HEC-RTS facilitates archiving and sharing of forecast data through four different mechanisms. One way is to save changes to your selected forecast's model alternatives to the base directory to make them available for other forecasts. Another way is to replace an HEC-RTS model alternative for a specific forecast with the version in the base directory. In addition, you can post your results to the defined DSS file(s) contained in the extract groups, to make the results available to other users; and, the forecast can be frozen to prevent additional computes and further editing of HEC-RTS model alternatives.

Saving Changes to the Base Directory

When you have edited parameters, your changes apply only to an individual forecast run and are saved in the forecast directory (see HEC-RTS Application Settings for an overview of the HEC-RTS directory structure). If you want your changes to be available for subsequent forecasts, you will need to save the changes back to the base directory.

To save data to the base directory:

From the Forecast Runs Detail section (Forecast Run - Shortcut Menu) of the Modeling module, right click on a forecast run name, from the shortcut menu, click Save To Base. The Copy Model Changes dialog (Figure 1) opens.
The Copy Model Changes dialog (Figure 1) displays the name of the Forecast and Forecast Run that are active. The table displays the Programs, Model Alternatives, and Model IDs that makeup the active forecast run.
From the Copy Data column (Figure 1) of the table, select the check boxes beside the Model Alternative you wish to copy from the forecast directory to the base directory.
When you have selected the appropriate Model Alternatives, click Copy to Base (Figure 1). HEC-RTS will now save all files associated with the selected model alternative back to the base directory. When HEC-RTS is finished, a confirmation message will appear telling you that all selected model alternatives were successfully saved.

Note that when you have edited model parameters, the Copy Model Changes dialog (Figure 1) will also display when you leave the current forecast by exiting HEC-RTS, creating a new watershed, creating a new forecast, opening an existing forecast, or closing the current forecast. If you want your changes to be available for subsequent forecasts, you will need to save the data back to the base directory. If you do not want to save your changes for later forecasts, click Close.

Replacing Data from the Base Directory

If, while editing a model alternative, you need to revert to the original model alternative (or propagate modifications made through to the forecast), you can replace the changed model alternative in your forecast directory with the model alternative from the base directory.

To replace a model alternative from the base directory:

From the Forecast Runs Detail section (Forecast Run - Shortcut Menu) of the Modeling module, right click on a forecast run name, from the shortcut menu click Replace from Base, and the Replace From Base dialog (Figure 2) opens.
The Replace From Base dialog (Figure 2) displays the name of the Forecast and Forecast Run that are active. The table displays the Programs, Model Alternatives, and Model IDs that makeup the active forecast run.
From the Restore Data (Figure 2) column of the table, select the check boxes beside the Model Alternative you wish to restore from the base directory to the forecast directory.
When you have selected the appropriate Model Alternative, click Replace from Local (or Replace From Server) (Figure 2). The program will now restore all files associated with the selected Model Alternative from the base directory to the forecast directory. When HEC-RTS is finished, a confirmation message will display telling you that all selected HEC-RTS model alternatives were successfully replaced.

Posting Results to the HEC-RTS Watershed

Once you have run the forecast runs associated with your forecast and you are satisfied with the results, you will have one or more forecast runs that represent final forecast results. At this stage, you will want to post your modeling results to the defined DSS file(s) contained in the post groups again to make them available to other users. You will need to create Post Groups, which are detailed in Data Extract and Post Editors.

From the Modeling module, from the Forecast menu, click Post, the Run Post dialog will open (Figure 3).
All defined Post Groups associated with the active forecast appear in the table. In the Group column, select the Post Groups that will post results to the defined DSS file(s).
Click Run Now, the Message Pane on the Post Forecast Results dialog (Model Alternative - Shortcut Menu - Skip Compute and Compute Through) will notify you that a post action has been sent to the DBI.
When the data has been successfully posted to the defined DSS file(s), the Message Pane of the HEC-RTS main window (Modeling Module - Forecast Information Displayed) will now contain a new tab - Post. This will notify you that a post action has been successful.

Archive a Forecast

Once you have a configured a forecast you may want to keep an archive your forecast for future retrieval. To archive a forecast:

If you have the forecast you are going to archive open, close the forecast. From the Modeling module, from the Forecast menu, click Close.
From the Forecast menu, click Archive, the Select Forecast dialog (Figure 4) opens.
Select the forecast name you wish to archive from the list in the Existing box (Figure 4), click Select. The Enter Archive Comments dialog (Figure 5) opens.
Enter your comments in the field at the top of the dialog box and from the Archive Folder box (Figure 5) enter a folder to save the archived forecast.
Click OK, an Archiving progress window will display while the archiving process is working. When finished the Archiving progress window will close and an Archive Complete window will display (Figure 6). Click OK, the Archive Complete window will close.
If the forecast has multiple forecast runs, the Save Models to Base dialog (like Figure 2) will open. If this dialog opens, you must select the model alternatives you wish to include in the archive. Once the model alternatives are selected click Save to Local and the Progress widow will open as well as the archiving dialog will be displayed for a short while archiving the forecast files and closes.