Collaborating on building and running hydraulic models using InfoWorks WS Pro’s Workgroup technology

If your organisation has team members who work on the same hydraulic model at the same time, they probably generate several versions of the same model file. When this happens, keeping track of model file versions and model changes is next to impossible. This is a common – but definitely solvable – problem.

InfoWorks WS Pro’s workgroup technology offers multi-user access to your water models, as well as model change-management tools that facilitate collaboration between modelers. This can dramatically improve your team’s productivity.

InfoWorks WS Pro maintains all model data in a single, centralised, multi-user master database. This is important, first and foremost, because it helps you control access to the model. User permissions can be assigned, and you can create different levels of rights for different users.

Controlling access with seamless versioning

In this system, multiple modelers are able to edit the same object simultaneously. When they commit to their changes, other users can quickly see exactly what has been modified in the model. This encourages collaboration within modeling teams, but what if someone makes a potentially conflicting change? To manage conflict resolution, InfoWorks WS Pro identifies and prompts users to resolve conflicts between changes to objects that have been committed by different users.

Models are held in a version controlled system, where users can view, compare, and edit older versions of a model or part of a model. If something goes awry with your model modifications, you can always step back to an older version of the model. To save space, only the differences between versions are stored in the database – not entire files.

Audit trails and data flags

The ability to associate edited items in the model with data flags allows users to record the sources of data within their models. Color-coded view of changes in the model make it quick and easy for users to understand model alterations. With this kind of notation, it’s much easier to review the modeling work of team members – or just specific data entry changes that you might want to check.

This kind of “Workgroup” technology is the future of model collaboration, with more and more of the work that water professionals do moving to the cloud. If you’re interested in adopting this kind of next-generation approach, check out the system requirements and contact us with any questions you might have.