CADWorx and Analysis University Returns to Houston
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CADWorx and Analysis University Returns to Houston
Article and photo by Bill Beazley
The popular CADWorx and Analysis University (CAU) program has returned to Houston after a few years’ absence. CAU is produced by Intergraph CADWorx and Analysis Systems. The program had been co‐located with the Hexagon Live program in Las Vegas. Hexagon is the parent company of Intergraph

CAU is known for quality presentations from practitioners who use ICAS tools, including:
- CADWorx
- CAESAR II
- PVElite
- GT Strudl
Presentations also include add‐ons and complementary software from other vendors.
Many customers had found it hard to gain approval for travel to Las Vegas. In addition, CAU lost its unique and distinctive technical character amongst the broad array of Hexagon products. Hexagon, in addition to Intergraph’s products, offers software and hardware for manufacturing, surveying, mapping and other applications. A large number of Intergraph and ICAS customers work in the Houston area.
CAU 2016 continues for two days followed by a special symposium. For more information, consult:
http://www.coade.com/CAU2016/Home.shtml
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Piping / Pipeline Pig Launcher Design Guidelines
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Written by: Gordon Reddek at Piping Design Central
The pig must fit loosely in the launcher/receiver so the barrel of the launcher/receiver must have a greater diameter than the pipe itself. When the pig is received the fluid has to pass around the pig in the barrel, so it would be a good idea to give the barrel a cross sectional area of about twice that of the linepipe, In your case say 28 inches. That will ensure that the velocity of the fluid passing around the pig is similar to the flow rate in the pipe when one or more pigs are in the barrel. You can make the barrel diameter smaller, however I would size it so that the flow velocity around the pig is less than 20m/s when flowing gas and 4m/s when flowing liquid. Be generous with barrel length. It is common for the barrel to hold a batch of pigs (say four or six pigs). Also, if you are going to use an intelligent pig on this line you will be surprised how long they can be. Find out what pigs you are going to use and make sure the barrel has adequate length.
Carbon Steel Behaviour at Low (But Not Cryogenic) Temperatures
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From August 2012, edited March 2013, added 10 October 2016
[Bruce Bullough] I'd like to get your comments, clarifications, experiences, etc., on carbon steel storage tanks at low temps. We have a carbon steel tank that we use as a reservoir tank in our chiller system - the general assumption is that it is a low grade CS, by the way, it's old and we don't have the shop drawing anymore. The chilled liquid (50:50 blend of water and methanol) is kept at -25°F (it might get as cold as -28°F). The tank is well guarded by bollards and the walls of a containment dike, and in a low-traffic area. I'm well aware that CS is not a cryogenic material, and it loses most of it's "toughness" by time it gets to ~0°F. Ideally a tank in this service should be austenitic stainless steel, a "cryo" grade material. I have a crude and general understanding of what toughness is, and that it is not brittleness.
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Cheap Man Pays Twice - Vendor Drawings
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Again, it was the same long hot summer down south, same job as the last story. Here I wasn't on the side of the cheap man for a change.
As the project wound down, we came to the time for the punch list. I had invested a lot of time and sweat into this project and desperately wanted to see it run, but the cheap man (project manager) spoke: "There is no room in the budget to stay. Come home!"
Cheap Man Pays Twice - The Hazards of Copying Designs
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There are many stories that this phrase brings to mind, and this one comes from Bill Gusnard of Birmingham, Alabama:
In 1987, Bill was doing the mechanical engineering design for a small architectural firm in St. Louis. They had a client with retail stores (similar to Wal-Mart) and had previously designed six mid-level stand-alone stores for this client. When the request for bid was issued for another store, they bid on it, but it was awarded to another firm. Their contract with the storeowners allowed them to see copies of the competitor's drawings. When Bill looked over their drawings, he was amazed at what he saw. The winning bidder had copied all of his details on Stan-Pat and placed them on their drawings. Even more amazing, they had also copied all of the design down to the air handlers, chillers and other HVAC equipment as specified by Bill.
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Cheap Man Pays Twice - Drawing Checking
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Actually, this isn't exactly one of these stories, but I started it the same way. I can understand the direct result of an owner (or project manager) having to pay more because they cut the wrong part of the budget. And I can personally relate to "the cheap man" paying twice because in real life that is me. I am basically frugal (cheap) and have spent most of my life buying the "as good as" items from calculators to pencils to programs to appliances, etc. And usually I do pay twice in the end; either the product or service didn't do exactly what was needed or it didn't last. And sometimes it was just plain hard to use as in the case of calculators or programs.