Tutorials CivilCraft help Walkthroughs
Irrigation design
A calculation aid, not a stamped design: heads, laterals, mainline, valves and drip lines on the site; zones found from the pipes; pressure loss by Hazen–Williams, the worst-case head, flow and pressure against the supply, precipitation rates, run times, coverage and a bill of materials.
Written for CivilCraft 0.7.1. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
Set out the system
- In the Irrigation section on the left, choose the Head, its Arc and where the arc starts, and the pipe sizes for laterals and the mainline.
- Irrigation › Point of connection: click where the water supply joins. Set its pressure, the flow available and the meter and backflow loss in Properties.
- Irrigation › Valve: click where each zone's valve goes. A valve starts a zone.
- Irrigation › Head: click to place heads; each click places one.
- Irrigation › Lateral pipe: click from a valve through its heads and press ReturnEnter. Mainline: from the point of connection to each valve.
Pipe ends snap to heads, valves, the supply and other pipe ends, so the network joins. A zone is everything reached from its valve along laterals; the mainline carries one zone at a time.
Drip
Irrigation › Drip line: click along the line, starting where it is fed (a lateral end or a valve). Set the emitter flow and spacing in Properties; its flow is the emitters along it.
The check
Irrigation › Check the system… lists every zone:
| Column | How it is worked out |
|---|---|
| Flow | The heads' flows (and drip lines') added up |
| At the valve | The worst-case head's working pressure plus the pipe losses to it (Hazen–Williams, the pipe's inside diameter, the elevation change) and the loss through the valve |
| At the supply | The same plus the mainline's loss carrying that zone, and the meter and backflow loss |
| Precipitation | The heads' flow over the area they water at head-to-head spacing |
| Minutes a week | To apply the Water a week setting |
| Problems | Velocity over the limit, a head over its pressure range, sprays and rotors on one valve, not enough pressure or flow at the supply, heads on no zone, loops |
Select a valve to see its zone's figures and its worst-case head ringed on the plan. The bill of materials counts heads by kind and arc, pipe by size, valves, drip line and emitters, and the controller's stations. Save as CSV keeps both.
Settings in the Irrigation section: Hazen–Williams C (150 for new plastic pipe), the fastest flow in a pipe (1.5 m/s), the loss through a valve, and water a week. They are labelled defaults.
Coverage
Irrigation › Show coverage says how much of the area the heads leave dry, how much two or more heads water, and which heads do not reach a neighbour (head-to-head spacing).
Heads
The heads listed are generic kinds written by CadCraft from design precipitation rates (fixed sprays, rotary nozzles, gear rotors, bubblers, micro-sprays, emitters), not any maker's products. Add heads from a file… reads your own heads (a JSON list with each head's throw, flow or precipitation rate, and pressure range); they are saved with the project. A maker's published data goes in only with that maker's recorded permission.