Trevor English
Not every water distribution system stays neatly inside a pressurized pipe. For many utilities, and particularly for irrigation networks, water moves through a combination of pressurized pipes, open channels, gravity-fed sections, and other hydraulic structures. Modeling those systems can quickly become complicated when the software draws a harder boundary between those different types of flow than the real-world system does.
With InfoWorks WS Pro 2027.2, we’re breaking down much of that boundary. This release significantly expands open channel modeling in InfoWorks WS Pro by bringing in capabilities from the InfoWorks ICM simulation engine. Alongside that, Autodesk Assistant can now interact directly with model data and perform basic tasks on your behalf.
Let’s start with the channels.
InfoWorks ICM simulation capabilities come to WS Pro
InfoWorks WS Pro has long been built around modeling pressurized water distribution networks. But some of the systems you need to model don’t fit neatly into that definition.
Irrigation systems are perhaps the clearest example, something we’ve written about before as a use case for InfoWorks WS Pro.
An irrigation network might include long stretches of open channel before water enters a pressurized distribution network. It might branch, change slope, pass through different channel geometries, encounter control structures, or experience backflow. The hydraulics don’t suddenly become less important when the water leaves a pipe.
InfoWorks WS Pro 2027.2 substantially expands what you can represent in these systems by integrating channel simulation capabilities from the InfoWorks ICM engine.
If you’re familiar with InfoWorks ICM, you’ll know why that’s significant. We’re taking an engine designed to solve complex free-surface hydraulic behavior and making those capabilities available for channel systems within InfoWorks WS Pro. With that comes several other important improvements:
- Build more complex channel networks: Channels can now connect to regular nodes, allowing you to build more complex systems with branching and varying slopes. You have access to a much broader range of default channel shapes, along with the ability to define custom shapes when the standard options don’t represent what exists in the field.
- Model surcharged conditions: We’ve added closed geometry conduit shapes. That means channels can surcharge when water rises above the soffit or crown. This is an important behavior when you’re modeling systems that don’t remain in free-surface conditions all the time.
- Represent channel controls: Channels can include optional weirs or orifices at their upstream and downstream ends, giving you more flexibility to represent the controls that govern how water moves through the system.
Ask Autodesk Assistant to work with your model
We’ve taken another step forward in InfoWorks WS Pro 2027.2: Autodesk Assistant can now interact directly with your model.
Autodesk Assistant can search for objects in your database, open objects, query data and results from open Networks, Controls, and Simulations – and even perform basic editing.
Editing through Autodesk Assistant is limited to open Networks and Controls, and changes can be reviewed and reversed before you commit them. Queries and edits are performed using SQL, and you can ask Assistant to show you the SQL it utilized.
Instead of needing to know exactly how to construct a query before you begin, you can describe what you’re trying to accomplish and let Autodesk Assistant translate that intent into SQL. You can then inspect the query yourself and – if it’s something useful – save it as a Stored Query for the future. For experienced users, that can remove some repetitive work.
I think there is another important benefit for people who are newer to InfoWorks WS Pro. There is a lot of depth in the software, and learning how to access that depth takes time. Giving users another way to find objects, interrogate results, understand SQL queries, and make basic changes can help shorten the distance between “I know what I want to accomplish” and “I know exactly how InfoWorks WS Pro wants me to accomplish it.”
With this release, the Autodesk Assistant technical preview has ended, and these expanded capabilities are now generally available.
Learn more about the release
Ready to dig into the new capabilities?
Check out the InfoWorks WS Pro 2027.2 What’s New page for more details on the expanded open channel capabilities, Autodesk Assistant, and other improvements included in this release.
You can also look at the Autodesk Water Infrastructure water distribution product roadmap to see more of what we’re working on across our water distribution modeling solutions.