Skip to content

RAS Commander QGIS

A focused tool, not the full library

RAS Commander QGIS exposes a limited subset of capabilities inside the QGIS GUI. For the most powerful and complete way to automate HEC-RAS, use the ras-commander library directly.

The RAS Commander QGIS Plugin is a QGIS Processing Provider for accessing HEC-RAS model data through the ras-commander library. It gives hydraulic modelers and GIS analysts a seamless interface within QGIS for accessing, analyzing, and visualizing HEC-RAS model data.

The plugin uses the existing ras-commander Python library as its core engine and implements a modern QGIS Processing Provider architecture, so its tools appear alongside native QGIS algorithms in the Processing Toolbox.

What it does in QGIS

The plugin loads HEC-RAS project metadata, geometry, and results directly into QGIS as tables and vector layers, and provides analysis algorithms. Capabilities include:

  • Project & plan metadata — project summary tables, plan parameters, runtime statistics, and volume accounting.
  • 1D geometry layers — cross-sections, river centerlines, bank lines, and hydraulic structures.
  • 2D geometry layers — mesh area perimeters, mesh cells, breaklines, and boundary condition lines.
  • Pipe network geometry — pipe conduits and pipe nodes.
  • Vector results layers — maximum and minimum water surface points and maximum iteration count points.
  • Analysis algorithms — delineate the fluvial-pluvial boundary.

See the Features page for the full list.

Accessing the tools

  1. Open the Processing Toolbox (Processing › Toolbox).
  2. Expand the RAS Commander provider.
  3. Browse the available algorithms, organized by category.
  4. Double-click any algorithm to open its dialog.

Basic workflow

  1. Load project metadata — start with Load Project Summary Tables for an overview of your HEC-RAS project.
  2. Load geometry — use the geometry algorithms to load cross-sections, mesh cells, and more.
  3. Load results — use the results algorithms to load water surface elevations and other computed values.
  4. Analyze — use analysis tools such as Delineate Fluvial-Pluvial Boundary.

Input file types

  • Project folders — for project summary data.
  • Geometry HDF files (*.g##.hdf) — for geometric data.
  • Results HDF files (*.p##.hdf) — for simulation results.

An open-source project of CLB Engineering Corporation, creators of the ras-commander library, built using the LLM Forward engineering approach.

CLB Engineering Corporation  ·  LLM Forward Engineering
RAS Commander QGIS is a free and open-source project maintained by CLB Engineering Corporation. It exposes a focused subset — the ras-commander library is the most robust and powerful way to automate HEC-RAS.