Overview

Thank you for purchasing CAEPIPE and helping to make it the most popular piping analysis program in the market. This information is made available to help you determine if your company should subscribe to the annual Maintenance, Enhancement & Support service (ME&S) for CAEPIPE.

ME&S service is a collaborative effort between SST Systems, Inc’s experienced software developers and technical support staff, attentive sales staff, and YOU, for our mutual benefit. We routinely add user-requested features, improve old features, and correct reported errors. Such additions have made CAEPIPE easier to use than ever and an effective tool for our users.

Three sections make up the ME&S service:

  • Maintenance - Includes software updates that contain corrections for reported errors/bugs. When there is an update available, we send out notifications by email with instructions on how to download and install the update.
  • Enhancements - Includes enhancement of the software’s capabilities. When an update with enhancements is released, we send out notifications by email with instructions on how to download and install the update.
  • Support - Includes technical support on the use of the software through email or by telephone when required.

Do You Need ME&S?

CAEPIPE pioneered pipe stress analysis software in the PC market in 1983 and has evolved since then into a more robust and mature program.

Signing up for the ME&S services provides confidence to the user that you will receive software maintenance, enhancements and support in a timely manner. If we find a software error or bug, rest assured that we will take all possible measures to correct it and provide you with a corrected update.

Additionally, we provide new enhanced versions of CAEPIPE which are easy to install via web download.

Lastly, but most importantly, Technical support is available when needed from qualified and experienced engineers. Simply put, we offer great value to keep you working efficiently and effectively throughout the year.

Is ME&S Expensive?

The yearly ME&S service fee is a small one to pay for the benefits you derive from it. You may not avail yourself of all the benefits each year but the ME&S service is readily available when you DO need it. How much is your time worth when you require technical help and cannot find it? How much productivity increase will you see as a result of new features implemented? How does the ME&S cost compare with the cost of the project you are using CAEPIPE on? It is a small fee (Less than $6 a day) to ensure the smooth progress of your project.

What is Maintenance?

Program maintenance is similar to a "service contract" that you can buy for an electronics item at a store. If you do not buy the contract, the store will not repair your TV when there is a problem, for example. They will not tend to your request if the electronics goes bad after four months if you do not have a "service contract." If you had it, however, they would fix the problem. We do not leave your problem unattended. Instead, we work with you to resolve your problem.

CAEPIPE has over 100,000 lines of code and mathematically millions of possibilities for its operation. This complexity is compounded when you introduce interaction with operating systems (such as MS-Windows). We have developed an internal procedure to verify the results from each program release, by comparing the results with known documented sources.

Despite our efforts, we cannot and do not assure you that our program is bug-free. Bugs in software are accepted as part of the process and measures are taken to minimize their occurrence. We strive to provide you with the best quality possible. We are glad to report that major errors in our programs are very rare (found only once in the past two decades). Generally, we fix a few "bugs" in CAEPIPE each year and these revisions are made available to those who opted for our ME&S services.

What are Enhancements?

We continually add features to the software that improve either existing usage methods or add additional capability to the software. These enhancements are made available to those who opted for our ME&S services.

Here is a sampling of the enhancements in the past two years:

  • Nozzle Qualification
  • New Piping Code/API Updates
  • Up to 10 Thermal loads & 4 Wind loads, 95+ load cases
  • Tag names for all supports
  • User specified allowable loads
  • Automatic descretization of elements for buried piping
  • New Find and Replace Element/Data types feature
  • Rotodynamic Pump Compliance
  • Internal & External Pressure Design
  • PCF files for generation of Isometrics
  • Undo and Redo feature
  • Model Revision Records, etc.
  • Pressure Relief Vale loading

For a comprehensive list of enhancements incorporated into CAEPIPE, visit our CAEPIPE Enhancements page

What does Support Include?

It means that you will have access to help related to CAEPIPE. This help may include:

  • An answer to a technical question from our support/engineering staff.
  • A replacement for a defective or broken USB key, or a replacement software CD.
  • Assistance with re-installation of CAEPIPE on a new server/computer (allowed once a year)

Finally, it is your decision to sign up for ME&S. We hope there is enough information here to help you with it.