I do a lot of design verification on vessels built in the 1950's and 1960's. Many of these were built using materials that are not listed in the current ASME materials tables or were never in the ASME materials tables because they were proprietary (CBI had several of these). Fortunately, we have good records of vessel materials, analysis reports, and construction drawings for most of these old vessels, and I am able to add the materials to the PVElite materials database and use them for my design analysis.

My question is... When I update to a newer version of PVElite (2009 to 2010), will the PVElite materials database be overwritten. I don't want to re-enter all of my materials.

Hi Jimed1,

Every material you create on the Material Database Editor will be saved on a file called 'umat1.bin' (user materials 1). I would then suggest that you save this file on a special folder or multiple times. You can review the instructions of a previous post for adding materials to the material database, click here. Make sure that when you install a new version of PV Elite, you move a copy of the 'Umat1.bin' file into the system folder for that version of PV Elite.

Thanks Luis. That is what I needed to know..

When I try to open UMAT1, I get an error saying the following

"Warning. There was a problem with the ASME Material database creation using the March 2007 build of PV Elite. It is imperative that all ASME materials be checked to insure the allowable stress versus temperature properties are correct."

I am running PV Elite 2010 and can't read any of my user defined materials (materials from the 1950s and 1960s).

What can I do to resolve this problem.

Thanks.

Hi vld,

What do you mean when you try to open Umat1.bin file? Did you copy your Umat1.bin file on the PV Elite 2010 system folder?

Luis,

Yes, I have copied the Umat1.bin file to the PV Elite 2010 system folder. When I try to Edit/Add user materials it gives me the following error:

"Warning. There was a problem with the ASME Material database creation using the March 2007 build of PV Elite. It is imperative that all ASME materials be checked to insure the allowable stress versus temperature properties are correct. Once the stresses at all temperatures for the User defined ASME Materials have been verified, save the database and merge the materials to the main database. Note also that all ASME User defined materials must have unique name."

I then hit "OK" and it opens up the material database editor but all my existing materials are unreadable. The text is just a bunch of numbers and characters that you can't read and make a sense out of.

I have a fellow employee that is still running PV Elite 2008 version and when he opens the material database editor (same Umat1.bin file) he gets the same warning but he is able to see and use the existing materials.

Any thoughts on how to correct this?
Thanks.

Hi vld,

Please send your 'umat1.bin' file to techsupport 'at' coade 'dot' com.