Creating network scenarios
Use scenarios for model variations, without the need to create a separate branch network.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Step-by-step guide
Scenarios can be used to:
- Model variations of a network simultaneously without the need to create separate branch networks.
- Investigate the impact of different parameters, for example, increasing pipe sizes.
- Quality assurance, since multiple users can work in their own scenario until the work has been reviewed.
- Once approved, scenarios can be integrated into the Base network, making changes available to all users.
Because scenarios are derived from a Base network, they do not appear in the Explorer window as separate entities. Instead, they are saved within the Base network and viewed by opening the Base network and selecting the scenario from the Scenarios toolbar.
To create a scenario:
- In the Scenarios toolbar, click Create scenario.
OR, in the Network menu, click Scenarios > Create scenario.
- In the Create new scenario dialog box, add a New scenario name. For this exercise, type “Re-designed pumps”.
- Add meaningful Notes about the scenario. For this exercise, type, “Example scenario with increased pump discharge”.
- Click OK to save the scenario.
- Verify that your new scenario is selected in the Scenarios toolbar as well as in the GeoPlan window.
- Make changes to the elements in the scenario without affecting the Base network.
IMPORTANT: Each scenario is a copy of the Base network, unless you create a scenario as a copy of another scenario. All changes made to a scenario are independent. Scenarios can be made to construct unique situations, which can then be run in a simulation and compared.
When scenarios are copied from the Base network, they maintain data inheritance from the Base. Consequently, any changes made to the Base network are replicated automatically in all associated scenarios, except where an element is changed in a scenario that you created.
Use the tools in the Scenarios toolbar to delete, rename, or manage scenarios.
The Manage scenarios dialog box offers several tools, such as:
- Comparing scenarios using Diff.
- Make the selected scenario the new Base using Reintegrate. (Note that this is a destructive action, as the original Base will be overwritten.)