Allsite.ai extended data is automatically added to pipes and structures on creation.
Level AI factors in the storm and sanitary networks if "Servicing Enabled" in the run, this will project minimum pipe grades up the roads from existing manholes/pipes and any lift stations / outlets into lots. PUBLIC PARK and PUBLIC DRAINAGE type lots are excluded from this analysis. This sets a 'floor' for the design accounting the minimum pipe clearances under roads/pervious.
Service AI takes the existing connections and designs the catchments and networks as per the subnet (sub network)'s configured.
Network / Part Library
Select the storm, sanitary and water networks from the dropdowns on the Networks ribbon panel (or in the Run design window) - this is where the pipes and structures created by Service AI will be put. Each dropdown is mirrored on Allsite.ai.
When structures and pipes are added for in these networks they will get property data automatically assigned indicating whether a storm / sanitary node.
Via the Allsite.ai you can then set the part family to use Storm and Sanitary pipes and various structure types. This informs Service AI the parts to select from. If no part family is selected the family that was used for any existing pipes/structures and/or family with the most part sizes is selected.
Networks to design on the Service AI settings chooses which of Storm, Sanitary and Water Supply a run designs; all three are on by default. A network you clear is left out of the run: Service AI does not design it, and loading results leaves its existing pipes and structures as they are.
This is separate from the network dropdowns. The dropdowns say where the results go; Networks to design says which networks are designed. Leaving a dropdown empty never takes a network out of the run.
When a drawing is initialised, an empty Storm or Sanitary dropdown is filled with an existing storm or sanitary pipe network from the drawing, if there is one. If there is none, choose a network or pick Create default network… (see below). Every gravity network the run designs needs a network selected: Check Inputs, Check & run and Load results stop and ask for one until it is. A network cleared in Networks to design needs no selection.
Creating a default network
If the drawing has no network for the results, pick Create default network… at the bottom of the Storm, Sanitary or Water dropdown. Allsite creates an empty network called Storm Network, Sanitary Network or Water Network and selects it for Service AI. The whole creation can be undone in one step.
Storm and Sanitary get a parts list of their own, Allsite Storm or Allsite Sanitary, with every size from the installed Civil 3D catalogue. Storm gets concrete pipe, manholes, inlets and outlet headwalls; Sanitary gets PVC pipe and manholes. The drawing's other parts lists are not changed.
Water uses the drawing's pressure parts list if it includes a hydrant. If not, Allsite creates an Allsite Water pressure parts list from an Autodesk pressure catalogue that has hydrants, and sets that as the drawing's pressure catalogue. If no such catalogue is installed, nothing is created and a message says why.
The new network is empty. Service AI connects its design to your existing network, so add the existing pipes and structures (the outfall, or the main it ties into) to the new network before you run.
Water supply network and part families
Water supply is designed as a Civil 3D pressure network only. Choose its network from the Water dropdown on the Networks ribbon panel. The choice is mirrored to the Water network setting on the Services (Water Supply) settings, under Civil 3D, where its part families are chosen.
Water network - the pressure network the results are added to. It is optional: with none selected, the results go into the drawing's only pressure network, or into a new one called Water Network.
Pipe part family - the pressure pipe family Service AI picks sizes from.
Fitting and appurtenance part families - one family for each of JUNCTION, VALVE, HYDRANT and PRESSURE REDUCING VALVE. JUNCTION, VALVE and HYDRANT are required: without one, every node of that type is dropped when the results load. PRESSURE REDUCING VALVE is optional.
The drawing needs a pressure parts list, which usually comes from the drawing template (a Civil 3D pressure-pipe template such as the AWWA or metric water templates). If it has none with a hydrant, Create default network… on the Water dropdown creates one. See Running a Service AI Model for the rest of what water supply needs.
Pipe sub types
Service AI fills in a pipe's Sub Type when the results load; its Type stays PIPE. Mains are left with no sub type.
Sub Type | What it is | Network |
LATERAL | A building lateral: the service pipe from the main to a lot. | Storm, Sanitary, Water Supply |
LEAD | A short pipe from the main to a hydrant, or from a catchpit to the main. | Water Supply, Storm |
Leads and laterals get no long section.
Storm/Sanitary Settings
Below are the storm, sanitary and water supply settings configurable in your Allsite.ai project, grouped by category.
The values a new project starts with are a starting point, not a recommendation. Set your organisation's own standards in a template project and every new project created from it inherits them.
Network placement
In words: an offset distance is measured from one of six lines — the road centreline, the curb, the corridor extent, or a parcel's front, side or rear boundary. From the curb, a positive offset is away from the road centreline and a negative one towards it. From the corridor extent, the offset always runs into the road reserve, whatever its sign: 1 ft and −1 ft both put the main 1 ft inside the extent, never into the lots. Road side then decides which side of the road the main favours: Low or High by ground level, Left or Right with respect to the direction the road alignment was drawn, Both for one main each side, Centre, or a compass quarter such as North East. A lot's connection setting picks which boundary its tie-in point sits on — front, rear, either, or one per building — or replaces the pipe with a surface discharge point that sheds to the road channel instead. Storm road inlets have two switches of their own, described in the table below. A custom primary path is a line you draw where no road corridor puts a main, through a reserve or across open space: each line carries its own storm, sanitary and water supply offset distance, positive to the left of the direction you drew it and negative to the right, 0 putting the main on the line itself, and a blank offset leaving that network off the line. It is additional to the mains the road corridors already produce, so a path drawn along a road that declares the same network produces two. The arrangement in the diagram is one of many the table can produce, not a recommended one.
Setting | Description | Network |
Network placement | Desired network paths within the road corridor and parcels — an offset distance measured from the road centreline, curb, corridor extent, or a parcel's front, side or rear boundary, plus the Road side the main favours. From the corridor extent the offset is always measured into the road reserve, whatever its sign. | All |
Maximum lots on a single feed | The most lots a water supply main may serve from a single feed. Service AI adds loop mains along the water supply network paths until a break in any one main cuts off no more than this many lots. It also puts every hydrant on a loop and adds any loop under 100 m (328 ft) that gives a lot a second feed. 0 turns off every loop main, the hydrant and short loops included, and leaves the network a tree. | Water supply |
Hydrant placement parameters | Where hydrants may sit across the road reserve: the feature the offset is measured from (curb, road centerline or corridor extent), the offset distance, and the Road side. For the curb, a positive offset is away from the road centerline; for the centerline it is to the left of the alignment direction. From the corridor extent the offset always runs into the road reserve, whatever its sign. Every road takes this row as its hydrant defaults and can override it (see Road Settings). Vehicle crossings and service laterals are trimmed out of the hydrant line before hydrants are placed. | Water supply |
Hydrant design distance | Every lot must have a hydrant within this distance, measured along the road reserve. Service AI places hydrants until every lot is covered. | Water supply |
Default normal lot pipe connection | Default pipe connection method for NORMAL-category lots (surface single/multiple discharge point [storm], piped front, piped rear, or piped front or rear). | Storm, Sanitary |
Default Normal Lot Water Supply pipe connection | Default water supply connection for NORMAL-category lots: piped front, piped rear, piped front or rear, or piped front each building (the default, which gives each building its own service lateral). No connection leaves the lot off the water supply network, unless the lot sets its own connection. | Water Supply |
Align inlets with lot side boundaries | Places road inlets only where lot side boundaries meet the road edge, and at intersections, so inlets line up with the boundaries. Off, inlets are placed where flow capacity and maximum inlet spacing require them. | Storm |
Allow inlet leads to saddle onto the main | Lets each road inlet connect to the main with a lead that saddles onto the pipe at the closest point, with no manhole at the junction. Off, an inlet lead must end at a manhole: the inlets of a pair share a manhole placed on the main at the most downstream of the two. | Storm |
Hydrant design
These settings drive the hydrant sizing model: Service AI checks that the water supply network can deliver the fire flow at any single hydrant while still holding the residual pressure everywhere else.
Setting | Description | Network |
Hydrant fire flow | Fire flow drawn at a single hydrant in the hydrant sizing model. Imperial projects show flow in gallons per second, so divide a requirement given in gpm by 60. | Water supply |
Residual pressure under fire flow (head) | Minimum pressure, as head of water, to hold at every node while the fire flow is drawn at one hydrant. | Water supply |
Fire flow duration | How long the fire flow must be sustained. Reported with the hydrant model and used for storage checks. | Water supply |
Coincident demand factor under fire flow | Multiplier on average daily building demand in the hydrant model, so the fire flow is drawn on top of maximum-day demand. | Water supply |
Cover
All of these are measured downward from the ground surface to the top of the pipe, and they form an ordered ladder — each minimum must be shallower than its matching maximum, and every maximum must stay shallower than the maximum network cover, the single hard limit no pipe may cross. Settings that were previously labelled “depth” are now labelled “cover” — they have always been the same measurement.
Water supply has minimum covers and its own, much shallower preferred band, but no maximum cover: a pressurised main holds one depth and only leaves it to clear a clash. Storm and sanitary have both minimums and maximums. Because cover is measured to the top of the pipe, a larger pipe sits deeper for the same cover.
Setting | Description | Network |
Road minimum cover / Road maximum cover | Minimum and maximum cover for pipes under roads (from top of pipe); can be overridden per pipe. Water supply has the minimum only. Also informs Level AI. | Min: All · Max: Storm, Sanitary |
Other area minimum cover / Other area maximum cover | Minimum and maximum cover for pipes under pervious / other areas (from top of pipe). Water supply has the minimum only. Also informs Level AI. | Min: All · Max: Storm, Sanitary |
Preferred minimum cover / Preferred cover / Preferred maximum cover | The cover band Service AI aims for between the hard limits — a preferred minimum, a target, and a preferred maximum. Water supply has its own band, separate from the gravity networks'. | All |
Building minimum freeboard | Minimum drop between a building and the pipe (from top of pipe). Also informs Level AI. | All |
Maximum network cover | Maximum cover the network can reach (from top of pipe) — increase this if using a deep lift station. Also informs Level AI. | All |
Pipes
Setting | Description | Network |
Pipe grades / default minimum grade | Table of pipe grade limits by pipe size; the default minimum grade applies to sizes not in the table. Level AI uses the minimum grade for the largest pipe size when assessing serviceability. | All |
Grade limits (max + preferred) | Maximum allowable pipe grade, plus the preferred minimum/maximum grades Service AI targets. | All |
Pipe length (min / max) | Shortest and longest pipe run allowed between structures — each with an absolute limit and a preferred target. | All |
Minimum pipe diameter (private / public) | Smallest diameter allowed for private and public pipes. | All |
Minimum catchment area | Minimum catchment area threshold used in sizing. | All |
Pipe roughness | Material-specific Colebrook-White wall roughness for capacity/HGL calculations, plus a default roughness for materials not listed. (Manning's n on the Civil 3D pipe is used when the hydraulic method is Manning-based.) | Storm |
Structures
Setting | Description | Network |
Manhole deflection | How much a pipe run can turn through a manhole: a preferred maximum angle, which is a soft target, and an absolute maximum. The preferred angle must be less than the maximum. | Preferred: All · Max: Storm |
Minimum manhole wall distance | Minimum distance from a pipe connection to the manhole wall. | All |
Manhole benching type | Benching configuration used for manhole hydraulic checks. | All |
Capacity assessment
Setting | Description | Network |
Design storm sizing | Up to three design storms — Average Recurrence Interval, duration source (fixed duration in hours if applicable), sizing method (HGL or Flow at Grade; depth to HGL if HGL), and whether to include node headloss. Include node headloss is off by default. Ticked, Service AI and the capacity workbook take the FHWA HEC-22 access-hole (manhole) energy loss at every manhole for that storm, which raises the HGL upstream of each manhole. Unticked, there is no manhole loss: the HGL runs through each manhole at the level of the pipe leaving it. Saddle connection losses (Saddle head loss K) apply either way. | Storm |
Load & flow method | Methods used to calculate design loads/flows and to assess pipe hydraulic capacity. | All |
Runoff parameters | Manning's n (pervious / impervious), pervious curve number, and SCS D value used in runoff calculations. | Storm |
Saddle head loss K | Head-loss coefficient for saddle connections. | Storm |
Peaking factors (DWF / WWF) | Dry-weather and wet-weather flow peaking factors. | Sanitary |
Network clearances
Setting | Description | Network |
Network clearance parameters | Horizontal and vertical clearances between the different networks. Each row applies to a pair of networks and ownership classes, up to a pipe size limit; where several rows cover a pair, the row with the smallest size limit that covers both pipes applies. A pair with no row, or a blank value, is not checked. Vertical clearance is the gap between pipe walls where one pipe crosses above or below another. A pipe may never pass under a manhole or pit, whatever the gap. Horizontal clearance is the minimum distance in plan, wall to wall, from a manhole, pit or other chamber to a pipe or structure it does not connect to. Service AI aims to keep both clearances while designing, and the results review flags any shortfall, with a pipe passing under a manhole or pit flagged at the highest priority. Buried fittings such as tees, valves and junctions are not checked, and pipes that cross each other are judged on vertical clearance instead. | All |
Overland flow paths
Setting | Description | Network |
Saw-tooth overland flow paths on | Master toggle for saw-tooth flow paths. Lets Level AI place the low points on the inlets along any overland flow path whose type is SAWTOOTH INLETS. | Storm |
Saw-tooth flow path minimum drainage grade (%) | Minimum grade along a saw-tooth flow path. Level AI works the tooth lengths out from it, so it sets how long each tooth runs. Applies only where the flow path carries no minimum grade of its own. | Storm |
Maximum highpoint to highpoint length | Furthest apart two high points on a saw-tooth flow path may be, capping how widely the teeth are spaced. | Storm |
Minimum highpoint fall depth | Least fall required away from a high point. Divided by the maximum highpoint to highpoint length to give the flattest grade a saw-toothed flow path may sit at. | Storm |
Maximum ponding depth | Deepest ponding allowed when Level AI checks that a saw-tooth flow path drains. | Storm |
Hydrology Settings
Rainfall IDF defines the rainfall intensity, duration, and frequency data used for stormwater design.
An IDF curve tells Service AI how intense a storm is expected to be for different storm durations and return periods. Shorter storms generally have higher rainfall intensity, while rarer storms generally have higher rainfall intensity than more frequent storms of the same duration.
Use project-specific rainfall data where available. For United States projects, this may come from sources such as NOAA Atlas 14.
Term | Meaning |
Intensity | How hard it rains, usually expressed as mm/hr or in/hr. |
Duration | How long the storm lasts, such as 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 24 hours. |
Frequency | How rare the storm is, often expressed as a return period such as 2-year, 10-year, 25-year, or 100-year storm. |
Update hydrology data for the project on the Project Properties -> Hydrology Data tab.
Tip: set up localised hydrology data in your template project for the region that way new projects will all inherit the correct data.