Projects and scenarios

As outlined in Fundamental Concepts, projects act as 'wrappers' for a collection of one or more scenarios. This page outlines how to work with them.

Projects

Creating a new project

To create a new project, do one of the following:

Choose File » New » Project...;
Click New Scenario on the File toolbar; or
Press Ctrl+N on your keyboard.

You can only have one project file open at a time. Do not try to open the same project file using more than one copy of Source because you may lose your work.

In the resulting window (Figure 1), enter the following:

The project name. Give it a meaningful name or accept the default;
The scenario name. Once again, provide a meaningful name or accept the default. All the scenarios in a project must have unique names;
Choose the desired kind of scenario (refer to About scenario types for the different types available); and
Click OK.

Figure 1. New Project dialog

Closing an open project

To close an open project, choose File » Close project. This closes the current project and prompts to save your work (Figure 2). Click the appropriate button.

Figure 2. Close project

Opening an existing project

To open an existing project, either:

Choose File » Open Project; or
Click Open Project on the File toolbar.

This opens the standard Windows™ open dialog (Figure 3). Note that opening a new project prompts you to save any open project.

Figure 3. Open project

Copying projects

You can duplicate existing projects by copying them. In your local machine's File Explorer, select the desired project, right-click and choose Copy. In the target location, right-click and choose Paste.

Scenarios

About scenario types

Three scenarios have been described in this guide:

A schematic scenario is primarily concerned with modelling longer time-scales;
An operations scenario is primarily concerned with shorter time-scales. It utilises facilities for forecasting and working with unaccounted differences, and typically makes heavy use of the Tabular Editor; and
A catchments scenario which deals with the management of upland catchment processes. It is usually constructed using the Geographic Wizard for catchments which is a structured sequence of steps that guides you through the construction process.

It is important to choose the correct type of scenario before you start building your model. Although a project can contain several scenarios, a scenario type is fixed once it is created and cannot be changed later. Note that scenarios are independent of each other; a change in one scenario does not impact another scenario.

The operations described for a project (above) are also available for scenarios. In addition, you can also import and compare scenarios.

Note: This note applies to the Scenario Import and Difference tools available in Source. These tools can only be used for scenarios that have been created in the version you are currently using, or in previous versions.

Working with scenarios

Scenario management

Various menu items allow you to manage scenarios at a high-level.

When running different scenarios, you can use scenario input sets to set values for input parameters. Choose Edit » Scenario Input Sets... to open the dialog;
Tools » Export summary... allows you to save a text archive of the chosen scenario to a .csv file; and
Feature Table (accessible via Edit » Feature Table...) provides an overview of the selected scenario, and can be used to edit component parameters.

Creating a scenario

Note: You can only create a schematic or catchments scenario using the method outlined below. To create a forecasting scenario, refer to Creating a scenario.

A project must contain at least one scenario. Whenever you create a new project, you are also prompted to create a scenario. You can create additional scenarios using any of the following methods:

Choose File » New » Scenario...;
Click New Scenario on the File toolbar; or
Click New Scenario (by menu) on the Project Explorer toolbar.

To create an Operations scenario, first create a Schematic scenario. Then, choose Tools » Rivers Operations to open the River Operations dialog.

Opening a scenario

When a project only contains one scenario, that scenario is opened automatically when you open the project. However, when a project contains more than one scenario, you must open each scenario individually. To view a scenario that is contained within a project, double click the scenario name from the list in the Project Hierarchy. This opens the appropriate editor for the selected scenario, and changes the scenario name to a bold appearance so that you know it is the current, or active scenario.

You can also select a scenario from the list of loaded scenarios on the View menu. Selecting a scenario from the list makes it active.

Source supports backward compatibility for projects created in Source after v3.1.0.

Note: You must upgrade a project if it was created in Source v3.1.0 or earlier. If you open these projects in later versions of Source, an error message (shown in Figure 4) will appear prompting you to save in v3.1.0. Follow the steps outlined in the dialog to automatically upgrade the project to the current version of Source.

Figure 4. Opening a project, error

Copying a scenario

You can duplicate existing scenarios as a whole, provided they are part of the same project. You may want to do this if you wish to experiment with variations without affecting your original scenario.

Note: To copy only certain network elements, refer to Copying network elements.

To copy a scenario as a whole, click Copy Scenario on the Project Explorer toolbar. Source makes a copy of the current scenario and asks you to name the copy (as shown in Figure 5). You can either accept the proposed name or supply one of your own. Keep in mind that scenario names must be unique within a project.

The new (copied) scenario will be a duplicate of the original at the time of the copy.

Figure 5. Copy Scenario

Renaming a scenario

Source automatically gives new scenarios the default name of "Scenario #n" , where n is a number. To rename a scenario:

Select the scenario in the Project Hierarchy; and
Once the scenario name is selected, pause then click again. When the entry is highlighted, you can enter a new name. Remember that scenario names must be unique within a project.

Linking scenarios

You can link two scenarios using a Connecting Models. Note that some components of the first scenario may not pass on to the second, linked scenario.

Comparing scenarios

Source also has the capability of comparing two scenarios (both residing in either the same, or different projects) using the Source Difference tool. The goal of this tool is to compare similar scenarios, and is useful when several users are collaborating and making changes to a model. It allows them to view the exact changes made in a scenario.

Note: The Scenario Difference Tool can also be accessed in the absence of the Source user interface.

In Source, the Scenario Difference Tool is used as follows:

Choose Tools » Diff... to open the Scenario Diff dialog (Figure 8);
Click Load project for both Project 1 and Project 2. Note this when loading projects;
Click Find Differences;
This opens the Choose Scenario... dialog (Figure 7) where you choose how to display the results and click Find Differences; and
Once the comparison is complete, results are displayed in the bottom half of the Scenario Diff dialog.

Based on the results, the panel on the left self-populates. Select an item in this list to view specific details on the right.

Figure 7. Choosing results display

Figure 8. Scenario Difference tool

Copying network elements

When copying a partial scenario, the effect on each network element is different. The section outlines what you must be aware of when copying some parts of a scenario.

Both functions and modelled variables are copied across, but the copy must also contain any nodes that the modelled variable points to;
For input sets in data sources, both the source and target scenarios can have different input sets. But, only data related to the matching input set will be copied; and
Suppose an execution order rule involves two nodes. Copying these nodes from one scenario to another will result in the rule also being copied across.