Pipe Flow Expert Software Release Versions
Pipe Flow Expert 2010 version 5.12 - Released March 26th 2010.
This is a major release with significant program enhancements.
Customized PDF Report Generation:
- New Automatic PDF Report Generation
Now supports generation of customized PDF reports
Cover sheet generation with capability to add your own logo
Scalable vector drawing of the pipe schematic for high resolution printing
Customizable tabulated results for fluids, pumps, pipes, nodes and energy
Create professional PDF report documents with just a few clicks of your mouse
Great for customer presentations and documenting your pipe design
Provides PDF vector drawing of your pipe system for high resolution printing
- New Cv/Kv Component allows specification of Cv and Kv flow coefficients.
Calculated solution solves for flow and pressure loss based on Cv/Kv value
Warns of potential choked flow for gas flow with high pressure drop
Includes helper for determining a Cv or Kv value based on flow / pressure loss
New component symbols added for Cv, Kv and general control valve type.
- Support for large screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1260 pixels
Provides enhanced experience for users with large wide screen monitors
- Supports drawing sheet scale of 7100 x 5000 pixels
Increased size of drawing sheet now provides 2.75 times larger drawing area
More space available when designing large scale system drawings
- Increased size of fluid database and number of fluid data points supplied.
Now includes over 400 fluid data points in total.
Fluid database can now be sorted using the fluid pressure field
- Increased size of pipe database and number of materials/sizes supplied.
New pipe material / schedules for an additional 15 types of pipe
Over 180 new rows of pipe material/size data in total
Includes pipe data for steel schedule 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80 100, 120, 140
Includes pipe data updates for galvanized steel specifications
Includes pipe data for SANS 62 and SANS 719 specifications
- Allows users to add up to 1000 Text Annotations per drawing
Each Text item now supports up to 25000 characters (previously was 250)
Support fast click & edit of text items without switching to text tool
- New Common Modelling Solutions Example with common pipe system scenarios
Closed pipes now shown in pipe drop down list
Double click .pfe files to automatically run Pipe Flow Expert and open the file
Pipe Flow Expert 2009 v4.60 released July 2009 included:
The updates fall into 3 main areas:
a) New Improved Calculation Engine (enhanced solving capability and up to 10x faster)
b) New Drawing Interface Functionality (great ease-of-use and productivity enhancements)
c) New Interactive Results Sheet (intelligent drawing aware results grid with 2-way updates)
Calculation Engine Updates:
- New Calculation Engine
Now Supports 3 different methods of solution convergence
Faster convergence for solving large systems (often 10x or more faster)
Improved convergence and solving capability for complex systems
Better analysis and approximation of initial solution
Automatic 'instant' detection of negative flow and on mass reversal of pipe directions
Significantly faster network analysis and loop generation algorithms
Even more robust and more capable than previous calculation engine - New Calculation Analysis
Identifies when and where system design will not work
Allows troubleshooting of a system design that is not valid
Finds best approximate solution and allows user to see where the design does not balance
(will actually let the user review an invalid design and solution interactively in results mode) - New Calculation Verification and Validation.
Node Pressure Balance Tolerance can now be set independently of Loop Loss Balance Tolerance
Ensures node-to-node pressure checks meet an independent specified accuracy
Provides ability to relax the node-to-node pressure verification check if required
- New Pipe Drop Down for easy pipe selection with instant zoom to pipe option
Users will find this unbelievably useful! - New Node Drop Down for easy node selection with instant zoom to node option
Users will also find this unbelievably useful! - New Pop-Up Data Pane during hover over an item on the drawing screen.
Makes it easy to quickly access and read underlying data values
Provides more detailed information without requiring any mouse clicks
Saves time and bring significant productivity benefits
Again, users will find this unbelievably useful! - New Adhoc Selections and updates of individual non-grouped items.
Allows on mass updates of pipe and node data fields, for non-grouped items, making it even easier to change a set of pipe sizes or other data values. - Faster Pan of Drawing.
Panning now supported when in individual item selection mode.
Panning now supported in results mode, even with Results Sheet open.
- The Drawing Pane is now active even when the Results Sheet is displayed.
The Results Grid and the Drawing Pane are now integrated so that selection of an item on one automatically updates the other, which provides a very intuitive, very easy-to-use, and very productive environment for reviewing and analysing the calculated solution results.
Users will find this set of integrated features amazingly useful! - Results Pop-up Pane during hover over an item on the drawing screen.
Provides instant access to detailed calculation results
Allows fast and easy comparison of data between different pipes and nodes
Shows calculated pump operating data - The Results Sheet can now be 'docked' and 'undocked'
One click 'docks' the Results Sheet to the right
One click 'docks' the Results Sheet to the bottom
One click 'un-docks' the Results Sheet - Individual Rows on the Results Grid can now be selected.
The highlighted item is also then highlighted in the drawing pane.
Double click an item on the Results Sheet to automatically zoom it into view on the drawing screen.
- Updated Pipe Database with additonal data for HDPE pipe.
- Improved Results Log with additional messages
Identifies problem areas and reports calculated figures so that the user can more easily understand where and why a particular problem occurs. - Three new Isometric 3D Example Systems are provided.
- New Pipe Flow Expert Results Verification Document.
Now with 50 verification cases comparing results to published data.
Pipe Flow Expert 2009 v4.12 released 6th March 2009 included:
(required update if you are running version 4.10 or 4.11)
- Isometric Drawing is now supported.
Includes isometric grid for drawing
Automatic rotation of symbols to look 3D
Smart text positioning on Isometric grid
Switch between Isometric view and Normal square grid view
Easily translate existing drawing to Isometric View - Move Pipe while in Add Pipes Mode is now supported.
Highlight pipe, click again to unlink and start rubber banding.
Also available in 'Show' mode (when hovering over selected pipe) from 'right click' popup menu. - Mirror, Invert, and Rotation of Selections.
Selection: Mirror Items Left/Right
Selection: Flip Items Up/Down
Selection: Rotate +90 degrees
Selection: Rotate -90 degrees - Keyboard Shortcuts now supported.
CTRL+X, CTRL-C, CTRL-V for Cut,Copy & Paste
CTRL-DEL key for delete operations.
CTRL+O for Open.
CTRL+S for Save.
CTRL+P for Print.
CTRL+ALT+O for Open Examples.
CTRL+R for Rotate +90 Degrees
CTRL+ALT+R for Rotate -90 Degrees
CTRL+M for Mirror Items Left/Right.
CTRL+I for Invert Items Up/Down.
CTRL+Z for Zoom to fit on screen - Pan of drawing now supported in 'Show' mode and 'Move' mode.
- Right click of mouse while hovering over the drawing now returns the user to 'Show' mode.
- Text entry now remembers details of last used font, style, & size.
- Fitting K Factors now allow up to 4 decimal places.
- Updated Component data entry display.
Fixed issue which occurred if component flow units were changed to mass flow. - Pump Head in Results Log now shown in units of Pressure Loss.
- Pump Suction Pressure and Pump Power have been added to the Pump Results Sheet.
They are also shown when hovering over a pump in Results Mode (as they were previously). - Updated Pump Save to stand alone file now stores fixed flow and fixed head properties.
- Improved print resolution for A3 printing.
- Save drawing to EMF metafile format.
- Sort Results Grid data by values in any column..
Pipe Flow Expert 2008 v3.11 released 7th July 2008 included:
- Entry of data in Mass Flow rate is now supported.
- Fluid Zones are now supported.
Up to 9 fluid zones can be defined, each having different fluid properties. Calculations run against mass flow to ensure the overall system flows and pressures balance according to the conservation of mass equations. - Pressure Regulating Valves (PRVs) are now supported.
- Back Pressure Valves (BPVs) are now supported.
- Energy Units can now be selected on Config Options screen
- Auto Save of files and file recovery is now supported.
- Easier Pan of drawing is now supported while using standard 'Show' tool.
- Pipe Flow Expert Quick Start Guide PDF is available from the help menu.
- Pipe Flow Expert Results Verification PDF is available from the help menu.
- Improved solution convergence for larger systems.
Pipe Flow Expert 2008 v2.05 released 9th January 2008 included:
- Network Licensing is now available.
- Installation to a Shared Drive is now supported.
The software can now be installed to any hard drive including local drives, network drives & USB drives. - Cut, Copy and Paste of multiple items is now supported.
Multiple items can now be selected, updated, moved and copied. Items can even be copied between different drawings. - Multiple item updates are supported.
Multiple items can be selected and their attributes can be updated and set as a group. - Pipes and Nodes can now be amended as a group
Updates with one operation to allow easy configuration of pipe diameters and node elevations (and many other attributes). - Coloring of pipes in design mode is now supported.
Pipes can be drawn in different colors and line styles to aid in the visualisation of items within the system. - Results Screen now shows items according to a Color Gradient.
A results item such as flow rate or pressure loss can be selected and automatically mapped on to a color gradient which is then used to determine the color of the item on the results screen. This feature makes it easy to visually see what is happening in your system, i.e. where the highest flows are, or where the highest pressure loss is. - Fixed Head Pumps are now supported.
The pump head to be added can now be specified directly, which makes it easy to find out if a particular pump head is enough to solve your system and meet all of the design requirements. - Zoom to selected area on drawing in design mode.
- Energy calculations are now shown on Results Sheet.
Pipe Flow Expert 2006 v1.03 released 7th July 2006 included:
- First Release of Pipe Flow Expert.
- Pipe Flow Expert supersedes previous Pipe Flow 3D program.
Pipe Flow 3D is no longer offered for sale and will not be supported from Decmeber 31st 2006. - Pipe Flow Expert's enhanced capabilities mean it can solve complex pipe networks.
Models multiple pumps and calculates flows & pressues throughout the pipe system.
Next: Pipe Flow Expert Software Annual Support & Upgrades
