I'm a 5 year mechanical engineer in the power generation industry, using CAESAR II for the last 4 years exclusively for B31.1 pipe stress analysis.

My boss has recently informed me that our company is contemplating making a switch to AutoPIPE from CAESAR II, which doesn't shock me considering how Bentley somehow gotten our company to change over to much of their software over the last few years. I have plenty more to discuss on that topic, but I digress.

I realize that it may be difficult to get an unbiased opinion in a CAESAR II forum, but all of our stress engineers know CAESAR II in and out (i'm talking 6 offices for scale) and this decision to all of a sudden switch everyone over to AutoPIPE seems to be based upon no more than a convincing Bentley sales pitch to the folks higher up (whose eyes typically glaze over at the mention of pipe stress anlaysis).

I'm sure AutoPIPE is capable enough, however I've gone through a few tutorials and modeled/stressed a few lines and I honestly very much prefer using CAESAR II. I'm helping a few other engineers with the same opinion (after giving similar test runs) mount an offensive against this switch.

I'm looking for other opinions from anyone who's used AutoPIPE more than just a simple test run, anyone who's gone through a similar situation, looking for advantages/disadvantages of both programs, anything that can help me gather intel to hopefully keep CAESAR II in our office. I'm also very interested in any information on industry trends in terms of which program is more prevalent, especially if there are a number of major companies who use one vs. the other.

I'm all ears if anyone has any additional suggestions as to how I shoudld approach this uphill battle against upper management who doesn't know any better.

Any advice, help, etc would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.