By Matt Fleming, P.E.

How many times have you searched the internet to get an answer to a question or watched a short video to learn something new? Being able to find the information you need can be critical for finishing a project or learning a new skill. HEC software development teams are increasing the resources available to modelers for asking questions, obtaining up to date software documentation, and getting access to tutorials, videos, and webinars.   

Figure 1 shows the Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modeling System, HEC-HMS, Discourse page, https://discourse.hecdev.net/c/hms/9. Other HEC software development teams have similar Discourse pages as well. Discourse is a forum for the modeling community to ask questions. E-mail tech support is great, but it often leads to similar questions being asked and answered. It is limited information exchange between the person asking the question and the person answering the question. Discourse allows the question (or announcement) to be made one time and everyone has access to the answer. Also, everyone in the community can contribute to the dialog. Anyone within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) can sign up for an account and participate in asking or answering questions. The page is open to the public for viewing, therefore, questions and responses should be kept professional. HEC staff do monitor the questions and responses to maintain accurate and appropriate content.  Since, modelers outside USACE can still report software issues via email, HEC software development teams might post the email exchange to Discourse as well. 

If you haven’t already signed up, please create a new account.

  1. Visit https://discourse.hecdev.net
  2. Click on the Sign Up button in the upper right hand corner.
  3. Create an account using your @usace.army.mil email address.
  4. Select a reasonable username typically we use first initial last name.
  5. Define your password. It must be 20 characters long.
  6. Click on the Create New Account button.

  7. Join in the conversation!

    Figure 1, Example view of the HEC-HMS Discourse page. The HEC-HMS Discourse page provides an method for asking software application questions.

Figure 2 shows the HEC-HMS Training Material page, https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/software/hec-hms/training.aspx. Other HEC software development teams have similar pages or training material available. The HEC-HMS team has been trying new options for distributing training material available.

  • In addition to migrating software documentation to an online format, the team created numerous tutorials and guides. These tutorials and guides are short workshops that provide step by step examples for using specific components of the software. Often, there are HEC-HMS projects imbedded in the tutorial that can be downloaded. One goal the team has is to create a new tutorial for each new feature released in the software. Please reach out if you have an idea for a new tutorial or guide or want to contribute an example. 
  • The HEC-HMS team had the opportunity to deliver training classes virtually in 2021 and explored different options to deliver the training material. The team created short instructional videos for the Basic HEC-HMS class. These videos, the accompanying PowerPoint files, and workshop files can be accessed from the https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/hmsdocs/hmstr/hydrologic-modeling-with-hec-hms-march-2021-42175930.html page. Look for similar pages in the future as the team updates additional training material.
  • The HEC-HMS team started a new quarterly webinar series in 2021. The goal of the series is to broadcast newer features in the software and to field questions. You can access the PowerPoint files and watch the webinars from the https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/hmsdocs/hmstr/hec-hms-usace-hh-c-cop-webinar-series-51479129.html page. Future webinars are announced via the USACE Hydrology, Hydraulics, and Coastal Community of Practice (HH&C CoP) email distribution list and the HEC-HMS email list. To be added to the HEC-HMS email list, send an email to hec.hms@usace.army.mil with “subscribe” in the title or body.

  • Links to conference material, journal articles, and additional webinars are also provided on the HEC-HMS Training Material page. These materials can be developed by anyone in the HEC-HMS modeling community. Please reach out to the HEC-HMS team if you are interested in adding content to these pages. 

    Figure 2, HEC-HMS Training Material webpage with links to addition options.