Special Attention Notes
• The Accounting calculations in RiverWare are now available to non-sponsors. The User Defined Accounting Methods (discussed in the Accounting section of the release notes) allow users to write methods that move physical water into accounts and apply physical gains/losses to the accounts.
• Rulesets saved in the new release CANNOT be used in older executables. There is no message to warn the user about this. Rulesets saved under previous executables CAN be used with the new release however.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader is no longer included in the RiverWare Core Product file. This means that Acrobat Reader is not installed with RiverWare any longer. This probably won’t affect most users because Adobe is most likely installed on your system already. If your system does not have Adobe, you will need to install it. The RiverWare Download Page has a link to the version of Acrobat used by CADSWES. You can also get a more recent version by visiting the Adobe web site. The Download Guide and Installation Guide on the CADSWES web site provide additional information.
• The Tool Command Language (Tcl) that was previously used to write Rules was upgraded to version 8.2.3. The previous version of Tcl we were using was over six years old. It was necessary to upgrade to a recent version that is compatible with Windows NT. Our nightly regression test showed some model differences as a result of this upgrade. We believe these differences to be a result of a difference in the level of precision used in the two versions of Tcl. In one case, however, there was a syntax error in a Tcl function that was not detected by the old Tcl but was detected by version 8.2.3. In this case, the model aborted and a diagnostic message pointed the user to the exact location of the Tcl error. If your model still uses Tcl functions, it is possible that you will encounter minor differences in model run results. These differences should be less than the convergence level (0.01%) and should not affect the policy outcome. It is also possible that your Tcl functions have syntax errors that were not detected by the previous version of Tcl and are now noticed by 8.2.3. If this is the case, your Tcl function will need to be fixed.
• Additional error checking was added to the PeakPowerCalc and PeakBasePowerCalc methods. The new errors enforce a positive peak flow volume (computed as Outflow - Spill - Base Flow, converted to a volume). A negative peak flow volume would result in the computation of negative Power and Energy values. This situation would occur whenever the Outflow is less than the sum of the Spill and Base Flow. According to Dr. Terry Fulp this is an error situation that should result in the run aborting with an error message notifying the user. This may occur if there was an error in the Maximum Controlled Release value or, more likely, if the Base Flow value is too great. One of our CRSS regression tests aborted with this error so it is highly likely that some CRSS models contain this error and will now abort with the new release. In this case the user must decide upon a new Base Flow value (set in the Base Flow Table slot), that will not exceed the Outflow. The error produced in this situation will read, “Negative peak flow volume calculated. Spill + base flow cannot be greater than outflow. Check Max Controlled Release slot and/or base flow values.” The left hand side of the diagnostics window will give the object and timestep on which this occurred (this occurred on Lake Havasu in our regression tests). The model must be fixed by reducing the value in the second column of the Base Flow Table. Contact Terry Fulp if questions arise about the appropriate value for Base Flow.
• A new slot, Power Capacity, was added to the PeakPowerCalc and PeakBasePowerCalc methods. Previously, the power capacity was being computed and set in the Power slot. Now the Power Capacity slot will contain this value and the Power will represent the Power actually produced on a given timestep. This is discussed further in the Simulation Objects section of the release notes.