Revision History

This document is organized in a way that newer revisions appear at the top. Therefore, section numbers will keep decreasing from top to bottom.

• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1004.US.REL?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1003.US.REL?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1002.US.REL?
• What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL?

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1004.US.REL?

Enhancements

Please refer to the Software Release Report for the 2nd edition of STAAD.Pro 2003 for this information. Additionally,

1. The design results table in the Beam-Unity Check page of the post processing mode has been enhanced to display the old and new properties in the event of a member selection.
2. Speed of analysis for models containing surface entities has been improved significantly.
3. Improved checking in ACI code for unit related errors in input parameters.

Errors present in the Modelling mode of Build 1003.US.REL, which have been rectified

1. If entities like nodes, beams and plates are clustered into group names, and those entities are then renumbered, the renumbered sequence may not be reflected within the group name definitions in certain situations.
2. When rotational type of support displacements are assigned through the Nodal loads page, the values are incorrectly altered based on the length units at the time of saving the file.
3. Area loads applied in global directions were not properly identified by the program at the time of opening existing models containing such loads.
4. If members which have design parameters assigned to them are deleted, references to those members in the parameters section of the input data was not removed. So, upon re-opening the modified file, those lines would be flagged as errors.
5. In files containing
   1. Moving load generation commands
   2. Load combination cases which have some of those generated cases as their constituents

   saving the file from the GUI would result in the combination cases being stripped of the moving load constituent cases.

6. This problem occurs for members on which certain types of member loads have been specified. If a node is inserted on such members using the Insert Node or Split Member facilities of the Geometry menu, it will cause the program to crash.
7. When items are displayed using the "New View - Create a new window for the View" facility, and the "Select - Highlight Entities Sequentially" facility is activated, a crash may occur.
8. For a structure with plate elements, after assigning supports to the structure, switch to the Loads page. At this point, if items are selectively displayed using the "New View - Create a new window for the View" facility, the program may crash.
9. If a solid element with negative volume is repaired, the program does not automatically prompt the user to save the modified data. So closing the file after the repair may fail to save the modifications.
10. t the end of the process which involves creating an Orthotropic 2D material, the program crashes.
11. If a model containing surfaces and/or their joints with 6 digit numbers is opened, entering the Geometry-Surfaces page may cause a crash.
12. The following situation may cause a crash : Open a model containing plates. Go to Tools - Cut Section. Choose the tab "Select to View". Keep the radio button on "Window/Rubber Band". Click on OK. Create a window around a part of the structure. Just those elements alone will now be displayed. Next, click on the icon called "Display Whole Structure".
13. FLOOR LOAD generation fails to work for vertical surfaces.

Errors present in the Analysis & Design engine of Build 1003.US.REL, which have been rectified

1. In ordinary load combination cases, if the component primary case numbers are specified with a negative sign, as in

LOAD COMBINATION
10 -1 1.2 -2 1.4

neither the engine nor the graphical interface recognized this as an error. Displaying the loads of this case led to a crash, and the analysis engine produced incorrect results for that case.

2. During steel design, deflection check may produce unconservative results when performed on a multi-segment physical member defined using DJ1 and DJ2 parameters.
3. Pressure loads applied on triangular faces of solids was not working correctly. All solids following the first one which experiences a load on a triangular face were ignored.
4. For design per the AISC ASD code, an error in computation of allowable shear stress for tapered members, members specified using the user-table ISECTION attribute, and user-table GENERAL attribute has been corrected. This error may have produced an unconservative value in the past for such cross sections.
5. ELEMENT WEIGHT definition under UBC and IBC load cases was not handled correctly. The total vertical load and hence the base shear would not correctly reflect the contribution of element weights.
6. For UBC 97 and 94, if data is specified in metric units, and Ct too is specified, the period calculation per Method A used the "h" term (height of building) in feet units, not meter units. The period was hence calculated incorrectly.
7. For UBC 97 and 94, if the Zone value for UBC loading was specified as greater than or equal to 1.0, the program would choose a conservative value of 1.0 for the zone factor, not a value between 0.075 and 0.4.
8. Member selection could not be performed per the Australian AS4100 code.
9. Pressure loading on the faces of solids, as shown in the following example,

ELEMENT LOAD SOLID
505 TO 528 FACE 4 PRESSURE GY -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5

produced wrong answers when the load was applied on certain faces.

10. If the SELWEIGHT command is specified as

SELFWEIGHT DIR

where DIR stands for X, Y or Z, and no numerical value follows DIR, the selfweight in that direction may not be accounted for properly.

11. There was an error in the handling of the KL/r value for HSS Tubes. This may have resulted in unconservative sections being chosen during member selection, as well as utilization ratios which are unconservative.
12. If a load case has the following components :
    1. MEMBER POSTSTRESS loading
    2. Any other type of loading (such as JOINT LOAD, MEMBER LOAD, ELEMENT LOAD, TEMPERATURE LOAD, etc.

    then, in the section force and section displacement calculation, the contribution of the terms mentioned in (b) above will not be considered for the members on which the poststress load is applied. Those values will reflect only the contribution from (a). For example, in the load shown below,

load 5
MEMBER POSTSTRESS
7 8 FORCE 300. ES 3. EM -12. EE 3.
self y -1.0
member load
7 uni gy -1.2
8 uni gy -1.4
7 con gy -18
8 con gy -25
member load
9 uni gy -1.2
10 uni gy -1.4
9 con gy -18
10 con gy -25
joint load
3 fx 5.2
5 fx 7.3
7 fx 9.1

the section forces and displacements for members 7 & 8 will reflect only the following :

load 5
MEMBER POSTSTRESS
7 8 FORCE 300. ES 3. EM -12. EE 3.

Only the members with the poststress load are affected. Members which do not have this load are not affected.

13. CMY/CMZ parameters will be in error for AISC and possibly the ISCODE under certain conditions. To cause the error, CMY and/or CMZ values must be entered for some of the members. The members that do not have CMY/CMZ defined will mistakenly default to 0.85 even if SSY/SSZ is 1.0 for those members.
14. Under the following conditions :
    • The PRINT MEMBER STRESSES command is specified.
    • Stresses are being reported for circular sections - regular PIPES, HSS pipes, Prismatic YD, etc.

in the output for the PRINT MEMBER STRESSES command, the value reported under COMBINED is wrong. The correct value for that is

AXIAL + SQRT(BEND-Y*BEND-Y + BEND-Z*BEND-Z)

Instead, the value reported is

AXIAL + BEND-Y + BEND-Z

15. In steel design per the 3rd edition LRFD code, while checking slender sections, the design calculations may enter an infinite loop resulting in an interminable operation.
16. For non-linear cables, the default value for the STABLE parameter is not appropriate.
17. For the Australian steel table, the program may report erroneously that the section name UC200X59.5 does not exist.
18. During member selection per steel codes such as AISC ASD, the PROFILE command does not work for HP sections.
19. FLOOR LOAD generation fails to work for vertical surfaces.
20. For a beam defined using 2 or more segmental members, if DJ1 and DJ2 are specified as the ends of the physical member, the L/d value (dff) is reported using the maximum "d" within each segment instead of the maximum "d" of the entire beam. Consequently, the design output for each segment may show a unique value (the different segments will not have the same value for "dff").

Errors present in the Post-processing mode of Build 1003.US.REL, which have been rectified

1. Under the "Plates - Cut Lines through Plates" page in the post-processing mode, user-created tables displayed incorrect values of the coordinates of points along the cut lines.
2. For members with properties assigned using the User Table - General section, the corner stress values reported in the Beam stresses tables were erroneous.
3. For several result tables, printing from the Print Preview window was not working correctly.
4. For files containing members with T shapes, upon completion of the analysis, the data area in the member property page would contain extraneous property references.
5. Bending moment and shear force diagrams are not plotted correctly in the Tools-Member Query display boxes if prestress or poststress commands are present in the applicable load case.
6. If concrete design is per the ACI 318-2002 code, in the Tools-Member Query display boxes, in the concrete design tab, the code name appears as ACI-99. This is merely a labelling error. The values in that box are indeed the results per the 2002 code.
7. Utilization Ratios fail to appear by default in the Beam - Unity Check page. One has to manually switch them on from the Structure Diagrams-Design Results tab.
8. Selecting the "Envelope" load case while displaying Solid element stress contours causes the program to crash.
9. For models with spring support generation, after the analysis is completed, if the View-Tables-Base pressure table option is selected, the program crashes.
10. While in the Beam Stresses page, when items are selectively displayed using the "New View - Create a new window for the View" facility, and then without closing the new view window one switches to another page like Beam-Graphs, the program may crash.
11. In the Node-Base Pressure table, clicking the right mouse button and selecting Print Preview may cause a crash.
12. This issue pertains to models in which steel member selection is performed. If a connection design is then done from Mode-Interactive Design-Steel Design, the member properties used in the steel designer mode are the originally specified properties, not the ones which appear after the member selection.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1003.US.REL?

New features and enhancements

Please refer to the Software Release Report for the 2nd edition of STAAD.Pro 2003 for this information. Additionally,

1. 3D Rendered View is now available for curved members.
2. Take picture facility is now available with the 3D Rendered view.
3. Size of models for which results can be viewed in post-processing mode is increased.

Errors present in the copy protection system of Build 1002.US, which have been rectified

1. On some computers, during an active STAAD.Pro session, a message comes up periodically that the hardware lock has been removed, even when the lock is in place.

Errors present in the Modelling mode of Build 1002.US, which have been rectified

1. In the mesh generation dialog boxes, the Add/Remove buttons disappear after a certain number of openings are specified within the mesh boundary.
2. When more than one text string is added and edited using the Tools - Insert text or Select - Text Cursor, the program crashes.
3. Due to tight tolerances, the Merge member utility failed to merge collinear members in certain situations.

Errors present in the Analysis & Design engine of Build 1002.US, which have been rectified

1. If the model has only plates, no beams, and if FYMAIN is specified for plates, that FYMAIN value is not used by the program during design. The program uses the default value for FYMAIN, which for ACI is 60 ksi.
2. An error, related to length and force units, is present in inclined supports.
3. An error is present when the PDELTA ANALYSIS command is used in conjunction with the LOAD LIST command.
4. A conservative error is present in shear design per the ACI 318 code.
5. An error is present in the design of slender sections per the American LRFD 3rd edition steel code.
6. If 2 or more sets of DEFINE MATERIAL command is entered, only the last one would be used.
7. There is an error in handling spectral data specified through an external file for response spectrum analysis.
8. There is an error in the default slab width calculation for composite beams.
9. If the INPUT MEMORY command is specified, it leads to erroneous results.
10. If

    A TRAPEZOIDAL type of MEMBER LOAD covering the full span of members is specified.

    A UNIT command is specified immediately following item (a) above

    The last member on the list for the TRAP LOAD command will not have its TRAPEZOIDAL load considered. In the following example,

    LOAD 1 DEAD LOAD
    UNIT FEET KIP
    MEMBER LOAD
    3 7 11 15 19 23 27 TRAP GY -1.225 -1.105 0 6
    4 8 12 16 20 24 28 TRAP GY -1.105 -0.6265 0 24
    UNIT INCHES KIP
    SELFWEIGHT Y -1
    MEMBER LOAD
    5 8 11 14 17 20 23 FY -0.1

    the following load will be not be considered :

    28 TRAP GY -1.105 -0.6265 0 24

    To avoid this problem, change the above data block to

LOAD 1 DEAD LOAD
UNIT FEET KIP
MEMBER LOAD
3 7 11 15 19 23 27 TRAP GY -1.225 -1.105 0 6
4 8 12 16 20 24 28 TRAP GY -1.105 -0.6265 0 24
SELFWEIGHT Y -1
UNIT INCHES KIP
JOINT LOAD
5 8 11 14 17 20 23 FY -0.1

11. In STAAD.Pro 2003 Build 1002.US and older (this has been confirmed with STAAD.Pro 2002 Build 1006.US also), if the FLOOR WEIGHT command is specified, the total weight used in the IBC load case for computing the base shear may be overestimated.

Errors present in the Post-processing mode of Build 1002.US, which have been rectified

1. A crash may occur in some instances during animation of mode shapes.
2. In Member Query - steel design, for AISC ASD codes, some values displayed are in wrong units. This happens mainly when Metric units are used in the input file.
3. If an input file name has a blank space between the first part of the name, and the dot (.), the stress contours for solid elements are not plotted correctly. Example of such a file name : "LEVEL SUBGRADE .std"
4. If the base unit system is metric, in the Post processing mode, STAAD.Pro 2003 Build 1002 and older show the base pressure value in incorrect units.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1002.US.REL?

Errors corrected in the Modelling mode since STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL

1. The "Select by List" method of selecting entities fails to select nodes, beams, etc. They appear highlighted, but are really not selected.
2. In some rare instances, at the nodes of plates for which the PLATE MAT command is assigned, the supports are not generated or displayed.
3. For frequency calculation using the Rayleigh method, if the command is typed into a existing STAAD input file using the expression

CALC

instead of the full phrase

CALCULATE RAYLEIGH FREQUENCY

the program will crash at the time of opening this file in the GUI.

4. In certain cases, if the Structural Tooltip options under the View menu is selected, and the settings modified, the program may crash.
5. Pasting in STAAD.Pro tables fails to open the new dialog box if the number of columns being pasted is less than the table.
6. Renumbering members in the descending order may cause some of the member loads to be erased.
7. Altering data such as member properties, releases, etc. through the member query dialog box while in the post-processing mode causes the program to crash.

Errors corrected in Post-processing since STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL

1. The plotting of time history graphs - Displacement, velocity and acceleration is not functioning properly.
2. For beams whose properties are assigned using a user table - General section, the axial stresses are not being computed in the post processing mode.

Errors corrected in the Analysis and Design engines since STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL

1. In computing axial capacities for members per the Canadian steel code, the effective length values are based just on LY and LZ without the appropriate factoring with KY and KZ.
2. If multiple load cases are present in the file, and the MODAL CALC command is specified in the second or subsequent load cases, the message

   MODAL CALCULATION IS NOT THE FIRST LOAD CASE, CHECK RESULTS CAREFULLY.

   is displayed.

Errors corrected in interface with STAAD.etc since STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL

Miscellaneous errors in the base plate design module have been corrected.

Improvements

1. A new facility, available through clicking the right mouse button, called "Model View Details" is available for obtaining a summary of the items in the current view.
2. Response spectra curves can now contain upto 500 pairs of period vs. acceleration and period vs. displacement data.

What's New in STAAD.Pro 2003, Build 1001.US.REL?

New features and major enhancements

Please refer to the Software Release Report for STAAD.Pro 2003 for this information.

Errors corrected in Post-processing since STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1006.US.REL

• If a member fails in slenderness per the AISC ASD code, the steel design tab of the member query option fails to correctly report the state of the axial force on the member (tension vs. compression). In some cases, the state may not be reported at all.

Errors corrected in the Analysis and Design engines since STAAD.Pro 2002, Build 1006.US.REL

1. If SPRING TENSION and SPRING COMPRESSION commands are both present in the file, there was an error in processing the data. Only the last specified data was honored.
2. If the PERFORM ANALYSIS command is specified more than once with no change in structure geometry or properties in between, in rare cases, the results after the second analysis operation may be erroneous.
3. For structures contains plate elements and solid elements, temperature loads were not stored properly.
4. An error in welding design has been corrected.
5. An error in designing the AISC B shapes (plate girders) has been corrected.
6. If metric units are used, the diameter of a circular column will not be reported correctly in the output for ACI 318 based concrete column design.
7. While designing concrete columns per the ACI 318 code, the program sometimes fails to identify that certain bar arrangements are adequate, and may end up reporting that a larger area of steel reinforcement needs to be provided.
8. An error involving plate temperatures and load combinations has been corrected.
9. An error involving the second bending temperature load (the one which causes bending about the Z axis), and repeat loads has been corrected.
10. An error in analysis when UBC/IBC loading and PDELTA analysis commands are used in conjunction, has been corrected.