Automated Design Tool
We don't design each plant from scratch. Instead, we do research to understand the fundamental processes of water treatment and invent scalable, reproducible tools that can be combined to form a complete water treatment plant. Then, our Automated Design Tool does exactly that. The ADT is free software that allows users to receive customized AutoCAD plant designs based on inputs like flow rate and region of the world.
Design Philosophy | Why Open Source?
Accessing the Automated Design Tool
The AguaClara Automated Design Tool (ADT) was recently released for testingis the key to AguaClara's continuing scalability. The designs generated by the design tool, in conjunction with professional engineering review, enable the construction of new plants with little to no overhead cost from engineering firms. Since the designs are used by engineers in Honduras, the ADT is bilingual (Spanish and English), and will support additional languages in the future.AguaClara's ultimate goal is to provide communities around the world access to free, effective water treatment plant designs. In keeping with AguaClara's philosophy of open design the Design Tool source is now available for use via an online interface here. You will need updated versions of AutoCAD in order to use the files that the Design Tool will send to you.
How it works
The ADT provides an interface for the user to input the desired flow rate for their plant design. The Design Tool then sends a request to the AguaClara server to produce Using a large set of equations that depend on pipe and tank dimensions (among other parameters), the ADT produces a spreadsheet of all variables relevant to the plant design, and the values assigned to each of them. These include pipe diameters, wall dimensions, and baffle dimensions and placement, to name a few. The ADT also produces text-based code of AutoCAD commands uses these variables to scale plant components in AutoCAD to create a complete, three dimensional design of the entire plant and its subcomponents. This code is imported into AutoCAD, which produces a drawing of the plant. For an interesting visual summary, see the demonstration of the Automated Design Tool in the video at the bottom of this pagecomponents.
See the design tool in action in our YouTube video here. Or, you can skip to the end to see the complete water treatment plant design.
The AguaClara ADT is written by students using engineering calculations in MathCADMathcad. The MathCAD Mathcad software produces the commands that are sent to AutoCAD, and a plant is created! . Experience with these pieces of software, and the integration of theoretical and empirical engineering equations with design software has proved incredibly valuable to the students on the Design team—it design team---it provides realistic professional experience and an effective connection between coursework and actual engineering design.
One of AguaClara's ultimate goals is provide communities around the world access to free, effective water treatment plant designs. We encourage communities in need, as well as interested readers, to download the AguaClara design tool. Instructions and download links are available on the Download Design Tool page. See the design tool in action in our YouTube video here. Skip to the end to see the complete water treatment plant design.
Engineering Review Process
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For this reason, AguaClara is developing a design validation process to test new releases of the online design tool. The validation process involves independent calculations of flow passage dimensions, reactor dimensions, and water surface elevations. New releases of the design tool will be tested by creating and validating a large number of different designs. In the future, the validation process will be automated and included in the Automated Design Tool package, as a safeguard against errors in the automated system.
Example Output:
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Links
Design Philosophy
Why Open Source?
3-D Rendering of AutoCAD Output