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Question I am trying to model a structure controlled by operating rules where the gate opens / closes based on the water level downstream. The result file _1D_O.csv shows that the gate remains in its initial state for the entire simulation. Why? Answer This is most likely due to the documentation in the 2013-12 release notes not being updated to reflect changes to how to specify the period of time a gate takes to open or close, or a pump to start up or shut down. All the “Period” commands are now centralised to be the same for all operatable structures. For gates, the command Gate Period [ {} | (min) ] should be replaced with Period Opening/Closing [ {} | (min) | (s) ] in the release notes. Also, the 2013-12 release of TUFLOW defaults to -99999 as the period in which the gate takes to open, whether or not this command is specified within the .toc file, therefore the Period Opening/Closing == command should be specified to override the default. As an example, specifying Period Opening/Closing == 0.5 or Period Opening/Closing (min) == 30 will set the time taken to open/close the gate to half an hour. Note that this also affects the command Pump Period [ {} | (min) ] used for operating pumps. The correct command to use in this case is Period Opening/Closing or alternatively Period Startup/Shutdown can be used (both these commands are identical). A revised default will be hardcoded into the next release of TUFLOW and the correct commands documented in the updated Manual. In the meantime, our suggested workaround for the 2013 release is to ensure either Period Opening/Closing [ {} | (min) | (s) ] or Period Startup/Shutdown [ {} | (min) | (s) ] is specified in the .toc file when modelling a pump or gated structure. It is also planned to offer the capability of specifying different periods for opening and for closing.