Eric Suesz
Starting with InfoWater Pro 2027.2, Autodesk Assistant can run exploratory hydraulic simulations for you. You ask a question in plain English, like “How much demand can this node handle?” or “Which wells can I take offline?” Autodesk Assistant runs dozens of simulations in the cloud and gives you an answer in seconds. In this Water Drop workflow video, Tim Medearis tries it on two real modeling questions and then checks the results by hand. (Spoiler: it holds up, and the checking taught us something useful.)
What’s new: exploratory simulation in Autodesk Assistant
Autodesk Assistant has been part of InfoWater Pro for the last few releases. What’s new in 2027.2 and later is exploratory simulation. Autodesk Assistant doesn’t just answer questions about your model anymore. It actually runs the hydraulic engine behind InfoWater Pro, in the cloud, over and over, until it finds the answer.
Behind the scenes, Autodesk Assistant in InfoWater Pro uses a water-specific Model Context Protocol (MCP) layer that Autodesk built in. It gives the Autodesk Assistant controlled access to read your model and run simulations. There’s nothing to install or connect. You just ask.
Who it’s for:
- Hydraulic modelers who are tired of guess-and-check scenario work
- Engineers just starting out with InfoWater Pro or distribution modeling
- Consultants who need quick answers for clients
- Operations teams who want to test what-if situations without building a full scenario set
Where to find it: Open Autodesk Assistant from the main InfoWater Pro toolbar. It opens in its own panel, which you can dock right next to your Model Explorer. It saves your chat history, so you can reuse a good prompt later on another junction or model.
Example 1: How much demand can a new development pull from one node?
This is one of the most common questions we hear from modelers. A big new development is going in. Can the network serve it without pressure or velocity problems?
The prompt
Here’s the exact prompt we used. It includes the design criteria from a real town’s standards:
I’m about to develop a significant piece of land off a new connection at node 8482. How much demand can we add here before running into significant pressure issues? Ensure that the pressure does not drop below 55 psi at 8482 or neighboring junctions, and velocities remain below 8 ft per second.
Tip: Put your own utility’s criteria straight into the prompt. Autodesk Assistant uses them as the constraints for every simulation it runs.
What Autodesk Assistant found
After a few seconds of simulations, Autodesk Assistant reported:
- Pressure wasn’t the problem. Junctions stayed above 55 psi.
- Velocity was the limit. The pipe feeding the node got close to 8 ft/s first.
- Maximum peak demand: about 700 gpm.
- The bottleneck was a 6-inch pipe, smaller than the pipes around it. Autodesk Assistant suggested upsizing it to 8 inches to give the development (expected to need about 650 gpm at peak) more room and a safety margin.
Trust, but verify: what we learned when we checked
We typed 700 gpm in as the node demand and reran the model. Velocity came out way higher than 8 ft/s. Did the AI get it wrong?
Not quite. Autodesk Assistant reported 700 gpm as the maximum peak demand. It didn’t account for the diurnal pattern and multiplier applied to the node. When you type a base demand into the node, InfoWater Pro multiplies it by that pattern at every time step.
So we did the math:
- Find the highest multiplier in the demand pattern: about 1.8 (at the 29th time step).
- Divide the peak by it: 700 ÷ 1.8 ≈ 388 gpm base demand.
- Rerun with 388 gpm. Peak demand now comes out around 700 gpm, and pipe velocity sits right at about 8 ft/s.
Velocity crept slightly over the limit in a few time steps, so in practice you’d go a little below 388 gpm. Still, Autodesk Assistant’s answer checked out once we were comparing the same thing. Doing this by hand would have taken a lot of trial runs.
Takeaway: When Autodesk Assistant gives you a demand number, check whether it’s a peak value or a base value before you plug it in.
Example 2: Which wells can we take offline and still hold 20 psi?
The second model is fed by 23 wells, modeled as 23 reservoirs. Pressure in this network is already on the low side, so the question was: How many wells can we take offline and still keep at least 20 psi everywhere?
First pass: take out two wells
We took two wells completely offline and asked Autodesk Assistant whether the network could hold 20 psi with the rest online.
Result: Yes. Minimum pressure stayed above 20 psi.
Checking it: We used Autodesk Assistant to apply a pressure map theme (it can do that too), then graphed pressures at junctions across the network. Even at the low point around hour 7, nothing dropped below 20 psi.
Follow-up: which wells are actually critical?
Next, we asked a broader question: which wells are most critical to this system? Autodesk Assistant ran another round of exploratory simulations and narrowed 23 wells down to just two critical ones: Well 20 and Well EM3.
Checking it: We graphed flow from those two wells. Both deliver flow in the thousands of gallons per minute. The interesting part is that some other wells also put out big flows but didn’t make the critical list. That’s because many wells are there for redundancy. Wells 20 and EM3 don’t have that backup, which is what Autodesk Assistant identified.
If you only looked at flow, you’d probably flag the wrong wells. Normally you’d find this out by testing each well offline, one at a time and in combinations. The exploratory run answered all of that in a single table.
Manual modeling vs. Autodesk Assistant: side by side
| Task | Traditional approach | With Autodesk Assistant |
| Max demand at a node | Guess a demand, run, check pressures and velocities, repeat | One plain-English prompt with your criteria; answer in seconds |
| Finding the limiting factor | Review pressure and velocity results by hand | Autodesk Assistant names it (velocity in a 6-inch pipe) and suggests a fix |
| Taking wells offline | Build scenarios for each combination | Ask once; Autodesk Assistant tests the combinations |
| Finding critical wells | Test each well offline, one at a time and in groups | One exploratory run returns a ranked table |
| Checking results | Graphs and map themes | Same, and Autodesk Assistant can apply the map theme for you |
Tips for getting good answers
- Spell out your criteria: Pressure floors, velocity limits, which junctions count. The more specific you are, the better the simulations.
- Reuse prompts that work: Chat history is saved, so copy a good prompt and swap in a new node ID.
- Watch peak vs. base: Demand answers may not account for your diurnal pattern.
- Always verify: Graph a few key junctions or pipes before you act on a result. We’d say that about any AI tool.
- Use follow-up questions: “Which wells are most critical?” came from a first answer that raised more questions.
How Autodesk uses AI (and your data)
If you have questions about how AI works in InfoWater Pro, or in any Autodesk product, visit the Autodesk Trust Center. It has AI transparency cards that explain exactly how Autodesk uses AI in each product.
FAQ
What is exploratory simulation in InfoWater Pro?
It’s a feature of Autodesk Assistant (new in InfoWater Pro 2027.2) that runs many hydraulic simulations in the cloud to answer a plain-English question, like how much demand a node can handle, which supply sources are critical, or even when a tank might run dry during an emergency.
Does Autodesk Assistant replace hydraulic modeling skills?
No. It speeds up the guess-and-check part, but you still need to understand your model to frame good questions and check the answers. Example 1 shows why. The peak vs. base demand difference only made sense to someone who knows how demand patterns work.
Can InfoWater Pro analyze pressure and flow for a new development?
Yes. Tell Autodesk Assistant the node and your pressure and velocity limits. It finds the maximum demand, names the limiting factor, and can suggest fixes like upsizing a pipe.
Can AI help with fire flow or well outage analysis?
The same approach works for any “How much can the network handle” or “What if this goes offline” question. Our examples covered available demand at a node and taking wells offline.
Does InfoWater Pro’s AI use MCP?
Yes. Autodesk Assistant in InfoWater Pro uses a built-in MCP layer to read your model and run exploratory simulations. It’s part of the Autodesk Assistant, not a separate MCP server you connect your own AI tools to.
Try it yourself
Exploratory simulation is available in InfoWater Pro 2027.2 and later. Open Autodesk Assistant from the toolbar and try one of the prompts above on your own model. Happy modeling!
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