GUI Interface CE-QUAL-W2 V3.7/4.

1 User Manual

Scott A. Wells, Portland State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
March 2018

Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1
Installing the GUI Interface ............................................................................................................. 1
Opening the GUI Interface .............................................................................................................. 1
Menus ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Button Bar ................................................................................................................................... 1
Editing the Control File ................................................................................................................... 2
Editing the Bathymetry File ............................................................................................................ 3
Merging or Splitting Segments or Layers .................................................................................... 4
Running the Preprocessor within the GUI ...................................................................................... 6
A Note on Saving Files ..................................................................................................................... 6
Typical Errors with the GUI ............................................................................................................. 6
Command Line Processing .............................................................................................................. 6
Using the GUI W2Control for Touchscreen Laptops and Monitors ................................................ 7
Introduction
This short manual describes the GUI interface that is released with CE-QUAL-W2. The manual describes briefly the
uses of the GUI for editing the control file (w2_con.npt) and the bathymetry file (user-defined filename, typically
called bth.npt). Please note that the model files can be edited using a text editor and the GUI is not required. The
GUI though may be very helpful for the new CE-QUAL-W2 user. The bathymetry editor is very useful in viewing the
model grid and making changes to the grid (e.g., grid refinement). The bathymetry editor though does not assist in
setting up the bathymetry. The model user must have already developed the bathymetry file using other programs.
The bathymetry editor only edits an existing bathymetry file. Often the bathymetry is developed using GIS software
or programs like SURFER or other 3-D contour plotting software packages.

Installing the GUI Interface

After downloading the GUI interface setup files and unzipping them, from Windows Explorer double-click on
‘setup.exe’ to guide you in the set-up process.

Opening the GUI Interface

By double-clicking on the W2 icon from the Desktop or from Windows Explorer, the user is presented with the
following screen:

This interface is meant to be simple and uncomplicated.

Menus
The user has 3 menus: File, Window, and Help. The File menu controls
which control file to open and to save. The user can only open a CE-
QUAL-W2 control file – such as w2_con.npt. Opening any other file
type will result in an error. The File save button and file open buttons
and menu items only affect the control file and the associated files
(bathymetry and graph files). Note that when you save a file, you
overwrite the original file with which you started. The GUI program
though copies the original output file to a similar name but with a
number designator. This allows the user always to go back and track
changes made over time to the control file or bathymetry files.

Button Bar
The buttons become active as the user opens the files that affect the
buttons. For example, once the bathymetry file is opened, the 4 grid
viewing options are then displayed (see more information below).
The open file button opens the w2_con.npt file or another file that is
in the format of the control file. The save button becomes active once
a file is opened and changes are made. The print button prints the
current screen (I would not use this since it is not a very useful print
out. It is much more convenient to just print the text file directly from
Notepad or other text editor.) The next buttons are described below.

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Editing the Control File
Once you have chosen a
control file to open
(w2_con.npt), open it
and adjust the window
so that the window
options are visible. If the
file does not open there
may be serious
formatting errors in the
file or you may have not
chosen a CE-QUAL-W2
control file. Check the
file for errors using the
CE-QUAL-W2
preprocessor (a
separate program
released with W2).

You will notice that the

BTH button is now
active, meaning that
you can also open the
bathymetry file. The left
pane now has 7
headings – each
subheadings that can be
shown by double-
clicking on the main
heading. For example,
several of the
subheadings have been
expanded, as shown to
your right.

By double-clicking on a
subheading, the user
can edit the information
in a cell. Information
about each model
parameter is shown in
Appendix C in the User
Manual.

Once you have edited the cells (either by changing a number or changing a menu parameter), there are 2 buttons at
the bottom of the page as shown below.

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The Apply button is used to set the parameters of the table. For example above, the # of epiphyton groups is ‘1”. If
one wanted to change this to “2”. One would enter 2 in the cell for NEP and then press “Apply”. The table will be re-
drawn as shown below.

Then after making changes, the OK button MUST be pressed. But this does not SAVE the file to the hard disk. The
User must also then press the SAVE button on the button bar above (or the menu FILE/SAVE file) to save these
changes to the disk. The save button will be highlighted after a selection is changed.

Editing the Bathymetry File

After opening the control file, the bathymetry file can be opened by clicking the BTH button. Note that the
bathymetry file name is under the ‘INPUT-OUTPUT FILE NAMES’ Menu and the submenu ‘WATERBODY INPUT FILE
NAMES’. At this point there are 4 views that become active: Side View, Top View, Data View, End View.

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The buttons on the top allow
one to toggle between the
different bathymetric views. By
expanding the Top View, one
can enlarge the view by holding
down the left mouse button and
scrolling from right to left (see
example below). To decrease
the image size, hold down the
left mouse button and scroll
from right to left.

To change the active segment

and layer, you must place the
mouse cursor in the Data View
at a segment and layer of
interest and click the ‘Refresh
View’ button. This affects which
segment is shown in the End
View and which segment is
highlighted in the Side View.

To edit the bathymetry, click on the variable and change its value. Then the user must click the ‘OK’ button to accept
these changes. Using the SAVE button saves all the user files.

Merging or Splitting Segments or Layers

In order to perform this operation, open the Data View and select the range of layers and/or
segments to merge or split by highlighting them with the mouse. You will notice in the left hand
corner a box shows what segments and layers have been selected.

In the example below I have selected layers 5-14 and segments 2 and 3. You will also now notice
that the layer and segment merge/split buttons are now active. To merge or split segments, click

4
on the Merge/Split segment button. A small dialog box will come up with options for merging or
splitting the segments (see below). You then have the option to merge the 2 segments or split
them into many more segments. The control file (w2_con.npt) will automatically adjust segment
numbers when using this option. But keep in mind that the following files will need to be edited
to adjust them for changes in the number of model segments: the wind sheltering coefficient file
(wsc.npt) and the shading file (shade.npt).

A similar process is followed for merging or splitting layers.

Note that in the bottom left corner of the above screen shot, the layers and segments that were selected is shown.

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Running the Preprocessor within the GUI
The preprocessor which checks all input files can be executed from within the GUI by clicking on the CHECK button.
At which point a dialogue box will pop up with information about running the preprocessor. The preprocessor
executable must be in the root directory with the input files.

A Note on Saving Files

The GUI interface makes a backup copy of each file opened during a session. It will add an integer number to the
files opened. This integer is based on whether previous backup files have been created or not. For example, the 1st
time the GUI opens the files, w2_con.npt, graph.npt, and bth.npt; the program will write as backup copies of the
unaltered original files: w2_con.npt2, graph.npt2, and bth.npt2. The next time the program opens these files, the
files w2_con.npt3, graph.npt3, and bth.npt3 will be created (if you have already deleted the *.*2 files from your
hard disk, the GUI will again use the integer ‘2’ rather than ‘3’).

Typical Errors with the GUI

Sometimes the GUI cannot read a control file because of the format of the text. UNIX/Linux systems often use a line-
feed at the end of a line, while Windows text files include a carriage-return and a line-feed. You must convert the
file to a Windows text file for the GUI to work properly. In a text editor you can view all the characters and verify you
have the proper Windows format if the GUI is having problems reading the file. Many text editors automatically
convert files from one type to the other (such as the text editor ‘Notepad ++’).

It is recommended that you use the W2 preprocessor to catch errors in the set-up files first before using the GUI.
The W2 preprocessor though will not catch the line-feed error noted above and will read the files correctly whether
in UNIX/Linux or Windows format.

Command Line Processing

The GUI also can be controlled by command line passing of the working directory and file. In a batch program or
from the command line in a DOS box you can execute the GUI as follows:

"C:\scott\research\corps of engineers\tomcole\w2code\GUI36\w2control\w2control4.exe"
C:\scott\w2workshop\2009 workshop\waterqual\problem1\w2_con.npt

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The first string in quotes executes the GUI (this shows the path to the GUI – your path to the GUI will be different).
The command line argument is NOT in quotes. This program was developed in VB6 and does not take quotes around
the command line. Note that this is different than the FORTRAN command line argument. So the above command
will open the GUI and load the control file automatically from the directory “C:\scott\w2workshop\2009
workshop\waterqual\problem1”.

Using the GUI W2Control for Touchscreen Laptops and

Monitors
The software, W2Control, is a GUI preprocessor for the W2 model. It works fine on non-touch enabled monitors.
But for touch screen monitors, like many of the latest laptops, the opening “treeview” menu does not work
because of a software incompatibility with VB6, the source code. W2Control can though be used on a touch screen
laptop by doing the following:
Go to Services by typing ‘Services’ in the command line or Cortana line. In the list choose ‘Touch keyboard and
Handwriting Panel Service’. Right click your mouse and choose Properties and change ‘Automatic’ to ‘Disabled’.
Then click STOP in the Service Status to stop the service. Click APPLY. The W2Control then works as expected.