Main Window

The main window is a modeless WPF dialog shown inside Civil 3D via AcApp.ShowModelessWindow(). It remains open and accessible while you continue working in the Civil 3D drawing environment. Below the toolbar, the window is organized into three tabs — Storm Drain, Culvert, and Inlet — each with its own profile canvas, results grid, and inline property panel. The Inlet tab is disabled until the inlet design module is enabled for the project (see Inlet Analysis).

Toolbar

The toolbar spans the top of the window and provides access to all major commands, organized into logical button groups from left to right.

Load / Save

• Load (Ctrl+O) — Opens an existing .hsp project file. The file contains pipe geometry, hydrology data, loss library assignments, and all project settings.
• Save (Ctrl+Shift+S) — Prompts for a file path and saves the project there (acts as "Save As" every time it's clicked from the toolbar).
• Quick Save (Ctrl+S, keyboard only — no toolbar button) — Saves to the project's current file path without prompting. Only available once the project has been saved at least once.

Settings

Opens the Project Settings dialog, where you configure hydrology mode, storm events, design constraints, Manning's n defaults, and output options. The active design standard (junction loss library) is selected separately from the Structures dialog.

Network Issues

Detects pipes that may be assigned to the wrong reference alignment in Civil 3D and lets you re-assign them in one click. The button label shows a count and switches to an amber warning style when issues are found.

Tables Menu

A dropdown menu providing access to the bulk data-entry tables and the alignment classification editor:

• Pipe... — Bulk-edit Manning's n across pipes.
• Hydrology... — Edit peak flows or rational-method basin parameters per node.
• Structures... — Assign loss types, Kj overrides, and structure/deflection parameters; choose the active design standard.
• Alignment Types... — Classify each alignment as Storm Drain, Culvert, or None. See Alignment Design Types.

Output Menu

A dropdown menu for pushing results out of HydraStorm:

• Create HGL Profiles — Creates or replaces Civil 3D layout profiles for the calculated HGL on each alignment.
• Apply Label Styles — Applies the configured pipe and structure label styles to pipes and structures in profile views.
• Export to CSV (Ctrl+E) — Exports the current results grid to a CSV file. See Export.
• Export to Excel... — Opens the column-layout dialog, then writes the full Storm Calcs workbook. See Export.

View Menu

The View button opens a dropdown covering profile overlays, zoom, and results grid layout:

• Show HGL — Show/hide the Hydraulic Grade Line overlay.
• Show EGL — Show/hide the Energy Grade Line overlay.
• Show Crossings — Show/hide crossing pipe indicators (Storm Drain tab only).
• Show Ground — Show/hide the ground surface profile.
• Fit to Extent (Ctrl+F) — Auto-zoom the profile canvas to fit all content, or, on a storm drain run longer than the configured long-run window limit, to the current windowed view. See Long Runs & the Profile Window.
• Fit to Selection (Ctrl+Shift+F) — Zoom the profile to the selected pipe(s) plus half of each adjacent pipe. Double-clicking a pipe in the profile does the same in one action — selects it and fits the profile to it. See Profile View for details.
• Design Columns Only — Hides the intermediate hydraulic detail columns in the results table, leaving the editable inputs plus the key results. Remembered per-user across sessions. See Results Table for the exact column list.
• View Settings... — Opens the profile display preferences dialog: canvas theme (Drafting Sheet or Dark), the long-run profile window limit, per-storm HGL/EGL/Ground color and line style, water-surface fill, and the legend overlay. See Profile View.

The Culvert and Inlet tabs each have their own compact View ▾ button docked above their profile canvas, with the same Show HGL / Show EGL / Show Ground toggles scoped to that tab.

Help Menu

• Online Help... — Opens the HydraStorm help site in your browser.
• Keyboard Shortcuts (F1) — Lists all keyboard shortcuts.
• Run Diagnostic (HSDIAG)... — Generates a diagnostic bundle of the active project and network for support. See Troubleshooting.
• Feedback..., Account..., About — Send feedback, manage your license, and view version information.

Undo / Redo

• Undo (↶ button, Ctrl+Z) — Reverts the last edit to the working session.
• Redo (↷ button, Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z) — Re-applies the last undone edit.

Network and Storm Selectors

A Network dropdown selects which Civil 3D pipe network to work with. Next to it, a Storm dropdown selects which configured storm event's results are displayed in the results grid.

Actions

Pinned actions appear in the property panel on the right of the profile canvas rather than the top toolbar:

• Auto (Auto Design) — Runs the pipe sizing engine to automatically select pipe sizes meeting design criteria, scoped to the alignment shown in the profile.
• Apply (Apply to C3D) — Commits all pending edits (pipe inverts, sizes, materials) back to the Civil 3D drawing. This writes changes through the IPipeNetworkWriter interface inside a C3D transaction.
• Discard — Reverts the working session to the last-applied snapshot, discarding all unapplied edits.

The Calculate action has no dedicated toolbar button — press F5, or simply edit a property, since calculations also run automatically on a 300ms debounce.

Profile Canvas

The large area to the left of the property panel on each tab is the profile view — a custom-drawn canvas that renders pipes, structures, HGL/EGL overlays, ground surface, and (Storm Drain tab only) crossing pipes in profile. Click a pipe to select it, use arrow keys to navigate, and watch the display update in real time as you edit properties. See the Profile View page for full details.

The profile pane is resizable — drag the splitter between the profile canvas and the results grid to give either one more room. The height you set is saved per-user and shared between the Storm Drain and Culvert tabs, so you only have to adjust it once.

Results Grid

The bottom portion of each tab contains a results grid — a DataGrid showing hydraulic calculation output for every pipe segment (or, on the Inlet tab, every inlet): flow, velocity, HGL elevations, junction losses, and more. Rows are color-coded to flag warnings and errors. See the Results Table page for the Storm Drain grid's full column reference.

Property Panel

On the Storm Drain and Culvert tabs, the property panel is docked inline to the right of the profile canvas and shows fields for the currently selected pipe: navigation, slope settings, shape/part family, and junction loss assignment, plus the pinned Auto/Apply/Discard actions. On the Inlet tab, a separate right-side panel shows the selected inlet's type, gutter section, and bypass settings. See Property Panel for full details. Fields not exposed in the property panel — including pipe size, invert elevations, and Manning's n — are edited directly in the results grid.

Status Bar

The status bar at the very bottom of the window shows the current status message (e.g. save confirmations, calculation timing, or an edit-rejection reason). Directly above it, a collapsible calculation message strip appears whenever the last run produced warnings or errors — it shows a one-line severity summary (colored by the most severe message present) and expands, on click, into the full list of messages with icons for info/warning/error.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Load Project
Ctrl+S	Quick Save (current file path; keyboard only)
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save (prompts for file path)
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
F5	Calculate
Ctrl+E	Export to CSV
Ctrl+F	Fit profile to extents
Ctrl+Shift+F	Fit profile to the selected pipe(s)
Double-click (profile pipe)	Select a pipe and fit the profile to it
Left / Right Arrow	Select previous / next pipe in the network
Ctrl+M	Match Slope across the selected pipes
Ctrl+Shift+L	Set Slope on the selected pipe(s)
Ctrl+Shift+R	Raise/Lower the selected pipe(s)
F1	Keyboard Shortcuts reference