Problem description

When converting PLAXIS 2D Version 8 or PLAXIS 2D Version 9 projects to PLAXIS 2D 2011.02, the phases that should take their Staged Construction settings from the previous phase will get the Staged Construction settings equal to the initial phase, while they should be taken from the phase these phases start from.
Staged Construction settings include the active/inactive state of loads, clusters and structures, load values, the location of the phreatic levels, etc.

These phase types in which this goes wrong include:

• plastic phases using total or incremental multipliers
• consolidation phases with a maximum excess pore pressure or incremental multipliers
• safety (phi/c reduction) phases
• dynamic phases

But is can also go wrong for plastic and consolidation phases that have a Staged Construction loading type, but that do not have their own Staged Construction settings. This happens when you created the phase, but did not open Staged Construction settings for that phase: a plastic nill step, or a phase that covers a time interval of e.g. 200 days of consolidation without any change to the Staged Construction settings.

When converting PLAXIS 2D Version 8 and PLAXIS 2D Version 9 projects to PLAXIS 2D 2011.02, always check and verify all phases and its Staged Construction settings.

Although this issue does not occur in PLAXIS 2D 2011.01 and earlier versions, it is still recommended to check the phases and the Staged Construction settings after conversion.

Solution

To overcome this problem, please inspect each phase after conversion.
If a phase with the Staged Construction option is not correct, you can reset the phase easily in the phase list: right click the phase name and select Reset staged construction and Reset water conditions.
For all the other phase types (plastic phases with total or incremental multipliers, consolidation phases with a maximum excess pore pressure or incremental multipliers, safety - phi/c reduction  phases and dynamic phases), right click the phase name and select Reset staged construction and Reset water conditions.

Make sure to start at the top of the list and then go down to avoid resetting things in the incorrect order.

Another solution would be to first convert the file in PLAXIS 2D2011.01, and then convert this new file to PLAXIS 2D 2011.02.

This issue is fixed in PLAXIS 2D 2012.00