Armour & Associates Inc., Vancouver Canada

The Force behind, the Reasons for, and the Evolution of HydrauliCAD
How It Came To Be!! and Why It Is the Very Best, 
The "Designer's Program"

E. Ralph Armour CID, president of Armour & Associates Inc., (owner and creator of HydrauliCAD), a 30 year water system design firm previously based in Bellingham WA USA.

A career water system designer, he led Armour & Associates Inc. to many successful high level projects throughout North America, from Fort Myers Fla. to Toronto Canada, to Columbia Falls Montana to Vancouver Canada and many in between.

Ralph was and is the inspiration, planner, "program requirements" specifier and leader of the team of professionals involved in the developments and ongoing evolution of HydrauliCAD.

As a user of several AutoCAD programs to complete his own work, he had always felt that most Design / Hydraulic Analysis Modeling programs were cumbersome, overpriced and designed to be far more difficult to learn and use than was necessary. 

He also felt that they seemed to focus on areas that might be fun for University Profs to get hypothetical with, but did not focus on the areas used daily by most Civil Engineering firms or Municipalities.  

  

Nor did they seem to focus on making them easy to learn and use, rather appearing almost to "build in the need" for what he believed was totally unnecessary training.

He decided to create his own style of AutoCAD design / hydraulic analysis software that was far more "intuitive", quick to learn, easy to use, and much more focused on doing the "needed" everyday tasks and doing them far better than other programs.  

Ralph drew from his own water system experience and from the the knowledge and expertise of many associates (fellow water system designers, University instructors of AutoCAD programming and from programmers within the highest level, the Autodesk Developer Network).
 

They decided upon using the reliable and accurate Epanet mathematics engine developed by the US Govt. EPA for calculations and to produce a true AutoCAD program within the AutoCAD that Engineers and Modelers are familiar working within.
 

 

In 2003, Armour & Associates Inc. was honored to become accepted as a full fledged AutoDesk Authorized Developer.

This gave it the inside information, "the keys to the safe" so to speak, the "inside info" needed for his main programmer to produce the full and true "AutoCAD" program, HydrauliCAD.

The conceptual design of HydrauliCAD culminated in 2004 and from 2005, it was fully tested from different perspectives. Since then, Ralph and his team are continually enhancing HydrauliCAD.

  
Today, HydrauliCAD version 4.03 represents the culmination of years of work and testing by designers and other professionals. 
 
 
One can literally say that HydrauliCAD is the "water system  program designed by a career water system designer".
 
 
Thus, HydrauliCAD became truly the "Water System Designer's Program" to operate.
 
 

 


The end result is a Design / Hydraulic Analysis program that is the very best out there in the areas that most water system designers actually use, truly Intuitive and easy to use, while extensive with tools designed specifically for this purpose.

As Ralph often says, "HydrauliCAD Isn't Cheap, but it is more reasonably priced than those where apparently most energy and money were spent on little used areas, at the expense of the tasks most used by real world designers." 

 

HydrauliCAD™ Mission Statement:

It is our intention to break from industry traditions, and create a true AutoCAD Hydraulic Design / Analysis Program that is Fast to Learn and Easy to Use.

Please Note: It is our intention to earn ALL of our revenue from the program itself, and NOT from creating or allowing the unnecessary need for costly training classes and support sessions.

Thus, HydrauliCAD was designed and programmed to be extremely Intuitive, Fast to Learn & Easy to Use for modelers, and for those somewhat fluent with AutoCAD but not specializing in modeling per se. 

autodesk

  



For Professional Hydraulic Modelers:
it is FAST, EFFICIENT and ROBUST for the Professional Modeler's highly technical needs to create the model, manage data and set up hydraulic scenarios.
 

For Project Engineers (bosses):
it is INTUITIVE & EASY for the Design Administrator's and Municipal System Manager's more "occasional" needs to review the Pro's Scenarios or to Just Jump in & Explore their own ideas & "What If" hydraulic possibilities.
 

Put HydrauliCAD to Work - Right Out of the Box
HydrauliCAD™ is Designed to be Powerful and Fast, and So Intuitive that Task & Tool Methods are "Obvious" and the Program is almost IMMEDIATELY USABLE for ALL Users and all Disciplines.

 

As an Authorized AutoCAD Developer, we decided to follow the very highest of several optional programming levels suggested by AutoCAD.
HydrauliCAD utilizes the power & solidity of AutoCAD's ARX & C++.Net programming to construct the most reliable & flexible program possible.

Seamlessly Integrated with AutoCAD:
From a CAD perspective, user can manipulate the hydraulic elements exactly the same as any other drawing entity. All hydraulic data remains only within the drawing. With no need for external data files or libraries, any data can be exchanged directly between models via the AutoCAD DesignCenter.

  

ALL Hydraulic Data is Stored Within the Single AutoCAD Drawing File:
No external hydraulic files are created, or needed to run the models. All HydrauliCAD data is retained within the AutoCAD drawing itself.

Tasks & Tools:
As a result of this level of program structure, AutoCAD Commands are accessed & utilized to perform tasks at the root AutoCAD level.
HydrauliCAD utilizes the basic AutoCAD tools to operate it's Tools & Tasks, giving the program a stability, reliability and user-familiarity not achieved by any other methods.

 

Selection Sets can be Saved:
All Selection Sets, no matter how they are collected, can be saved in the Selection Set Form, recalled later, then Edited, Appended to, or Selected from, using any of the above methods.

"Cycle Through Sets" Tool:
NOTE: You can also Cycle through the result or any Selection Set, a Saved Set or not, by Individual Object.

The HydrauliCAD Quick Select tool:
allows complex and sequential Add and / or Exclude Queries dealing with all Hydraulic Properties of the Hydraulic Objects.
This tool works together with our Save Selection Sets Tool to SAVE Sets and later recall these Saved Sets to use and / or alter (append to or exclude from) further.

  

Transfer User Settings into New Drawings:
Designers work hard to create Display Settings, Pipe Specifications (along with their Class, Nominal and Actual Sizes), Patterns, Groups, Zones etc.

With HydrauliCAD / AutoCAD Design Center, specialty User Settings are available to other drawings. Now, they do not need to be recreated.



Mix & Match Units to suit your needs. display the drawing in any Units you wish, irrespective of the units drawing was created with

Draw / Design in US Units, and Quickly display drawings in SI / Metric Units.

HydrauliCAD Website Page Name: HydrauliCAD: A True AutoCAD hydraulic analysis software program using Epanet calcs. for simulation modeling.
Page Topic: AutoCAD + the Epanet calculation engine for hydraulic analysis simulation software to design and model water distribution system pipe networks.