CONVAL 12 Editions Explained: I+C, Plant Engineering, and Full

TL;DR: CONVAL 12 is available in three editions. The I+C Edition suits instrumentation and control engineers who size control valves, orifice plates, thermowells, and associated instruments. The Plant Engineering Edition is aimed at mechanical and process plant engineers working on piping systems, heat exchangers, and pressure relief sizing. The Full Edition combines both, making it the right choice wherever a team crosses both disciplines or individual engineers carry responsibilities across instrumentation and plant design. All three editions include the Thermodynamics Package TDP and the same fluid property and material databases. The editions do not build on one another sequentially; the I+C and Plant Engineering editions address different engineering roles, while the Full Edition is their union.

Why CONVAL Comes in Editions at All

CONVAL® 12, developed and maintained by F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (Gesellschaft für technisch-wissenschaftliche Softwareanwendungen mbH) of Wermelskirchen, Germany, covers a very wide range of engineering calculations. Sizing a control valve to IEC 60534, checking a thermowell against ASME PTC 19.3-TW, calculating pressure drop through a pipe run, sizing a safety valve against EN ISO 4126-1, and modelling a shell-and-tube heat exchanger are all things CONVAL does; they are also things that, in larger organisations, are handled by different engineering disciplines.

Splitting the software into editions means an instrumentation department can licence the tools they actually use, without paying for heat exchanger calculations that belong on the process engineering side of the office. Equally, a small consultancy or a specialist contractor who straddles both worlds can take the Full Edition and have everything in one installation.

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH makes the split explicit: the editions "differ only in the scope of the calculation modules they contain" (F.I.R.S.T. GmbH, 2024a). The underlying program, the user interface, the substance database, and the Thermodynamics Package TDP are the same across all three.

The Three Editions at a Glance

The table below summarises which calculation modules are included in each edition, based on the official feature sheet published by F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (F.I.R.S.T. GmbH, 2024a). A tick indicates the module is included; a dash indicates it is not.

Valves and Actuators

Throttle Elements

Measurement Instrumentation

Piping Systems

Heat Exchangers

Process Engineering (Safety and Utility)

Service Utilities

Databases

All three editions include the following databases: control valves, safety valves, pitot tubes, flow resistances, standard motors, fluid properties, materials, and rupture discs.

The I+C Edition additionally includes the part-turn on/off valve and part-turn actuator databases (pneumatic, electrical, and hydraulic). The Plant Engineering Edition does not include those databases; the Full Edition does.

What Each Edition Is For

I+C Edition

The I+C Edition (Instrumentation and Control Edition) is the specialist tool for engineers whose primary job is selecting, sizing, and verifying instruments and control devices within a process plant.

The core of the edition is its control valve module, which applies IEC 60534 to calculate flow coefficient, noise, and cavitation risk for globe and other control valve types. The two-phase flow variant handles inlet conditions where liquid and vapour coexist, which is common in steam systems and in some chemical plant applications. The actuator forces module covers globe valves specifically, giving engineers the data they need to specify the right actuator size.

Steam system engineers are well served: both the steam conditioning valve and steam cooling valve modules are included, as is the actuated part-turn valve assembly module for on/off valve sizing.

On the measurement side, the thermowell module applies ASME PTC 19.3-TW and related standards to check wake frequency ratio and natural frequency, which is essential where vibrating process flows pose a risk of thermowell failure. Level transmitter calibration, differential pressure flow element sizing (orifice meters, annular pitot devices, and others compliant with ISO 5167 and related standards), and restriction orifice plates round out a comprehensive instrument-sizing toolkit.

For piping, the I+C Edition includes pressure loss and pressure surge calculations but not the full pipe engineering modules. Engineers who need to run a quick line-loss check or assess waterhammer risk will find those tools present; engineers doing detailed pipe wall thickness specification or compensation design for thermal expansion will need the Plant Engineering Edition or Full Edition.

The I+C Edition also includes tank depressurisation and pump and compressor output calculations, both of which sit in the grey area between instrument and process engineering and appear in both specialist editions.

The part-turn valve and actuator databases are an I+C Edition-only feature among the two specialist editions: a practical nod to the fact that actuator specification is primarily an instrumentation function.

Plant Engineering Edition

The Plant Engineering Edition addresses the mechanical and process design side of an engineering project. It omits the control valve, thermowell, level, and instrument-specific modules that define the I+C Edition and focuses instead on the physical infrastructure of a plant: piping systems, heat exchangers, pressure protection, and process equipment.

The piping module is considerably broader than in the I+C Edition. Beyond pressure loss and pressure surge, the Plant Engineering Edition adds pipe sizing (determining minimum bore for a given flow and pressure drop), pipe wall thickness to standards such as EN 13480 and ASME B31.3, thermal expansion and compensation design, and span calculation for pipe supports. These are the calculations a mechanical or piping engineer runs before a control system engineer would become involved.

The heat exchanger modules cover shell-and-tube exchangers and condensers, applying recognised rating and sizing methods to check whether a given unit meets its duty or to determine the required heat transfer area. This covers a large share of industrial heat exchange applications.

Pressure protection is a significant differentiator. The Plant Engineering Edition includes safety valve and pressure relief valve sizing (applying EN ISO 4126-1, API 520, and related standards), rupture disc sizing, and tank depressurisation. These are the calculations that protect vessels from overpressure, and responsibility for them typically sits with process or mechanical engineers rather than with I&C teams.

Material data calculation is also a Plant Engineering Edition feature; it lets engineers retrieve mechanical property data for materials such as yield strength, tensile strength, and allowable stress as a function of temperature, which is needed for pressure vessel and piping design calculations.

The Plant Engineering Edition does not include the part-turn valve or actuator databases that appear in the I+C Edition, reflecting the discipline split.

Full Edition

The Full Edition is the union of the I+C and Plant Engineering editions. Every module available in either specialist edition is present, along with the databases from both. There are no additions beyond what the two specialist editions contain between them.

The Full Edition is appropriate for:

• Small engineering firms or independent consultants who carry responsibility across both instrumentation and plant design and cannot divide the work between licence holders.
• Multidisciplinary project teams where a single shared licence needs to serve both I&C engineers and process/mechanical engineers.
• Larger plants where one engineer is asked to cover both disciplines, for example in a smaller site without a large engineering department.
• Procurement or engineering managers who need to review calculations across all disciplines without switching tools.

There is a cost premium for the Full Edition compared with either specialist edition, so teams that genuinely sit entirely within one discipline will often find a specialist edition sufficient.

What All Three Editions Share

It is worth being explicit about what is common across the board, because the feature split can give the impression the editions are more different than they are.

Thermodynamics Package TDP TDP extends the substance database and provides more accurate thermodynamic property calculations for gases and vapours, which is relevant for both control valve sizing in steam systems and for heat exchanger rating.

Substance and property calculation is available in all editions: engineers can retrieve density, viscosity, vapour pressure, and related properties for the hundreds of substances in the CONVAL database, including mixture calculations for process fluids.

Curve regression is present in all three editions, enabling engineers to fit empirical data to curves for use in calculations.

The database set (control valves, safety valves, pitot tubes, flow resistances, standard motors, fluid properties, materials, and rupture discs) is common to all editions. The I+C Edition additionally includes part-turn valve and actuator data; the Full Edition includes everything.

Compatibility and licensing work identically across editions. CONVAL 12 can be installed in parallel with older versions, and calculations from older versions open without conversion. Licensing uses the Sentinel hardware key system, and network licences are available for shared use across a site (F.I.R.S.T. GmbH, 2024b).

A Note on the Thermodynamics Package TDP

The TDP is described in the source documents as available "for new licences from version 12 on" (F.I.R.S.T. GmbH, 2024a), meaning it is a version 12 addition rather than a historical option. Existing users upgrading from earlier versions should verify their licence entitlement when updating, as the TDP may represent a meaningful new capability for engineers working with complex process fluids.

A separate detailed guide to the Thermodynamics Package is available from F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (F.I.R.S.T. GmbH, 2024c).

Choosing the Right Edition: a Practical Summary

If your work centres on control valve selection, instrument sizing, thermowell safety checks, and flow measurement: I+C Edition.

If your work centres on piping design, heat exchanger specification, pressure relief sizing, and mechanical plant layout: Plant Engineering Edition.

If your team crosses both, or you routinely work across both disciplines yourself: Full Edition.

All three give you the same core platform, the same fluid property database, and the same Thermodynamics Package TDP. The edition choice is about which calculation modules you pay for, not about software quality or underlying capability.

For more details on specific CONVAL 12 modules and how they apply in practice, the subsequent posts in this series cover control valve sizing to IEC 60534, thermowell calculations to ASME PTC 19.3-TW, and pressure relief valve design in depth. DP-Flow can also advise on edition selection based on your site's discipline structure and engineering workflow.

References

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (2024a) CONVAL 12 features by edition. Wermelskirchen: F.I.R.S.T. GmbH. Internal document supplied to DP-Flow Ltd. [Accessed 16 June 2026].

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (2024b) CONVAL 12 update information. Wermelskirchen: F.I.R.S.T. GmbH. Internal document supplied to DP-Flow Ltd. [Accessed 16 June 2026].

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (2024c) CONVAL Thermodynamics Module. Wermelskirchen: F.I.R.S.T. GmbH. Internal document supplied to DP-Flow Ltd. [Accessed 16 June 2026].

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (n.d.) CONVAL 12 editions: scope of the editions. Available at: https://conval.de/en [Accessed 16 June 2026].

F.I.R.S.T. GmbH (n.d.) Licensing. Available at: https://conval.de/en/lizenzierung [Accessed 16 June 2026].