ras-commander 0.42.0

A Python library for automating HEC-RAS operations

RAS Commander (ras-commander)

RAS Commander is a Python library for automating HEC-RAS operations, providing a set of tools to interact with HEC-RAS project files, execute simulations, and manage project data. This library is an evolution of the RASCommander 1.0 Python Notebook Application previously released under the HEC-Commander tools repository.

Contributors:

William Katzenmeyer, P.E., C.F.M.

Sean Micek, P.E., C.F.M.

Aaron Nichols, P.E., C.F.M.

(Additional Contributors Here)

Don't Ask Me, Ask ChatGPT!

Before you read any further, you can chat directly with ChatGPT on this topic. Ask it anything, and it will use its tools to answer your questions and help you learn. You can even upload your own plan, unsteady and HDF files to inspect and help determine how to automate your workflows or visualize your results.

There are also AI Assistant Knowledge Bases with various versions available to directly use with large context LLM models such as Anthropic's Claude, Google Gemini and OpenAI's GPT4o and o1 models.

FUTURE: TEMPLATES are available to use with AI Assistant Notebooks to build your own automation tools. When used with large context models, these templates allow you to ask GPT to build a workflow from scratch to automate your projects.

Background

The ras-commander library emerged from the initial test-bed of AI-driven coding represented by the HEC-Commander tools Python notebooks. These notebooks served as a proof of concept, demonstrating the value proposition of automating HEC-RAS operations. The transition from notebooks to a structured library aims to provide a more robust, maintainable, and extensible solution for water resources engineers.

Features

• Automate HEC-RAS project management and simulations
• Support for both single and multiple project instances
• Parallel execution of HEC-RAS plans
• Utilities for managing geometry, plan, and unsteady flow files
• Example project management for testing and development
• Two primary operation modes: "Run Missing" and "Build from DSS"

AI-Driven Coding Experience

ras-commander provides several AI-powered tools to enhance the coding experience:

1. ChatGPT Assistant: RAS Commander Library Assistant: A specialized GPT model trained on the ras-commander codebase, available for answering queries and providing code suggestions.

2. Purpose-Built Knowledge Base Summaries: Up-to-date compilations of the documentation and codebase for use with large language models like Claude or GPT-4. Look in 'ai_tools/assistant_knowledge_bases/' in the repo.

3. Cursor IDE Integration: Custom rules for the Cursor IDE to provide context-aware suggestions and documentation. Just open the repository folder in Cursor. You can create your own folders "/workspace/, "/projects/", or "my_projects/" as these are already in the .gitignore, and place your custom scripts there for your projects. This will allow easy referencing of the ras-commander documents and individual repo files, the automatic loading of the .cursorrules file. Alternatvely, download the github repo into your projects folder to easily load documents and use cursor rules files.

4. AI Assistant Notebook: A notebook for dynamic code summarization and API interaction (bring your own API Key). Currently, this only does a single-shot message on the Claude Sonnet 3.5 API, which can be up to 50 cents per request. Future revisions will include the ability to select which knowledge base file to include, a choice of SOTA models + multi turn conversations to build automation notebooks interactively.

These tools aim to streamline development and provide intelligent assistance when modeling with, and working with and revising the ras-commander library.

Installation

Create a virtual environment with conda or venv (ask ChatGPT if you need help)

In your virtual environment, install ras-commander using pip:

pip install h5py numpy pandas requests tqdm scipy
pip install ras-commander

If you have dependency issues with pip (especially if you have errors with numpy), try clearing your local pip packages 'C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Roaming\Python' and then creating a new virtual environment.

Requirements

• Tested with Python 3.11
• HEC-RAS 6.2 or later (other versions may work, all testing was done with version 6.2 and above)
• Detailed project workflows and/or existing libraries and code where ras-commander can be integrated.

For a full list of dependencies, see the requirements.txt file.

Quick Start

from ras_commander import init_ras_project, RasCmdr, RasPlan

Initialize a project

init_ras_project(r"/path/to/project", "6.5")

Execute a single plan

RasCmdr.compute_plan("01", dest_folder=r"/path/to/results", overwrite_dest=True)

Execute plans in parallel

results = RasCmdr.compute_parallel(
    plan_numbers=["01", "02"],
    max_workers=2,
    cores_per_run=2,
    dest_folder=r"/path/to/results",
    overwrite_dest=True
)

Modify a plan

RasPlan.set_geom("01", "02")

Certainly! I'll provide you with an updated Key Components section and Project Organization diagram based on the current structure of the ras-commander library.

Key Components

• RasPrj: Manages HEC-RAS projects, handling initialization and data loading
• RasCmdr: Handles execution of HEC-RAS simulations
• RasPlan: Provides functions for modifying and updating plan files
• RasGeo: Handles operations related to geometry files
• RasUnsteady: Manages unsteady flow file operations
• RasUtils: Contains utility functions for file operations and data management
• RasExamples: Manages and loads HEC-RAS example projects
• RasHdf: Provides utilities for working with HDF files in HEC-RAS projects

Project Organization Diagram

ras_commander
├── .github
│   └── workflows
│       └── python-package.yml
├── ras_commander
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── _version.py
│   ├── RasCmdr.py
│   ├── RasExamples.py
│   ├── RasGeo.py
│   ├── RasHdf.py
│   ├── RasPlan.py
│   ├── RasPrj.py
│   ├── RasUnsteady.py
│   └── RasUtils.py
├── examples
│   ├── 01_project_initialization.py
│   ├── 02_plan_operations.py
│   ├── 03_geometry_operations.py
│   ├── 04_unsteady_flow_operations.py
│   ├── 05_utility_functions.py
│   ├── 06_single_plan_execution.py
│   ├── 07_sequential_plan_execution.py
│   ├── 08_parallel_execution.py
│   ├── 09_specifying_plans.py
│   ├── 10_arguments_for_compute.py
│   ├── 11_Using_RasExamples.ipynb
│   ├── 12_plan_set_execution.py
│   ├── 13_multiple_project_operations.py
│   ├── 14_Core_Sensitivity.ipynb
│   ├── 15_plan_key_operations.py
│   ├── 16_scanning_ras_project_info.py
│   ├── 17_parallel_execution_ble.py
│   └── HEC_RAS_2D_HDF_Analysis.ipynb
├── tests
│   └── ... (test files)
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── STYLE_GUIDE.md
├── Comprehensive_Library_Guide.md
├── pyproject.toml
├── setup.cfg
├── setup.py
└── requirements.txt

Accessing HEC Examples through RasExamples

The RasExamples class provides functionality for quickly loading and managing HEC-RAS example projects. This is particularly useful for testing and development purposes.

Key features:

• Download and extract HEC-RAS example projects
• List available project categories and projects
• Extract specific projects for use
• Manage example project data efficiently

Example usage: from ras_commander import RasExamples

ras_examples = RasExamples()
ras_examples.get_example_projects()  # Downloads example projects if not already present
categories = ras_examples.list_categories()
projects = ras_examples.list_projects("Steady Flow")
extracted_paths = ras_examples.extract_project(["Bald Eagle Creek", "Muncie"])

RasPrj

The RasPrj class is central to managing HEC-RAS projects within the ras-commander library. It handles project initialization, data loading, and provides access to project components.

Key features:

• Initialize HEC-RAS projects
• Load and manage project data (plans, geometries, flows, etc.)
• Provide easy access to project files and information

Note: While a global ras object is available for convenience, you can create multiple RasPrj instances to manage several projects simultaneously.

Example usage:

from ras_commander import RasPrj, init_ras_project

Using the global ras object

init_ras_project("/path/to/project", "6.5")

Creating a custom RasPrj instance

custom_project = RasPrj()
init_ras_project("/path/to/another_project", "6.5", ras_instance=custom_project)

RasHdf

The RasHdf class provides utilities for working with HDF files in HEC-RAS projects, enabling easy access to simulation results and model data.

Example usage:

from ras_commander import RasHdf, init_ras_project, RasPrj

# Initialize project with a custom ras object
custom_ras = RasPrj()
init_ras_project("/path/to/project", "6.5", ras_instance=custom_ras)

# Get runtime data for a specific plan
plan_number = "01"
runtime_data = RasHdf.get_runtime_data(plan_number, ras_object=custom_ras)
print(runtime_data)

This class simplifies the process of extracting and analyzing data from HEC-RAS HDF output files, supporting tasks such as post-processing and result visualization.

Documentation

For detailed usage instructions and API documentation, please refer to the Comprehensive Library Guide.

Examples

Check out the examples/ directory for sample scripts demonstrating various features of ras-commander.

Future Development

The ras-commander library is an ongoing project. Future plans include:

• Integration of more advanced AI-driven features
• Expansion of HMS and DSS functionalities
• Enhanced GPU support for computational tasks
• Community-driven development of new modules and features

Related Resources

• HEC-Commander Blog
• GPT-Commander YouTube Channel
• ChatGPT Examples for Water Resources Engineers

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details on how to submit pull requests, report issues, and suggest improvements.

Style Guide

This project follows a specific style guide to maintain consistency across the codebase. Please refer to the Style Guide for details on coding conventions, documentation standards, and best practices.

License

ras-commander is released under the MIT License. See the license file for details.

Acknowledgments

RAS Commander is based on the HEC-Commander project's "Command Line is All You Need" approach, leveraging the HEC-RAS command-line interface for automation. The initial development of this library was presented in the HEC-Commander Tools repository. In a 2024 Australian Water School webinar, Bill demonstrated the derivation of basic HEC-RAS automation functions from plain language instructions. Leveraging the previously developed code and AI tools, the library was created. The primary tools used for this initial development were Anthropic's Claude, GPT-4, Google's Gemini Experimental models, and the Cursor AI Coding IDE.

Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the following notable contributions and attributions for open source projects which significantly influenced the development of RAS Commander:

1. Contributions: Sean Micek's funkshuns, TXTure, and RASmatazz libraries provided inspiration, code examples and utility functions which were adapted with AI for use in RAS Commander. Sean has also contributed heavily to

• Development of additional HDF functions for detailed analysis and mapping of HEC-RAS results within the RasHdf class.
• Development of the prototype RasCmdr class for executing HEC-RAS simulations.
• Optimization examples and methods from (INSERT REFERENCE) for use in the Ras-Commander library examples

2. Attribution: The pyHMT2D project by Xiaofeng Liu, which provided insights into HDF file handling methods for HEC-RAS outputs. Many of the functions in the Ras_2D_Data.py file were adapted with AI for use in RAS Commander.

   Xiaofeng Liu, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Institute of Computational and Data Sciences, Penn State University

These acknowledgments recognize the contributions and inspirations that have helped shape RAS Commander, ensuring proper attribution for the ideas and code that have influenced its development.

3. Chris Goodell, "Breaking the HEC-RAS Code" - Studied and used as a reference for understanding the inner workings of HEC-RAS, providing valuable insights into the software's functionality and structure.

4. HEC-Commander Tools - Inspiration and initial code base for the development of RAS Commander.

Contact

For questions, suggestions, or support, please contact: William Katzenmeyer, P.E., C.F.M. - [e-mail]