HydroCAD^® Stormwater Modeling - Since 1986

Using CSV hydrograph files

A link is often used to import hydrograph data from an outside file, and the CSV hydrograph format is generally the easiest type of file to create by hand.

HydroCAD also supports a more powerful HCE hydrograph format, which is commonly used for linking multiple projects together.  But the widely-used CSV format is generally recommended for other applications.

Creating a CSV hydrograph file

A CSV file can be created with any spreadsheet program by saving the file to CSV format.  This is generally accomplished by an option on the File|SaveAs menu.  Since a CSV file is also a plain text file, so it can also be created or modified with a standard text editor, such as NotePad.

The first column of each CSV file must contain time values.  Additional column(s) are defined for each of the corresponding hydrographs or events.

The first row of the table always contains column headings and optional units parameters.  The heading on each of the hydrograph columns must contain the hydrograph name or the event name.  For details see the LinkTest4.CSV file that is preinstalled with HydroCAD-10.

Using your CSV file

To use your hydrograph file in a HydroCAD project, create a link node and use the "File" option to select your CSV file.  If your CSV file contains data for multiple events, select (MultiEvent) in the hydrograph box.  This will cause HydroCAD to automatically select the hydrograph column that matches your current event.  If the file does not contain multi-event data, select the specific hydrograph (column) to be imported for all events.

Note: If you don't see the (MultiEvent) option in the drop-down lost, you need to update to HydroCAD 10.0 build 3 or later in order to support multi-event CSV files.  Although earlier versions can handle multiple hydrographs in a single CSV file, they cannot automatically match the hydrograph to the current event.

Whenever you use a multi-event link, the associated project must contain event names which exactly match the column headings in the CSV file.  The events must be defined on the Rainfall tab of the calculation settings screen.

After configuring the link, it's outflow will consist of the specified hydrograph, and may be routed just like any other node.  If you're using the multi-event capability, the outflow of the link will be automatically updated whenever a different event is selected.

Sample files

To be sure you use the correct formatting, you may want to use this sample CSV file as a template.  You will also find additional details in the LinkTest files that are installed in your HydroCAD Project folder.

Demonstration multi-event link

For a demonstration of the hydrograph import capability, and the features of each file format, see the Link Demo project that is preinstalled with HydroCAD-10 and later.

[Home]   [Support]

Copyright © 2013 HydroCAD Software Solutions LLC (privacy)   (legal notices)