The Irrigation System Designer

The Irrigation System Designer is a drawing and modelling workspace where you can plan a new system or an upgrade, test it hydraulically, and produce a plan and parts list — all without touching your live records.

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Where do I find it?

Click Irrigation in the top bar, then System, then Design.

The Designer is part of Irrigation — it's the second view of System, next to As-built. When it opens, the page gives the map the full width. The top bar stays available to get anywhere else in TurfWise; on smaller screens use the Menu button.

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How is the workspace laid out?

• The design bar across the top — the design you have open, and its actions.
• Tools on the left — everything you can draw or place.
• The map in the middle — a satellite view of your course.
• The right-hand column — Analyse, Run time and the Inspector.
• The result bar — the verdict from your last analysis.

What's in the design bar?

Click the switcher to open a design. At the top of the list is As-built (live network) — a read-only view of your real system, as recorded under System › As-built (stations and heads, pumps and pressure). You can click things on it to inspect them, but not change them.

Once a design is open, the bar also shows:

• Compare — see how the design differs from what it started from (for upgrade designs).
• Evidence — a PDF of the design's hydraulic results for committee.
• Plan — a scaled installation plan PDF with schedules, for a contractor.
• Bill of materials and Revision history — two icon buttons.
• ⋯ — rename, duplicate as an experiment, change the design's status, or promote it.

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How do I start a design?

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How do I draw and edit?

The Tools panel is grouped into four sets:

• Network — Pipe and Ring main
• Supply — Pump, Water source and Tank
• Controls — Isolation valve, PRV and Filter (these clip onto a pipe)
• Outlets — Valve-in-head, Station and Sprinkler

Drawing pipes

Choose Pipe or Ring main, pick the material, diameter and class, then click along the route. The ends snap onto nearby points. Click Finish pipe to complete a run, and Done when you've finished drawing.

Placing equipment

Choose a tool and click the map to place it. The preview ring tells you what will happen — green for a new point, amber to snap onto a pipe, blue to reuse an existing point. Hold Alt (or Option on a Mac) to place without snapping. Click Done when you're finished.

Moving, undoing and deleting

Use Select on the map toolbar to click and drag points, pipe bends and sprinkler arcs. Undo and Redo are on the toolbar too, or press Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Shift + Z (⌘ on a Mac). Fit to network zooms to show the whole design.

To change or delete something, click it and use the Inspector — see below.

Under More Tools, Backfill elevations fills in ground heights from terrain data in one step.

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How do I check whether the design works?

Use the Analyse card at the top of the right-hand column.

Reading the result bar

The result bar gives a confidence grade from A to D and an overall verdict — Good, Marginal, Failing or Not assessed. Each verdict also has its own shape (tick, triangle, cross or dash) so you can read it without relying on colour.

Grades A and B get a pass or fail verdict. At C it's a "Planning estimate only", and at D there isn't enough data to judge. Fill in missing pump, pipe and head details to raise the grade.

You'll also see the Weakest point — how much pressure it has to spare, or how short it is. If you change the design after analysing, the result dims and says Re-solve needed.

What do the colours mean?

• Pressure margin — Healthy with 0.3 bar or more to spare, Tight below that, Shortfall when there isn't enough.
• Pipe speed — OK up to 1.5 m/s, High up to 2.1 m/s, Too high above that.

Findings

Click the Errors, Warnings or Info counts to open Findings. Each one explains the problem and what to do about it. Click it to see where it is on the map. Some findings — like a valve that isn't connected to the pump — appear before you've even analysed.

How many stations can run at once?

After Each station on its own, open the roster from the result bar. Each on its own lists every valve, worst first, with its spare pressure. Above it, How many can run together tells you how many stations the system can run at the same time and what stops it running one more.

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What else can the Designer do?

The Inspector

Click anything on the map to inspect it. Summary gives the headline, Engineering shows the pressure, friction and confidence detail, and Edit lets you change pipe material and size, valve and nozzle details, sprinkler arcs, tank levels and more. Add pumps or Edit pumps opens the Pump station panel, where you can set up to six pumps.

Use Join to network to connect a stray point, or Delete to remove it.

Run time

Select a valve or sprinkler (after analysing) and the Run time card works out application rates. Choose the area to measure over, then either enter minutes to see the mm applied, or enter mm to see how long to run. The map shades areas that get no water, one head's worth, or head-to-head coverage.

Bill of materials

Click the Bill of materials icon for a list of pipe lengths by material and size, valves, sprinkler heads, pumps and inline devices. It gives quantities only — there's no pricing.

Experiments

From ⋯, choose Duplicate as experiment to try an idea on a scratch copy. You can then Compare with original, Keep it as its own design, Merge into original or discard it.

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How do I get a design approved and built?

Each design has a status: Draft, In review, Approved, Promoted or Archived. Use ⋯ to move it along — Submit for review, then Approve (managers and admins only).

An approved design is locked. To change it, choose Return to draft.

Promoting to your live system

Promote to live system is available once a design is approved, and like approving it's for managers and admins only. It writes the design's pipes and junctions into your real irrigation records. Nothing is deleted — anything no longer in the design is listed for you to review.

Stations and sprinklers aren't created automatically, because they need real decoder addresses. After you promote, TurfWise takes you to System › As-built and tells you what's still to wire up.