DSS Editor with GUI

Is there a stand-alone DSS editor with a graphical interface? The viewing tools in HMS and RAS are helpful but a real GUI editor would be nice to have. I occasionally use DSSUTL for what I need, but I'm surprised a GUI version hasn't been produced by now. I'm fairly certain the answer will be no, since I have yet to find such a thing. However I wanted to check the list to be very certain. If the answer is definitely no, then I have another question. Is there documentation on the DSS data structure or (even better) are there libraries with routines for manipulating DSS data?

Thanks!
Ray Rush

Ray,

There is documentation (manual) for the DSSUTL program on the HEC website which you can download:
http://www.wrc-hec.usace.army.mil/so...rib/index.html
I've used the program on UNIX, and there is a GUI for viewing and printing time-series data along with many other features including the ability to program your own customized GUI. However I don't know if the DOS version has all of the capabilities of the UNIX version. The manual will hopefully be able to inform you of such capabilities.

Hope this helps.
Laura Dutt

I do not have current versions of the documentation or the libraries. I have not worked with them in over 5 years. I am not sure where you can get them or if the Corps will release them. The copy I had, I had gotten from Bob Barkau who developed UNET.

John Morgan
john.morgan@cte-eng.com

The HEC-DSS database format is not that of a standard relational database (such as Access or dBase), so specialized libraries are required to file and retrieve records, and to query the database. HEC has a Fortran-callable library of routines, but I am not certain about their availability outside the Corps.

Regarding DSS Editor with GUI: The California Department of Water Resources has such a program, called Vista. It is explained and available here:
http://modeling.water.ca.gov/delta/m...sta/index.html
It is written in Java and runs on most platforms (Solaris, Windows NT, Linux, etc.) There is a list server available for support.

David Ford, Ph.D., P.E.

I received several responses to my original question. I would like to thank the following people for responding:
John Morgan
Laura Dutt
Dudley McFadden
David Ford

The most applicable information I received was about a program called Vista, detailed below, and the HECLIB Vol. 2 manul (CPD-57). That manual apparently contains good documentation and details on the DSS subroutines and can be ordered from the NTIS (www.ntis.gov) web site. I'm interested in experimenting with those in a modern application when I get the time.

The previously mentioned software, Vista, was developed by the California Department of Water Resources. Vista has a GUI and is written in Java so it can run on most any platform. It is also released under the GNU General Public License so you are free to use it and modify the source, but any changes must be released under the same license. The source code is also available. I downloaded and installed the software and it looks like a nice tool to have. Among many things you can directly edit DSS tables, plot them, perform mathematical operations, and extract data to text files. I would highly recommend this as a data management tool to anyone who uses DSS files, unless you have something better than DSSUTL (or if you really like that program). The software may be downloaded from
http://modeling.water.ca.gov/delta/m...sta/index.html
The file is about 18MB in size.

Thanks again to all those who responded.
Ray Rush