Otherwise, firstly you will need to set your project to a hydrology method that utilizes IFD’s. (‘Merica calls them IDF). Go to Input -> Project Options
Change the Hydrology Method to Rational
Now you need some curve data. Google Search, “Australian IFD data” or go to this link for the bom website. You will need to type in the coordinates of your site. Then you can copy or download the data as a CSV.
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“IDF” curves in SSA are formatted with the AEP or “Year Return Values” as the rows and min. duration as the columns so you will need to transpose your data in excel. Quite easy, select it all and then rightclick -> paste special -> transpose
You will then need to import this into SSA. I have saved you some time here, you can download the default format here. (this arranges the AEP/duration columns correctly.
Go to Input -> IDF curves
You will want to load my “Australian IFD Format.idfdb” file (see download link here) so that is structures the AEP/duration correctly.
Now just copy/paste the duration data from excel into the little panel down the bottom.
You should now be able to see your curves you can use for analysis
We are often required to take the analysis of stability/seepage outside the Autocad environment to horrible 3rd party applications like SlopeW. To do so can be rather cumbersome, as these products usually require intensely simplified DXF sections for import.
So here is my method for bringing in section data for analysis in Slope W/Seep W.
1. I am going to assume you know how to create section views/profile views!
2. I recommend keeping all your analysis sections in a separate DWG to your model. Link it all back with data shortcuts. Then when your design updates and you have to redo your stability analysis you can create the sections easily again.
3. Its important that all your sections get created at coordinates close to 0,0. This makes it easier to import into Slope/Seep.
4. Once you have all the sections you need, make sure you have them displayed with a section/profile view style that only displays the datum, border and the profiles themselves like so:
5. Explode them twice
6. Then rejoin any lines you need together and trim if necessary. (Most of the time you don’t need to do anything)
7. Wblock these exploded lines out to a separate dwg, close your current dwg and open the exploded output. (this removes all the civil 3d layers)
8. Slope W doesn’t like lots of points. So we need to filter these out using WEEDFEATURES.
9. Start by weeding vertices close by to each other, then finish by using Angle. You want to get your vertices below 200 if possible.
10. Slope/Seep prefers closed polygons as these can be converted to regions to assign materials quickly. To do this, my trick is to convert all your polylines into parcels. You can tell if any of your regions aren’t not working. Because there will be no label in the centroid of your boundary.
11. Let’s say you have a few problems! If you select parcel labels in the area, you can see where the problem areas are. This region selected here has multiple boundaries.
12. Some areas might not be joined anymore, particularly if you used ANGLE or LENGTH to WEEDFEATURES. These gaps will need to be fixed manually. (If you have a lot of sections, consider exploding everything and doing a PEDIT, JOIN, fuzz distance of 0.5/1, then reconvert to parcels and check again)
13. Now you can create the regions that will be used to import into Slope/Seep. Just SELECTSIMILAR on all the parcel labels and EXPLODE. You will now have all the regions you need to wblock out to SlopeW.
14. Check their properties to make sure they are all closed before using! UNDO and move parcel vertices until you have it fixed!
15. Once you have all the regions, move them so that the very left most part of the section’s X value is distance starting from 0 and the Y value matches the elevation of the datum like so. Mine is EL 1145
16. Wblock to 2007 DXF format with the name of your section and import into Slope/Seep
17. You should now be able to import into Slope/Seep for analysis
18. Don’t forget to change your Y scale to suit your elevation
