Running Autopipe analysis in CAESAR II

[maknight]

My company is a subsidiary of a large EPC company and has recently purchased a license for Autopipe. Autopipe was selected without much prior thought and mainly because some of our subcontractors use Autopipe and some of our staff engineers have experience with it. I have been tasked with looking at our engineering software applications generally and with providing recommendations and approvals for all of our engineering software procurements. I have little knowledge of piping stress analysis software and so have been making some inquiries to better educate myself.

I made some inquiries with our corporate offices and determined that our corporate pipe stress analysis software standard is CAESAR II rather than Autopipe. CAESAR II is able to be integrated with some other software applications that we are procuring that are used corporately.

So my question is, if we we to switch to CAESAR II instead of Autopipe, would we be able to re-run analyses originally performed by our subs in Autopipe using CAESAR II? i.e. is there a file format that an Autopipe analysis can be saved in that can be run in CAESAR II and vice versa?

If we were to re-run the analysis as part of a verification exercise, would the differences in the applications cause confusion?

 

[richay]

I am unaware of a way to transfer Autopipe data into CAESAR II.

Does Autopipe have a neutral file? If so, perhaps we could develop such an interface.

Richard Ay
COADE, Inc.

 

[PMarinshaw]

The problem goes beyond the neutral file compatibility. I use both and unless the decision is customer driven, I use the one I feel will work best for the job. Autopipe does produce a neutral file, but C2 can not read it and vice versa. Autopipe and Caesar could not both be installed on the same computer. Each has files with the same names but different file versions. Therefore if you try to install both on the same computer, the file versions which get written to the registry controls which program will run - in essence the last one installed will run and the other won't. So they have to be installed on different computers. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and it would be nice for some cooperative effort to develop capability to import each others model.

 

[maknight]

Autopipe currently indicate on their web site that they can read and write CAESAR II files. That would indicate that they should be able to output in a format that can be read by CAESAR II - right?

 

[richay]

If Autopipe creates a valid CAESAR II neutral file, then yes, CAESAR II can read it.

Richard Ay
COADE, Inc.

 

[Crusader911]

I am being forced to use Autopipe for some projects because the project managers think it saves time to import the Autocad model. If only Caesar could import Autocad files, then it would kill the arguement. If I understand you correctly, it seems that I can import from Autocad to Autopipe, then save as a neutral file and import it into Caesar. Is that right?

 

[richay]

You really can't import a plan drawing file, there is no intelligence. There is no difference between a line that represents a pipe and a line that is part of the title block.

If on the other hand a "piping CAD package" is being used, then there is intelligence associated with the objects in the drawing. There are various Autocad based Piping Packages (CADWorx, CADPIPE, AutoPlant, etc). Each of these can export some type of file that can be imported into other software packages.

Richard Ay
COADE, Inc.

 

[Crusader911]

I meant Autoplant.

 

[richay]

Autoplant should have the ability to generate a PCF file (typically used to generate isometrics via ISOGEN). CAESAR II can import a PCF file. This will give you the geometry and pipe properties, and maybe restraint locations. Everything else will need to be verified and/or added.

Richard Ay
COADE, Inc.

 

[Crusader911]

I will try this and get back with you. We made an effort to do this 3 or 4 years ago and it didn't work out. I don't know the details because the people involved in the effort are gone.