RAM Structural System CONNECT Edition Version 17.00.01 SES Release Notes
Release Date: November 25, 2019
This document contains important information regarding changes to the RAM Structural System. It is important that all users are aware of these changes. Please distribute these Release Notes and make them available to all users of the RAM Structural System.
This release is a supplemental release to V17.00. It contains corrections to that version. The Release Notes for that version can be found here: RAM SS V17.00 Release Notes Review those release notes for important information!
Occasionally last-minute changes or corrections are not included in these release notes. Updated release notes can be found at:
https://communities.bentley.com and search for “v17.00.01”.
Error Corrections:
Some program errors have been corrected for this version. The errors, when they occurred, were generally quite obvious. However, if there is any question, it may be advisable to reanalyze previous models to determine the impact, if any. In each case the error only occurred for the precise conditions indicated. Those errors that may have resulted in un-conservative designs are shown with an asterisk. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
RAM Connection Interoperability
ACCESS VIOLATION MESSAGE: Interoperability with RAM Connection was broken because of a change made to the handling of load combinations, resulting in an Access Violation message.
Effect: RAM Connection could not be launched from the RAM Structural System.
Modeler
DATACHECK CRASH: In a rare case of bad story data, the Data Check would crash.
Effect: Data Check couldn't be performed without aborting out of the Modeler.
Steel Beam
SHOW DESIGNS: For some models and some layouts with a mix of steel members and walls, the Show Designs command sometimes caused the program to abort out of the Steel Beam module.
Effect: The Show Designs command for some models with certain floor layouts having steel and significant number of wall members caused the program to abort out of Steel Beam. Users could still view designs using the Map Floor or Map Fence commands.
Frame – Analysis
ERRONEOUS RESULTS OR CRASH*: In V17.00 a new option was introduced, to lock the diaphragms for analysis of nodal and pressure load cases. This is useful when determining the weak axis moments in walls due to localized out-of-plane loads, when these loads aren’t intended to be added to the story forces. This option was not intended for the generated story force load cases, and the flag for this option was not set for them, but the program erroneously checked the flag for those load cases and randomly locked the diaphragm or caused the program to crash.
Effect: In rare cases, incorrect analysis results (the error was obvious when it occurred) or program crash.
LOCK DIAPHRAGM*: When models were converted from previous versions to V17.00, the flag for the option to lock the diaphragm (new in V17.00) was not set for existing nodal load cases.
Effect: When analyzing nodal load cases, the diaphragm may have been locked even though that was not intended, resulting in incorrect analysis results, most notably the lateral deflections.
Note: If an older model with nodal loads has been opened in V17.00.00, do the following to correct this problem:
BUILDING STORY SHEAR AND FRAME STORY SHEAR REPORTS*: The Building Story Shear and Frame Story Shear reports didn't include shears from tilt-up walls.
Effect: The reported values didn't consider shears from tilt-up walls.
LOAD COMBINATIONS*: If a model had more than 52 user-specified load combinations, reloading of load combinations from the database could have lead to corruption of the load combination internal IDs.
Effect: A load combination internal ID could be duplicated which would effectively cause one of the combos to be skipped. Each subsequent reload compounded the problem and would cause additional combinations to be skipped. All user-specified load combinations should be deleted and recreated if the user-specified load combination count exceeds 52.
DIAPHRAGM FORCES REPORT CRASH: The program crashed while generating the Diaphragm Forces report if the model included dynamic load cases with CQC combination.
Effect: The report was not generated if the model included any dynamic load cases with CQC combination option selected.
DIAPHRAGM FORCES NOT REPORTED: The program didn't produce the Diaphragm Forces report for a model in which all columns and walls within the boundaries of a diaphragm were raised or lowered by the same amount. In this case, the diaphragm was still flat but the program tried to treat it as a sloped one, and eventually failed to resolve the diaphragm slope angle.
Effect: The program did not produce the Diaphragm Forces report for the very rare condition described.
Frame – Steel Seismic Provisions
EBF COLUMN CHECK STATUS*: The overall design status that was reported for EBF columns designed according to AISC 341-10 and -16 failed to capture the status of the Basic Requirements check per section F3.5a.
Effect: While the report section for Section F3.5a correctly showed the OK/NG status, the reported pass/fail status for the EBF column designed according AISC 341-10 and AISC 341-16 did not capture the pass/fail status of Section F3.5a. Columns failing Section F3.5a may have been indicated graphically in the model as passing. AISC 341-05 correctly captured the status of the Basic Requirements check.
Frame – Shear Wall Forces
SECTION CUTS LIST: In the Assign - Section Cuts - List command, the last row of data could not be edited.
Effect: User could not edit the last row of section cut data.
SECTION CUTS LIST: Changes made in the Assign - Section Cuts - List command did not reset the model status flag.
Effect: If this was the only change made in the model, when the user exited the model the program failed to prompt the user about saving the changes, and the user could exit without those changes being saved.
Foundation
PILE CAP SELF-WEIGHT*: In the design of pile caps, the self-weight was not properly calculated. As the thickness of the cap was incremented and checked, the contribution to the self-weight of the last increment of thickness was not considered. The resulting self-weight value was less than it should have been.
Effect: Design and report error. Pile forces were less than they should have been.