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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the features of Splash? Is Splash an MDL (MicroStation Development Language) application? What kind of support do you provide? Is Splash serious design software? What kind of storm drainage calculations does Splash do? Is all my design data locked-up inside some proprietary system? How do I get it out? What is a Relationship Manager? What happens if I restore a drawing file from backup tape? My drawing is older than the Splash file. Why does a sewer design program have D.O.T. highway spiral capability? What kind of Surveying software comes with Splash? Can Splash do a least squares adjustment? Can Splash take-off materials? What happens to take-off when the manholes are offset left or right from the alignment? Can Splash do "Plan & Profile" sheets? Who is Digital Software, Inc.?
What are the features of Splash? Some features of Splash with Ripple-Thru
Is Splash an MDL (MicroStation Development Language) application? Yes. Digital Software, Inc. is an official Bentley Enterprise Developer and Splash is a MicroStation Development Language (MDL) application. Splash strictly adheres to every standard prescribed by Bentley. Splash conforms to the MicroStation guidelines for an MDL application. This insures a seamless integration with MicroStation/95/SE and MicroStation/J.
Splash replaces the traditional "How to" manual with the Visual Help system. Visual Help is a collection of context sensitive movie files with sound. The Splash Visual Help system actually demonstrates the use of every tool, toolbox, tool palette and menu. Visual Help also provides information on KEY-IN's and function key setup. The Visual Help menu has an option "How to use Visual Help". Select this help option first. Visual Help provides a combined DEMO/RECIPE, which demonstrates an entire job from creating an empty design to the production of plan and profile drawings. The DEMO/RECIPE is organized into logical steps. The DEMO/RECIPE is the best beginning point to learn how the system works. We recommend you watch the entire demo, then watch a single step and note the tools used. Then select one of those tools and watch a tool palette overview to familiarize yourself with the capabilities of that tool palette. Select any command within the tool palette and watch visual help for the current command.
What kind of support do you provide? Support for Splash with Ripple-Thru is provided via e-mail and telephone. For software support e-mail the problem to: or, call:919-933-1990 Please include
Please remember that a description such as "The program crashed" is meaningless information. Computers do not "CRASH". A more useful description might be, "The MicroStation screen just froze but the mouse still moved around", or, "Splash reported the following error message and then terminated."
Is Splash with Ripple-Thru serious design software? Yes. Splash is a serious production tool. Splash is used daily by Consulting Engineering companies and municipal engineering departments as a relied upon production tool. Splash is accurate. Splash has always been a 32-bit application. The survey points carry a minimum of 9 decimal place accuracy even when using state plane coordinates. The Engineering design elements are accurate to a 10,000th of a foot regardless of the MicroStation working settings. This design software is "Survey Accurate". The designs can be exported to data collectors and staked. The Bearings and Distances produced are acceptable for recordable plats. Splash is a comprehensive package. Click here for a list of features
What kind of storm drainage calculations does Splash do? Splash is NOT a storm water modeling program. Splash is a program designed to assist you with the layout and drafting of profile, pipes, manholes, catch-basins, plan and profile sheets and property. Splash does perform some computations. Splash computes the velocity, capacity,hydraulic radius, wetted perimeter and area on each selected pipe using Manning's equation. The computation is based upon slope, diameter, material type (roughness) and percent full. These calculations are most useful for sanitary sewer design. Splash does not compute surcharge on a storm water sewer nor hydraulic grade lines on a surcharged system. Inexpensive programs exist which perform these calculations well. We are currently investigating an interface of Splash with one or more of these storm water modeling programs. The following is a typical manhole report produced by Splash. This information is displayed whenever a manhole is selected. ------------------------------------------------ MH#= 4,STA= 6+56.59,OFF= 0.00 MANHOLE [DEFLECTION R ]= 0-00-00 [DIAMETER ]=4.00 [BACK INVERT ]=831.57 [FOR INVERT ]=831.67 [PIPE SIZE ]=8 [MATERIAL ]=PVC [I PIPE GRADE ]=1.903 [O PIPE GRADE ]=1.845 [I PIPE LENGTH]=233.23 [O PIPE LENGTH]=233.23 [EXTENSION ]=0.00 [RIM ELEVATION]=837.57 [DEPTH ]=6.00 [% FULL FLOW ]=50 [HYDRAULIC AREA]=0.17 [WETTED PERIM.]=1.05 [HYDRAULIC RAD.]=0.17 [VELOCITY fs ]=6.11 [CAPACITY cfs ]=1.07 ------------------------------------------------ Of course, Splash must perform many calculations to produce the plans. Splash computes all the geometry of the designs both horizontally and vertically such as P.I.s (points of intersection), curve information, stations, tangents, true D.O.T. highway spirals, profile extraction, inverts, slopes, drops, depths and diameters of manholes based upon pipe sizes and depth of manhole. Splash also produces a cut depth and materials take-off report. Following is an example of the take-off summary:
Printed below is an example summary only report.
PIPE SUMMARY... Splash automatically computes Utility Conflicts as dynamic engineering elements. A Utility conflict is where an alignment crosses a utility such as a pipe or box culvert.
Not yet. We plan to release an AutoCad version in the future.
Is all my design data locked-up inside some proprietary system? How do I get it out? No. The relationships are in the Splash Relationship Manager and all of the design is reflected in the drawings as CAD drawing elements. When the engineer makes a design change, RIPPLE-THRU edits the drawings by replacing those artwork elements with the correct elements, which represent the design change, leaving the rest of the drawing undisturbed. If the engineer disconnects the Relationship Manager, everything in the drawing is standard MicroStation drawing elements. The drawing may be delivered to another MicroStation user, or converted to an AutoCad drawing, without the Splash files and without SPLASH software. However, once the Relationship Manager is disconnected, the drawing will no longer be automatically updated. If the drawing is re-connected to the SPLASH Relationship Manager, SPLASH automatically brings that drawing up-to-date reflecting the current status of the design. SPLASH stores the dynamic elements in the drawing with a SPLASH signature. While SPLASH is attached to a drawing, SPLASH will allow MicroStation commands to snap to SPLASH elements, but it will not allow MicroStation commands to modify SPLASH elements. The engineer must use SPLASH engineering commands to modify the design. RIPPLE-THRU will modify the drawing elements. The engineer is assured that all drawings attached to the SPLASH Relationship Manager accurately reflect the engineering information at all times. If the engineer detaches a drawing from the SPLASH Relationship Manager, MicroStation is allowed to modify those drawing elements that were created by SPLASH.
What is a Relationship Manager? The Relationship Manager is a file and the software that maintains that file. All the Splash design information for a project is stored in the file. You don't need to worry about the software. All you need to know is the name of the file for your project. When you start a new project, you will use the Splash menu File->New to create a new file. When you wish to attach a MicroStation design file to an existing Splash design, such as create a new Plan&Profile sheet, you will use the Splash menu File->Open and simply click the name of the file. Once this is done the drawing is attached to the Relationship Manager. As long as you don't disconnect the drawing from the Relationship Manager, you don't need to remember the name of the file. The Splash software sometimes refers to this file as a database. This is not a traditional database, such as Oracle. As far as you are concerned, this is simply a file. However, for those interested, the Splash file is a sophisticated binary Geometrically Relational file. The Splash file maintains the geometric relationships of various objects in the design as well as the properties of those objects. The Ripple-Thru engine uses the relationships to determine which objects are impacted by a design change. Ripple-Thru will only re-compute those objects that might be impacted by a design edit. The Geometrically Relational file is able to detect conditions such as "Two objects are too close to each other".
What happens if I restore a drawing file from backup tape? My drawing is older than the Splash file? As soon as you open the MicroStation design file (drawing), Splash will update all the engineering elements in the drawing to match the current state of the Splash File. The drawing will automatically be upgraded to the latest design status.
In this situation your drawings may have newer information than does the Splash file. However, you have called up an older Splash file from backup. We must assume something is wrong with the newer Splash file and the drawings cannot be trusted. Splash will update all the engineering elements in the drawings to match the current state of the Splash file. The drawings will automatically be downgraded to the current design status.
Ripple-Thru is very different from a simple reference file. When a design edit is attempted, such as moving a P.I. in the alignment, this begins an internal event in the Ripple-Thru Relationship Manager. This is known as a "Splash Event". The Splash Event is processed by Ripple-Thru. Ripple-Thru processes the Splash Event in two major phases:
The most obvious difference between Ripple-Thru and a reference file is in what happens in step 1) above.
Ripple-Thru also differs with a reference file at step 2) above. A purely reference file approach requires little copies of all the drawings to live in one MicroStation master drawing. This approach is not production oriented and creates a monster drawing that is difficult to deal with. Ripple-Thru is production oriented. The production method is to have one MicroStation design file represent one piece of plotted paper in the plans. Ripple-Thru updates those MicroStation design files. Splash with Ripple-Thru allows an unlimited number of MicroStation design files to be attached to one seamless engineering design.
Why does a sewer design program have D.O.T. highway spiral capability? You might find this useful if you need to layout a D.O.T. spiral even if you are not designing a storm drain or sanitary sewer. If you are designing a sewer along a highway spiral, Splash will be happy to offset the spiral and locate catch-basins left or right of the alignment. Splash will show the profile panel stationing system through the spiral arcs along the alignment and will represent the pipes appropriately on the profile panel. The catch-basins will be imposed onto the profile panel at the road centerline station (as they should be) and labeled with the correct centerline station and left/right offset from the alignment. The profile shown will be that under the alignment. If a cut depth and materials take-off report is run, Splash will cut a cross section from manhole center to manhole center. This cross section is used for take-off depth computations rather than the road centerline profile, which is shown on the profile.
What kind of Surveying software comes with Splash? Can Splash do a least squares adjustment? Splash is a design tool, not a surveying program. Splash has many features to deal with survey points as will be described below. However, Splash does not balance horizontal surveys nor do a least squares adjustment. Digital Software, Inc. used to provide and maintain a full suite of survey reduction programs. However, in today's world, every total station, data collector or GPS comes with its own PC based surveying software. These programs are generally free and are best suited for editing mistakes in raw data collector data files. Splash does provide three fieldbook reduction programs on the Field menu as follows:
Splash can set survey points when the fieldbooks are reduced. Splash can also use the reduced levels to either override TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) generated profile or to eliminate the need for triangles at all. Often the field crew will locate an outfall in the field with either levels or a total station. Splash does not force the user to create a TIN surface. A TIN surface is only one of three options for generating profile. Some software products force the user to either perform unnecessary fieldwork or to makeup data in the office so a TIN can be produced. The three methods for generating profile are as follows:
A more typical modern way of operating Splash is to prepare the survey points outside the Splash program and then import the points into Splash. After the design is complete, the design may be coordinated and those new survey points may be exported for construction staking. Splash will import and export survey point ASCII text files in a variety of formats. Several formats are provided with the Splash installation. The import and export formats are user definable and easy to setup. Once the survey points have been imported, Splash has many features to manipulate the points based upon 4-character survey codes and search patterns in the 20-character survey point descriptions such as: Limit the Display of points List points Place Cells on points Connect points with lines Delete points Create a TIN surface from the points
Can Splash take-off materials? Yes. Splash can produce a cut depth and materials takeoff report on the sewer designs. Splash can report summaries only or report a detailed cut report showing where cut depths change from one cut to the next. Splash produces a Pipe Summary and a MH/CB summary. Splash can detect drops, which need to be purchased and report the drops. All Splash reports can be saved to a text file for printing, incorporation into a document or importing into a spreadsheet. The following is a very short example summary report with only one type of pipe: PIPE SUMMARY... ---------------------------------------------- 2.50 OF 8 in PVC 1 TO 2 17.31 OF 8 in PVC 2 TO 3 34.69 OF 8 in PVC 3 TO 4 331.40 OF 8 in PVC 4 TO 5 1145.16 OF 8 in PVC 5 TO 6 533.43 OF 8 in PVC 6 TO 7 53.18 OF 8 in PVC 7 TO 8 ________ 2117.66 OF 8 in PVC TOTAL ___________________________________ MH/CB SUMMARY... ----------------------------------------------- 9 EA. 4.00 F DIA 5 TO 6 CUT __ 9 4.00 F DIA NEW MHs
What happens to take-off when the manholes are offset left or right from the alignment? If you are designing a sewer along a road, Splash will be happy to offset the centerline alignment and locate catch-basins or manholes left or right of the alignment. Splash will show the profile panel stationing system along the road centerline and will represent the pipes appropriately on the profile panel. The catch-basins will be imposed onto the profile panel at the road centerline station (as they should be) and labeled with the correct centerline station and left/right offset from the alignment. The profile shown will be that under the alignment. If a cut depth and materials take-off report is run, Splash will cut a cross section from manhole center to manhole center from the triangulated surface. This cross section is used for take-off depth computations rather than the road centerline profile that is shown on the profile.
Can Splash do "Plan & Profile" sheets? Yes. Splash plan and profile sheets are dynamic drawings that are automatically maintained by the Relationship Manager. Splash has a powerful dynamic sheet layout tool that allows you to quickly and easily layout a dynamic plan and profile sheet. In Splash, each plan and profile sheet is a separate MicroStation design file dynamically attached to the Splash with Ripple-Thru Relationship Manager. The design may be directly changed from any plan and profile sheet. Any change to the design automatically updates all plan and profile sheets. A plan and profile sheet may have one plan panel and up to ten profile panels. A project may have an unlimited number of plan and profile sheets.
Splash protects the Relationship Manager from system crashes with a Recovery Checkpoint System. The Recovery Checkpoint System operates on a 5-minute timer. Every 5-minutes, Splash checkpoints the Relationship Manager. More precisely, Splash checkpoints the Relationship Manager when it is in a stable state and at least 5-minutes have elapsed since the last checkpoint. If the power fails or the system crashes, then the next time any MicroStation design file (which is attached to the crashed Relationship Manager) is opened, Splash will detect the crashed condition and automatically recover the Relationship Manager to the most recent 5-minute checkpoint. As always, the drawings attached the Relationship Manager will be updated to reflect the current state of the design. Splash cannot control corruption in a MicroStation design file. Splash does automatically delete all the Splash information (elements) from the MicroStation design file and replaces that information with brand new elements. Splash does not modify MicroStation elements that were not created by Splash.
Who is Digital Software, Inc.? Digital Software, Inc. markets, and supports Splash with Ripple-Thru. Digital Software, Inc. has been marketing Civil Engineering design and drafting software for over 17 years. Digital Software customers include municipalities and consulting engineering firms who perform engineering and design of roads, water and sewer pipelines, storm drain systems and site work.
Splash can run on top of GEOPAK, InterGraph and Eagle Point. Splash is a productivity tool. If you have a sewer to design, Splash is the best tool to use. You will possibly make your money back in one job and have a nice productivity tool at your disposal. You do not have to choose between your other package and Splash. Splash adds tremendous value to your GEOPAK, InterGraph and Eagle Point.
DIMENSION-II was a CADD product for Civil Engineers produced and marketed by Digital Software. DIMENSION-II was the 1980s forerunner of Splash With Ripple-Thru product. Splash with Ripple-Thru (developed by Norman E. Smith) was integrated into the DIMENSION-II drafting product by Digital Software, Inc. in the 1990s and delivered to Digital Software's customer base as an upgrade. DIMENSION-II drafting is no longer marketed. Norman E. Smith is the president of Digital Software, Inc. Now Splash with Ripple-Thru is integrated into MicroStation drafting.
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Digital Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
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