HEC-Pack - what are you paying for?

[KatieTX]

If you buy HEC-Pack from Bentley/Haestad, what are you paying for? It comes with Graphical HEC-1, HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, and HEC-GIS (aka HEC-GeoRAS). The only one that's not freely available is Graphical HEC-1. Is that all that you're paying for? Or do you get some other really great benefits that you can't get from the Corps of Engineers?

 

[tsgrue]

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I think it is mainly technical support you're getting. You might try Dodson Assoc if you are buying HEC stuff (again, for tech support).

Why do you want to buy HEC software?

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tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation

http://hhwq.blogspot.com

 

[KatieTX]

I don't want to buy HEC software! Our CAD person informed me yesterday that our company is paying $240/year for HEC-Pack, and my supervisor wanted me to find out if we needed it. The only possible benefit I can see from it is the Graphical HEC-1, since I can see how it would take several hours to generate a brand new HEC-1 file from scratch without the program. However, we bought WMS last year, and I believe it will do the same thing as HEC-Pack.

I love Dodson! When we lived in Houston I was seriously thinking about applying there.

 

[jartgo]

Speaking of Dodson...anyone tried their new Hydro-CD release? I ordered the CD about 5 years ago when I was starting out. Wondering if there's anything extraordinary with the new release.

 

[tsgrue]

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I could be mistaken, but I don't think Graphical HEC-1 has any capabilities beyond HEC-HMS - and probably less. I think WMS will do more than HEC-Pack.

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tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation

http://hhwq.blogspot.com

 

[KatieTX]

In some cases, situations may require the use of HEC-1 rather than HEC-HMS. Although, I guess I'm thinking of cases where there's already a HEC-1 model existing. If you're going to be starting from scratch, I agree that there would generally be no reason to use HEC-1 over HEC-HMS. I feel quite* comfortable modifying an existing HEC-1 file, so that would be no problem.

I believe that HMR49 requires the use of HEC-1, but I would assume that's solely because it was written before HEC-HMS was released, not because of any actual preference.

*I was going to say "perfectly comfortable", but I realized that in the past when I was modifying HEC-1 files, I was using some Dodson software to do it - it just made it a bit easier since it had the fields set up like a spreadsheet, and help text at the bottom.

 

[tsgrue]

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I am pretty sure HEC-HMS allows direct import/opening of HEC-1 files. Some years ago there were a few capabilities in HEC-1 that had not been included in HEC-HMS, but I don't think that is now the case. I think HEC-HMS and SWMM5 should be acceptable in any case that HEC-1 is listed as required - your point about "when it was written" being the case.

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tsgrue: site engineering, stormwater
management, landscape design, ecosystem
rehabilitation, mathematical simulation

http://hhwq.blogspot.com