Newsletter

Modelling goals (#38)

By |2018-10-21T00:35:05+11:00June 1st, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

There are many things in life that follow paths of steady development towards certain goals. Learning to drive a car requires initial learning of the mechanical skills and then those skills are practised until the new driver passes a test. Going from ignorance to an acceptable level of skill follows a fairly standard process, and [...]

Do you understand what you are modelling? (#37)

By |2018-10-22T17:33:35+11:00May 18th, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

Pipe networks can be simple or complex.  That seems like an obvious statement, but I probably don’t mean what you initially thought I meant.  At one time, I was working with software which was basically a modelling toolkit.  This toolkit could be used to provide customised software which would model specific types of networks such [...]

Good rules or bad rules? (#36)

By |2018-10-22T17:42:52+11:00May 12th, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

Many years ago when I was taking a degree course in Mechanical Engineering, I remember my first real brush with data modelling and computers. It was getting used to data input for computer programs where data had to be put in the correct format to be read by the program. In those days, input was [...]

Essential or not? (continued) (#33 – 34)

By |2018-10-22T18:05:58+11:00April 20th, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

Changes for one? In the last post we highlighted the importance of getting input from more than one person. This post looks at a variation on that.  We will often get input from various parts of an organisation which need different information and different verification.  As a result, some tables will be important to one [...]

A single point of contact (#32)

By |2018-10-22T18:20:48+11:00April 18th, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

The last post concluded by considering the need to get input from different interest groups when designing systems for existing or new applications.  When we have a data modelling assignment, we often discuss requirements with a limited set of contacts within the client company.  Data modelling is considered a little too arcane for most people, [...]

Modelling new processes (#30)

By |2017-03-31T16:05:31+11:00March 23rd, 2017|Modelling principles, Newsletter|

Introduction Once again, let’s acknowledge that modelling new processes is a much more risky business than modelling an existing process.  Why, you may ask?  The fundamental reason is our human desire to gild the lily.  When a building, bridge, vehicle or other physical object is being designed, we have the same tendencies – the first [...]

EPANET Input Files in Django, Part 1 (#25)

By |2017-02-10T11:44:11+11:00February 8th, 2017|Django, Newsletter|

In an earlier series of newsletters, we looked at input files for EPANET, a public domain water supply network modelling tool.  To minimise the modelling required, we took as an example the simplest water supply network that I could think of – Hezekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem – and considered the tables we would need to [...]

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