This paper presents the basic principles introduced by the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW)in the newsletter No. 88 for designing bank and bottom protection for inland waterways, especially when application cases deviate from standard situations. It also focusses on the software GBBSoft which contains the aforementioned principles and addresses the innovations and changes in the new software release. These include a variant generator as well as scientific improvements, such as the implementation of technical-biological bank protection measures or a cross section editor.