If I model and analyze my structure in STAAD.Pro and design my foundation in Staad Foundation Advance ( SFA ) and subsequently my STAAD.Pro model changes, will the SFA model get updated automatically ?

OR

I do not see the Update STAAD.Pro option to update my SFA model based on changes made to the STAAD.Pro model ?

The SFA model will update automatically. For that you have to ensure that the SFA model is created from within the Foundation Design interface from inside STAAD.Pro to begin with. That way the association between the STAAD.Pro model and the SFA file is automatically established. For example if the STAAD.Pro input file is called My_SPRO_Input_File.std then, the SFA model created using this method will be named My_SPRO_Input_File_foundation.SFA.

Subsequently when the STAAD.Pro model is modified, one just needs to reanalyze the STAAD.Pro model and re-launch SFA from within the modified STAAD.Pro model file and the update is automatically taken care of. The column position data and support reaction data in the SFA file will automatically get updated using the analysis results from your updated STAAD.Pro model. The rest of the input data in that SFA file, like the job specific input will remain unchanged.

For this automatic update to work, here are a couple of things you need to ensure

Make sure that the name of the updated STAAD.Pro input file stays the same as the original. Also, ensure that the SFA model created as described above resides in the same folder as the updated STAAD.Pro input file. Also, that SFA file should not currently be open in the SFA program when the STAAD.Pro model is modified.

Video # 20 at the following link demonstrates the procedure

 STAAD Foundation Advanced Videos 

Note : In versions of SFA prior to ver 8, there used to be an update STAAD.Pro option for updating SFA models based on changes made to the STAAD.Pro model. The option has been deprecated as the workflow mentioned above takes care of the update.