BJSoftware News for Sewers Users

The new web-based plotplan editor is available now. It is accessible from the Design Wizard plotplan page or the “Edit Plot Plan” button on the main toolbar.

Due to the vastly different programming approaches, the two editors do not share their data: each has its own data format. What that means if you use one editor to create a plotplan, you cannot use the other to edit it. You can, however, use both editors for the same design, it just means you’ll start from scratch on both.

At version 2024.03.19 we have started releasing some web-based features that have been under development for some time.

New to this version is a completely redesigned persona editor to replace the old clunky one. It will let you generate a letterhead and has a signature capture that you can use to insert your signature into the design. Because the wizard defaults and preferences are tied to a persona, those editors have also been incorporated into the new persona editor.

You can now edit your contact info at BJSoftware and change some other account settings yourself. Under the “Accounting” menu is a menu item: “Update Account…”. It will launch the web-based account manager for you. If your contact info has changed since you registered to use Sewers, you ought update it. The contact info from your account can be used to jump start your persona in the new persona editor.

A completely new Plotplan editor has been developed from the ground up. Instead of being based on an archaic 2D CAD system like the old one, this one is more intuitive and uses common drawing program techniques that you are probably already familiar with like click and drag, grabbing corners or sides and dragging to stretch the object, freehand drawing, and lots more. Access to it will be released, at least as a demo, in an update soon.

The server upgrade started 9:38am and was complete at 9:48am.

Our web hosting provider will be doing a database server upgrade this Tuesday (August 22, 2023) starting about 9am EDT. BJSoftware services such as checking in and purchasing will be down for a brief period. I will post once I hear the services are back on line.

Can you believe that Sewers is in its 41st year? I wrote the first version in 1982 to run on a Radio Shack Model 3. Over time I moved it to PCs, then the Mac. In 2000 I decided I wanted to get away from answering phones and doing so many systems myself. So I figured out a licensing system and the web server software to support opening it up for others to use and moved it to Windows. It has evolved considerably since then, but the current version is substantially that Windows version. Over the past couple of years I’ve modernized some of the internals and moved to more modern database and server technology little by little. Over the past few months I’ve made a more concerted effort to modernize the underlying technology and web support technology and expand Sewers usability.

I had hoped to start rolling out updates earlier this summer, but an opportunity arose for an epic cycling adventure with friends, so I took it.

Now that I’m back, I’ll be releasing the first of a series of updates in the next few weeks. You probably won’t notice too many changes at first. A lot has changed under the hood, but I tried to maintain the user interface to avoid too much confusion. Subsequent releases will introduce more obvious changes.

Why make changes? A few reasons. First, computing is always a moving target. Standards change, operating systems introduce new requirements, security gets more involved, hardware becomes more capable, new technologies arise, and new things become possible.

With the second release we’ll introduce web syncing of your data. At present all of your data is on your machine and only your machine. With web syncing your data will be backed up to our server and you’ll be able to run Sewers from multiple different computers and they’ll all use the same data you’ve stored. Whenever you run Sewers it will automatically sync the data between the web and your machine(s). You’ll have the option to use (or not) web syncing. If you are interested in being an early adopter, drop me a line. I’m looking for a couple of beta testers before I release the feature to everyone.

Web syncing is just the first domino. With your data mirrored on the web (securely and privately stored) we can roll out new, web-based features over time. I’ve already been working on moving the persona editor to the web as it needed to be rewritten anyhow. Next will be online data entry from a browser. This means you’ll be able to start a design from your phone or tablet while on the road and finish it at your desk. It will work like the first few pages of the current design wizard does now. Eventually the whole design wizard will be ported to the web. I’m also working on a completely new plot plan editor that will be browser based and, hopefully, much easier to use and less buggy.

No promises on timing on any of this. I still need to do a massive amount of work to pull it all off and not all the technology is fully there yet, but I have confidence it will be.

I am working on upgrading my servers and it appears that something in the changes has caused Sewers to sometimes give a message that your software is not registered. I am working to fix this, but it might take a application update and I still need to do a lot of testing before posting the next update because I have made a lot of internal changes. I think the issue is just a nuisance, but if Sewers prevents you from using designing systems, please let me know as soon as possible.

The Plot Plan Editor. Love it or hate it. I’ve always hated it. The CAD engine in it isn’t mine and hasn’t been maintained in decades. It is quirky and generates nearly untraceable bugs. So a couple of weeks ago I started a major overhaul of its code, the old 3rd party code and my own. My main goal was to squash bugs, but in the end it ended up with many improvements. I won’t bore you with the internals other than to say that I did a lot of work and I think I fixed the issues in the 3rd party code. I tried not to change the interface so much that you’d be lost. Most operations should work pretty much the same as before. Some changes you can see and many more are behind the scenes. So here’s what you’ll see:

• Auto Saving - plot plans are saved automatically as they are drawn. No need to do anything. As soon as you start drawing, Sewers starts saving. All plot plans are saved to a folder within your Sewers data folder using the serial number of the design. Something like:

  C:\Users\YourNameHere\Documents\Sewers_Data\plotplans\22111001.spp
  

  If you haven’t saved the design yet (that’s when Sewers assigns the serial number) it will be saved to a temporary file using a globally unique code, something like:

  {C4A64D59-0E6C-47D8-9886-B21A18D47639}.spp
  

• History - plot plans contain their complete revision history which means you can backtrack on any changes, anytime.
• Undo/Redo - to facilitate using the plot plan’s history there are now full undo and redo features that can even be used after you’ve left and come back to the plot plan.
• Better printing and PDF generation - cleaned up some issues with both printing and making PDFs.
• Moved the File and Options menus - to make room in the interface for the Undo/Redo, the File and Options menu were moved to above the toolbar.
• Killed off the user library - was still having issues getting the user library to work correctly so in order to get this update out, I killed it off for now. If that inconveniences anyone, please let me know and I’ll put some more work into it.
• Compatibility with previous plot plans - you should still be able to edit/print/etc old plot plans. They will be converted to the new format automatically.

So go ahead and kick the tires. I’d appreciate any feedback; good, bad, or ugly.

With the latest release of Sewers (2021.06.21) we have added a preference that may allow you to use fewer laterals for some widths of sloped-top at-grades.

In previous versions of Sewers the distance between the most downslope lateral and the edge of the downslope aggregate was set at 6 feet. 6 feet is the minimum distance allowed by the DEP Alternate Guidance document “At-Grade Absorption Area” at paragraph II.C.5.a.iii. The document does not specify a maximum, so it appears some unspecified designer discretion is allowed. We have added a preference that allows you, the designer, to set that maximum at 6, 7, or 8 feet. The preference is set to 6 feet by default, so if you do not want to use this new feature you do not have to do anything.

If you change the setting to 7 ft, a 14 ft wide system will now be designed with 2 laterals instead of 3; a 20 ft wide system will have 3 laterals instead of 4.

If you change the setting to 8 ft, a 14 or 15 ft wide system will now be designed with 2 laterals instead of 3; a 20 or 21 ft wide system will have 3 laterals instead of 4.

If you leave the preference alone (6 ft), sloped-top at-grades will be designed as they always have been.

The new preference is on the “Overrides” tab of the Preferences Editor.

With the latest version of Sewers (2011.03.10) the out-of-scale printing issue appears to be resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

A few versions ago I added a feature that automatically saves a copy of any design you print - as a PDF into an archive folder. So now whenever you print a design, whether to a printer or to PDF, a PDF of it is saved to the “Sewers_Data\DesignArchive” folder. (The “Sewers_Data” folder is in your “Documents” folder.) Each time you print a given design, a new copy will be saved with a version number appended to the serial number of the design. So the third time you print design 21011601, it will be saved as “21011601(3).pdf”.

I’ve gotten a couple of reports of designs printing too small, mostly looking like the font is too small. I’ve been working on this for a while now and I think I may have a solution on the way. In the meantime, if you are experiencing this issue there are two workarounds:

• Save the design as a PDF and print the PDF

OR

• Under Display Settings (right click on the desktop to chose from the popup menu), change the Scale and layout to 100%.

I hope to a have a fix out for this soon.

The most recent major update (2020.10.30) upgraded display technology and expanded design capabilities. This one (2021.01.24) modernizes the underlying database and help systems.

The database system has been upgraded from a twenty-something year old, obsoleted technology to current technology. You should notice a significant speed up in the saving of designs (at least I did), but most importantly it keeps the software up to date with changing tech. With this update Sewers will download a new resources database (the one Sewers uses to store all the bits and pieces used to assemble a design from) and it will create a new user database to store your designs. On first run the software will port all of your old designs over to the new system and archive the old database. If you have a lot of designs it may take a few minutes.

The old help system was cumbersome to update and the technology behind it was pretty ancient, so we have moved it to web-based deployment. The new help window slides out when you click the [<] button on the right side of the screen. All of the content is delivered live from http://help.bjsoftware.com. The content of the help system has been updated. And since updates are a lot easier now, please let me know what additions to the help you might like to see.

I have been running this upgrade myself for about two months now to make sure it is solid, and it appears to be. But, as always, if you have any issues please let me know.

Version 2020.10.30 is a new release with some major, mostly underlying, changes.

• The old rendering engine was replaced with a new one that should produce better looking reports, especially PDFs.
• Pumps, tanks, filters, etc. should now persist when you navigate in the design wizard and they are saved in the database now as well. Plumbing fittings are not saved, yet. But hopefully they will in a coming version.
• A broader range of effluent filters has been added and the defaults editor has been modified to allow multiple selections as defaults.
• The database of text snippets that Sewers uses to generate designs has been thoroughly review for spelling and many typos have been fixed.

When you upgrade there are two files that should be installed by the upgrade utility. If one of them fails to install, run the setup program again. There should be a copy of it in the Sewers program folder or you can download it from the website.

If you have any issues with this update please contact me!

We have been charging the same $30 per design since Sewers was first released for licensing 20 years ago, back in 2000. Our costs (development software licensing, insurance, web servers, etc.) have gone up considerably over that time to the point where we have to decide whether to quit, work at a loss, or raise prices. I feel obligated to keep going and we can’t provide this service at a loss, so we are raising our prices. Effective August 1, 2020, the new price will be $50 per design.

Sewers now includes Eljen GSF (Geotextile Sand Filter) mound systems. Manifold placement options (either end or center) and shallow limiting zones (pumped systems) are supported.

For those of you who are having trouble finding the newly relocated PDF capabilities… Click the “Print…” button on the design viewer. The old print dialog now has an option to choose between a printer or to save as a PDF. If you choose “Print to PDF” you will get another dialog when you click the “Print” button to choose a place to save the PDFs.

At version 2018.09.09 there are three changes of note:

• Printing to PDFs has been merged with the regular printing routine, so the “Print to PDF…” button is gone.
• The FD siphons have been updated. Some new 2" ones have been added. Also, when the dose is high due to delivery line volume the software attempts to reduce the delivery line diameter according to manufacturer’s instructions. The factors that will trigger the attempt are: using a 3" or 4" siphon (they both have a 4" discharge) and the minimum dose required due to the volume of the delivery line is larger than the dose would otherwise be (siphons require a 3 minute runtime, so often that is the culprit). The software then verifies that the friction does not cause more head than available before settling on a new diameter, if a smaller one will work at all. Friction is such a big issue because siphons have larger flow rates due to the larger lateral hole sizes required.
• We have added Norweco’s Singulair 960 Hydro-Kinetic Bio-Film Reactor (HKBFR) systems discharged into at-grade beds.

Expect another big system type addition in the next week or two.

The new EC7 series of Ecoflos has been added to Sewers, including the new Pack systems (single unit handling septic, filter, and dose).

We’ve added a pre-pay option to Sewers to work around the issues with PayPal. Now you can pre-load your account to avoid using PayPal through Sewers. You can either send us a check or pay through the “Pay license fees” link on BJSoftware.com. The payment is credited to your account manually, so it may take a little time for it to enable.

A few users have been having trouble purchasing through PayPal. If you get an “invalid transaction” message from PayPal, close Sewers, go to Internet Options in the Control Panel and delete your cookies (for most systems: click the Delete… button in the Browsing History section on the General tab, check Cookies and Website Data and then click the Delete button).

The problem saving to PDF in the previous version has been fixed at version 2015.05.29.

The latest version of Sewers now contains all of the new Ecoflo Coco systems. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the “Print to PDF” feature is not working properly since the update. It’s forcing the page size to be too wide and consequently the report won’t print correctly. I’m working on a fix, but it might take a little while as the print to PDF code is not all mine. A work around is to use a PDF print driver instead.

Sewers has been updated to the latest (Feb 2014) guidance for at-grade discharge as of version 2014.06.03.

Some of you have been experiencing problems with reaching the website when checking in or paying for a system. It appears that something is blocking the connection. I think I have it mostly figured out, at least I am able to connect now myself. For now the solution is to install or update to the latest version (2013.10.08). Update (2013.10.15): My webhosting service has been blocking the connections because they have a similar signature to that of a new botnet. The solution I came up with above is the preferred long term solution (upgrading). For the short term they have turned off their botnet security on the affected urls. However, they will be turning the botnet security back on on November 1. You must upgrade to at least 2013.10.08 by then. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I finally got some time to do some updating to Sewers. Here are the highlights so far (version 2012.11.30):

• Smoother on-screen drawings. This should also cure an occasional printing related error
• Fixed missing spec sheets
• Added the full suite of Ecoflo biofilters: polyethylene and concrete w/ dosing chambers
• Added support for Puraflo biofilters
• Improved support for aerobic treatment units
• Added Sta-Rite pumps (needed for the Ecoflo w/ dosing)
• Cleaned up the report format
• Improved support for disinfection
• Added stream discharge (requires a PE signoff on your designs)
• Fixed bug reporting system so that software errors are being sent again
• Improved the auto-updating feature so that it is less likely to be blocked by Windows
• Added Flout siphons

Some pages in the wizard have been moved to facilitate the new features. There will be another update or two before the end of the year. If the auto-updating feature is not working for you, please download the installer from BJSoftware.com and re-install Sewers. Your data will not be affected with a re-installation. If you have a wish list for what you want to see in Sewers, now is the time to share it with me (bjsoftware.com/contact). Some additional capabilities currently under consideration:

• Eljen GSF
• Cost estimator tool
• Pressure dosed trenches and beds
• Drip irrigation
• Micro mounds

So feel free to voice your opinion on what you would like to see in Sewers. No promises, but I’ll do what I can while my current schedule allows. Cheers, Bruce.

Due to problems with saving plot plans to the database, the plot plans are now saved directly to disk, without being stored in the database. Their file names include the design serial number or use a temporary ID until a serial number is assigned. Also, plot plans have a version number assigned if you save the plot plan more than once so that you never overwrite a plot plan. A keyboard shortcut ([ctrl][s]) has been added to facilitate saving a version when you want. You can use a previous plot plan for a new system using the File|Load menu item in the Plot Plan Editor. There have been some issues reported regarding preferences not working as expected. The problem appeared to be due to letting each persona have its own preferences and to use the default persona’s preference when a named persona didn’t have a preference set. I think the issue is resolved now with today’s release (2011.01.02). Due to changes from the legacy version of Sewers, specsheets were not being included in the designs. They are now. Liberty FL100, FL150, and FL200 series pumps have been added to the pumps database.

This message system is a new feature in Sewers (as of version 2010.11.07) to keep our users informed. When you launch Sewers, the software will check BJSoftware.com to see if there are any new messages for Sewers users. If there are new messages, the messages will be loaded and displayed automatically. If you want to open the message system directly, there is a menu item for it in the “Help” menu. Or you can visit http://blog.BJSoftware.com in any web browser.

It looks like I recently introduced a “copy and paste” bug in the code that launches the plot plan editor, preventing the plot plan editor from opening. Today’s version (2010.12.01) corrects the problem. Today’s version also introduces a new behind the scenes feature that will let you email me debugging information if Sewers throws up an error message.