Allow multiple outfalls to be listed in a single timeseries file

[MitchHeineman]

I'm working on a model that has over 100 outfalls. Rather than requiring a unique file for each outfall, it would be more elegant to expand the timeseries file format to allow an optional ID (e.g. following the value field) and thus allow the user to use a single boundary conditions file. No GUI change would be needed.

Alternatively, the file format could follow the structure of calibration files in the EPA GUI, where the location ID is listed on a header line and datetime/value pairs follow.

EPA SWMM has at least five timeseries formats: internal timeseries (ID m/d/y h:m value), timeseries file (m/d/y h:m value), GUI calibration file timeseries (same as external timeseries but with ID header), routing interface file (header followed by ID y m d h m s value), and rain gage (like routing interface but without header or seconds). Despite all these options, it does not accommodate y/m/d and d/m/y formats and does not allow a multi-location outfall file as I've suggested here.

[dickinsonre]

A few general tools to convert the DAT file format back on forth would also be good. I especially like the format of the calibration file - an add on to convert this to other formats might be useful.

[cbuahin]

What about explicit support for csv files? They could named as one would name a timeseries file and could have multiple columns. Each column can be assigned to an object using the convention TIMSERIES_NAME:COLUMN_NAME.

[dickinsonre]

Good - that can also work for inflow time series

[MitchHeineman]

@cbuahin Do you expect to support the proposed .csv format in version 5.3? Is that the next planned version, or are you expecting 5.2.5 will be next?

[dickinsonre]

I think Caleb said 5.3 would be the next version number at the ICWMM 2024 conference last week.

[cbuahin]

@MitchHeineman, after considering things internally, we felt enough new features were being considered to warrant bumping the minor version number.