Changes made in ...
Release 5.20f: 7 December 2004
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- Generally we are now displaying numbers with just
one decimal place where further digits are '0'.
Previously we displayed three or four significant
figures, e.g. a beam span that was printed as 2.100m
is now printed as 2.1m
- For beams extended as cantilevers using total
load entry, the actual maximum deflection on the span
is now calculated: previously the mid-span deflection
was calculated. The latter is still calculated for
Dead+Live load entry so that both LL and total load
deflections are being calculated at the same
point
- The presentation of calculations for true
cantilever members have been revised slightly (e.g.
length now described as 'Length', not 'Span')
- The load colour selected in the Beam Diagram
Options dialog was not visible on XP systems -
fixed
- When an OLE page was printed from within the
Print Project option the omit page heading option was
ignored - fixed
- The beam load and steel column load edit dialogs
now display a hint panel below the load entry table
which shows the input required in the currently
selected field. This should be of particular help to
new and occasional users.
- If you change an existing load type entry in the
beam or column load entry tables to '-' the row
contents are now deleted as soon as you move off the
row
- The beam span, column length and B/F reaction,
load position fields now have spin buttons.
- If you try and save a project and the existing
file is read-only a message to this effect is now
displayed, giving you the option of overwriting the
existing file. Previously you just got a 'Could not
create backup' message - the non-obvious workaround
was just to save your project under another
name.
- The Project Manager item description now includes
the beam span or column length.
- The Project Manager and Toolbar fonts can now be
changed using the Configuration, Screen and Printer
fonts option
- The option to change the Project Manager display
width from within the Configuration, User Setup
dialog has now been removed. As before you can resize
it by dragging the splitter bar to the immediate
right of the Project Manager.
- The Catalogue Project Files option now
immediately displays a list of files with 'Open'
buttons next to each file name. Press the 'Change'
button to change the file mask.
- A new field in the Configuration, User Setup
dialog, Preferences page lets you change how multiple
section beams are described, e.g. 2No or
2of. Note that if your chosen descriptor
requires a space before it, you must enter this, also
any change made here does not affect calculations
that have already been done.
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Release 5.20e: 2 August 2004
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A masonry strength calculator has been added:
press the small button captioned '...' to the right
of each masonry strength field in the beam edit
dialog bearings page and you get a dialog into
which you can enter the masonry and mortar
strengths, unit type and bearing class. From these
the factored masonry strength is calculated
automatically and an explanatory calculation is
added to the bearing notes.
- The steel column baseplate edit dialog now shows
the actual minimum required dimensions in brackets
after the specified dimensions - the latter are never
changed by the program if they exceed the required
minima.
- You can now enter negative additional moments on
columns
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Release 5.20d: 17 June 2004
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- Fixes bug introduced into 5.20c that stopped
charts being printed
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Release 5.20c: 15 May 2004
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- Bug fixed that caused bearing notes to be printed
in the wrong position (or not at all)
- Bug fixed that stopped you loading a file by
double clicking on a file name if the file name
contained one or more spaces
- The bearing page of the beam edit dialog and the
calculation algorithm have been amended slightly. The
minimum required bearing length (for padstones and
bearing plates) and plate thickness (for bearing
plates) are now shown in brackets after the
respective fields. As before, if you enter values
that are greater than these they will not be changed
when you press 'Apply'. If the bearing length is
less, it is now rounded up to the next figure above
the minimum (25mm steps to 225mm then 50mm steps).
The plate thickness is rounded up to the next higher
standard plate thickness: 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25,
30, 40, 50mm. For each bearing there is now a small
'Recalc' button that calculates the rounded minima
bearing length and plate thickness
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Release 5.20b: 22 March 2004
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- For double notch connections the top notch
dimension was printed twice instead of the top and
bottom notch dimensions. The moment capacity of the
notched section was not calculated correctly, but in
practice this check is almost never critical
- The Project, Print Project menu option did not
work - fixed
- For steel beam calculations deflection is now
shown as a fraction of the span to tie in with the
deflection limits in BS5950 (e.g. L/333 rather than
0.003L),
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Release 5.20a: 5/6 March 2004
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The key change (which affects us, not you) is that
the program is now compiled using Borland Delphi 7
which has enabled us to make some enhancements to the
user interface. If you are
running Windows 95 or Windows NT4 you must install (if
you have not already done so) a copy of Internet
Explorer 5 or 6, which is included on most computer
magazine cover disks. Doing this updates certain parts
of Windows to current standards. All Windows
98/ME/2000/XP systems incorporate the required
components.
- If you are running the program under Windows XP
you will now see XP style buttons (with rounded
corners and which shimmer if you hold the mouse over
them) and other refinements. As part of this change
you can no longer change the program desktop
colour.
- The toolbar now displays captions under the
toolbar buttons. To change the font used or turn them
off, right click on the toolbar and select the
appropriate option from the popup menu.
- The help file now uses Microsoft HTML Help with
an index down the left hand side. The new help file
is called PSW.CHM. The old file (PSW.HLP) can be
deleted once the new version is installed and you
have confirmed that the online help works
correctly
- Cascade windows on opening project option in User
Preferences was ignored: fixed
- Increment/decrement spinners have been added to
the column length fields
- The maximum length of text that can be entered in
any heading cell has been increased from 80 to 240
characters
- You can now change the calculation screen font
size without using the Configuration Menu option: use
the Alt+Plus and Alt+Minus (numeric keypad '+' and
'-') keys to enlarge or reduce the font size
- Following present day usage, references to
'Stanchion' have been changed to 'Column'
- The steel grade is now shown next to the section
name on beam and column calculations
- 'HF' (hot-finished) and the weight and are now
added to hollow section names. The significance of
the former is that ProSteel's calculations are only
valid for hot-finished hollow sections, not
cold-formed ones.
- The Project Manager 'Expand' button status
(up/down) is saved when you exit and restored on
startup
- The calculator now includes keys to recall the
last expression ('#') and to calculate VAT (at 17.5%)
on the last result or current entry. A similar change
has been made to the free standalone calculator on
the CD
User requested enhancements
- The beam analysis now omits the deflection
coefficient. The actual total deflection is shown as
before, and if you are using separate dead+live load
entry the actual dead and live load deflections
- For steel beams you can now add multi-line notes
to each bearing - previously you were restricted to
one 80-character line. Standard notes can be used as
elsewhere. If you've selected the 'Show notes in
summary' option these notes are now also shown in the
Project Summary: to avoid confusion in the summary
the main notes are printed before the bearings
details
- A 'Change Description' option has been added to
OLE pages which (as the name implies) lets you
substitute your own description (e.g. 'Connection
detail') for the default 'OLE Object: Word Document'
etc.
- An alternative way of numbering pages has been
added: the Print dialog now offers you two options:
Sequential numbering (1,2,3...) as before, with the
first number selectable by the user; or 'Number by
content'. If you choose the latter, pages are given
the same number as the item, with a second number for
subpages, e.g. if a beam is item 12 in the Project
Manager and on the Project Summary, the printouts
will be numbered 12.1 and (if more than one sheet)
12.2
- Where necessary the on-screen beam load table is
resized to stop the beam description and span
overwriting one another
- By design calculated field entries ignore
extraneous text which may clarify an expression - e.g
'avg' or 'est'. To save risks of errors being
introduced, any instances of upper case 'O' are now
flagged as an error, before 2O would be interpreted
as 2, not 20.
Major changes to column design routines -
PLEASE NOTE
A new example file DemoP326.ps5 is included which
contains worked examples from the newly published SCI
Publication P326 'Steelwork Design Guide to
BS5950-1:2000 - Volume 2: Worked Examples'. These have
shown up some errors in the column design routines in
ProSteel which have been corrected. These changes are
fully described in the program readme file. In addition
the calculation layout has been revised for greater
clarity. The unity equation is no longer printed where
the member is only subject to an axial load
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