PCSWMM

subscription (annual per-seat) Design the Building

Advanced stormwater, wastewater, watershed, and water distribution modeling software by Computational Hydraulics International (CHI) -- built on the EPA SWMM5 engine with a powerful GIS interface, 1D/2D hydraulic modeling, intelligent scenario management, model calibration tools, and green infrastructure/LID design; used worldwide by engineering consultants, municipalities, and utilities for drainage design, floodplain mapping, CSO/SSO analysis, and water quality modeling.

Agent-hostile
2.6 /5 composite score
Solid -- the premier commercial front-end for EPA SWMM5 with transparent pricing ($1,600-2,400/yr per seat), a 30-day free trial, and an intuitive GIS interface that dramatically lowers the learning curve vs raw SWMM; unlimited model size, industry-leading technical support, and strong community/ecosystem (OpenSWMM, CHI journal, annual conference); no REST/CLI agent access and Windows-only desktop delivery cap agent-driven workflows, but for human-led drainage and stormwater modeling it is the clear commercial value leader.
Situational

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion Score Evidence
Value for the price 4/5 subscription (annual per-seat), from $1600 Source →
Agent Friendliness 1/5 API: none (no documented REST API or CLI; desktop-only .NET application supporting the SWMM5 engine)
Ease of adoption 3/5 desktop-install, moderate learning curve
Portability & lock-in 3/5 5 file formats
Interoperability 2/5 4 integrations
Visit PCSWMM →

How we verified this: we checked PCSWMM against its live site and an independent source — usf.edu. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-05.

Evidence

File formats

FormatDirectionSupport
INP native full -- SWMM .inp format
SHP both full -- ESRI Shapefile GIS integration
CSV both full
DXF export full
DWG import partial

Integrations

ArcGIS (native) QGIS (middleware) EPA SWMM5 (native) EPA EPANET2 (native)

Adoption

Deploymentdesktop-install
Self-serve signupyes
Learning curvemoderate

Pricing detail

Billing unitper-seat
TiersProfessional ($1600), Professional 2D ($2400), Enterprise ($4400)

Sources

Pricing

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