I am pleased to announce a new incremental release of STAAD.Pro CONNECT Edition V22.
As part of our commitment to you to deliver new builds more frequently, we are making available this version which adds great new functionality to improve efficiency for engineers around the world and has resolved numerous issues that have been reported and thus highly recommend that you look to adopt this version and improve your working experience.
The principal developments and enhancements that are delivered in this new version of STAAD.Pro are:-
The loading options on finite element models which have surfaces that are not aligned with the global planes, but have loads in the global plane, but whose intensity is determined by the angle of the plane, can now use a projected pressure load.
Whereas the global loading applies the load with the specified intensity, he projected load reduces the intensity by the cosine of the angle that the normal of the plate makes with the selected axes
This mirrors the option provided for providing project loading on beams. It is available as an option for the loading type Pressure on Full Plate.
One of the big challenges faced by designers who need to perform a dynamic or seismic analysis is in defining the mass model. As a dynamic analysis is typically defined after the static cases have been defined, it can become tedious going back and collating all the relevant data which have already been defined as vertical loads to then create the mass data.
A new Mass load generator has been added which greatly simplifies this task. This will take the vertical loading in any selected load case (which will be filtered based on categorization) and use it to create the mass either in a new reference load case so it can be used in any seismic or dynamic case, or used to add mass loading into the first dynamic load case in the model (all subsequent dynamic cases will also use this mass model).
So if a load case contains a vertical load of say 1 KN, then that will be converted using the defined factor as loads in all three global directions.
The popular tool to generate combinations using a prescribed and configurable set of rules has been updated to provide greater flexibility when it is required to include notional loads.
A set of options is now provided that allows the directions of notional load to be chosen along with the factor which can be explicit defined or using the method defined in the GB code based on the number of floors in the model.
The growing adoption of physical modelling has been rewarded with extra functionality that continues to make physical modeller a more convenient system to use in creating the analysis data.
STAAD.Pro has long supported a method for classifying a member whose connectivity with the rest of the model is limited to only providing axial and shear forces, but without moment connection. This has been classed as a TRUSS member. Whilst it was previously possible to apply these characteristics using member end releases, it can now be set as a specific member classification and appears as such in the resulting analysis model.
A development on the truss specification is when the member is designed to behave purely as a cable, that is only able to contribute to the structural stability when in tension and similar to the truss connection has no moment contribution. Additionally, it will have an applied pre-tension force and its sag will have a significant effect meaning that its effect will need to be determined using a suitable cable analysis)
Both Truss and cable members have limited connectivity by design and there are times when the model is defined in such a way that the automatic segmentation that is performed to form a segmented analytical model, is not required. So now they can be marked as excluded from the segmentation process
Steel members designed to the AISC 360 design code have had the option to account for the slenderness of tension members (even though the code does state that it is not required in section D1). However, if this was chosen, the determination of the slenderness was determined by Max(Ly and Lz)/Min (Ry and Rz). Now an additional parameter will be provided for AISC 360-16, SRT which when set to 1 will allow the tension slenderness to be determined by simply the tension length, which can now be defined by another new parameter TSL, and the check performed as TSL / min(Ry and Rz)
The Chinese steel design workflow for GB50017-2017 has been updated to better handle models which include p-delta analysis. The introduction of solution configurations means that it is now possible to account for the difference in effective length parameters when using a first order or p-delta solution:-
The engine included to perform designs on steel connections in the Steel Connection Design workflow is powered by RAM Connection. This has been updated to version 13.6 which has introduced the following updates:-
New Gusset truss type connections added for the AISC, AS, and NZS codes This now supports the use of wide flange and hollow structural sections (HSS) as chords with angles, double angles, channel HSS, Tee and rods as the branches (bracing members). Additionally for the AS and NZS codes, wide flange profiles can be used as branches (bracing).
Tubular bolted / welded connections extended to support design to AISC, CSA, and EN codes The connections previously introduced for AS and NZS codes in V22 U8 have been extended now for these additional codes
For more details on the updates delivered in the standalone version of RAM Connection V13.6 see RAM Connection CONNECT Edition V13 Update 6 (v13.6.0) Release Notes - RAM | STAAD Wiki - RAM | STAAD - Bentley Communities
With the recent release of Windows 11, STAAD.Pro testing has been extended to include operational tests on this operating system. Whilst there are some minor observed changes in the GUI, there have been no observed issues specific to running STAAD.Pro on Windows 11.
The Advanced Concrete Design application, RCDC, has been updated to v11 Update 2 which includes: -
For more details on these and other issues that have been addressed in this build Refer to the RCDC Release Notes.
The concrete foundation application included in the STAAD.Pro installation, STAAD Foundation Advanced (SFA) has been updated to v9.7 which includes: -
For more details on these and other issues that have been addressed in this build Refer to the SFA Release Notes.
(* Included with Structural Entitlements)
(** Additional license required, included with STAAD.Pro Advanced and Structural Worksuite)
(** *Additional license required, included with Structural Worksuite)
Note that if you are already using STAAD.Pro CONNECT Edition, you should be notified of the new build with the Bentley CONNECTION Client.
Revision History
The Revision History document details the issues that have been addressed and as with all builds is included in the ReadMe file which can be accessed from the Help section of the application and can also be found here.