TRIFLEX® Windows Version 2.2.0 Enhancements & Modifications
January 9, 2003

Enhancements

1. Component and Branch Selection -  This version of TRIFLEX^®Windows greatly expands the user’s options in selecting components and forming a selection set.  Components may be selected/deselected individually by using CTRL-Left Click when the select cursor (arrow) is on the component in graphics mode, or when the focus is on the component in the input spreadsheet.   Groups of components may be selected/deselected in a variety of ways as outlined in the following table:

Action	Primary Method	Alternative  Method
Toggle Selection of a single component	CTRL-Left Click in graphics w/ select cursor on a component	CTRL-Left Click on  an Input  Spreadsheet component
Toggle Selection of All Components	CTRL-SHFT-Right Click in graphics w/ select cursor	Main Menu/Edit/Invert Selection
Select All components	CTRL-A	Main Menu/Edit/Select ALL
Deselect All components	SHFT-CTRL-A	Main Menu/Edit/Deselect All
Select Current Branch	CTRL-B	Main Menu/Edit/Select Current Branch
Deselect Current Branch	SHFT-CTRL-B	Main Menu/Edit/Deselect Current Branch
Toggle Selection of a Branch containing a component	SHFT-Left Click in graphics w/ select cursor on a component	None
Select a Group of Components in the Component List	In the Input Spreadsheet, CTRL-Left Click to Select the First component, SHFT-Left Click on Last Component to be in the selection set	None
Deselect a Group of Components in the Component List	SHFT-Left Click on the Last selected Component in Input Spreadsheet	None

2. Display Selection Set – Once a Selection Set, consisting of any subset of the piping system components, has been defined using the controls described above this version of TRIFLEX^®Windows allows the display of the isolated selection set.  This is done using the new button on the graphics toolbar: .  Pressing the button a second time brings the full system into view once again, as does any input action requiring a redraw of the system or a change in the selection set.

3. Renumber Selection Set – Given a contiguous Selection Set, that is a subset which is geometrically connected, those components may be renumbered based on a start number and increment supplied by the user. 
4. Copy & Paste – A contiguous Selection Set may be Copied into an internal clipboard using CTRL-C or the Main Menu/Edit/Copy command.  This clipboard may then be Pasted back into the current piping system or another open piping system in the same TRIFLEX^®Windows session.  A dialog is brought up when the paste operation is requested which asks for the node point on the clipboard components and the node point on the piping system components which are to be connected, as well as axis sign change data used to transform the clipboard system before the connection.

5. Delete – A Selection Set, consisting of any subset of components, may be deleted using the DEL key or Main Menu/Edit/Delete command, however at least one component must remain after the deletion.  If the selection set contains components that are between two non-deleted components, a dialog appears asking the user whether he wishes to connect the two ends which were occupied by the deleted components or leave them in their current position with a gap replacing the deleted section.

6. Cut – A contiguous Selection Set may be Cut into the internal clipboard using CTRL-X or the Main Menu/Edit/Cut command.  As with the delete operation, at least one component must remain after the deletion. Cutting first copies the selection set to the clipboard then deletes it from the model.

7. Undo & Redo – Every input operation that results in a component change pushes the state of the system into a buffer.  At any time the user may recall the previous state by doing an Undo operation, using CTRL-Z or the Main Menu/Edit/Undo command.  After having done an Undo or series of Undo’s a Redo may be accomplished, using CTRL-Y or the Main Menu/Edit/Redo command, moving forward in the state buffer and, hence, nullifying the previous undo command.  Due to memory considerations, the Undo/Redo buffer is limited to 32 operations, so only the last 32 operations may be undone. 

8. Rearrange Component List – The underlying structure of a TRIFLEX^®Windows piping model is the Component List as shown in order in the input spreadsheet.  Occasionally, in order to correct connectivity errors more easily, do custom renumbering, or simply to arrange the components into a more organized listing, it is convenient to be able to reorder the component sequence in this list.  This version of the program allows the list to be modified, using the Main Menu/Edit/Rearrange Component List command.  To use the command first, Select the components to be grouped together and moved, and then fix the current component.  When the command is given, the Selected components will be moved in the list such that they immediately follow the current component.  

9. Status Bar Update – The status bar along the lower part of the screen now reports the number of components presently in the selection set as well as the number of components currently in the clipboard ready for pasting.  In addition, it correctly identifies whether there are results ready for viewing or the user is in Input Mode.

10. Pin Element – An option has been added to the release element main tab to produce a pin element.  A pin element is defined, in the modeling sense, as a release element with a single degree of freedom: rotation about a defined axis. If this is the case, the element can be depicted graphically as a cylinder whose axis coincides with the rotationally free axis and whose diameter and length may be defined by the user.

11. Structural Steel Data Base – TRIFLEX^®Windows has added to its database the entire range of AISC structural steel sections, including W, M, S, HP, C, MC, and L designations.  In addition standard flat and round bar as well as rectangular and round structural tubing are included along with an option allowing the user to specify custom dimensions for these types.  Areal properties including cross sectional area, B and C axis and polar moments of inertia, and extreme fiber distance from the centroid are automatically calculated.

12. Event View Errors Highlighted – As much as TRIFLEX^®Windows tries to catch errors in input before a calculation is run, occasionally a few cannot be detected until the actual preprocessing and calculation is underway.  When an error is detected at this juncture, it is shown in the event view, highlighted in RED for easier location.  The program mode pane of the status bar displays the fact that a calculation error was encountered until the user either recalculates the system or enters into Input Mode to correct it.

13. Free Anchor Representation – Totally Free Anchors are now distinguished from rigid or semi-rigid anchors graphically by being drawn as disks with the diameter of the attached piping rather than the rectangular block associated with a fixed anchor.  Occasionally, due to the algorithm used in the Cut, Paste, & Delete mechanism, these free anchors will be inserted into the system automatically.  They serve as location definition points only and have no effect on system behavior as far as displacement and stress calculations are concerned.

14. Time History Function Table – The Function Table used in time history analysis may now be exported to an ASCII file and imported from an ASCII file giving external programs the ability to communicate with TRIFLEX^®Windows.

15. Graphical Attributes Saved – The graphical attributes, Node Numbers, Line Mode, Component Labels, and Selected Components are retained during a save operation and are available when the system is loaded again.

16. Component Labels – The string placed in the Name field in the component dialog may now be displayed along with node numbers in the graphical representation of the piping system.  By selecting ‘Component Labels’ in the Main Menu/Setup/Graphical Preferences/Node and Component Labels dialog, the labels will be displayed using the graphical toolbar button: .

17. Selective Thinning of Node and Component Labels – Using the dialog at Main Menu/Setup/Graphical Preferences/Node and Component Labels, the user is now able to specify an increment for node and component label placement on the piping system graphics.  Further selection of which label should be displayed may be had using Label Toggle functions on the component pop-up menu obtained with a Right Mouse Click on the component in Graphics Select Mode (arrow cursor).

18. Ripple Selected Components  – The component dialogs for pipe definition, process conditions, wind and uniform loading, soil loading, and code compliance data, may now ripple a change through all components in the selection set, such that a parameter defined on these dialogs may be changed en masse for any selected group of components.  

 

Modifications

1. Overstress Highlighting – An error in which the highlighting applied to nodes in the Code Compliance output spreadsheet for which the node exceeded allowable stresses tended to remain assigned to the original row following a column sort of the data has been corrected.

2. Code Reports for Systems without Stress Calculations – In previous versions of TRIFLEX^®Windows, a system consisting of components for which no stresses were calculated and a code compliance report was requested.  This has been corrected by graying out the code compliance menu item if there is nothing to report. 

3. Alignment of Previous & Next Buttons – Previously when scrolling through the component list using the Previous and Next Buttons on the component dialogs the buttons would tend to jump around depending on which type of component was brought up since all dialogs were a different size.  The dialog size has been standardized which results in these buttons being located in the same relative position on the screen independent of the component being viewed at the time.

4. Water Hammer Time Calculations – When IU1 units were used, the automatic calculation of water hammer timing was in error.  This problem has been corrected.

5. Response Spectrum Log – The Menu Item to view the response spectrum log is now grayed out and inaccessible unless a response spectrum has been run and a log is available.

6. Valve Flange Selection – Previously the integral flange on flanged valves were not being be shown as selected/deselected in the graphic representation in conjunction with the valve.  This inconsistency has been addressed and now the valve and integral flange are handled as a single component.

7. Spreadsheet Component Changes – In previous versions of TRIFLEX^®Windows, while a change to various component settings could be made directly in the spreadsheet without going to the dialog, to do so would mess up the camera setting when graphics returned.  This problem has been resolved.

8. Texture on Pipe Preceding Valve – When a pipe preceded a valve in a combo element, the colored texture showing displacement and stress output mapping would be reversed.  This has been corrected such that the values are correctly displayed by the component coloring.

9. Dampers in Skewed Coordinate Systems – Dampers may not be used with skewed coordinates.  If dampers are required X,Y, Z coordinates must be specified.  Logic on the component restraint dialog now assures this constraint.

10. Internally Assigned Node Numbers in Mitered Bends – The node numbers assigned in the preprocessing phase of TRIFLEX^®Windows to the separate points in a mitered bend were at times in conflict with other node selected by the system.  This discrepancy has been rectified such that node number assignment does not produce conflicts.

11. Allowable Stress Range in Euro Code -- The formula for allowable stress range, fa, was missing the stress range reduction factor U the value of the ratio of hot to cold elasticity moduli, Eh/Ec.  The correct value is now calculated.

12. Process Tab Ripple – Rippling pressure and temperature settings using the ‘Ripple Process’ button on the process tab of the component dialog no longer carries the material setting along with the change to other components, only pressure, installed temperature, operating temperature, and the designation of which temperature should control the modulus of elasticity.  The modulus of elasticity and expansion coefficient data are reset appropriately for all rippled components using each component’s previously designated material.

13. Code Compliance Output Graphics – The Code Compliance Graphical output mapping now shows those values that remain constant over the expanse of a component, such as design wall thickness, with a constant color rather than trying to interpolate between the values at the end points of the component.

14. Axis Description Report -- The Axis Description Report in the output spreadsheet now adjust angles and filters out all values not associated with restraints and expansion joints.