Some Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is your background?
A. I retired from a large chemical company after 39 years. I was an engineering technologist at time of retirement. My last 14 years was in development and maintenance of over 160 piping line class specs and related documents. I had over 25 years experience in pipe stress analysis and piping drafting.
Q. How are Excel errors handled and do you provide help to resolve issues?
A. When there are errors, you can sometimes find solutions by searching the net. Yes, I gladly provide support.
Q. Would I be able to use Excel files in Libre Office spreadsheet application?
A. I am not familiar with Libre Office. So, I asked online and found that if you want to use macros written in Microsoft Excel using the VBA macro code in LibreOffice, you must first edit the code in the LibreOffice Basic IDE. I cannot make the conversions.
Q. Is there a guarantee?
A. 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 User Agreement.
Q. Are upgrades available?
A. 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.
Free updates may be requested by previous customers within the 12 months following a purchase. There is no longer a discount offering. Previous customers must pay the full product price for upgrading after 12 months following the date of original purchase.
Piping Code material data tables (with allowable stress values) 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.
Q. Do you export from United States?
A. The spreadsheets have piping design procedures which are considered as publicly available. No export license is required per EAR99 NLR. It is best to purchase and download electronically rather than to ship by hard media in postal mail.
Q. What has been development time for PipingOffice?
A. I have lost count. Lets say if I spent about 1 hour per day per 21 years, then it could've been over 7600 hours.
Q. Has there been much feedback from users of PipingOffice?
A. Yes. A lot. Customer comments have been very positive. There have not been any requests for refund, excep from a few who had selected the wtong package. Here are comments from recent customers:
"Personally, I think your work is first class"
"Congratulation for this work it is really amazing!"
"Thanks for your quick response. Once again I am a massive fan of your software."
"I am very impressed with the structure, layout, design and depth of information offered in the program."
Q. Is prior Excel usage required?
A. No. But of course it helps. The files are user-friendly, yet complex enough that user familiarity may take a bit of time. A user must be familiar with the applied ASME Piping Code.
Q. What are macros and their use and editing?
A. Macros are small programs that complete many operations by button clicks. 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.
Q. What are some special functions?
A. - 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.
Q. Is help provided?
A. Help dialogs are accessed by button clicks on main sheets. 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.
Q. Are both SI units and English units included?
A. Yes. Most of the spreadsheets do include SI (Metric) units as well as U.S. Customary (Imperial) (included in pipe dimensions, material stress, Young’s Modulus, allowable pressure.) Temperature conversion choice between °F and °C is provided.
Q. Do DIN Standards/Codes match with ASME and other Standards/Codes?
A. Use a keyword internet search such as "asme vs din standards". Also, be aware of specific local requirements.
Q. What is hardware/software compatibility?
A. See Compatibility. The files work on any computer that will run Microsoft Excel-2010™ or later.
Mac computers may need a parallel version of Windows operating system and a copy of Microsoft Excel-2010™ or later.
Q. Who are some of your customers?
A. 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, 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, COPICO Direccion, and numerous others. Also, numerous individual consultants are using the programs.
Q. Has there been any 3rd Party Verification?
A. I have relied mainly on my own checking. I did get help on the leak testing files and numerous customers have questioned and suggested corrections. My disclaimer is: "The user is responsible to verify the methods and results are correct." The branch reinforcement calcs are compared to two examples given in ASME B31.3, Appendix H. It will be the responsibility of the user to apply verification if required (some organizations do).
Q. Are there any password protections?
A. 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 is the responsibility of the user to apply password protections if required (Some organizations do require them.).
Q. What are best ways for saving output?
A. The best way to save your calculations is by creating PDF files with desired naming. Microsoft provides a pdf generator and there are free programs which can be found on the internet. I use is Bullzip PDF Printer. You might also try PDF995. There are other choices you can find by internet search. You may also need Adobe Reader to view the PDF files.
Q. For pipe external pressure calculations, are there plans to develop a program to consider full ASME VIII requirements?
A. No. I would like to, but do not have the ASME VIII code books.
Q. Can I calculate allowable pressure of corroded pipe?
A. 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.
Q. How do I get the date to display properly in the Sup.xls file?
A. I was really frustrated in correcting this problem when using Excel 2007. 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.
Q. The selection text does not display in the material dropdown. Do you have a fix?
A. Yes! Materials data are now in a separate data file, except for B31.5 files.
Q. Do you provide flange calculations?
A. 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 dimensions 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.
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Don't waste time.
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Get help in learning Piping Codes.

These are for the:

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