geoHEC-RAS Input 1

[TTMK]

I had a product salesperson cold call me today about geoHEC-RAS and it peaked my interest based on some of the things he said about program integration. (here is the website:

http://www.civilgeo.com/geo-hec-ras/)

Does anyone have any experience with this product, good or bad? Is it worth looking into for a small company that does a few hydraulic models on smaller bridges and culverts every year?

I just want some information from people who have used this product before I really start looking into it.

 

[TTMK]

I asked the company about that information and they sent me the following.

"We have the Floating Network License where any engineer in the office can use it as long as they’re connected to the network. The advantage with the Floating License is that you can also check the license out on to your laptop and take it home for the weekend or take it on site. You can check the license back on to the network once you’re back in. We also have a workstation License and that allows you to install in on individual computer.

Included with the license is:
• The license technology that we have with Autodesk and ESRI
• We provide regular updates for GeoHECRAS (Major updates every 2 to 4 months and minor updates every month)
•We have Toll free technical support with our engineers (USA & Canada) who uses the software day in and out working on projects.
•The most important thing that we do is what we call “On-Boarding”. We onboard you with one of our engineers on your first couple of projects so that you don’t spend a lot of time trying to learn how to use the software. Our Engineer shows you how to leverage GeoHECRAS with its best practices to get you up and running fast. We’d video record this personalized training and host it for you in the cloud so that you can pull up and watch the video anytime you need help or when you have a new engineer join you.

So that’s all included in the subscription that comes with the software. We give you 13 months subscription a little more than 12 months. So, the network server version is $4995.00 and workstation license is $3495.00."

 

[beej67]

Well now we know the ROI.

I can get about 175 hours worth of intern labor for $3500 bucks. That'll get a lot of HEC-RAS sections input manually into some free software. So the break even point, in my mind, is whether your firm is going to do more HEC-RAS models per year than an intern can manually input in a month of work on the job.

Maybe I'm jaded, but that's how I evaluate software licenses.


Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[JonathanEngr]

Has anyone heard anything else? I was watching some videos on Youtube about using the integrated HECRAS software in AutoCAD and came across the ad for geoHECRAS. I sat through a demo yesterday, and the software did seem very impressive. However, as a small firm the cost isn't insignificant to me. I decided to follow up on the testimonials on their site, and I believe by the time I was done I tried them all. Either the firm was out of business, or the firm never had a person by the name given on the GeoHECRAS site ever work there. Maybe there's an explanation, but it really, really makes me nervous to think about buying the software before trying it.

Another concern... I was sent a purchase agreement with a bank account and routing number. I called my bank to ask about purchase protection, and they said I would be covered if I used my Visa, but NEVER with a direct wire. With a wire, when the money is gone, it's gone. I don't know if they would accept a credit card payment (I never asked), but that did stand out to be a bit fishy, as well.

I would never intentionally harm a legitimate company, but maybe someone can weigh in on this and set some things straight. If the company and software was 100% legit, I would likely buy the software. With such a small market share, though, (I can't find a SINGLE post in any forum of anyone who has actually used it) it makes me doubtful that one of the most important and value-added parts (live product support) may not be around if the company doesn't last. Without that, the software's value is very little to me. I may as well just continue using HECRAS.

 

[JonathanEngr]

I hate to double-post, but I thought I would pass along the correspondence I've had since my last post.

I sent in another inquiry to the company (CivilGEO) asking for references, and explained the testimonials they have on their website are not valid. I also told them that I couldn't find a single forum, reference, etc., about their company or product on the web with the exception of negative comments--primarily about the lack of an actual demo--and/or comments about whether the company is legitimate. There were a few more comments, but the one thing I was sure to ask about was the demo. Here was my question:

"Anyway, as I said before, the only things I find about you online aren't complimentary, with the primary complaint being that the "demo" software doesn't exist, and it's just a lure to get you to send money for an untested product. Is there really a demo? It would be nice to test the software before buying."

I received a reply with the very first line stating that "of course" they have a demo version. This was Thursday, I told them I was very excited and to please send me a link so I could try the software. I followed up with another e-mail on Friday and I still haven't received a single response.

Lastly, during the week while trying to convince me to buy, they sent me names of a few other people that own the software since the testimonials on their site didn't pan out. One is the guy who posted on this site (the post was removed). He apparently signed up for the forum, made one post about how great the software was, and disappeared. According to the Google page associated with the e-mail on here, not only does he work with HECRAS, but he is an entrepreneur that gives away pharmaceutical discount cards. Fishy. Researched another company that had a website that described them, showed some projects they had supposedly done, but the company isn't real. Even more fishy.

In summary, even if the company is for real, they sure aren't doing themselves any favors. If it was my company, I'd be advertising all over engineering forums, I would have a forum on my website for questions about the product AND using the product, and be sure it was filled with questions from people who had bought the software from me. I would also have vetted any testimonials by making sure those companies were okay to use on my site AND make sure they were very happy, satisfied customers.

I've wasted enough time on this, so I'm going to file a complaint with the BBB and let them sort it out. If anything changes, I'll be sure to post back here.

 

[SMIAH]

I like it.
BUT! I think you can do it with Civil 3D... exporting ".geo" files.
Geo-RAS was good for maping the results of a flood mapping project but sometimes it had to be manually edited.

 

[SMIAH]

Why don't try it for free on if you already have ArcGIS license?

http://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-georas/downloads.aspx

 

[JonathanEngr]

SMIAH--

Actually, HEC-GEORAS is software developed by the Army Corps of Engineers and is free for all to use just like HECRAS and all of their other offerings. Geo HECRAS is **not** the same software. Geo HECRAS is a "wrapper" that goes over HECRAS developed by a company called CivilGEO (the link for their site is

http://www.civilgeo.com/).

And it's far from free--as one person said above, it's $3,500 for a single license.

I finally did speak with someone who knew a bit about the software and had talked with others who had used it. Supposedly, the software is pretty buggy and adds no additional functionality to HECRAS. By FAR the most difficult part of HECRAS is getting the model to run without errors. GeoHECRAS won't help with this part as it's only a wrapper, so I just don't see where it's worth anywhere near $3,500.

 

[SMIAH]

Oh I see!
Are they trying to make money there!?