How to Email HydroCAD Projects

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Sending HydroCAD Projects by Email

This information applies to HydroCAD-6 and later. For HydroCAD-5 and earlier, see the bottom of this page.

Sending a HydroCAD Project

To send a HydroCAD project by email, only the single .hcp project file is usually required. If multiple projects are connected with links, then you should send the file for each related project.

Project files are generally quite small (under 1K bytes per node) and are readily sent as email attachments. Follow your standard email procedure for sending a file as an attachment.

Note: Additional files are required only if you are using a custom rainfall distribution, unit hydrograph, units definition, or hydrograph import file.

Receiving a HydroCAD Project

If you receive an email with an attached HydroCAD project, you can open the attachment directly without saving the attachment. However, if you intend to save any modifications, then we suggest that you save the attachment to the desired folder before you open it.

Notes:

1) If the recipient doesn't have a copy of HydroCAD installed on their computer, they can open most HydroCAD projects by installing a copy of the free HydroCAD Sampler.

2) If you receive multiple linked projects, you must save the attachments to a folder in order for the links to function properly.

3) If you receive a custom rainfall distribution (.hcr) or unit hydrograph (.huh) file, you must save these files to your HydroCAD\Rainfall folder. (In general, custom files should have unique names to prevent conflicts with any standard HydroCAD files.)

4) If a project uses a link to import an external (.hce) data file, that file must be saved to the same folder at the project file.

5) HydroCAD-5 (and earlier) cannot open projects created by HydroCAD-6 (and later). Since HydroCAD-6 implements many new capabilities unknown to earlier versions, the files are not backwards compatible.

Sending HydroCAD-5 Projects by Email

Sending a HydroCAD-5 Project

Each HydroCAD-5 project consists of multiple files, all of which must be properly sent in order for the recipient to open the project. The easiest approach is to send all the files in your data directory, which is typically c:\hydrocad\hcdata. A "zip" or compression program is useful to reduce the files to a single, smaller attachment.

If you only want to send selected projects, we recommend that you use the HydroCAD File Manager to copy or move these projects to a new (empty) directory. You can then send all of the copied files as described above.

Receiving a HydroCAD-5 project

HydroCAD-5 projects can be opened directly by HydroCAD-5, or imported into HydroCAD-6 or later. In either case the files must be prepared in the following manner:

1) Prepare a new (empty) folder to store the incoming files. Do not use a folder that already contains HydroCAD data or any other files. (If the project will be opened in HydroCAD-5, avoid the use of long file names for the folder.)

2a) If the email attachment is a compressed (zip) file, decompress the files into the new folder.

2b) If the email has several uncompressed attachments (such as P0, P1, etc.) save all of the files to the new folder. Check the saved files to be sure there are no .dat extensions, such as P0.DAT. Remove all .dat extensions, so that you have just P0, P1, etc.

3) You can now open the project directly with HydroCAD-5, or use Project|Import with HydroCAD-6. If the project listing is empty, the P0 file is missing or damaged. If you can open a project but the diagram or specific nodes are blank, some of the individual project files are missing or damaged. Remove any remaining .dat extensions and have the data resent if required.