3.1 Skip to content

3. Quick Start Guide

3.1 Opening an XMDF

The new TUFLOW Viewer tries to integrate itself with QGIS a lot more closely than the legacy viewer, using native QGIS controls where possible and extending QGIS functionality behind the scenes where needed. It does this without adding any new widgets or user interfaces (excepting the plot widget) which has the benefit of making it feel less like a separate tool and more like an extension to the core QGIS functionality.

To this end, loading an XMDF result file is as simple as dragging the .xmdf file from Windows File Explorer, or the Browser Panel, into QGIS. Once opened, the QGIS Temporal Controller is automatically opened and configured and can be used to adjust the output timestep. The active data type can be changed by using the layer properties. It is highly recommended to use the Styling Panel (rather than the properties dialogue) which can be toggled on and off by pressing F7 or Ctrl+3 on the keyboard.

The same is true for other supported mesh formats, for example the .nc NetCDF mesh format. The method for opening is also true for NetCDF grid results written by TUFLOW.

Loading an XMDF

3.2 Plotting

3.2.1 XMDF Time-Series Plotting

The legacy TUFLOW Viewer button was replaced when switching to the new viewer with the time series button which is used to open the plot widget in the new TUFLOW Viewer.

Once opened, the "Data Types" menu can be used to select the desired data type to plot, and the "Draw Tool" can be used to select the location on the map to plot from.

Plotting Time-series from an XMDF

3.2.2 XMDF Section Plotting

The starting plot type is a Time Series Plot, but this can be changed by right-clicking the plot tab and selecting the desired plot type from the context menu. Alternatively, a new plot tab can be opened by clicking the + button in the tab strip and selecting the desired plot type from the context menu.

Note, it is important to ensure that the workspace and results are in the correct projection and not incorrectly using a default CRS such as WGS84. The new TUFLOW Viewer will convert spherical distances to metres using the ellipsoidal method if a spherical system is being used. This will cause issues (most likely a blank plot) if the source data is already in a Cartesian projection and does not require conversion.

Plotting Sections from an XMDF

3.2.3 TPC Time-Series Plotting

Similar to XMDF results, TPC results can be loaded by dragging the .tpc file from Windows File Explorer, or the Browser Panel, into QGIS. This will automatically load the "PLOT" GIS layers into QGIS and results can now be plotted. Instead of the Draw Tool, the Selection Tool should be used and must be active before selecting any 1D elements on the map to plot from.

Plotting time series data from a TPC
Plotting a pipe long plot from a TPC

3.3 More Information

The new TUFLOW Viewer supports all the formats the legacy TUFLOW Viewer supported plus a few more. For more information on how to load in other result formats, check files, plotting options, and any other available functionality, please refer to the User Guide section of the documentation.

Although most of the core functionality is available, not all features and tools from the legacy TUFLOW Viewer have been ported across to the new TUFLOW Viewer yet. A list of planned features and improvements can be found in the TUFLOW Viewer Roadmap.