ISM Toolbar Buttons are Grayed Out

Problem Description

There are a couple of situations that can cause the ISM commands to be grayed out and not usable.

Situation 1:

If the Structural Synchronizer is not installed, the following things will happen.

• The buttons or menu options for ISM commands are grayed out (most ISM enabled products)
• When starting SACS 5.4 for the first time after installation, an error appears: "Please install the Bentley Integrated Structural Modeler"
• In Ram Elements, the ISM functions will still be shown in the menu, but clicking them causes nothing to happen.

Note, for models that are not already synchronized with a specific ISM repository, you should not be able to use the "Update Repository" or "Update From Repository" actions, even when Synchronizer is installed. Only the "Create Repository" and "New from Repository" actions are active in that case.

Solution

Install the latest Structural Synchronizer from the Software Fulfillment Center searching "Synchronizer" or the link for non-SELECT users is here.

In some cases, rebooting the computer is also required.

Situation 2:

In STAAD.Pro the ISM buttons can be grayed out even if Structural Synchronizer is installed.

1. Check in Control Panel that StrucLink is installed and a current version.
2. If  it is old or it is not installed, uninstall STAAD.Pro
3. Uninstall the old version of StrucLink if one is installed.
4. Reinstall STAAD.Pro and select the option to also install StrucLink.

Situation 3:

A similar problem can happen in Ram Manager version 17.00.00.93 when Synchronizer is updated to version 11.01.X. The Synchronizer can be uninstalled and version 11.00 reinstalled, or the Structural System can be updated to version 17.01 or greater. Further explanation in this forum post: ISM is showing Not Installed for Ram SS 17.00

See Also

Integrated Structural Modeling Home

RAM SS indicates ISM is not installed