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Forestry Sciences Laboratory - Moscow, Idaho
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Soil & Water
Engineering Software:


Road Erosion
Fire Effects
Disturbed Forests
Slope Stability
Erosion Modeling
Climate Modeling

Project Leader:
William J. Elliot
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Soil and Water Engineering  >  Modeling Software  >  Slope Stability Software  >  LISA and DLISA  >  Bug List

  • LISA
    • LISA appears not to keep the tree surcharge values the user specifies throughout the factor of safety calculation. The intermediate calculations (effective normal stress and shear strength) use the proper tree surcharge, but the resultant factor of safety is calculated as if tree surcharge were zero.
    • We have had one report of LISA displaying a value of zero for unit weight (gamma) when, of course, it should not be zero. The calculations appear to be correct; only unit weight is reported incorrectly in some circumstances.
    • LISA will not run if it is installed in a Windows 95 or Windows NT directory with a name outside the DOS eight-character no-special-character naming convention. The error message on selecting a map unit is "Path not found..." Any directory above the LISA directory in the directory structure with an extended name will also cause this error message. If only the immediate LISA directory name is at fault, you can change the directory name using Windows Explorer and fix the "Data path to map units:" line in LISA. If the offending name is further up the directory tree, it would be simplest to reinstall LISA in a DOS-compatible path. (Alternatively, the computer-savvy user can edit the path name in LISA's configuration file config.l1 to use the tilde-encoded directory names that DOS sees.)
    • LISA will also report "Path not found..." when you try to create or select a map unit if the "Data path to map units:" entry (displayed just after LISA asks you for your name) is invalid. With the cursor in the "Map unit to analyze:" field, press the up arrow key to correct the data path.

  • DLISA
    • Apparently DLISA can get confused in reporting whether a given slope is in percent or degrees. The calculation appears to be consistent with what the user entered, but the printed report on rare occasions may list incorrect units for the slope value.
    • DLISA will crash with an "illegal function call" on attempting to solve for surface slope for some combinations of other parameter values (such as extremely thin soils). [6/30/98]