Pondpack vs Hydraflow Hydrographs vs HydroCAD

[civilbjp]

Anyone used these programs to tell me what they prefer for pond design. In addition, does anyone know of a reseller for previous versions of Pondpack. Haestad does not have the capability for new versions to save into an older version.

 

[psmart]

You can try a free HydroCAD Sampler at

http://www.hydrocad.net

 

[sapaeng]

I use Hydroflow every week and I am very happy with the cost and performance. It will do a lot for the cost compared to Haested. Great tech support also.

 

[LHA]

Never a problem with HydroCAD. Very user friendly; both in installation and use.

Never heard of Hyroflow.

Haestad Methods do have the advantage of being virtually universally accepted, which is huge plus in municipal reviews. However, I have always been annoyed by the inability to open projects which were done in a different release/version of the same software...two of us in the same office use StormCAD, but we can't access each other's work. And Haestad are famously expensive: a little over a grand will get you from HydroCAC what just under $3,000 will get from Haestad.

 

[psmart]

Do you mean HydroCAD? You can get a free evaluation program at

http://www.hydrocad.net

Its a common problem for files not to be backwards compatible with earlier versions of most software, simply because the new versions tend to add new features that were unknown when the earlier software was released.

However, HydroCAD will let you move files backward as long as no new features are selected.

 

[LHA]

The free HydroCAD download is great to try the product, but it is limited to five nodes; that's a total of five ponds, subareas, reaches and links. I do highly recommend the free download, but you will very soon need the full version to complete any substantial projects.

It is NOT a very common problem for files not to be backwards compatible with earlier versions of most software...MSWindows Office doesn't have this limitation and neither does HydroCAD or Terramodel, which is a competitor to AutoCAD. To my knowledge only AutoDesk (maker of AutoCAD) and Haestad products have this feature. While it may be sound marketing strategy (guaranteeing future upgrades), it shows disloyalty to existing customers...if I spend thousands on a product, I should reasonably expect to be able to interact with future and past versions of the same software.