What you'll do

Create saved flow-balance and travel-time maps for completed runs; compare upstream and downstream pathways; and use a dedicated window for comparing every rain gage's record, per-cell time series picked straight off the 2D mesh, and the sortable statistics dashboard.

The Analysis ribbon tab with the Report; Plots and Network Analysis groups

Where to find it

Tool	Menu	Ribbon	Needs
Flow Balance Downstream / Upstream	Analysis	Analysis → Network Analysis	A completed 1D output; choose the seed node on the map or by ID
Travel Time Downstream / Upstream	Analysis	Analysis → Network Analysis	A completed 1D output; choose the seed node on the map or by ID
Rainfall Visualization…	Analysis	—	Rain gages in the model
Pick 2D Cells	—	The Mesh 2D toolbar	A 2D results layer
Mesh Select Vertices / Select Edges	Model → Mesh	Mesh 2D	A mesh
Summarize Results	Analysis	Analysis → Report	An active 1D results layer

Rainfall Visualization is also reachable from the Object Browser's Rain Gages context menu and from a rain gage property editor's Plot Rainfall… button.

Step-by-step

Flow balance and travel time

Select an output in Layers, then click Analysis → Flow Balance Upstream/Downstream or Travel Time Upstream/Downstream. The tools use the selected output, falling back to the active output. The output's context menu offers the same actions.

If nodes are selected, the tool creates their analysis layers immediately. Otherwise, click a node on the map or enter its ID in the small picker. Comma-separated IDs create separate estimates. A link's context menu lets you choose its seed endpoint.
The first request automatically computes duration-weighted hydraulic averages and saves a GeoPackage beside the model under analysis/<run-id>/. A progress dialog supports cancellation. There is no separate preparation step.
Later requests reuse the saved averages. Repeating the same node and direction reopens the saved estimate; requesting another node solves from the averages without rescanning the output.
Flow balance and Travel time appear as static sublayers beneath their output in Layers. Each has its own visibility, opacity and style. Hiding/removing the output hides/removes its analyses from the map. Double-click an analysis sublayer, or use Style…, to change link color, link width, node color and node area independently. Result details… shows values, coverage, partial balance quantities and CSV export.

Link widths use a common zero-based proportional scale. At a balanced split, an incoming flow of 10 divides into widths representing 6 and 4; at a confluence those widths add. Constant-flow reaches keep their width. There is no arbitrary narrowing toward a link's endpoint. Arrows indicate physical flow direction in both upstream and downstream analyses. Flow fractions or flow magnitudes give additive widths; widths themed by time or another quantity do not imply hydraulic conservation. Travel time initially uses time for color and flow fraction for width.

The analysis Style… dialog has Links, Nodes, and Labels tabs:

Color uses the same classification editor as other visual layers: choose the quantity, continuous or classified colors, ramp and inversion, automatic or custom range, classification method and class count. Class breaks, colors and legend labels can be edited in the table.
Size has its own quantity, value range and pixel limits. Link widths default to the proportional scale described above. Select Custom size scale to choose minimum/maximum widths and linear, square-root or logarithmic scaling. Custom scales no longer guarantee additive widths. A fixed maximum in proportional mode sets the flow-to-width reference without clipping larger flows. Node marker area follows the chosen scale; pixel limits specify diameter. Uniform uses the maximum size.
Labels can be enabled independently for links and nodes. Choose flow magnitude, fraction, expected travel time, local delay, coverage, or object ID. Add the ID to numeric labels, show fractions as percentages or ratios, set decimal places, and choose font, text size/color and halo. Values are in m³/s or minutes. Partial expected times include coverage; unavailable values are never labeled as zero. Fractions above 100% remain possible in circulating networks.

Edits preview on the map. OK retains the theme; Cancel restores the previous style. Flow Balance and Travel Time keep separate themes without recomputing their shared analysis.

Every rerun receives a new identity. Existing analysis sublayers remain attached to the original run, shown under a saved-output parent when needed. The next run prepares its own averages. Previous raw results and reports are retained when a run already has saved analysis, unless retention was disabled in the saved project. Projects preserve their analysis layers and styles, and reopen them even when the original output is unavailable. Save As carries managed analysis folders; explicitly external packages remain referenced.

These estimates use duration-weighted trapezoidal averages from the first through last saved report and do not follow animation time. Effective transport follows mean net flow; gross magnitude and reversal diagnostics are stored separately. Passage ratios may exceed one in circulating networks. Travel time uses conduit length divided by mean absolute velocity and storage volume divided by outgoing flow plus known sinks. Non-conduit controls have zero modeled delay. Missing or partially known times remain flagged with coverage. The sampled hydraulic balance is partial, not the simulation's exact continuity report. Imported outputs retain their model-pairing provenance. A one-report output is a snapshot without a duration-based balance.

FIGURE PLACEHOLDERdocs/manual/images/25_flow_balance_result.png

Flow-balance analysis beneath a completed output with proportional flow widths on the map

FIGURE PLACEHOLDERdocs/manual/images/25_travel_time_result.png

Travel-time analysis with time represented by color and flow fraction by width

Rainfall Visualization

Analysis → Rainfall Visualization… opens a single modeless window comparing every rain gage in the project — inline [TIMESERIES] gages, standard SWMM rain files, and multi-column CSV/TSF files alike. Values are resolved through the engine, so what you see is exactly what a run would use.

Region	Contents
Toolbar	Select, Pan, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Fit, Refresh, and the Basis selector
Overlay tab	Every visible gage on one chart with a legend
Per Gage tab	One stacked chart per gage on a synchronised time axis, sharing the available height
Summary table	One row per gage, with the per-gage visibility checkboxes

The Basis selector converts each gage's record so the gages can be compared on equal terms:

Basis	Units
Intensity	mm/hr or in/hr
Depth per interval	mm or in
Cumulative depth	mm or in — with this basis the Overlay tab is the cumulative-curve comparison

The full rainfall file is loaded and plotted even when its dates fall outside the model's simulation period. Simulation dates do not trim or shift the source records; a run applies rainfall at its recorded times.

INTENSITY values are rates, VOLUME values are depths over the recording interval, and CUMULATIVE values are running depth readings. A decrease in a cumulative reading starts a new accumulation. The plots use the engine's converted intensities: cumulative depth rises during each wet interval and stays flat through dry gaps. For example, 0.25 in over 15 minutes is 1 in/hr.

The summary table columns are Gage, Source, Total depth, Peak intensity, Peak time, Interval, First, Last, Gaps, Longest gap, Points and Status. Source names where the data came from — TIMESERIES "name", FILE (rain file, station …) or FILE (CSV/TSF, column …). Status reads OK, no rainfall records, or file failed to load (0 entries), so a gage whose rain file is missing or misconfigured shows up here rather than silently plotting nothing.

Only the focused gage — or the first one — is plotted when the window opens; tick the others in the table to add them. Opening the window from a specific gage's context menu or property editor focuses that gage.

The Rainfall Visualization window on the Overlay tab with the gage summary table

2D cell, edge and vertex time series

Everything the 2D mesh records can be plotted per element, straight from the map. All three routes feed the comparison plot (22 — Time-Series and Comparison Plots).

Picking cells

The Mesh 2D toolbar's cell-picking tool is checkable — turning it on activates the picker, turning it off returns to the select tool. It works on the active 2D results layer.

Interaction	Effect
Click a cell	Selects it; `Shift` adds, `Ctrl`/`⌘` toggles
Drag	Box selection (the default mode)
Press `L`	Switch to lasso mode; press `B` to go back to box mode
`Esc`	Clears the selection
Right-click	Pops the attribute menu for the selection — or for the cell under the cursor when nothing is selected

Selected cells are outlined on the canvas at a constant pixel width, so they stay visible at any zoom.

The attribute menu

The same menu style the 1D select tool uses:

Kind	Attributes
Cell	Depth, HGL, \|V\|, Vx, Vy, Rainfall (intensity), Rainfall volume (cumulative), plus All attributes
Edge	Edge flow (volumetric), Edge flux (unit-width), plus All attributes
Vertex	Depth, HGL (both interpolated from the incident cells), plus All attributes

Entries this run cannot serve are greyed out with the tooltip Not present in this run's 2D results — re-run with the current engine: velocity needs edge-flux data, and the rainfall entries need the per-cell rainfall datasets. Depth and HGL are always available.

Edges are picked with the mesh Select Edges tool and vertices with Select Vertices; right-clicking either pops the same picker (a vertex's menu also shows its elevation as a disabled header line).

A selection of N cells × M attributes produces N × M series across M chart rows. More than 500 series raises a confirmation first.

FIGURE PLACEHOLDERdocs/manual/images/25_pick_2d_cells_menu.png

A lasso selection of mesh cells with the attribute context menu open

Multi-run and live behaviour

Multi-run. Open a second run and pick the same cells; the comparison plot's 1v1 column pairs them and reports NSE / R² / RMSE / PBIAS. Triangle indices are mesh-specific, so this only pairs correctly when both runs share a mesh — a regenerated or refined triangulation renumbers cells. For mesh-independent comparison, compare the 1D coupling nodes instead.
Live. While a simulation is running, cell picks attach to the live tick stream: new series start empty and grow as the engine reports depth, flux and rainfall, so the rainfall entries are enabled during the run and not only after the HDF5 file is swapped in. The animation cursor sweeps every chart row in step with the map.
1D node Depth and 2D cell Depth are deliberately different quantities and never share a chart row.

Statistics dashboard

Analysis → Summarize Results opens the statistics dashboard over the active 1D results layer: sortable Nodes, Links and Subcatchments tables, a query bar, two-way selection sync with the map, Zoom to Selected, and CSV export. It is covered in full in 24 — Tabular Results and Reports.

FIGURE PLACEHOLDERdocs/manual/images/25_statistics_dashboard_histogram.png

The Statistics Dashboard with result tables and query controls

Tips and gotchas

Saved analyses use the run's report interval, not the animation cursor. They summarize sampled hydraulics and do not replace the engine's continuity report (20 — Running a Simulation).
Choose the run before the seed. Saved analyses remain attached to their original run after a rerun. Confirm the parent output in Layers.
Read coverage and reversal diagnostics. Partial or unavailable travel times must not be interpreted as zero. Circulating networks can have passage ratios greater than one.
There is only one Rainfall Visualization window. Opening it again from a different entry point raises the same window and re-focuses it on the gage you picked.
A gage with file failed to load will contribute no rainfall to a run. Check the Source column for the path or station the model asked for.
Greyed-out mesh attributes mean an older results file, not a broken model. Re-run with the current engine to get velocity or rainfall datasets.
Cell indices are mesh identities. Regenerating a mesh invalidates any saved reference to "cell 4 271".
Two related model-side summaries are not analysis tools but are easy to confuse with them: the node property browser and attribute table show which subcatchments discharge groundwater to a node (see 13 — Hydrology: Rain Gages, Subcatchments, LID, Snow, Groundwater and RDII), and the virtual-junction delete and re-fuse prompts summarise the lateral sources that would be dropped (see 14 — Hydraulics: Nodes, Links, Cross-Sections, Streets, Inlets and Controls).

09 — Selection and Search — Select Upstream / Downstream; which is how you see the subnetwork these tools measure
22 — Time-Series and Comparison Plots — the comparison plot every mesh pick feeds
24 — Tabular Results and Reports — the statistics dashboard and the attribute table's result columns
21 — Results Layers, Result Styling and Animation — choosing the active 1D and 2D results layers
20 — Running a Simulation — the report's continuity ledgers; and live results during a run
19 — 2D Overland Flow: Meshes, Cell Parameters, Boundary Conditions and 1D–2D Coupling — the mesh; its selection tools and cell attributes
13 — Hydrology: Rain Gages, Subcatchments, LID, Snow, Groundwater and RDII — rain gages and the time series the rainfall window reads