GeoPilotPipePilot DocumentationOpen PipePilot

Getting started

Build and run your first water network model in metric units: a source, three junctions and three pipes, in about five minutes.

PipePilot is a water distribution modelling workspace that runs in your browser. It solves networks with the EPANET 2.3 engine, the same solver used by most hydraulic modelling software, and reads and writes standard EPANET .inp files. Nothing needs to be installed.

When you open PipePilot for the first time it loads Net1, EPANET's own first example, and offers a short guided tour. Net1 is in US units (GPM, feet, psi). Indian projects are normally modelled in metric units, so start your own work from a metric project as described below.

Start a metric project

There are two ways to get a project set up in litres per second (LPS), metres and millimetres:

  • From the Start gallery. Choose File > Start / Sample Networks... and click New blank metric project. This gives LPS flow units, the Hazen-Williams headloss formula, a 24 hour run at hourly steps, a flat demand pattern, and new pipes of 100 m, 150 mm, C 140.
  • From the guided tour. Choose Help > First-Model Tour and press Start a blank network. The tour sets LPS flow units and new pipes of 100 m, 150 mm, C 145, then walks you through each step and moves on by itself when you complete it.
File > New creates an empty project with EPANET's own defaults: GPM flow units and new pipes of 1000 ft, 12 in. If you use it, open Project > Analysis Options... and set Flow Units to LPS before you draw anything, then set metric sizes in Project > Defaults.... See Building a network for why this matters.

Build the network

The map toolbar is the row of buttons to the right of Run. Hover over any button to see its name.

  1. Add a source. Click Add Reservoir, then click once on the map. In the Property Editor on the right, type 30 in Total Head and press Enter. That is the water level, in metres, that pushes water into the pipes.
  2. Add three junctions. Click Add Junction and click the map three times, a little away from the reservoir. Junctions are the points where pipes meet and where consumers draw water.
  3. Connect them with pipes. Click Add Pipe, click the reservoir, then click a junction. Repeat until all three junctions are connected. Press Esc or right-click to cancel a pipe you have started.
  4. Give a junction some demand. Click Select Object, click a junction, and type 2 in Base Demand. In an LPS project that is 2 litres per second, roughly 1,300 people at 135 lpcd.
  5. Enter ground levels. While a junction is selected, type its ground level in Elevation, in metres. Junctions start at elevation 0, and a model with no real elevations gives pressures that mean nothing.

Run it

Click Run on the toolbar or press F5. EPANET balances the network so that the flow in equals the flow out at every junction. A Run Status box reports the result:

  • Run was successful. Press OK and read the results.
  • Run was successful, with warning messages. The results exist but need checking. Press Status Report to read the warnings, or see Fixing problems.
  • Run was unsuccessful. EPANET could not solve the network. The Status Report opens with the reason.

Read the results

  • After the first run on a blank map, PipePilot colours junctions by pressure and pipes by flow. The legend boxes on the map show what each colour means.
  • Click a junction with Select Object to read its Pressure in the Property Editor. Results appear in the grey rows at the bottom of the table.
  • With Select Object active, hover over a junction or pipe to see its key values without clicking.
  • CPHEEO 2024 asks for 17 to 21 m of residual pressure at the ferrule in Class I and II cities. To check every junction at once, use Report > CPHEEO Compliance..., described in CPHEEO compliance.

Now try a larger pipe diameter or a lower reservoir head, run again, and watch the pressures change. The status bar at the bottom shows Results out of date as soon as you edit anything after a run.

Save your work

File > Save (Ctrl+S) downloads the network as an .inp file to your computer. File > Open... (Ctrl+O) opens an .inp file, from PipePilot or from EPANET or any program that writes the EPANET format. Save often: the file you download is your copy of the model.

Where next

Next: The workspace