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Piping and plumbing systems are among the most important facilities in lots of industries such as reall estate, power stations, and petrochemical plants. For example, Condoly reports that condo projects with modern plumbing amenities are usually sold better and at higher prices. That’s why project managers always use the best tools and facilities for designing and implementing plumbing systems.

Despite the simple appearance of pipes, designing a piping system is a sensitive task requiring significant expertise. Fortunately, software technology has simplified all aspects of our lives, and piping & plumbing is no exception. There are lots of tools for plumbing projects, from designing to managing invoices and payments. Here is a list of top piping and plumbing tools in 2021.

Plumbing Formulator

As it comes from the name, this software provides you with plumbing formulas. In fact, this app has over 120 formulas for engineers, plumbers and HVAC technicians to simplify their tasks. Also, it has dozens of plumbing charts to help you design your system accurately and efficiently. For example, you can calculate the final temperature of a mixture or even the efficiency of pumps. The app provides you with quick access to your most commonly used formulas to simplify your calculations. 

Here are some of the app’s formulas:

• Pressure of pipe
• Water horsepower
• BTU input
• And much more
• Chase width and depth
• Total fall
• Optimum water flow
• Velocity of water
• Pipe weights for different materials: cast iron, steel, and copper
• Plumbing Formulator is free and available on iOS.

FieldPulse

FieldPulse is a bit different and can be regarded as a Fintech app. It’s perfect for managing plumbing services and handles all the tasks such as estimates, invoices, and signatures directly from a smartphone. In this app, you can set up email and SMS templates and reach out to customers or follow up with them instantly. The app also provides you with the ability to customize the features to make custom fields, forms, and team repositories.

Here is a summary of its features:

• Customizing estimates & invoices
• Invoice, bill, tax, and markup calculators
• Creating customer database
• Profit analysis and tracking
• Electronic payments and signatures
• Scheduling the projects
• Task assignments

It’s available on both iOS and Android and, fortunately, has a web-based version. Of course, you need to pay for some of its features.

Quick Plumber

ّIt’s one of the simplest and user-friendliest tools ever made for plumbing. As it comes from the name, it quickly performs some simple calculations that are essential for plumbing. Here are some of its features:

• Add or subtract measurement
• 45° offset
• 45° rolling offset
• 22.5° offset
• 22.5° rolling offset
• 60° offset
• 60° rolling offset

Pipe and Fitting

If you want an all-in-one tool for pipe fitting, you’re in the right place. Pipe & Fitting provides you with dimensions and information for the piping system and all the accessories. You can check pipe dimensions, material, strength, and clamps with just a few clicks. It also has all the calculations you need in this regard and is available on Android to be used for free.

Code Snap UPC

Working with standards is one of the essential parts of plumbing projects. Code Snap app can make this task really simple by providing a reference guide for plumbers. You can search through its plumbing code and figure out if your work is in compliance with national standards. It has numerous pages of information, color-coded tables, and calculators with the ability to be saved so that you can check them after a while.

Some other features include:

• Pipe bracing for common materials
• BTUs for common fixtures
• Drain, vent, and trap arm sizing

PROCAD Plant Design Suite

PROCAD Plant Design Suite has many useful features like P&ID, ORTHO, 3DSMART, and ISOMETRIC. Plant Design Suite is a user-friendly tool and is really helpful for those inexperienced users who are not skillful in working with CAD. It’s really easy for you to create detailed drawings using the user-friendly features and interfaces of this tool. It has a 15-day free trial of Plant Design Suite, but you should pay for longer licenses.

It has lots of useful features like:

• Built-in AUTOCAD® OEM
• BOM generation
• Supporting DWG file formats for drawing files
• Print or create PDFs of your drawings
• Error checking

IronCAD

IronCAD supports 2D and 3D design requirements and is a perfect tool for the entire piping design process from scratch. IronCAD has a free trial version and also some discounts for educational purposes. Here are some important features of the software.

• 2D & 3D design tools
• Collaboration tools
• Animation & simulation
• Parametric and direct modeling
• Importing and exporting
• Catalogs for features, parts, and assembly data

Lucidchart

Lucidchart is a famous design tool that is used by more than a whopping 15 million piping designers, electrical and mechanical designers, and process experts. Although it has an easy-to-use interface, it can handle many complex design projects. It has a 7-day free trial, but you need to pay for longer licenses. 

Its features are:

• More than 900 diagram templates
• Real-time collaboration
• ASHRAE and ANSI libraries for symbols and shapes
• Integrations with G Suite, Microsoft Office, Slack, Salesforce, and Jira

SmartDraw

SmartDraw is another design software focusing on piping and instrumentation. This tool has a wide range of mechanical symbols plus industrial templates useful for piping, instrumentation, HVAC system design, welding, duct design, etc.

In sum, its features are:

• More than 4,500 templates
• Over 34,000 symbols
• Intelligent formatting
• Compatible with Microsoft Office, Confluence, Google Workspace, and Jira
• Save and open diagrams from Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and OneDrive
• Visio importing and exporting

M4 PLANT

M4 PLANT is a perfect 3D pipework design software useful for piping isometrics in plants and factories. It’s a really expensive tool that charges individuals around $250 per month. However, they have a 30-day free trial by which you can figure out the usefulness of the software for your projects.

Main features of M4 PLANT include:

• 2D and 3D design environments
• Cable and cable tray layout
• Detailed parts lists
• P&ID design
• Piping isometrics generation
• 3D walkthroughs
• Steelwork design
• Variable-speed and specification gearboxes

Conclusion

Piping and plumbing projects require a professional team and advanced tools. Using software technologies can make a great difference in the quality, speed, and cost-effectiveness of these projects. Try to use the best tool for each stage of your project, from designing to invoicing. Also, make sure you’re using the most updated versions to improve your performance and get better results.