An update on STAAD.foundation 5.3 just released

The second update (patch) of STAAD.foundation V8i SELECT series 4 (Release 5.3) is now available on SELECT to download.

It is recommended for all users of STAAD.foundation version 5.3 to install this update package. This will update your existing 5.3 installation to the latest version, which varies depending on if you are using STAAD.foundation as a standalone application or if it is a combined installation with STAAD.Pro V8i. This is a cumulative patch which means any Standalone version of 5.3 will be updated to 05.03.00.28.  For the combined STAAD.Pro and STAAD.foundation version, there is a separate update package which will update the version to 05.03.00.29. If you have combined installation, look for 05.03.00.29 version on SELECT update server.

To download the patch:

1. Go to https://select.bentley.com/FulfillmentCenter/en/Search/Product/ in your web browser.
2. Select STAAD Products from the Products list.
3. Select "All" in the Download Category list.
4. Click Search.
5. The list of all updates is returned
6. Select the appropriate patch for the version of STAAD.foundation V8i you currently have (Standalone or Combined with STAAD.Pro).
7. Click Continue and download the update installer.

There are several bug fixes included in this package. Here are examples of a few major fixes or enhancements.

1. Horizontal Vessel or Heat Exchanger pier design
   1. Until now, for rectangular piers, the reinforcement arrangement for any pier design had four sided equal reinforcement distributions. This works fine for square pier sections or possibly for rectangles having length over width ratio close to 1.0.But for a horizontal vessel, one side of pier is often larger than the other side. So, it requires 2 sided reinforcement distribution. This arrangement first places 4 bars at four corners and then places the remaining bars equally at two larger sides. So, this distribution will provide bar count as a multiplier of two. The following images shows 4 sided and 2 sided distribution.
   2. In some cases 4 sided arrangements may fail as because clear spacing available in shorter direction could be lower than the code requirements. But same number of rebar can be arranged using 2 sided distribution.
2. Excessive support reactions for mat on piles
   • The program used to show reaction values even for mat supported by piles. "Reactions" and "Reaction Summary" tabs in output pane represent soil support reactions, but those values are meaningless (or uninitialized, in the programmer's terms) if the mat is not supported by soil, so in some cases showed very excessive reaction values. This update will remove those reaction tabs if the mat is supported by piles only. There are "Pile Reaction" and "Pile Reaction Summary" tabs already available to review pile reactions. Please note, "Pile Reaction Summary" is a good place to quickly check if pile reactions are exceeding assumed pile capacities.
3. License related issue while analyzing mat foundation
   • In STAAD.foundation version 5.3, while analyzing mat foundation, in some cases, the program was trying to access an extra license. If that computer has a valid STAAD.Pro installed, the program would analyze without any problems. But for computers which don't have STAAD.Pro installed, the program sometimes could not analyze mat foundation. That issue has been resolved in this update.
4. Adding tutorial videos
   • This is applicable to combined version only which is version number 05.03.00.29. To reduce installation size it was decided not to include video tutorials with the main installation. But those videos could be very useful learning tools, so this update package will add those tutorials to the program.