatory agencies - this Swiss army knife is being hit with a lack of confidence due to various efforts to convert users off the platform.
Let’s looks at the SWOT.
STENGHTS: FEMA Approval. Easily scales from 1D modeling into full 1D/2D modeling. Graphic dialog boxes makes it easy to understand the data entry. The number of different hydrologic methods is large and XPSWMM accommodated what you might need. Easy to debug errors with tons of reporting tables and Tuflow’s 2D graphical errors together with the Min dt map to find topographical problems where there are timestep sinks. XPSWMM Fundamentals always includes a small 2D entitlement that allows small 2D coupling - a great advantage for users beginning to model.
WEAKNESS: Its a maze of dialog boxes with non-standard controls. While most of the file is embedded in the .XP file - that text database is in dire need of replacement. Dialog boxes represent a older era of software. Scenarios get easily confused. Moving from XP to InfoWorks ICM seems a stretch, especially with the lack of SWMM network parity in ICM.
OPPORTUNITY: Tuflow. Ok, maybe this is a stretch - but with most XP models containing 2D - Tuflow will be the like-for-like results when Autodesk finally kills the product. XPSWMM customers can easily migrate to Tuflow, pay less for the privileged, and get the nearly the same answer. [
THREATS: Autodesk. This is one of the products that Autodesk left with Innovyze licensing. When moving the SWMM network into InfoWorks is only half-baked - Innovyze sealed XPs fate fast than the sales team can celebrate.
NOTES: XPSWMM users - do you still have your dongle? Are you considering taking Autodesk up on their offer?
Regardless - if you purchased XPSWMM or XPStorm between 2019 and today, Tuflow is offering generous discounts for those who already purchased XPSWMM and XPStorm in the top to tiers of the licensing hierarchy. [100K XPStorm 2D, 300K XPSWMM, and Unlimited 2D licenses levels]. Feel free reach out for more information.
[Migrating to Tuflow qualifies as a Tuflow Tuesday post… ]