Revision History

This document is organized in such a way so that newer revisions appear at the top.

• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1006?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1005 (Second Edition)?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1004?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1003?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1002?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1001?

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1006?

New features and enhancements

1. For steel and aluminum design, utilization ratio has been added to the Structural Tool Tips facility.
2. 3 new facilities added to the built-in STAAD Editor:
   • Ctrl-K for converting multiple command lines to comment lines.
   • Ctrl-R for converting multiple comment lines to command lines.
   • Load Error file added in File menu to display errors, if any, in the file.
3. The Intersect Selected Members utility of the Geometry menu has been enhanced to detect members which do not necessarily intersect, but are within a user-specified distance (tolerance) of each other.
4. Steel tables for Mexico added to the steel tables database.
5. Double precision displacements used in plate stress/force calculations.
6. CHANGE command is now supported between dynamic cases.
7. Re-solving of modes and response spectrum cases for re-analysis is now allowed.

Errors present in the Modelling Mode of Build 1005, which have been rectified

1. The limit set for Tolerance through View - Options is not honored when checking for duplicates at the time of creating nodes.
2. The mesh generation utility may crash during meshing of polygonal plates with polygonal or elliptical holes.
3. For plate element models which have been assigned the PLATE MAT command using the YRANGE option, there is an error in the display of support springs. They may be plotted at nodes which do not fall within the range.
4. If an existing file containing multiple instances of the PLATE MAT command is opened, the program may falsely report that certain nodes do not exist on the structure.
5. A crash may occur while assigning the commands graphically for generation of loads from a moving load type.
6. If files containing the MEMBER COMPRESSION command are opened, the program indicates that it is unable to validate those commands, and consequently, falsely reports the data to contain errors.
7. If nodes are renumbered in the structure, a subsequent and unrelated operation may result in a crash. This is a random occurence.
8. If a file, which has been successfully analysed, is closed, and subsequently re-opened in a later session of STAAD.Pro, the program may report an "Out of Memory" message, and fail to open the file.
9. The keyboard hotkeys (shortcut to turn on labels using Shift+a key) do not work inside a window created using the Zoom Window tool.
10. T sections created from steel table I shapes (American Wide Flanges, British UB shapes, etc.) are annotated incorrectly. For example, a W4x13 produces a T2x6.5.
11. Load Combination SRSS types, which consist of a mixture of SRSS and algebraic cases, cannot be saved correctly in the .std file. The saved data will be devoid of the algebraic component. For example, the data

    LOAD COMBINATION SRSS 10
    -1 0.75 -2 0.572 3 1.2 4 1.7 0.63

    will be replaced by

    LOAD COMBINATION SRSS 10
    3 1.2 4 1.7 0.63.

12. The Design | Steel | AISC ASD interfaces do not provide access to the parameters for designing composite beams (concrete slab on top of wide flange shapes).
13. Miscellaneous errors in conection with saving multiple views. At the time of closing down a session, the Auxillary data file may not be correctly saved, resulting in an error while re-opening that project.
14. When time history data is created graphically for forcing function types, the amplitude is not saved correctly in the .std file due to a unit-related error.
15. Selective labelling (display of node, beam, plate, solid labels) does not work for members clustered under group names.

Errors present in the Analysis and Design engines of Build 1005, which have been rectified

1. For curved members, analysis will stop with the message that the keyword GAMMA for curved members is an erroneous expression.
2. Error in calculation of major axis bending capacity, per the Australian steel code, for out-of-plane bending. The calculated value may be over-estimated, resulting in an un-conservative utilization ratio.
3. For single angles, the shear stresses reported in the output file, in response to the PRINT MEMBER STRESSES command, is incorrect.
4. For members subjected to temperature which causes bending about the major axis, section displacements are wrong.
5. For members subjected to temperature which causes bending about the minor axis, section displacements are not calculated.
6. If a CHANGE command is specified between 2 dynamic load cases (Response Spectrum, Time History), program will terminate abnormally.
7. If supports are entered after a CHANGE command, with fewer joints listed in the later instance compared to the earlier instance, the support reactions will be incorrectly reported.
8. If supports are entered after a CHANGE command, and joints listed in the later instance have a different order compared to the earlier instance, the support reactions will be printed with the wrong joint number for cases solved before the CHANGE command.
9. Axial member temperature load was mistakenly using axial strain in cable solutions.
10. Miscellaneous changes and improvements to the IS1893-2000 seismic code.
11. Section displacements for tapered beams would be incorrect if anything other than 12 section locations is requested.
12. If the SET Z UP command is used, the shear stress calculation per the AISC code may be erroneous.
13. PDELTA with CONVERGE after a CHANGE would fail or overwrite previously solved cases.

Errors present in the Post-processing Mode of Build 1005, which have been rectified

1. If instabilities are detected at more than 1 node during the analysis phase, the table and diagram displayed in the Node - Instability page of the post-processing mode are out of sync by 1.
2. Error in display of the value for IX for pipes in the Member Query | Property page.
3. For plate and solid stress contours, when the number of contours are reduced from the default (15) to a lower number, the upper bound of the contour gets truncated at the corresponding lower number. Also, the contours are not re-calibrated.
4. If multiple instances of the PLATE MAT command are specified, the base pressure diagram may be incorrectly plotted.
5. If Area load commands are present in the model, the individual load values generated from those cases, as well as beam results for those cases, may contain unit-related errors.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1005 (Second Edition)?

New features and major enhancements

1. Automatic spring support generator has been enhanced to enable support generation for complex shapes.
2. Graphical facility added for viewing base pressure diagrams for slab on springs.
3. Curvilinear member - circular shaped arc - is now available for analysis purposes.
4. Graphical facility added for viewing instabilities in the model.
5. Concrete Design per ACI 318-02 has been implemented.
6. Steel Design per AISC-LRFD 3rd edition code has been implemented.
7. American AISI code will now support sections added to existing database.

Minor enhancements

1. More details can now be viewed using the Structural Tool tips option.
2. 3D rendering facility enhanced to support texturing.
3. Improvements in ease of use in Circular Repeat, Mirror and Rotate dialog boxes.
4. Labelling of a partial set of entities like a selected set of nodes, beams, etc.

Errors rectified

1. The translational repeat facility did not correctly process the value specified for "Number of steps".
2. In certain cases, an American T shape could not be assigned to a member correctly.
3. Other miscellaneous defects in the Graphical modelling mode have been corrected.
4. The steel design facility would go into an un-terminated loop if the PROFILE command was specified for user table sections.
5. Exporting the data to the STEP format caused the program to crash.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1004?

Improvements/Bug Fixes since STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1003.US.REL

Pre-processing - Errors rectified

1. When the default unit system is Metric, the default values which appear for concrete and steel design parameters (FYMAIN, FC, FYLD, etc.) were not properly modified to account for the current units.
2. Miscellaneous errors in the Geometry - Structure Wizard facility have been corrected. An example of this is the inability to define decimal numbers for the dimension of cooling towers.
3. The moments of inertia of single angles was incorrectly displayed under member query.
4. Loads generated using IBC load generation were not displayed.
5. Miscellaneous errors in the program associated with specifying loads have been rectified.
6. When the model is saved from the graphical modelling mode using the File - Save option, data would be written into the file in a manner than the individual lines would overflow beyond the 79 column limit.
7. Mesh generation for triangular meshes did not properly account for user's input for number of divisions.
8. The display of units in the Edit Load option did not work properly for trapezoidal, Linear and plate concentrated force loading.

Analysis and Design - Errors rectified

1. Under certain instances, the code checking and member selection facility per the AISC ASD & LRFD steel codes caused the program to hang/crash.
2. British channels were not recognized by the Analysis engine, sometimes leading to a crash.
3. An obscure error in analysis for trapezoidal loads has been corrected.
4. Temperature load which causes bending on I beams with cover plates produced minor errors in displacements and forces.
5. Minor axis moment capacity per LRFD code - For compact sections, the check to verify that capacity be based on the smaller of plastic section modulus and 1.5 * elastic section modulus was not enforced in some cases, leading to a minor overassessment in section capacities.

Post-processing - Errors rectified

1. Errors in reporting of stresses at corner points of single angles and user table I sections have been corrected.
2. In the Beam-Unity check page, failure ratios did not appear when part of the structure was magnified using Zoom Window.
3. If the Structural Tool Tips option was set to display displacements, program would crash if the selected load case was Envelope.
4. The information appearing in print-out for Steel Design pages for some steel codes like British contained errors.

Miscellaneous - Errors rectified

1. If a picture is created using the Take picture option, the program did not recognize the format of the picture when the file was re-opened in another instance of the program.
2. When the Edit Input Command File under the Edit menu is selected, sometimes, the editor would fail to come up.
3. The 'Take picture' and 'Print current view' options were not able to print a model properly when the portion of the structure was zoomed into by a factor.
4. Parameter lists displayed in Design page did not properly reflect the features of certain design codes.

Improvements

1. Hot keys added for switching on/off node, beam, plate and load labels. The View - Structure Diagrams - Labels dialog box illustrates this improvement.
2. If selfweight is part of a load case, this is indicated on the screen when the load display option is switched on.
3. Starting position of the vehicle for moving load generation can be graphically viewed.
4. Master and slave nodes of the master-slave command can be graphically viewed.
5. The origin of axis system can now be displayed. Switch is available under View - Structure Diagrams - Labels.
6. Expanded information available for plate stress tables.
7. Result diagrams can be annotated on the screen without their length and force units.
8. Switch added in staadpro20020.ini file to retain empty load cases when the file is saved.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1003?

Improvements/Bug Fixes since STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1002.US.REL

Pre-processing

1. When a member is duplicated using the Copy-Paste facility of the Edit menu, the BETA angle attribute did not get copied.
2. The floor load generator displayed loads along the member local Y axis instead of the global Y axis.
3. Launching Section Wizard using the Section property Calculator option of the Tools menu caused the program to crash on computers running on Windows XP.

Post processing

During animation of mode shapes, if the mode shape number is changed, the change did not get "Applied" until the dialog box was closed.

Analysis

1. Joint numbers on solid elements could not be larger than 5 digits.
2. Trapezoidal loads along the local Y axis of triangular elements produce erroneous results in some cases.

Improvements

New facility added in the Tools menu for detecting Overlapping Collinear members.

Security Issues

When multiple applications are running simultaneously along with STAAD.Pro, the security checks may have caused a crash on some operating systems.

Performance Issues

If a virus scanner is running, and the settings of the virus scan program are for checking all files (instead of just program files), certain operations in STAAD.Pro 2002 such as member property processing may be slowed down.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1002?

Improvements/Bug Fixes since STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1001.US.REL

Pre-processing

1. New facility added for color-based identification/distinction of start node from end node of beam members.
2. Program crashes during creation of a load combination case when the component primary cases have very long titles.
3. Ease-of-use improvements in translational and circular repeat facilities.
4. During Quadrilateral mesh generation, the values used for number of divisions along the sides were interchanged. In other words, the value specified for side AB was used for side BC, and vice versa.
5. If a REPEAT LOAD case has, as one of its components, a load case containing ELEMENT PRESSURE loading, that load would not appear on the screen when the load display switch was turned on.
6. Short leg back-to-back double angles were drawn on screen as long leg back-to-back. This was only a display error, and had no consequences on the analysis or design results.
7. On Windows XP, the load display of prestress/post-stress loads caused the program to crash.
8. When 2 members were merged using the Merge member tool, certain attributes like member releases were not properly accounted for or assigned to the newly formed member.
9. Program failed to write selfweight as a load condition in certain situations.

Post processing

1. Program fails to sort results in specified order when on-screen reports are created from the Report menu.
2. STARDYNE results were displayed incorrectly in post-processed tables and graphs.
3. Plate stress values reported under Element Query were not correct in certain unit systems.
4. Beam stresses were reported incorrectly in the stress table for pure bending cases.
5. Sometimes, the program crashed during animation of displacement on Windows XP machines.

Analysis & Design Engine

1. If quadrilateral elements were explicitly specified, and triangular elements were generated using the command line mesh generator, it would lead to an error in the analysis.
2. Non-linear cable (and/or Nonlinear Preloaded Truss) static analysis has been added. See the Technical Reference manual for STAAD.Pro 2002 for details.
3. The plastic section modulus was calculated erroneously for tube shapes, leading to unconservative results during design per the LRFD code in some situations.

General

1. Multimedia help movies in the Help menu failed to launch on some operating systems.
2. Several new functions added to OpenSTAAD facility.
3. "Save As" option did not allow user to enter new name when selected from the Analysis dialog box.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1001?

New Features

Please see the accompanying Release Report for details on all the new features in the program.

Improvements/Bug Fixes since STAAD.Pro 2001, Build 1006.US.REL

1. This bug pertains to the output presented for design per the American Aluminum code. In certain cases, for the value being output for FX under the category CRITICAL LOAD, the state of the axial force is reported incorrectly. This error is most likely to occur when the location (along the member length) which is determined to be the critical location happens to be the end node of the member. However, this is only a reporting error, and does not have any bearing on the accuracy of the design.
2. Obscure error in the REF JOINT option when local/global member offsets are used might lead to a "division by zero" error. This has been corrected.
3. For models containing solid elements, if all the load cases that are being solved for are dynamic (no static load cases are present), the program may crash. This has been corrected.
4. Algorithm for solving multi-linear support cases has been refined.