Piping Calculators

Frequently Asked Questions

• Author's Background? - I retired from a large chemical company after 39 years. I was an engineering technologist at time of retirement. My most recent work was in development and maintenance of over 160 piping line class specs and related documents. I have over 20 years experience in pipe stress analysis and piping drafting.
  
  Then:      Now:
  
  
• Guarantee? - Yes. Within a 30 day period after purchase, if not satisfied, your money will be refunded (except for handling, shipping, and reseller fee [if any]), and after the media is deleted or destroyed. See license agreement.
• Upgrades Available? - I plan to provide updates soon after Code book revisions are available. When updates are made, or errors are corrected in any files, these will be noted on the Updates page along with instructions for possibly obtaining new files.
  
  Previous customers, who made purchase within the past 12 months, may contact me for a discount code to use for purchasing and downloading updates & upgrades. Discounts will range from 10% to 80% depending on number of days since purchase was made. Previous customers must pay the full product price for upgrading after 12 months following the date of original purchase.
  
  Piping Code material stress tables change as often as once each year. My plan is to keep the PipingOffice files updated. The user can also update and add materials without much difficulty.
  
  
• Development Time for PipingOffice? - I have lost count, but at least 4200 hours.
• Satisfied Users of PipingOffice? - All comments have been positive. There have not been any requests for refund. Here are comments from recent customers: "Thanks for your quick response. Once again I am a massive fan of your software." Then another wrote: "I am very impressed with the structure, layout, design and depth of information offered in the program."
• Prior Excel Usage Required? - No. But, of course it helps.
• Macros Use and Editing? - There are macros that complete many operations. Range names are used extensively and are referred in formulas and macros. This approach makes it possible to get numerous calculation results all at once. And most of these macros are easy to understand and revise.
• Special Functions?
  - Hlookup and vlookup functions are used in many files. These functions get data from tables that match certain criteria due to selection with dropdown boxes.
  - Some of the cells are restricted from user input without overwriting formulas.
  - Conditional formatting is applied in many files.
  - Dropdown controls and override macros are used extensively.
  - Interpolation between stress values in table.
• Help Provided? - Comments are placed in many cells and they display when the cursor is passed over red dots. There are files explaining macro development and editing of data. Email and phone correspondence with me is encouraged.
• Are both SI units and English units included? - Yes. Most of the spreadsheets do include SI (Metric) units as well as English (Imperial) (included in pipe dimensions, material stress, Young’s Modulus, allowable pressure.) Temperature conversion choice between °F and °C is provided.
• DIN Standards/Codes Match with ASME and Other Standards/Codes? Do a keyword internet search such as "asme vs din standards". Also, be aware of specific local requirements.
• Hardware/Software Compatibility? Computer/software - The files work on any computer that will run Excel-97™ thru Excel-2007™. Print macros have been developed using a Canon printer.
  Mac computers must have a parallel version of Windows operating system (like XP) and a copy of Excel 97 or later.
• Working Demo? - None. Only the screen shots such as found on this web site. I am considering the value of providing a working demo. The software for providing a well-designed demo would be about $400 US. And the time spent would be a consideration. Is it worth doing?
• Users -(Design Contractors or Plant Operators)? - I have told most customers that I will not share any of their personal information. Some companies who are using PipingOffice are: Washington Group, WFI International, Shell-Canada, Shell-Netherlands, Felker Brothers, TQM Engineering, Dynamic Products USA, Hookway Engineering, Bateman Engineering, County of Los Angeles, Precision Piping and Mechanical, Mustang Engineering, Krupp Engineering, Toledo Elec. & Mech. Works, SNC Lavalin Eng. & Constructors, Technimont-Italy, Suncor-Canada, Merchav Eng, Conoco-UK, and more. Also, numerous individual consultants are using the programs.
• 3rd Party Verification? - I have relied mainly on my own checking. My disclaimer is: "The user is responsible to verify the methods and results are correct." Errors were corrected in the branch reinforcement calcs per feedback from a customer a few years back, and we did thorough checking of the calcs. It will be the responsibility of the user to apply verification if required (some organizations do).
• Password Protections? - Most of the worksheets do have protected cells without requiring passwords to unprotect them. However, the files do not have password protections and can be altered by any users. The author's name must not be removed from the introduction sheets. It will be the responsibility of the user to apply password protections if required (some organizations do require them).
• Save Output File? - You can save your calculations by using a free program such as Bullzip PDF Printer or PDF995. There are other choices you can find by internet search. These programs create PDF files using the Windows printer software. You also need Adobe Reader to view the PDF files.
• In the Pipe External Pressure program, are there plans to develop this program to consider full ASME VIII requirements? - No. I would like to, but do not have the ASME VIII code books. I was told in 1998 that ASME was working on a much simpler approach to external pressure calcs. My spreadsheet is mostly useful only for piping pressure not exceeding 1-barG (15 psig) external. Refer to ASME BPV Code for limits on non-code calcs.
• Can I calculate allowable pressure of corroded pipe ? - Yes. You can use the Pipe Allowable Pressure spreadsheets to calculate allowable pressures for pipe of any size and/or thickness. This allows calculations for pipe that is measured or purchased as minimum wall.
• How do I get the date to display properly in the Sup.xls file? - I was really frustrated in correcting this problem. I ended up creating a new sheet and using cut-and-paste to move the good stuff to it. The cell formatting could be set normally again.
• The selection text does not display in the material dropdown. Do you have a fix? - Yes! After much more frustration, I saw that it happened after numerous changes had been made in the materials data range. I just stumbled on the fix by changing some cell formatting to "General."
• Flange Calculations? - I will not develop design calculations for flanges in the near future. A few people have sent information to me to try to get me to create something, but I expect the time required will be great and the number and size of tables will be large. The tables from ASME B16.5 would require a large space and would probably need to be in a separate file, as would some of the other data. Besides, there are numerous excellent programs available. A good one I know about is Compress™.
  I have been working on a file for calculating bolt torques used with ring joint gasketing. It is per API 6A, and it would include selections of flange dimensions, gasket dimensions, bolt materials, and nut lubricant factors using dropdown boxes.

• A set of tools for piping calculations.
• Get many answers all at once.
• Don't waste time.
• Reduce errors of omission.
• Get help in learning Piping Codes.

• Piping Engineer,
• Pipe Specification Developer,
• Pipe Stress Analyst,
• Mechanical Integrity Analyst, and
• Pipe and Fitting Manufacturer