We are getting close to releasing a completely remodeled Rated Flange unit. While improvements have been made to the user interface, the most impressive renovations are under the hood. We have made the Rated Flange designer smarter – enough so that when you add a new rated flange, the designer pulls in data from the rest of your vessel and auto creates the flange it thinks you will want. Naturally, you can still completely customize the design – and we have added new browser capabilities to assist this process as well - but this new methodology aims to make your design process even easier. Look for this and other changes in upcoming DesignCalcs releases.

All of us at CEI are working to bring you new features and exciting changes with the upcoming 2012 software versions. Changes are planned for ProWrite and DesignCalcs that will improve the software for both new and experienced users.

We are also busy testing our products with Windows 8. As a Microsoft Partner, we are committed to maintaining the highest level of compatibility with our products. Adjustments will be made, if necessary, to ensure a seamless transition for our customers.

As of version 2011.15, ProWrite offers a utility called ProReports (beta). Accessed through the main toolbar, ProReports (beta) offers a modernized reporting system that gives you more flexibility in data access and multiple printing options.

The Traditional reports will gradually replace the reports that are currently in ProWrite. Becoming familiar with ProReports (beta) now will ease this transition. Providing feedback to CEI will give you the chance to help shape the future of the software.

The WYSIWYG reports give you access to more data than ever before. We have included robust organization options so you can analyze your data quickly and easily. Columns can be added and removed and the data can be grouped, sorted, and filtered by any visible column. The Design utility allows you to adjust the appearance of your data and you can print any of your data analysis grids with real-time data. In other words, the content of the grid is dynamic until the ink hits the paper.

As mentioned above, the reports found under ProReports Traditional will replace those currently found in ProWrite. Why the change? These reports are much more solid, for one. The new reports also offer color and black and white printing. Most importantly, transitioning to the new report system will allow us to offer you custom reporting. This means that you will be able to adjust the reports to contain the information you prefer while adding a professional customized touch.

With the 2011.11 release of DesignCalcs, the storage mechanism for Vessel designs and calculations will be transitioning from a Single File database named “DCData.adb†(typically located at “C:\CEI Data\DesignCalcs 2011â€) to a flat file system in which vessels can be stored separately and freely on any editable media (e.g., a server, external hard drive, or USB Key). This change is the result of significant customer requests that we move to a simpler storage mechanism. This change can be thought of as moving between Microsoft Outlook storage (in which there are discrete emails but each email is not a separate file, they are all bundled together in a single Database) and Microsoft Word storage (where each document is a discrete file that can be manipulated as any Windows file can be).

By default, the transition from a single database to multiple vessel files will occur with the installation of the 2011.11 version as the final step of that version’s installation. If the conversion is not run with the installation of the 2011.11 version, it can still be run from within the program on an as-needed basis. By default, the separation will name each vessel file with the Job and Vessel number of that file and the new DesignCalcs extension. Individual folders can also be created for the Jobs/Folders.

The conversion process will only take a few seconds for most vessels and this change will provide a number of benefits:

• allow vessels to be backed up individually
• allow vessels to be shared more easily
• allow vessels to be stored online using services like Dropbox, Box.net, and Microsoft Skydrive
• increase multi-user and network usage speeds
• enable easy launching of DesignCalcs when a vessel is double-clicked

For Multi-User deployments, commonly shared information such as custom materials, customers, etc., will still be stored in a “Support Database†to allow sharing of this information between users.