Error and diagnostic panel

Flood Modeller 1D simulations produce a diagnostic information file (extension *.exy). The messages provided in this file assist you in locating the source of simulation errors. They also enable you to review diagnostic information from a successful simulation in order to assess performance.

The diagnostic information is displayed in the right hand panel of the interface, in a tab called “Diagnostics 1D”. The data loaded here will relate to the active simulation (in the Project panel). Thus, for new simulations the diagnostic data will be loaded when the run has completed (successfully or not) and for completed simulations the diagnostic data will be loaded when you set the 1D simulation file (ief file) to active (right-click on it in the Project panel and
select from the displayed menu).

During a simulation, any diagnostic messages (errors, warnings and notes) are written, by default, to diagnostic file (extension *.exy). More details about these messages can be obtained from the 1D diagnostics messages help file page.

This *.exy file is in comma-separated format, and displays the following information about each message:

• node label (where applicable)

• simulation time of message

• severity (1-5, with 1 being the most severe, i.e. a fatal error)

• error code (1000-1999 for fatal errors; 2000-2999 for warnings; 3000-3999 for notes)

• a brief description of the error

The error codes shown on the Diagnostics 1D Panel contain only their unique ID number (see the ID field in the Diagnostics Table). These codes do not have a prefix ("E", "W", "N") , which usually precedes the unique number, when reported in a .zzd file. As these numbers are unique through the lists of fatal errors, warnings and notes, it should be possible to locate these in the list of the 1D diagnostics messages . The information on the "Severity" field on the panel can confirm if your error message is a fatal error ("E") - Severity = 1; a warning ("W") - Severity = 2,3,4; or a notification or a note ("N") - Severity = 5.

In more details, the severity of the diagnostic messages has been categorised as follows:

1. Fatal error causing the simulation to end prematurely

2. Warning message - the issue is likely to affect the results and should be investigated further

3. Warning message - the issue may affect results; it is recommended that the user investigates further

4. Warning message - the warning is primarily for information purposes and is unlikely to affect results.

5. Simulation notes - assist in the interpretation of the model results (N3001 - N3999)

The table displaying the diagnostic messages provides the following additional functionality to help model review:

• Click on a message ID to access the relevant page of the user guide to provide further information. Alternatively press the F1 key while working in the diagnostic table to access this page of the user guide.

• Drag the table header out of the right hand panel and it will become a standalone window. This enables you display diagnostic data for a selected node and at the same time view the node in the map and Network table. You can also access the associated node properties and view these at the same time.

• Highlight selected node(s) in the diagnostic table (use Ctrl and Shift keys for multiple selections), right-click and a menu is displayed providing the following options:

  • Enable grouping – activates a function that enables you to re-order the table content to group entries by common values in a selected column (or columns). Once activated this function adds a panel above the table. You can click on any column and drag it into the grouping panel, as shown below. The table will then re-order accordingly. You can minimise or expand groups to make it easier to read the table content, e.g. to focus on messages from one selected node.

    

  • Highlight selection – the nodes associated to the selected diagnostic messages will be highlighted in both the map view and 1D network table.

  • Highlight & zoom selection – the nodes associated to the selected diagnostic messages will be highlighted in both the map view and 1D network table and the map will zoom to the location of the selected nodes. For single node selections the map will position the selected node in the centre of the map. For multiple node selections the map will centre on the midpoint of the selected nodes.

  • Hide – hide selected rows in table

  • Un hide All – unhide all rows in table

• Order the table by any of the categories in the table (by clicking on the column header)

  

• Filter the table by any of the categories in the table (by clicking on the pin icon on the appropriate column header and selecting the items to filter)

  

• Perform advanced or multiple filtering by clicking the Custom option from the drop-down arrow on the column header or via the Customize button at the bottom of the window

  

  Note that this option is only available once you have applied an initial simple filter operation (by clicking on a column header, as shown above).

The *.exy file may also be accessed outside of Flood Modeller, e.g. using MS Excel, if the included tools don’t provide the required filtering functionality. The file is written to the same folder as your 1D results files.

The filtering and sorting functionality either within Flood Modeller or outside is a powerful feature in that it allows the user to isolate or exclude diagnostic information by the chosen category. In essence, this provides an abridged version of the diagnostics file (*.zzd), restricted to error, warning and note information alone.