Beta Update 4/17/2026

Version 0.1.0.2965-dev

We'd like to give a big thank-you to everyone who has been testing and providing feedback on the beta release! This update addresses some of the small bugs and QoL issues from Beta 1.

User Interface

  • Added a mini-map! Click and drag to move your map window anywhere in your system.
  • Improved drag/drop behavior and UI in several places - terrain components, Model pane, etc.
  • Fixed several rare crashes in charting library
  • Fixed several DPI/Scaling issues for small screen sizes
  • Increased escape radius for auto-dismissing the Quick-Picker (e.g. when changing region cell size in the map)
  • Prevent closing a map tab if it's the only one open

Geometry/Mesh

  • Global cell-size modifiers can act on a selected set of arcs/regions
  • Improved error propagation when your terrain doesn't fully cover your mesh

Project Management

  • Export Projection as .prj file (Project Browser → right click 'Project' node)
  • Improved zoom-to behavior for individual tiles in the Terrain editor

Data/GIS

  • Added auto-merging (stitching) option when importing tiles into a Terrain layer. (Previously only available in USGS importer)
  • Convert in-place option for polyline geoprocessing tools

Mapping

  • Fixed multiple areas where changing a map setting wouldn't redraw until you zoom
  • Fixed OSM base-map toggle bug

Beta Update 3/30/2026

Version 0.1.0.2889-dev

Hello everyone, it's been awhile indeed! As the last Alpha build was seeming moderately stable, we set out to do some larger, more invasive changes. We have dramatically improved mesh generation on a number of fronts, and those changes took longer than anticipated to stabilize. This patch has an enormous amount of new work and under-the-hood features, adding approximately 150k lines of code. We've been pushing the project forward on a number of fronts, some of which will bear fruit in future releases. Now that we have some of the larger internal changes out of the way, we're hoping to resume a monthly bug-fix cadence as we approach our 1.0. We also have a revamped documentation portal in-progress, which will release shortly. 

Note: Existing models should forward-migrate with all inputs, but datasets will have to be re-run to view results.

General

  • Result storage & compression improvements - ~40% file size reduction.
    • This format change will require you to re-run your model to see results.
  • Improved updater resilience to operating system and anti-virus shenanigans.

User Interface

  • Visual overhaul - new semi-transparent system theme.
  • Fixed dozens of DPI/screen issues where buttons would draw out of bounds.
  • Fixed a variety of light/dark theming inconsistencies.

Project Management

  • Project Explorer improvements and bug fixes
    • Most layer files now have date created and last-modified displayed.
    • Added charting and new functionality to different layer types.
  • UML relationship diagrams for reviewing and changing project associations.
  • Improved plan export tooling.

Geometry

  • Mesh generation revamp - define a few sparse cell sizes and the system will interpolate.
  • Improved cell generation behavior - favor larger cells where possible
  • Improved mesh generation error detection, descriptions, and error-messages.
  • New Geometry Editor
    • Improved layout and spacing 
    • Live arc charting for terrain/results.
  • Quick Edit picker improvements
    • Faster access via right-click, background loading, and better label placement.
    • Secondary cell size support and improved grid preview behavior.
  • Culvert workflow overhaul
    • Improved input validation and HDF5 outputs.
    • Now included in geometry backups
    • Editor improvements including copy/paste and rating table edge-case fixes.
    • New velocity visualization when animating.
  • Improved property table detection for terrain/n-value layer changes.

Editing Tools

  • Polyline/Arc editing updates
    • Merge polyline tool ("M" hotkey).
    • Better append/insert behavior and improved metadata preservation.
    • Improved deletion behavior for ambiguous topology selections
  • Improved stability
    • Fixed dozens of editing crashes and topology edge cases (insert/append, split propagation, node editing drag, selection issues).

Boundary Conditions

  • Added support for internal flow BC lines
    • Similar to v6, internal BC lines are "rain on cell" - they don't add momentum to faces.
  • Stage/Inflow BC lines have improved validation and clearer warnings for spatial and data issues.
  • Gridded precipitation import improvements
    • Improved UI and visualization
    • Fixed unit conversion bugs
    • WIP reading NetCDF files (Try it out! Let us know if you run into bugs.)

Compute

  • New Compute Log UI and live-tracker dashboard
  • CPU Explicit speed improvements - 25% faster
  • Many stability improvements and bug fixes to the CPU and GPU solver

Results Visualization

  • Multiple results visualization/comparison
  • Charting overhaul:
    • Improved profile plots and time series charts across plans.
    • Better legends, axis formatting, tick spacing, units, and gridlines.
    • Map-based result type picker and more result-aware chart behavior in editing workflows.

Mapping

  • New/expanded visualization and vector symbology.
  • Improved velocity arrows
  • Map/layer reliability fixes
    • Improved label rendering performance
    • Fixed several rendering crashes and common map state issues:
      • Layers not showing on boot
      • Toolbar disappearing when map closed incorrectly
      • Topology not refreshing during edits
    • Improved OSM rendering order and reduced visual artifacts.
  • New global vector symbology editor - change your defaults across all layers of that type.
  • "Presentation Mode" for scaling up line/point thickness when screen sharing.

Data Import/Export

  • New geoprocessing tools
    • Lines: Buffer, Offset, Cull, Reverse, Smooth, etc.
    • Polygons: Buffer, Densify, Filter, Smooth, etc.
  • Reproject coordinate tool
  • Improved import/export workflows
    • USGS downloading: better cancellation, progress, and persistence across re-queries.
    • Shapefile: multi-file import, export regions as polygons, attribute table save/load, better relative path handling.
    • Terrain import: vertical unit conversion and improved unit system detection.
    • Additional raster integrity checks and fixes for TIFF/raster edge cases.
  • Fixed a bug reading uncompressed TIFF files

Performance & Stability

  • Faster rendering and lower memory pressure across rasters, hillshade, labels/text, tiles, and cleanup.
  • UI stability: fixed many crashes across project browsing, dialogs, drag/drop, monitoring, and shutdown/save workflows.

Technical

  • Updated many external dependencies to latest versions - HDF5 2.0, GDAL 3.12.3, WindowsAppSDK 1.8.5, Dotnet 9.0.13, and other auxiliary libraries.
  • Improved Unicode file support
    • Previously, you could not have a RAS project in any directory with a Unicode character (like 'ñ') in any part of the path. This limitation was lifted by the HDF5 2.0 release.
    • Note this still does not yet apply to internal strings, like structure names. We'll be working on that for a future release.

Alpha Update 10/10/2025

Version 0.1.0.2089-dev

Greetings, it's been awhile! The team has been hard at work through a large series of infrastructure changes as we push for the final 1.0 release.

General

  • Fixed dozens of crashes throughout the UI, including many that occurred during mesh generation.
  • Fixed over 60 bugs reported by users

UI/UX

  • Various styling, DPI, and UI fixes and adjustments.
  • Improved DataGrid tool completely replaced the old one - gives us more flexibility and control going into the future
  • Profile/animation slider improvements and labels
  • Enter key now clicks the "OK" button in various system dialogs and prompts
  • Improved context menu clicking/dismissal behavior

Meshing

  • Speed improvements: 10-20% on first mesh generation, 50%+ on subsequent mesh recomputes.
  • Revamped & improved recipe builder UI
  • Significantly improved mesh error messages & diagnostics
  • New post-processor recipes

Editing Tools

  • !! Hotkey Change !!
    • Arc-Splitter tool is now on the 'S' key instead of 'Control'.
  • Comprehensive editing tool rewrite - faster and more robust.
  • Improved tooling around complex polygons
  • Improved copy/paste functionality for many different layers (vector & metadata).
  • Fixed several bugs and usability issues around the topology quick-edit modification
  • First cut at geoprocessing tools in the map
    • Starting with polylines - can buffer, offset, filter, reverse, and smooth.
    • Export to clipboard, shapefile, or existing map layer

Charting & Visualization

  • Comprehensive charting back-end/tech rework
    • This is a small visual update right now, but was a much-needed rework to give us better charting capabilities into the future
    • Rendering performance improved 10x over prior system
  • Chart bobber
  • Multiple y-axis support

Spatial Boundary Conditions

  • Improved spatial boundary condition importer for precipitation
  • Fixed several reprojection and rendering issues
  • You may see some hints around the UI for other spatial boundary condition types being added, but we're not quite ready to demo those yet...

Data

  • Create & edit new shapefile layers - Point/Line/Polygon
    • All shapefile creation/export now includes the proper .prj file.
  • USGS importer improvements and bug fixes.
    • USGS downloads broke due to some server-side changes a few months ago - this issue has been fixed.
  • Improved DSS data ingestion and charting
    • Note that we still only support DSS 7 files. Conversion helpers from DSS 6 will be coming in a future build.
  • Fixed various bugs with cloning & renaming layer files losing data.
  • Terrain/TIFF raster importer supports a wider variety of file formats for our "fast" internal code-path.
    • Speeds up import of certain file compression types (LZW) by 10-20x.

Hydraulics

  • Introducing culvert barrel hydraulics!
    • Unlike in RAS v6, culverts don't have to belong to a structure - they can take water from anywhere, and move water anywhere.  
    • This is the opening cut at the physics - UI is still very bare-bones, and will be improving in a future update.

Solver

  • GPU normal-depth boundary condition bug fix
  • GPU speedup of ~25%
    • We converted many of the internal calculations from 64-bit to 32-bit (single precision), which was responsible for most of the performance uplift. This can have issues tracking extremely large volumes in 2D cells. We're keeping an eye on this as we tune the GPU solver going forward.
  • Various minor CPU solver bug fixes and performance improvements

Mapping

  • Improved behavior around panning inertia and performance
  • Added scale bar to the map
  • Smooth zooming animation
  • Fixes to opacity layer assignment

Technical

  • Updated many external dependencies to latest versions WindowsAppSDK 1.8.1, Dotnet 9.0.9, CommunityToolkit to 8.4.0, and other auxiliary libraries.

Alpha Update 7/2/2025

Version 0.1.0.1822-dev

General

  • New Boundary Condition workflow!
    • Boundary condition lines can now support multiple attached data payloads. For more information, see (Documentation Pending).
    • We now support DSS for flow/stage time-series input.
    • We now support connecting to RAS 2025 result files for flow time-series input.
  • New contour exporter (inundation boundary polygons).
  • Added a warning banner if you launch as elevated/administrator - this breaks certain operating system interactions outside of our control.
  • Added a warning banner if you launch from a non-rooted (e.g. network share drive). We're working to address this.

Layers

  • Fixed a bug where boundary condition lines wouldn't identify the correct perimeter faces to attach to.
  • Fixed a performance issue where rasterized classification layers (e.g. NLCD) wouldn't generate pyramid levels correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where web imagery would turn off when you toggled a layer in the tree.
  • Fixed an issue where user-defined N Values wouldn't load correctly.
  • Redesigned rasterized precipitation importer.
    • UI allows you to preview the precipitation data before import.
    • Now reads DSS rasters! GRIB files are also supported. Other common formats will be supported at some point in the future.

Mesh Generation

  • Improved mesh generation.
    • Improved cell distribution across a quadrilateral channel, particularly around bends.
    • Improved error propagation and zoom-to functionality for mesh generation issues.
    • We've increased data stringency for quadrilateral channel mesh definitions. Some meshes that previously computed (poorly!) will now return error messages.
    • Improved conceptual mesh editing performance and hit-testing reliability.
  • New mesh generation post-processor UI! (Documentation Pending).
    • Add/remove/modify processing stages with drag & drop.
    • Improved tooltips and UI documentation.

Terrain

  • Improved process/performance of importing multiple terrain tiles simultaneously
  • Fixed several issues where the symbology would not properly update.
  • Terrain contours now supported (visualization, under the Layer tab).

Solver

  • GPU Solver
    • Fixed a bug with precipitation & runoff
    • Improved driver warnings (CUDA error 35)
  • CPU Solver
    • Fixed a bug for cell velocity calculations on dry faces
    • Included a dzMin limit for advection/diffusion timestep calculations

User Interface

  • Fixed a large number of crashes within the UI.
    • Fixed a crash searching for projections on the New Project creation page.
    • Fixed several crashes with mesh editing tools and the quick-edit picker.
    • Fixed several crashes with tree/layer selection and interaction.
    • Fixed a crash opening the "Map Zoom-To" dialog. (Gear icon in the lower left corner of the map window).
    • Fixed several crashes that could occur during shut-down that would prevent model saving.
    • Fixed a crash that could occur on boot-up when the user had a local model (no projection set).
    • Fixed several crashes that could occur during mesh generation.
  • Added more context menus, buttons, and default behaviors to the Project Explorer page to interact with model elements.
  • Fixed DPI issues for the first launch screen, which would cause the accept button to appear offscreen.
  • Hid a variety of UI elements and features that aren't working yet.
  • Fixed an issue where a user could not open the compute logs.

Technical

  • Updated many external dependencies to latest versions Hec.Dss 2.0.4, WindowsAppSDK 1.7.3, Dotnet 9.0.6, and other auxiliary libraries. 

Outstanding Issues

  • We know some users are having trouble creating models if they have Unicode characters (e.g. "Ö") in any part of their project path. This is caused by one of the storage libraries we depend on, and we're looking for a workaround.

Alpha Update 4/25/2025

Version 0.1.0.1678-dev

Layers

  • Velocity particle tracing and static arrows (see image below).
    • To enable particle tracing, turn any result on, and click the particle-tracing button in the upper right corner of the map window (highlighted blue).
  • Fixed multiple issues with exporting 2025 meshes to be used in HEC-RAS v6.6.

Terrain

  • USGS terrain importer now stitches adjacent tiles by default, so they merge to a single tile in your RAS terrain.
  • USGS terrain importer UI updates for selection, filtering, and styling.
  • Several bug and crash fixes for the USGS terrain importer.

Solver

  • GPU Solver minor bug fixes

User Interface

  • New spreadsheet tool! (Documentation pending).
    • Copy/Paste, arrow/tab navigation, and other improvements
  • Fixed mesh editing errors assigning region/arc properties
  • DPI improvements for the main launch screen.
  • Improved error messages across the board.

Web Imagery

  • OSM text rendering performance and quality improvements.

Technical

  • Internal libraries have been updated to the latest versions: WindowsAppSDK 1.7.1, Dotnet 9.0.4, and other auxiliary libraries.

Breaking Changes

  • The .vis file had some format changes, so any checked state and custom symbology may be lost.


Alpha Update 3/17/2025

Version 0.1.0.1576-dev

Layers

  • Fixed multiple issues with exporting 2025 meshes to be used in HEC-RAS v6.6.
  • Small mesh enhancements for honoring arc cell-sizing with bias.
  • Better mesh generation error propagation - new UI to zoom to mesh generation errors.

Terrain

  • Several bug and crash fixes for the USGS terrain importer.

Web Imagery

  • OSM rendering performance improvements for polygons.

Solver

  • GPU Solver is now 10-40% faster, especially benefitting smaller models.
  • GPU flow boundary condition bugs fixed.

User Interface

  • DPI improvements for the main launch screen.
  • Improved error messages across the board.
  • Model tab (tree) layout partial update. (More coming on this soon.)
    • We're in the process of heavy design experimentation with the model tab, so expect future changes in this area.
    • Results are now sorted under plans with the same name.
    • Result maps are now a drop-down underneath the result, instead of independent layers.
    • The Project Explorer tab is still under construction.

Technical

  • Internal libraries have been updated to the latest versions: WindowsAppSDK 1.6.6, Dotnet 9.0.3, and other auxiliary libraries.

Breaking Changes

  • The .vis file had some format changes, so any checked state and custom symbology may be lost.


Alpha Update 2/21/2025

Version 0.1.0.1506-dev

Layers

  • New raster symbology editor experience. (Documentation pending)
  • Fixed several issues with exporting 2025 meshes to be used in HEC-RAS v6.6.

Editing

  • Improved performance for mesh editing and computations.
  • Improved mesh generation in quad regions.

Terrain

  • Introducing the USGS terrain importer! (Documentation pending)
  • Fixed a bug importing very large (multi GB) terrains that had to re-project on import.
  • Fixed several bugs converting USC/SI terrain imports.

Web Imagery

  • OSM now uses a disk cache, improving rendering performance and reducing network usage.

Solver

  • RAS now has a GPU solver! For more information, see this.

User Interface

  • DPI improvements for small screens in various windows.
  • Improved error messages across the board.

Technical

  • Internal libraries have been updated to the latest versions: WindowsAppSDK 1.6.5, Dotnet 9.0.2.

Alpha Update 12/20/2024

Version 0.1.0.1421-dev

Layers

  • Fixed a variety of issues with exporting 2025 meshes to be used in HEC-RAS v6.6.
    • Exporting meshes to the HEC-RAS v6 file format was silently failing. These errors are now propagated back to 2025 and shown as a toast message.
    • All (known) errors with the exporter have been fixed. If you continue to have issues exporting meshes to be used in 6.6, please let us know with a new bug report. Reminder: It's very helpful to attach your geometry when reporting meshing issues!
    • Internal v6.7 builds have improved error handling and messaging when it can't import a mesh.
  • Can now import a RAS 2025 terrain file (*.h5) into another one. This will extract any raster files from the *.h5 file and import them through the normal workflow.

Editing

  • Improved performance for modifying large polygons.
  • Middle-mouse panning now works while using the measure tool.

Web Imagery

  • Fixed some async bugs that could leave web imagery stuck on.
  • Disable web imagery if the project has a local coordinate system (no projection).

Solver

  • Fixed convergence tolerance for USC datasets that could cause some unnecessary iterations when solving boundary-conditions.

Visual

  • Fixed some DPI issues causing buttons to draw offscreen on the New Project page.
    • We recognize many parts of the UI are still not laying out correctly for low-resolution or zoomed-in displays. More fixes are coming.

Technical

  • Internal libraries have been updated to the latest versions: Dotnet 9, and WindowsAppSDK 1.6.3.
  • Now sending loaded module/process state when you report a bug. This should help us catch some of the trickier installation errors.

Alpha Update 11/13/2024

Version 0.1.0.1384-dev

  • Paste polylines and polygons into your conceptual mesh! Docs
  • Click+Drag while using the Edit Tool to enter selection mode
  • Ctrl+Click to insert node where arcs intersect. Docs
  • Auto Fix command to fix common conceptual mesh errors. Docs
    • Detects intersections, coincident arcs, and other common errors to create a (mostly) correct conceptual mesh.
  • Improved reporting for conceptual mesh errors
    • Multiple new classes of errors detected, including duplicated/coincident nodes and 0-area regions
  • Many performance improvements for large conceptual meshes
  • Much improved editing, importing, and hit-testing operations
  • Improved mesh generation, particularly with quad-quad boundaries
  • Minor styling updates throughout the UI
    • Updated Context Menus
    • New Icons
  • Extra safety checks for saving files and creating backups
  • Restyled Importers
    • OSM background maps on by default
    • Reworked terrain importer
  • Improved logging and error reporting
  • Quick edit pickers (map annotations) no longer prevent scrolling
  • UI performance improvements 
    • Prevent icon double loading
    • Delayed loading of unused UI elements and assets
  • Edit tool symbology updates

Alpha Update 10/17/2024

Version 0.1.0.1323-dev

  • Fixed an issue with the updater that was introduced in 0.1.0.1295
    • If you are on version 0.1.0.1295, please download another copy to fix the updater.
  • Improved Conceptual mesh rendering and editing tools in a variety of scenarios.
  • Better conceptual mesh error reporting and messaging.
  • Fixed a scenario where mouse-hover on terrain layer can return incorrect values.
  • Fixed show arc/region labelling indices.
  • Fixed terrain tooltips for negative elevation values.
  • Misc. bug and crash fixes.

Alpha Update 10/8/2024

Version 0.1.0.1295-dev

  • Added extra validation for creating new projects - this should detect and warn when the user's default project directory isn't writeable, and prompt to choose a new one.
  • Added new data validation, error trapping, and user notifications based on submitted bugs.
  • Fixed some map window crashes that could occur when rapidly zooming in/out.
  • Cleaned up spatial boundary conditions UI that isn't ready/working yet.
  • Improved model file discovery (geometry/boundary-condition/plan) that wasn't validating properly.
  • New initial launch screen!

Alpha Update 10/2/2024

Version 0.1.0.1266-dev

  • Fixed an issue with time-zone localization that affected users that were in time-zones east (+X hours) of UTC. (This caused crashes opening Boundary Condition and Plan dialogs in particular).
  • Fixed a variety of charting issues and crashes.
  • Improved error logging (these bug reports have been a big help, keep them coming!)
  • Improved UI validation in GIS Mode (Reminder: You need to create a New Project to add a RAS terrain, etc.)
  • Misc. error and safety checks.

Alpha 1 Release 9/30/2024

This is our first publicly available release of RAS 2025! See our Quick Start Guide to get started.