Roof Live Loads vs. Snow Loads RAM SS

I started using RAMSteel in 1996. I remember around that time we were promised that wind uplift was getting added on the next release. 23 years later, and still waiting.

It isn’t because we don’t appreciate how important it is, nor because we lack the desire. Rather, it is a matter of best using the limited resources that we have to produce a program that best increases the productivity of all of our clients. As we contemplate what features to add we are constantly weighing the value of the feature versus the “cost”: Who in our development group is available? Who is capable of that particular feature? How long will it take, and what won’t get done if we do that? For some shortcomings there are things that can be done to work around the limitations, but for others there isn’t a reasonable workaround; we have to consider that, too, when we prioritize our efforts. We always appreciate constructive feedback, it helps us prioritize our efforts. Let us know what you want, why you want it, and how it will help you be more productive.

It isn’t because we don’t appreciate how important it is, nor because we lack the desire. Rather, it is a matter of best using the limited resources that we have to produce a program that best increases the productivity of all of our clients. As we contemplate what features to add we are constantly weighing the value of the feature versus the “cost”: Who in our development group is available? Who is capable of that particular feature? How long will it take, and what won’t get done if we do that? For some shortcomings there are things that can be done to work around the limitations, but for others there isn’t a reasonable workaround; we have to consider that, too, when we prioritize our efforts. We always appreciate constructive feedback, it helps us prioritize our efforts. Let us know what you want, why you want it, and how it will help you be more productive.

I think we all understand limited resources and the need to prioritize; it's just Bentley's choices in priorities that leave a lot of us scratching our heads. Prioritizing basic load conditions that show up on almost every single project over making the previously simple licensing almost unbearable probably would've been a good development path to try these last couple of years... I know we were ready to walk away from Bentley forever after y'all revamped your licensing so that we could unknowingly exceed our license count and then get charged an overage for it when that had been impossible before. And I know we were far from the only ones looking at other design options through that whole "Trust" licensing ordeal.

Focus on excelling on the basics before moving on to other areas of development. I can run 1000 load cases in Frame with seismic, wind, and gravity loads, and get the governing case for each member, but I can't run 2 competing cases at the same time and get worst case result from between them if they're roof live and snow? And I can generate all my lateral wind pressures in a second, but not get the positive and negative wind pressures on the roof factored in that will be acting at the same time as those wall pressures? Still seems like a pretty significant lack of functionality to go uncorrected for the 9 years I've been using RAM, much less the 23 years Mr. Reinke has. I've had the opportunity now to use some competing programs, and there's a lot of things that are automated in RAM that aren't in other programs, so I appreciate what y'all have done - believe me, I do! - but it's really time to focus on some of these longstanding issues instead of continuing to kick the can down the road.