Interface Settings

Defines various default settings to define how PSI behaves.

Stress Zone Purpose

PSI looks at the zone purpose attribute to find zones containing stress groups. In the example shown, the Stress Zone purpose should be set to PSI to be identified as a stress zone.

Stress Group Colour

Refers to the graphics colour of the current stress group.

Note:
To change the colour of a group, click on the coloured box to display a colour palette with a selection of colours to choose from.

Load Case Colour

Refers to the display colour of the returning load case branches.

Note:
To change the colour of a group, click on the coloured box to display a colour palette with a selection of colours to choose from.

Start Node Number

By default, for any stress pipe, this is the number to start numbering the nodes from.

Node Increment

This is where the increment number between the nodes can be set, by default it is 10 but can be changed to 100 or any other uniform numbering convention.

Note:
For changes to take effect, the stress group has to be refreshed, this is achieved by right clicking on the desired stress group and selecting Refresh Current Group and toggling the Nodes check box on/off.

Stress Ready Attribute

Turns the stress ready checking on/off.

For example, when it is turned, on each branch that is added to a Stress Group will be checked that it is ready to be stressed. This is used in conjunction with an expression which allows the stress ready attribute to be configured. If the stress ready system is used, it prevents branches from being added to a stress group. It does not prevent a stress run.

Max Allowable Movement

The maximum distance that a stressed pipe can be moved when returning into AVEVA E3D Design If any load case exceeds this value then the load case is deemed as invalid and the load case will be deleted. If this event occurs then a warning message will be displayed.

Separate Values/Flanges

Allows connected flanges to be treated as separate rigids. Changing this setting will require the stress group to be refreshed to get a new set of nodes.

Branch Selection

Allows branches to exist in just one or multiple stress groups.

Stress Zone Search

Allows you to set where to search to see where a branch exists. There are two options: All and Current. If the search is set to All then all stress zones will be checked, or if it is set to Current then only the current creation zone is checked to see if the branch exists in another stress group.

Note:
Only active if Single is selected in Branch Selection which means that a branch can only be in one stress group at any one time.

Restrain Open Ends

Restrain Open ends is a drop-down box with two options,

Yes – Automatically places an ANCHOR restraint on any open ends of branches.
No – Will not put any restraints on any open ends of branches and will leave them open.

Ambient Temperature

The ambient temperature is set using the E3D session temperature units. When the temperature is exported, it is converted into the temperature defined by the ‘Export Temperature Options’ for importing into the CAESAR II application.

When the ambient temperature has been changed in the CAESAR II stress run and imported back into Pipe Stress Interface, a message will be displayed during import notifying the user that the ambient temperature has been changed. The user is asked if they wish to update the default ambient temperature within the Pipe Stress Interface defaults. If the user chooses ‘Yes’, the new ambient temperature will be saved to the Pipe Stress Interface defaults file. If the user chooses ‘No’, the new ambient temperature will be ignored and the default ambient temperature will not be updated.The new ambient temperature will be converted from the temperature specified in the CII file, to temperature unit of the current E3D session.

Zero Length Bends

Adding a value for the angle in the text box and selecting the check box stops nodes being created for zero length bends below the specified angle. No nodes are sent to CAESAR II and therefore will not error within CAESAR II.

Export Template Options

Allows you to define the export template options - the version of CAESAR II (before 2018 or 2018 or later), the units used (metric or imperial) and the co-ordinate system (Z is Up or Y is Up).