In the latest version of STAAD.Pro (22.00.00.15) the OpenSTAAD help screen has this little gem on the first page.
"In an effort to provide you with the best application support in the industry, OpenSTAAD documentation is provided electronically in the form of HTML help files. This important decision was made to provide a method of quickly updating users with the latest program additions or modifications. Since this information is provided electronically, users can simply download the latest help files from our web site, without the delay to update and reprint hard copy documentation."
Huh? What? Where do we download these help files? And what does it being in HTML have to do with anything? And while I'm at it, the old help file gave you a nice little overview of OpenSTAAD. It explained things like instantiation. Now you get two short paragraphs giving you a very brief overview of OpenSTAAD and then it blast off into the function reference manual. How is this "the best application support in the industry"?
And it looks like all the arguments in the functions are typed as VARIANT FAR. Come on, most of us are not computer science majors. Without the example code you provide how are we supposed to know the data types when we are using those functions in Basic?
And last but certainly least (valuable that is). Try copying and pasting a code snippet out of the help. It paste everything on one line! I just submitted a service request on this one. I don't know maybe it has something to do with Windows 10. I've had nothing but problems since I've switched but dang, what a PITA!
Hi Tank,
That quoted paragraph is badly out-of-date and does not reflect how Bentley currently delivers the help file. I'll see that it is updated and correctly reflects how to access the help. There is no download as we currently deliver the full set of STAAD.Pro and OpenSTAAD documentation installed with the product on your machine.
You can access the overview of OpenSTAAD fundamentals by selecting STAAD.Pro help contents (in the product, backstage > Help > Contents) or by visiting: https://docs.bentley.com/LiveContent/web/STAAD.Pro%20Help-v7/en/OpenSTAAD_HELP_HOME.html There are some more detailed explanations and examples there.
As for the copy/paste issue you're having with the sample codes, I'm not able to reproduce that with any of the code examples. Can you provide a specific page or sample where you've observed this so I can try to reproduce that as well?
Jason
Jason Coleman, PE
Bentley Systems Senior Manager Technical Content
Jason, can the old API reference information be found anywhere? When you pointed me to "Contents" under "Help" I thought I found it there but maybe I'm remembering wrong because now, in version 22.01.00.39, when I follow that and proceed on to "OpenSTAAD API Documentation" it just tells me to go to "C:\Program Files\Bentley\Engineering\STAAD.Pro CONNECTEdition\Help\OSAPP\index.html". This takes me to that new API reference document that I was complaining about. This is really a mess. That documentation is terrible.
And since I'm typing, in the VBA syntax for everything I've looked at so far it includes "OSLoadUI" before the function. What is that supposed to be? That's not what you literally type.
Once again it is time for us to send Bentley thousands of dollars to renew and I'm asking myself what are we getting for this? I spent the entire afternoon trying to figure out what was triggering a bug in one of the functions and the poor documentation didn't help any.
Tank,
Sure. I've posted the OpenSTAAD help containing the API functions included from the help from V21.01. You can download the files here. Simply unzip where ever is convenient and open index.html in your web browser.
https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/m/structural_analysis_and_design_gallery/273909
I'm not really capable of answer the question regarding the VBA syntax prefixes in the current API documentation. I'll leave that for my colleagues to answer.
-Jason
Thank God!!! This is the first post I found on the Internet stating my same issue. The help document can only be understood by Programming Nerds. I have not yet figured out how to use OSLoadUI keywords. Can you help me out ? For example, how do I make the following get executed in VBA?
Vinu, the documentation cannot be understood by programming nerds because it is wrong. Here's the code snippet you requested.
Sub Main() Dim objOpenStaad As Object Set objOpenStaad = GetObject(, "StaadPro.OpenSTAAD") objOpenStaad.Load.CreateNewPrimaryLoad ("LOAD CASE 1") Set objOpenStaad = Nothing End Sub
Thanks a lot Mr. Tank