Groundwater Vistas Version 6 Status

I mentioned last week that I would provide a status report on Groundwater Vistas Version 6. This version has a bit more installation complexity than previous versions. Here are some observations from the first month:

• If you download the full installations from our web site, make sure to only use the 32-bit installer if you have the Standard version of Groundwater Vistas. Even if you have the 64-bit version of Windows, the Standard version of GV will only work under 32-bit mode.
• Also, when downloading from the web, you will see two files called "setup" after unzipping the archive. You need to run the one with a *.exe extension rather than the *.msi file.
  
• When using a security code instead of the HASP key on Windows 7, you will often need to right-click the gwv.exe program file in the gwv6 directory and choose "run as administrator". Then set the security code and close the program. If you do not do that, the security code may need to be entered again the next time you use Groundwater Vistas.

We fixed a few minor problems so far. The latest version is 6.02 Build 10. Here are the modifications:

• The MODFLOW+MT3D option on the Model menu was not running MT3D after MODFLOW.
• Added direct support for importing MODFLOW-Surfact *.con (binary concentration) files under Props/Import/Matrix. You could import them before but it was not obvious.
• Importing data into the SWI interfaces on the props menu (using row-column-layer format), the 4th column of data was being ignored.
• There was a problem importing an existing GHB input file using MODFLOW2000 format with reach numbers. This was actually also a problem in version 5, but just showed up now.
• Log color floods of concentrations produced strange results when negative concentrations were computed by MT3D. They are now ignored.
• MODFLOW2005 was not releasing memory properly after a run. This was actually a bug in the USGS code but it does not affect command-line programs (only our DLL versions).
• USGS apparently fixed a previous bug in MODFLOW2005 where the ET cell-by-cell flows from the UZF Package had the wrong sign. We just multiplied by -1 in Vistas but that caused problems with the new version where it was corrected. Everything is fine now between UZF in MODFLOW2005 and in Vistas.
  

So Far, So Good!

The roll-out of Groundwater Vistas 6 and AquiferWin32/Winflow Version 4 has gone very well. Thanks to all of the "early adopters" out there! This is always a nervous time for us when a new version is released but these have been quite stable. There have been a couple minor fixes, which I will report on later, but no major problems. The biggest surprise to me has been the popularity of 64-bit computing.

I'd also like to repeat that MODFLOW-NWT looks like it should be released by the USGS any day now. As I mentioned previously, we will post an update to Groundwater Vistas as soon as that occurs. And we are still planning on releasing a version of MODFLOW-USG at the MODFLOW2011 conference. Thanks to Sorab Panday for that!

cloudPEST Presentation

Mike Fienen from the USGS has agreed to give a guest lecture on cloudPEST at the GV/PEST Webinar in May. The presentation is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, May 12 at 3 pm Eastern time. The last lecture in the GV/PEST Webinar is the following day and will cover BEOPEST and other related issues so the timing should be good. There is still some room in the Webinar if you would like to attend. For more information see our web site or click here.

cloudPEST

The USGS (Michael Fienen, Thomas Kunicki, and Daniel Kester) has recently released an interesting project called cloudPest. It is a series of python scripts that can be used to automate the use of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with beopest. You can download the report and code from here. I have not had a chance to try it yet but hope to in the near future.

New Versions Posted

I uploaded Groundwater Vistas Version 6 (32-bit and 64-bit) and AquiferWin32 to www.groundwatermodels.com. The online store also has the updated price and versions. Here are a few things to remember:

• If you have the standard version of Groundwater Vistas 6, do not install the 64-bit version.
• If you have a 32-bit version of Windows, you need to install the 32-bit Version of Groundwater Vistas 6, even if you have the Advanced or higher versions.
  
• AquiferWin32 now includes Winflow/Wintran.
• You must return your existing hardware locks after receiving the new ones. If you need to use the older versions for a while, we can give you a security code.

One final note on MODFLOW-USG... This version of MODFLOW will be released at the MODFLOW Conference on June 6. I had indicated in my recent Webinar that it would be in the first release of GV6. My apologies.

Software Release on Monday.

We are still on schedule to release the new updates for Groundwater Vistas 6 and AquiferWin32 V4 on Monday. Thanks to those who participated in yesterday's Webinar about the upgrades. I thought it went very well and received lots of good feedback on it. For those of you that could not attend one of the sessions, I recorded them. I uploaded the best one to our web site. You can either download it from there or click here to get the recording.

As I mentioned yesterday, I will hold one of these free Webinars each quarter to keep you up to date on what we have changed in our software and what we have planned. The first one will likely be in late June or early July. I will post a message here and on groundwatermodels.com when I have a firm date.