NEW version of HGS PREMIUM March 2026 (REVISION 2928)

The HydroGeoSphere March 2026 release is now available for download.

This month’s update introduces refinements to polygon tracking functionality, improvements to hgs2vtu processing and output handling, and several command deprecations as part of ongoing modernization of the HydroGeoSphere (HGS) workflow. Together, these changes improve compatibility with visualization tools, expand flexibility for nodal polygon tracking, and simplify post-processing options.

Enhanced nodal polygon tracking commands (see hydrosphere_ref.pdf)
All nodal polygon tracking commands now support sheet range input arguments (bottom sheet, top sheet) to provide more precise control when analyzing model layers.

Updated commands include:

• nodal fluid mass balance from shp file

• nodal fluid mass balance from multifeature shp file

• nodal fluid mass balance for selected nodes from multifeature shp file

• nodal fluid mass balance for chosen faces

hgs2vtu enhancements (see hydrosphere_ref.pdf)

• Fixed a bug affecting channel exchange variables in nodal polygon tracking outputs when generating NetCDF files.

• Added temporary variable loading to compute derived quantities (such as pressure head) when required independent variables are available but not directly processed.

• Added new commands --cum-time-series-csv and --cum-time-series-tecplot, which replace the previous cumulative water balance options.

New boundary condition command
The new command time varying surface friction allows users to specify time-varying Manning’s roughness coefficients in the surface domain.

Fix for zone file reading
Resolved a bug in the command read zones from file that occurred when user-specified zone numbers exceeded the maximum number of zones defined in the array sizes defaults file.

Command deprecations
Several legacy grok commands related to formatting and runtime debugging have been deprecated as part of ongoing codebase cleanup:

Deprecated grok commands:

• time varying friction

• time output fixed format

• time output general format

• time output scientific format

• mass balance output fixed format

• mass balance output general format

• mass balance output scientific format

Deprecated runtime debug commands:

• mass balance format

• time format

These commands will remain temporarily available but are expected to be removed in future releases.

Improved Tecplot compatibility
The variable name “K” has been changed to “Ksat” in the K to tecplot output file so that it can be correctly interpreted by ParaView.

Documentation updates
The HydroGeoSphere Reference Manual (hydrosphere_ref.pdf) has been updated to reflect all new commands and enhancements.

And as always, we are committed to the continued improvement to the user experience. Do you have suggestions for new commands or improvements to the user experience? Send your ideas to support@aquanty.com!

The latest installers are available on the HGS download page and a full list of changes/updates can be found in the release notes.

Download the March 2026 release of HydroGeoSphere here: https://www.aquanty.com/hgs-download

Review the release notes here: https://www.aquanty.com/updates