4. EPANET’s Workspace

This chapter discusses the essential features of EPANET’s workspace. It describes the main menu bar, the tool and status bars, and the three windows used most often – the Network Map, the Browser, and the Property Editor. It also shows how to set program preferences.

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4.1. Overview

The basic EPANET workspace is pictured in Fig. 4.1 below. It consists of the following user interface elements: a Menu Bar, two Toolbars, a Status Bar, the Network Map window, a Browser window, and a Property Editor window. A description of each of these elements is provided in the sections that follow.

Fig. 4.1 EPANET Workspace.

4.2. Menu Bar

The Menu Bar located across the top of the EPANET workspace contains a collection of menus used to control the program. These include:

• File Menu
• Edit Menu
• View Menu
• Project Menu
• Report Menu
• Window Menu
• Help Menu

File Menu

The File Menu contains commands for opening and saving data files and for printing. The commands for the File Menu are shown in Table 4.1 below.

Table 4.1 File Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
New	Creates a new EPANET project
Open	Opens an existing project
Save	Saves the current project
Save As	Saves the current project under a different name
Import	Imports network data or map from a file
Export	Exports network data or map to a file
Page Setup	Sets page margins, headers, and footers for printing
Print Preview	Previews a printout of the current view
Print	Prints the current view
Preferences	Sets program preferences
Exit	Exits EPANET

Edit Menu

The Edit Menu contains commands for editing and copying. The commands for the Edit Menu are shown in Table 4.2 below.

Table 4.2 Edit Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Copy To	Copies the currently active view (map, report, graph or table) to the clipboard or to file
Select Object	Allows selection of an object on the map
Select Vertex	Allows selection of link vertices on the map
Select Region	Allows selection of an outlined region on the map
Select All	Makes the outlined region the entire viewable map area
Group Edit	Edits a property for the group of objects that fall within the outlined region of the map

View Menu

The View Menu controls how the network map is viewed. The controls for the View Menu are shown in Table 4.3 below.

Table 4.3 View Menu Controls

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Dimensions	Dimensions the map
Backdrop	Allows a backdrop map to be viewed
Pan	Pans across the map
Zoom In	Zooms in on the map
Zoom Out	Zooms out on the map
Full Extent	Redraws the map at full extent
Find	Locates a specific item on the map
Query	Searches for items on the map that meet specific criteria
Overview Map	Toggles the Overview Map on/off
Legends	Controls the display of map legends
Toolbars	Toggles the toolbars on/off
Options	Sets map appearance options

Project Menu

The Project Menu includes commands related to the current project being analyzed. The commands for the Project Menu are shown in Table 4.4 below.

Table 4.4 Project Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Summary	Provides a summary description of the project’s characteristics
Defaults	Edits a project’s default properties
Calibration Data	Registers files containing calibration data with the project
Analysis Options	Edits analysis options
Run Analysis	Runs a simulation

Report Menu

The Report menu has commands used to report analysis results in different formats. The commands for the Report Menu are shown in Table 4.5 below.

Table 4.5 Report Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Status	Reports changes in the status of links over time
Energy	Reports the energy consumed by each pump
Calibration	Reports differences between simulated and measured values
Reaction	Reports average reaction rates throughout the network
Full	Creates a full report of computed results for all nodes and links in all time periods which is saved to a plain text file
Graph	Creates time series, profile, frequency, and contour plots of selected parameters
Table	Creates a tabular display of selected node and link quantities
Options	Controls the display style of a report, graph, or table

Window Menu

The Window Menu contains the following commands shown in Table 4.6 below.

Table 4.6 Window Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Arrange	Rearranges all child windows to fit within the main window
Close All	Closes all open windows (except the Map and Browser)
Window List	Lists all open windows; selected window currently has focus

Help Menu

The Help Menu contains commands for getting help in using EPANET. The Help Menu contains the following commands shown in Table 4.7 below. Context-sensitive Help is also available by pressing the F1 key.

Table 4.7 Help Menu Commands

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
Help Topics	Displays the Help system’s Help Topics dialog box
Units	Lists the units of measurement for all EPANET parameters
Tutorial	Presents a short tutorial introducing the user to EPANET
About	Lists information about the version of EPANET being used

Context-sensitive Help is also available by pressing the F1 key.

4.3. Toolbars

Toolbars provide shortcuts to commonly used operations. There are two such toolbars:

• Standard Toolbar
• Map Toolbar

The toolbars can be docked underneath the Main Menu bar or dragged to any location on the EPANET workspace. When undocked, they can also be re-sized. The toolbars can be made visible or invisible by selecting View >> Toolbars.

Standard Toolbar

The Standard Toolbar contains speed buttons for commonly used commands.

Opens a new project (File >> New)

Opens an existing project (File >> Open)

Saves the current project (File >> Save)

Prints the currently active window (File >> Print)

Copies selection to the clipboard or to a file (Edit >> Copy To)

Deletes the currently selected item

Finds a specific item on the map (View >> Find)

Runs a simulation (Project >> Run Analysis)

Runs a visual query on the map (View >> Query)

Creates a new graph view of results (Report >> Graph)

Creates a new table view of results (Report >> Table)

Modifies options for the currently active view (View >> Options or Report >> Options)

Map Toolbar

The Map Toolbar contains buttons for working with the Network Map.

Selects an object on the map (Edit >> Select Object)

Selects link vertex points (Edit >> Select Vertex)

Selects a region on the map (Edit >> Select Region)

Pans across the map (View >> Pan)

Zooms in on the map (View >> Zoom In)

Zooms out on the map (View >> Zoom Out)

Draws map at full extent (View >> Full Extent)

Adds a junction to the map

Adds a reservoir to the map

Adds a tank to the map

Adds a pipe to the map

Adds a pump to the map

Adds a valve to the map

Adds a label to the map

4.4. Status Bar

The Status Bar appears at the bottom of the EPANET workspace and is divided into four sections which display the following information:

• Auto-Length – indicates whether automatic computation of pipe lengths is turned on or off

• Flow Units - displays the current flow units that are in effect

• Zoom Level - displays the current zoom in level for the map (100% is full scale)

• Run Status - a faucet icon shows:

  • No running water if no analysis results are available,
  • Running water when valid analysis results are available,
  • A broken faucet when analysis results are available but may be invalid because the network data have been modified.

• XY Location - displays the map coordinates of the current position of the mouse pointer.

4.5. Network Map

The Network Map provides a planar schematic diagram of the objects comprising a water distribution network. The location of objects and the distances between them do not necessarily have to conform to their actual physical scale. Selected properties of these objects, such as water quality at nodes or flow velocity in links, can be displayed by using different colors. The color-coding is described in a Legend, which can be edited. New objects can be directly added to the map and existing objects can be clicked on for editing, deleting, and repositioning. A backdrop drawing (such as a street or topographic map) can be placed behind the network map for reference. The map can be zoomed to any scale and panned from one position to another. Nodes and links can be drawn at different sizes, flow direction arrows added, and object symbols, ID labels and numerical property values displayed. The map can be printed, copied onto the Windows clipboard, or exported as a DXF file or Windows metafile.

4.6. Data Browser

The Data Browser (shown in Fig. 4.2 below) is accessed from the Data tab on the Browser window. It gives access to the various objects, by category (Junctions, Pipes, etc.) that are contained in the network being analyzed. The buttons at the bottom are used to add, delete, and edit these objects.

Fig. 4.2 Data Browser.

4.7. Map Browser

The Map Browser (shown in Fig. 4.3 below) is accessed from the Map tab of the Browser Window. It selects the parameters and time period that are viewed in color-coded fashion on the Network Map. It also contains controls for animating the map through time.

Fig. 4.3 Map Browser.

The animation control pushbuttons on the Map Browser work as follows:

Rewind (return to initial time)

Animate back through time

Stop the animation

Animate forward in time

4.8. Property Editor

The Property Editor (shown in Fig. 4.4 below) is used to edit the properties of network nodes, links, labels, and analysis options. It is invoked when one of these objects is selected (either on the Network Map or in the Data Browser) and double-clicked or the Browser’s Edit button is clicked. The following points help explain how to use the Editor.

Fig. 4.4 Property Editor.

• The Editor is a grid with two columns - one for the property’s name and the other for its value.
• The columns can be re-sized by re-sizing the header at the top of the Editor with the mouse.
• The Editor window can be moved and re-sized via the normal Windows procedures.
• An asterisk next to a property name means that it is a required property – its value cannot be left blank.
• Depending on the property, the value field can be one of the following:

• A text box where you type in a value
• A dropdown list box where you select from a list of choices
• An ellipsis button which you click to bring up a specialized editor
• A read-only label used to display computed results

• The property in the Editor that currently has focus will be highlighted with a white background.
• You can use both the mouse and the Up and Down arrow keys on the keyboard to move between properties.
• To begin editing the property with the focus, either begin typing a value or hit the Enter key.
• To have EPANET accept what you have entered, press the Enter key or move to another property; to cancel, press the Esc key.
• Clicking the Close button in the upper right corner of its title bar will hide the Editor.

4.9. Program Preferences

Program preferences allow you to customize certain program features. To set program preferences select Preferences from the File menu. A Preferences dialog form will appear containing two tabbed pages – one for General Preferences and one for Format Preferences.

General Preferences

The following preferences can be set on the General tab of the Preferences dialog (as shown below in Table 4.8).

Table 4.8 General Preferences

PREFERENCE	DESCRIPTION
Blinking Map Highlighter	Check to make the selected node, link, or label on the map blink on and off
Flyover Map Labeling	Check to display the ID label and current parameter value in a hint-style box whenever the mouse is placed over a node or link on the network map
Confirm Deletions	Check to display a confirmation dialog box before deleting any object
Automatic Backup File	Check to save a backup copy of a newly opened project to disk named with a .bak extension
Clear File List	Clears the list of most recently used project files from the File menu

Note: The automatic Backup File is placed in the same directory as the input file. However, the backup file (.bak) is only created for .net type input files, not the .inp text files. The Preferences Menu screen for the General Tab is shown in Fig. 4.5 below.

Fig. 4.5 Preferences - General Tab.

Formatting Preferences

The Formats tab of the Preferences dialog box (shown in Fig. 4.6) controls how many decimal places are displayed when results for computed parameters are reported. Use the dropdown list boxes to select a specific Node or Link parameter. Use the spin edit boxes to select the number of decimal places to use when displaying computed results for the parameter. The number of decimal places displayed for any particular input design parameter, such as pipe diameter, length, etc. is whatever the user enters.

Fig. 4.6 Preferences - Formats Tab.