Slide2 Import & Export
Round-trip models with Rocscience Slide2.
JW Slope imports Rocscience Slide2 project archives and can export a model back to a Slide2 archive. The importer extracts the full multi-scenario structure and maps the model entities that JW Slope can represent faithfully; entities it cannot represent are skipped with a warning or, in one case, cause the import to be rejected.
Supported files
Slide2 project archives with the following extensions are accepted: .slmd and
.slim. The file picker also accepts the underlying archive (.zip) form.
Multi-scenario import
Slide2 projects with multiple models and scenarios are fully supported. The importer reads the project manifest and extracts each scenario, preserving its group, name, and ordering, along with metadata such as which scenario is the master. After import, you select which scenario(s) to bring in, and the imported groups and scenarios map onto the JW Slope scenario hierarchy.
What is imported
| Entity | Notes |
|---|---|
| External boundary | The model exterior. |
| Material regions | Internal cells / zones. |
| Weak layers | Imported as weak-layer paths (must resolve to at least two vertices). |
| Mohr-Coulomb materials | Imported directly. |
| Generalized Hoek-Brown materials | Imported directly. |
| Water table | Imported as the model water table. |
| Piezometric lines | Imported as piezo lines (must resolve to at least two vertices). |
| Distributed loads | Imported. |
| Line loads | Imported. |
| Seismic loads | Horizontal and vertical pseudo-static coefficients. |
| Ground support | End-anchored support is imported (see below). |
| Slope limits | The search extents. |
| Model settings | Search method, number of slices, and analysis method. |
What is not imported
Some entities are skipped during import; the importer records a warning for each so you can review what was dropped. Common cases include:
- Material types other than Mohr-Coulomb and Generalized Hoek-Brown are skipped.
- Support types other than end-anchored are skipped. (Slide2 has several anchor types; only the end-anchored variant maps to a JW Slope support on import.)
- Load records, piezo lines, or weak layers that cannot be resolved to valid geometry are skipped.
- Groundwater flow restraints are imported only as zero-flow seepage-face conditions; restraints with non-zero values are not.
Generalized Anisotropic materials block the import. If a Slide2 file contains Generalized Anisotropic strength functions or anisotropic surfaces, the entire import is rejected with an error rather than approximating the directional strength model. Remove or convert those materials in Slide2 before importing.
Export back to Slide2
A model imported from Slide2 can be exported back to a Slide2 archive. The export preserves the original project's multi-scenario structure by patching the scenario data in place and re-zipping the archive, so groups and scenarios that came in from Slide2 remain intact.
Export constraints:
- Only Mohr-Coulomb and Generalized Hoek-Brown materials are supported on export. Materials using a Generalized Shear Function ("User Defined") or Generalized Anisotropic criterion cannot be exported and will raise an error.
- If the geometry has changed relative to the imported baseline, groundwater is disabled in the exported scenario.
Re-import and geometry drift
When a Slide2 project is exported, JW Slope records a signature of the model and its geometry against each scenario's baseline. On export it compares the current model and geometry signatures to the baseline to detect whether the model or its geometry has drifted from what was originally imported. This drift detection is what drives behavior such as disabling groundwater after geometry changes, ensuring the exported archive stays internally consistent.