Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimator 

Introduction
Welcome to the Flowtite project estimating program. Its primary purpose is to allow you to compare installed costs for 13 different pipe materials, but the program is also valuable for the international database of cost information it contains from 30 different countries, from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

Engineering calculations that used to take days can now be done in minutes with the Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimator. The software allows you to quickly create multiple iterations of your estimate, with changes in material choice, crew type, installation conditions and many other factors.

For example, within a few minutes you can change your material selection from ductile iron to PVC to GRP and view or print out estimated cost comparisons for all of them. Or you can vary the crew and equipment type just as you might do if you were working out your estimate on paper.

System Requirements
The Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimating Program requires approximately 6 Mb of hard disk space + space for project files. The program has been written for the Microsoft Windows XP operating system (update for Windows Vista in 2008).

IMPORTANT: If you already have a previous version of the Cost Estimator installed on your computer, it is required that you uninstall the old version before beginning installation of this new version. To uninstall the old version, follow these procedures:

How to Uninstall an Older Version of the Cost Estimator

  1. With the program closed, click on Start then Settings then Control Panel.
  2. From the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs.
  3. Scroll down to the Cost Estimator and select it.
  4. Click on Add/Remove.
  5. The program will be removed from your computer. You may now install the new version of the program

The last version can be downloaded from here:

Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimating Program

Download and unpack the zip-file and then doubleclick the .msi file to install the program. Make sure to review the accompanying "read me" file.

How to use the Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimating Program
To start the program, select Global Estimator from your Programs menu. The program will open on the title screen with the menu bar choices listed as File, Window and Help.

Note: The Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimator Program was developed by Stanley Consultants, a leading international engineering company. Program calculations and assumptions are based on Stanley's worldwide experience with pipe installations involving the materials covered by the program. In most cases, you may change these parameters if you have data you consider to be more recent or relevant to a particular project or location.

Context-sensitive Help
The program contains an extensive “info/help” file that was produced as a hypertext document. Each screen in the program contains an information (“i”) button that you can click on to call up context-sensitive information about that screen and the actions to be taken on it.

To perform other iterations
This is when the efficiency of the Global Pipe Installation Cost Estimating Program becomes readily apparent. Let's say you want to look at the effect of cost on different crew or equipment configurations or that you want to compare the installed costs of different types of pipe.

Start by selecting File from the menu bar, then Save Estimate As to save the first iteration with the filename of your creation. Then select "Pipe Type Information" from the Window menu and you will be returned to the first page of the first iteration. Now proceed through the estimate as you did previously, changing conditions as you see fit. Consider, however, that changing more than one condition per iteration will reduce the comparability among iterations. After you have completed each iteration, remember to save it.

You can produce as many different iterations as you wish, print them out and easily see the effect of your changes on the estimated Cost per Meter of your project. All in the time it used to take simply to look up any single aspect of the information provided in the program's database.

Note: Flowtite Technology is interested in your feedback regarding the use of this program. Please write, call or fax us if you have questions or comments.