TUFLOW Release 2026.0.0

At TUFLOW, our mission has always been to empower civil and environmental professionals with tools that deliver clarity, confidence, and world‑class modelling outcomes. With the release of TUFLOW 2026.0.0, we are proud to introduce one of the most significant upgrades in our history, shaped directly by the needs of our community, and designed to support the way you work today and into the future.

New Pricing Structure

Access More with No Extra Upfront Purchase Cost (100% Discount)

We offer a suite of software products at TUFLOW, including two hydraulic engines – one for pluvial and fluvial flooding, urban stormwater and catchment analysis (TUFLOW Classic/HPC) and the other for environmental simulation, with add-on environmental modules such as water quality, particle tracking and sediment transport (TUFLOW FV). We wish to make TUFLOW as accessible as we can to the modelling community. As such, we have reshaped our licencing fee structure so that licence holders of one hydraulic engine branch are eligible for a 100% purchase discount when requesting licences for the alternate TUFLOW product hydraulic engine.

This means, for example, that a licensee of five flood hydraulic engines (TUFLOW Classic / HPC) can access up to five environmental hydraulic engines (TUFLOW FV) without accruing any purchase costs. This opens up access to the environmental modules and associated simulation capacity with a much-reduced initial outlay. The offer also works in reverse – current environmental engine licensees can access the flood analysis engine under the same arrangement to then access its modules, including TUFLOW CATCH. Existing and new customers are automatically eligible for this offer, so it is immediately available to the water modelling community as a boost to capability and service delivery. For a detailed explanation of this new discount offering, see the New 2026 TUFLOW Bundle News Article.

Shorter Term Rentals

Using the cloud as an overflow compute resource when in‑house physical capacity is fully utilised is becoming increasingly common. In these situations, renting additional licences is a practical way to increase an organisation’s short‑term modelling capacity during periods of high project demand. 

Since 2024, we have offered cloud licences linked to a TUFLOW‑managed cloud server. This service streamlines access and virtual machine configuration for organisations operating in a cloud environment.

Previously, the shortest available licence rental period was one month. In recognition of the benefits of large‑scale parallel simulation in the cloud, we have updated our rental options. Two‑week licence rentals are now available. This new option is available for all TUFLOW products and licence types, and is not limited to cloud simulation rentals.  

New Functionality: More Integration, More Power, More Insight

This release brings a suite of new features that make using TUFLOW even more fluid, efficient and intuitive.

• TUFLOW on Linux - You now have the freedom to run TUFLOW on Linux, unlocking reduced cloud computing costs and giving you the flexibility to move between operating systems as projects evolve.
• Unified Installer for Easier Deployment - Integration with your IT systems is now simpler than ever. Our new installer streamlines version control, organisational rollout and ongoing management.
• Expanded Raster Integration Across GIS Platforms via inclusion of the GDAL library within the TUFLOW executable - Broader raster compatibility means smoother workflows and better connection between your spatial data and your modelling.
• Numerous quality-of-life improvements, such as:
  • Enhancement of Destratification Unit Structure Type for 3D density applications, such as required for reservoir water quality modelling (TUFLOW FV).
  • Additional HEC-DSS inflow option support (TUFLOW Classic / HPC).
  • Independent urban stormwater inlet pit inflow and surcharge flow curves (TUFLOW Classic / HPC).
  • Geopackage output support, enabling advanced dynamic styling of 1D map outputs (TUFLOW Classic / HPC).
• All Manuals Online - Our documentation is now fully online in a clean, modern, easy‑to‑navigate web-based format. The current update has included a full review and rework of our FV manual and ongoing updates to the existing online TUFLOW Classic / HPC manual. Contrary to how releases were published in previous years, we are committed to releasing new up-to-date manuals with every new major release. See Downloads to view the new documents 
• A Reimagined Training Program - Our Training focuses on teaching TUFLOW modelling skills and real‑world problem‑solving. These interactive sessions equip you and your teams with practical, scenario‑based capability. In addition to updates to our instructor led courses, we are releasing numerous new eLearning courses. TUFLOW FV mesh creation and model build courses were published this month. More courses are currently under development to further build out our education resources. Watch this space, visit Training to register for courses. Scroll to the bottom of this page to sign up to our mailing list to receive training notifications
• Introducing TUFLOW Viewer Version 2: The QGIS TUFLOW Plugin and the TUFLOW Viewer Version 1 within it was first created in 2018. It has grown substantially since its inception and has subsequently become the primary working environment for over 3/4 of our users today. QGIS has changed substantially over this 8-year period. We have undertaken a complete overhaul of our original TUFLOW Viewer to create TUFLOW Viewer Version 2. It taps into various features that are today built into QGIS directly, though were not at the time of TUFLOW Viewer Version 1. As a result, TUFLOW Viewer Version 2 is faster and can accommodate for larger datasets than its predecessor. Whilst making these changes, with the benefit of hindsight from Version 1, we have taken the opportunity to redesign the Viewer to make it more intuitive and better suited to a wider range of model inputs. This is a requirement in response to the increasing popularity of TUFLOW CATCH, which prompts the need for TUFLOW FV and HPC model result visualization together in a single platform.  
• A significant update to the revamped PyTUFLOW Python library (which powers the TUFLOW Viewer whilst also being available for standalone use). The PyTUFLOW 1.1 update removes the GDAL and QGIS dependencies, meaning users have access to all functionality within the library from a single installation step (pip install pytuflow). This simplifies deployment and improves portability. The updated version includes numerous optimisations for TUFLOW output loading and data extraction. Users should see speed-ups of x10 or more, depending on the operation.

For a detailed summary of the updates included in the 2026.0.0 product releases, please see the TUFLOW Classic/HPC Changelog and TUFLOW FV Changelog. The respective installers or executables for TUFLOW Classic / HPC, CATCH and FV are available via the Downloads page of the website.

Our Commitment to You

For over 25 years, we’ve developed the TUFLOW suite for civil and environmental projects around the world. Today, as a global team, we remain deeply committed to helping you deliver safer, more resilient communities and protect and enhance our natural environment through better modelling. Innovation is what drives us, and every enhancement we make is to support the important work you do. 2026.0.0 is a major release, with new features, a redesigned licence structure and expanded user education resources, this is an exciting time of growth for our TUFLOW user community. We invite you to explore the new capabilities and take full advantage of what’s now available in terms of expanding your own use of TUFLOW to grow your own business to cover both floodplain and environmental applications.

If you wish to talk with one of our team about any of the items mentioned in this news article, please contact us via sales@tuflow.com, support@tuflow.com or training@tuflow.com.

Happy Modelling
The TUFLOW Team