TRIFLEX® Windows 2.5.1
June 4, 2004

Enhancements

1. Fatigue Analysis – The ability perform a Fatigue Analysis has been incorporated into this version of TRIFLEX®Windows. This currently applies to piping systems designed using B31.1, B31.3, B31.4, B31.5, and B31.8 piping codes, using both internally stored and/or user defined design fatigue curves.

2. Pressure Contribution – Whether pressure displacement stress is to be included as a primary stress along with weight, or a secondary stress along with thermal effects, is now an option selectable by the user in the Setup/Modeling Defaults dialog. The default is for it to be included along with weight as in past versions of TRIFLEX®Windows; however, should fatigue analysis be selected, the effect of pressure stress defaults to being included with thermal effects for a more realistic calculation of the alternating stress intensity.

3. Code Compliance Spreadsheet Link to Component Input Dialogs – A link has been incorporated between the Code Compliance Spreadsheet and the Component Input Dialogs. By double clicking on a row in the spreadsheet, the component dialog for the component containing the data point on that row is brought up for examination. Any changes made to the dialog invalidates the underlying code compliance report, so care should be excercised.

Modifications

1. Spreadsheet Import Scrolling – The Spreadsheet Import dialog has been modified such that it has modified vertical scroll bars consistent with other spreadsheets in TRIFLEX®Windows. Also the number of components able to be brought into TRIFLEX®Windows via an imported spreadsheet has been increased from 1000 to 10000.

2. Short Joint Depiction – The graphical representation of Rigid Joint components less than 1/10 the representative OD are now shown as cylinders rather square bars. This more accurately portrays the major use of such joints as welds and gaskets.

3. PCF File Import – Previously, some PCF files failed to come into TRIFLEX®Windows correctly when using the Windows XP operating system, generating a failure to read error in the importing program. This problem has been solved such that the import procedure is no longer sensitive to operating system differences.

4. Minimum Temperature Calculation in B31.3 – When specifying ANSI pipe with nominal diameters in inches along with metric pipe lengths, the minimum allowable temperature for some materials was falsely reported. These materials are those, which according to B31.3, have a minimum non-qualified usable temperature based on the material thickness. This material thickness was incorrectly converted with respect to the mixed units and, therefore, resulted in an invalid usable temperature range. This problem has been corrected.

5. Mixed Unit Insulation Thickness – If pipe diameters were given in inches along with metric pipe lengths, version 2.5.0 of TRIFLEX®Windows erroneously passed insulation thickness in inches to the calculator. This value was interpreted by the calculator as a metric dimension and treated accordingly, with the obvious problems in calculating buoyant forces. This parameter is now correctly passed with its proper metric numerical value.

6. Renumbering with Special Reports – A problem was located in the automatic node updating of the Flange, API610, API617, NEMA, Rotating Equipment, and Time History data when the piping system was renumbered and one or more of the components selected for the renumbering operation was an Anchor. This problem has been addressed and TRIFLEX®Windows now functions properly in this regard. Care should be exercised whenever MANUAL renumbering of nodes occurs, however. If the user MANUALLY renumbers a node, any of the above reports that are requested, containing that node number, must also be updated MANUALLY.

7. Flange Limit Increased – Previously the limit on the number of flanges included in the Flange Loading Report was limited to 100. This limit has been increased tenfold to 1000. Also, the physical limitations on the size of the view in which Flange Loading was displayed has been removed, sizing the view based on the number of lines to be written, rather than assigning an arbitrary maximum size.

8. Copy, Paste, and Delete – Some stability problems were encountered in previous versions. When attempting to Copy, Paste, or Delete components under some circumstances the program could loose orientation and fail. This problem has been resolved.

9. Sorting on Spreadsheet Columns – The speed of sorting of the output spreadsheet and piping code report spreadsheet data by double-clicking on the column headers has been significantly improved, and is especially noticeable in spreadsheets with a large number of rows. Also sorting has been modified such that blank rows are always displayed at the end of the sort rather than interpreting the blank as a zero and placing the row where a zero would fall in numerical order.

10. Code Compliance Spreadsheet Display – The efficiency of the processing of the code compliance data has been improved, dramatically reducing the time to display or refresh the code compliance spreadsheet for large piping systems.

11. MAXSP and NIDP Keywords – The TRIFLEX®Windows keywords for maximum spacing between intermediate nodes and for the number of intermediate nodes may not both be specified on a single component. If the user attempts to do so, a warning message will now appear, indicating the situation and requesting that one or the other be chosen. Note that this does not interfere with the function of the DIASP (Maximum Spacing with respect to Diameter) keyword set on the Model Definition Dialog. Any setting pertaining to intermediate node spacing specified on the component dialog overrides this directive so no conflict arises.

12. Modification of Input Unit System – The input unit system for defining new piping systems cannot now be modified following the definition of the first component of the system. Further, the set of input units is fixed for all existing systems. This will prevent possible misinterpretations of data that could occur previously when the unit system could be changed, but the underlying numerical values associated with piping system and component properties remained constant. The unit system now MUST be defined before entering the first component of the piping system.

13. Reducer Error Checking – The error checking algorithm used in determining whether or not a defined reducer was a valid component has been modified such that a frustrating loop does not occur should the small end diameter be set to zero and the user tries to correct it.

14. Movements with Mixed Unit Systems – There was an error in the display of movement dimension labels when recalling a saved system in which ANSI pipe sizes were used with metric unit systems. Although all calculations and the output were correct, the input dialogs would display inch units along side a field whose numerical value was internally interpreted by the program as being in millimeters for SI or IU1 units and centimeters for MKS units. This discrepancy has been corrected.

15. NEMA / API Report Numerical Output – When large forces and moments were encountered in NEMA or API rotating equipment reports, the value of the number could occasionally be too large to fit in the space allocated in the report format. This would cause the report to be totally blank, and hence, not very useful. Now, should these exceedingly large values be present, the report prints them, in an attempt to help the user identify and correct the underlying design problem.