Since our beginnings in the software for hydraulic design production and commercialization, clients and those interested in our products have requested for any computer tool that would help in creating projects’ reports.
In reality, we were always somewhat reluctant to do it, since we think that an engineering design report should have the professional who created the design’s voice.
In other words, each project has its particular characteristics, even if it is from the same discipline, and if we included a standard format for always generating the same text, we would go against what we think.
Even so, we began to moderating this criterion and, we believe we have achieved an intermediate solution between that criterion and what our clients asked.
Thus, from DRAINS version 3.0, we have incorporated a new tool that we have named The project reports designer tool
DRAINS will be, to put it one way, the test balloon that should allow us to achieve, in the time to come, a definitive version of this designer tool that, if it is accepted, will be standard for all our programs.
Therefore, in this video we want to show you the general features of this civil engineering design report tool, that will allow you to generate any type of report, technical sheet and, of course, in the case of DRAINS, the sanitary drainage project’s design report.
DRAINS 3.0’S New Projects’ Summary Report Options
The starting point for creating sanitary and storm drainage design reports and documents will be that you already have your project calculated and designed in the program.
So to show you the project’s summary report tables available from this new major version of DRAINS, we will use the multi-family housing project that you should know well from the tutorials that we have published on our website.
Here we have a series of typical sanitary drainage networks, the sewer systems, both for waste and stormwater, and the necessary stack pipes to achieve the vertical collection of each building’s level fixture units.
Also, as a new feature in this version, you should know that in this project we have additionally defined a sump pit and pumping system for these buildings’ wastewater disposal.
In this way, after we have made the corresponding calculation, and always remember to click the Calculate button to update the results, it is time to start producing the information necessary to document your project.
First, you will find in the File tab, Configuration section, the Project’s Properties button.
When clicked, a dialog appears so as to allow you to enter the project’s relevant information and which will be transferred precisely to the design reports created by the program.
Also, in addition to the common nodes and pipes tables, as well as the bills of materials, you will now find, in the Results tab, Reports panel, the button to present the project’s summary tables.
Here there are a series of tables that allow you to combine the project’s results, and that, undoubtedly, greatly simplify the design’s evaluation.
For example, you have the one that shows the network created in each project, containing fields such as name, description, type, and characteristic diameters.
Also, a specific table for sanitary drainage networks is available with a summary of the particular values of each one.
You also have here the stacks summary table.
Another one that has been frequently requested by our clients is the sanitary fixtures table.
As you see, it contains the complete list of the plumbing fixtures available in the project, with the building’s total fixture units calculation.
And, of course, if this is the case, you will see the summary table with data and results for the waste pumping system design and calculation.
All these tables, as well as project’s networks specific properties, as we will show you in a moment, can be presented in the files created with our project reports creator.
The Project Reports Designer Tool
Well, when you press this button in the Reports panel, you get access to Reports Designer Tool.
The first thing you will see is that it is mainly a word processor with many of the features that programs like Microsoft WORD have.
So, you can insert text, images, and tables.
And, of course, give them format through the respective menus.
But, the peculiarity that you will find in this word processor is the presence of the Report menu up here, which has three options that we will get to know here and in the following video.
Additionally, if we go to the File menu, you will see that you have the option to import a rich text format file.
The idea here is that you can import into the Project Reports Designer files that you have previously converted, from external programs, to this format, to later turn them into project report templates that you will use here.
Down here is the option to export the generated design report, also in rich text format, so that you can open it from other word processors.
Given the possibility of exporting the project’s report, you will be able to perform the advanced editing that you require in your documents, such as page numbering and headers and footers insertion that, at the moment, are not included in our designer tool.
Here, it is essential to note that the Open menu is intended to load the project report templates you have created into the tool. It’s not expected to open another type of file, so keep this in mind.
Project Reports Template Creation with the Designer Tool
But let’s show you a simple application of this tool.
I’m going to open a new, blank template document by pressing this button.
Now, from the Report menu. Click the Insert Field option.
This dialog contains the general and specific properties of the currently open project in the form of data fields.
Here is where the difference is and, we think, the project reports designer tool versatility.
You can use or insert one or more of these fields in the document, in the position that seems best to you and thus have an engineering design’s report template that will be used, repeatedly, in the different projects that you create with our software.
Look at the fields or properties that we have included for DRAINS.
There are the general data fields, that is, those that are common to each project, such as Name, Description, and Location, among others.
The number of sanitary networks.
The rainfall intensity you have used to calculate storm drains.
Later, in this group, you will find the normative tables that the program uses and whose values you have previously updated to those defined by the sanitary regulations of your country. }
Thus, with the designer tool, you can include them in your reports, in case the reviewer requires them.
Then you will see the summary tables that I mentioned at the beginning.
Here at the bottom are the specific fields for the networks and stacks of each project.
For each of them, when displaying the list, every network or stack’s name is shown.
These fields will be variable with each project, but in any case, you have the option of using them in a particular way if you deem it necessary.
We are going to Close here to create our first Report Template so that you fully understand the advantages of this tool.
For example, let’s suppose that we want to create a summary report template for our engineering design projects.
Then, just like with any word processor, I start typing the titles of the properties to present on the report.
A name.
Location.
Owner.
And, the number of sanitary drainage networks the project has.
Let’s format this text, selecting it, and applying the corresponding options.
Now it’s required to insert in this project template the corresponding fields with the properties that I have titled.
So, for this first one, I place the cursor on the insertion position.
And, from the Report menu, select Insert Field.
From the list, I select the Project Name field and double-click on it or click the Insert button to insert it into the document.
Analogously I will do with the other properties.
Note that the inserted field takes the format that exists at the cursor position. In this case, the bold ones. I will remove this format.
So, I have defined my base project reports template that I will use in the future from the project reports designer tool.
I go to File and click Save.
Remember that the open and save options here are related only to project reports template files, that is, those that contain, in addition to text, the fields with the properties we want to export from the project.
Creating the Project Summary Report from the Reports Template.
Finally, we need to convert this template into a project report readable by anyone. That is, assign to each field the respective values from the project’s data file.
From the Report menu, click Generate Document.
And, after a few seconds, you will see your technical sheet ready.
As said previously, this document, assuming you need to give it a more specific format, can be exported in rich text format from the File menu, Export Report option.
Of course, if you consider that the document is okay here in the designer tool, you can print it through these options.
Then, if we go to the Microsoft Word program, we can easily import it, as you will see now.
From here, everything is in your hands.
The advantage of having this template, for example, is that if we now go back to DRAINS and change to another project that, as you can see, due to the number of networks and stacks it has, is entirely different from the previous one.
Let’s go to the project reports designer tool to load our report summary template.
And, with no specific modifications, we can generate a new report from it.
Similarly, you can do, as we present in the following video, with more sophisticated project design reports so that the process of generating them for your sanitary and storm drainage projects is reduced by at least 80 percent.
We are aware that each project, in any case, will require a post-editing process, given its particularities, but with this tool you can be sure that the transfer of data and results has been carried out correctly.
So we hope it will be useful for future projects that you carry out with our hydraulic design programs.
Se you soon.