Output Variable Selection in SWAT+ Editor

[Saba Shaghaghi]

Hello,

I have a question regarding output variable selection in SWAT Editor.

When I uncheck some output variables and save the project as a new scenario, I still see the old output files in the new TxtInOut folder from previous runs when those variables were selected.

I expected that after removing those variables from the output settings, the related output files would no longer appear in the new scenario. Could you please clarify how SWAT Editor handles previous output files and whether they should be manually deleted before running a new scenario?

For reference, I am using:

• SWAT+ rev. 61
• QSWAT+ 3.1
• SWAT+ Editor 3.2
• SWAT+ Toolbox 3.2

Thank you for your support.

Best regards,
Saba Shaghaghi

[Jaclyn Tech]

Hi, the editor nor the model will delete any files in your TxtInOut. So if you printed some outputs the first time and not the second time, the old versions would still be in there, yes. They are not hurting anything being in there though. Use the files.out generated by your model run to determine the output files printed for that run. That is what the editor reads from to generate the output sqlite.

[Saba Shaghaghi]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. What I meant is that even when I save my model as a new scenario with newly selected output variables to print, the newly created TxtInOut folder still keeps the output files from the first run.

I expected the new scenario and TxtInOut folder to only contain the outputs based on the newly selected variables. Could you please clarify how I should properly apply these changes?

The issue becomes significant when working with large output files. For example, in one setup I selected many outputs, including HRU output files. Later, I deselected those outputs and saved the project as a new scenario, but the old HRU files were still copied into the new TxtInOut folder. As a result, I had to manually delete them to free up storage space.

In one case, manually deleting the unused HRU output files freed approximately 12 GB of space on my laptop, which is a considerable amount.

I understand that the old files do not affect the model run itself, but I am wondering whether there is a way for SWAT+ Editor to automatically create a clean TxtInOut folder based only on the currently selected outputs for a new scenario.

Thank you again for your help and support.

Best regards,
Saba Shaghaghi

[Jaclyn Tech]

Hi, so scenarios are basically just saving a copy of the model you just ran, then further runs work again from the default. Creating a scenario in the editor isn't making a new model run. So still nothing gets deleted. This might be a feature we reassess in the future when time permits, but it will not be soon.

You'll just need to continue to delete files you don't need manually. In most cases you should be fine deleting the entire txtinout except for weather data if you want.