ProSteel 5

Release 5.40f, 18 Dec 2009

5.40f replaces 5.40d/e which have been withdrawn: it fixes a bug in 5.40d/e which meant that calculations were not updated when you pressed 'Apply' in the beam load edit dialog if auto o.w. was checked. The following changes were introduced in 5.40d:

• Connections can now be added to a project independently of beams and columns. To do this, select the first item on the supported beam and support list box respectively: press the button below to change the section. Enter the load carried by the connection in the field provided.
• The Font dialog now adds an extra tab for the fonts to be used in internally generated PDF files.
• Print Project skipped splice calculations even if selected - fixed
• If splice type was changed back to 'None' it continued to appear in the Project Summary. Now if you set the type to 'None' and press 'Apply', the splice 1 & 2 positions are zeroed; if they are both zero the splice type is set to 'None'
• The small splice drawing in the beam edit dialog did not resize when you enlarged the dialog - fixed.
• Further printer error handling has been added: a small number of users of 5.40c have encountered printing problems which we have been unable to replicate.
• Some work has been done to finesse the presentation of connection and splice drawings.
• The calculator is now resizeable so as to give the option of showing larger number of previous calculations.
• A note stating that strut action bending has not been checked now appears on beam flange plate splice calculations where the flange plates have an area or Zy value less than that of the beam flange. We may add this check at a later date, but good practice suggests selecting a flange plate size that makes this unnecessary.
• A new option File, Export as EuroBeam file has been added. This option is of no use at the moment, but enables you to save projects as an XML file that should be readable by our Eurocode based program, EuroBeam, when it becomes available. For more on EuroBeam see our forum post EuroBeam - your questions answered
• 5.40d 16 Dec build Keyboard accelerators have been removed from data entry dialogs.
• 5.40f A minor irritation has been fixed: when you first added a beam there was no load on it, and so the very lightest section - a CF hollow section - was selected. As these sections are only made in S355 the grade was changed so if you wanted a S275 section you then needed to change the grade back. The initial default is now to a 127x76 UB.

Release 5.40c, 29 Oct 2009

Beam splice design added!

It's been a long time coming but at last it's here. The design method used is based on the SCI publication P207: Joints in Steel Construction: Moment Connections and we would strongly advise you to obtain a copy if you are using ProSteel to design or check beam splices. The data relating to splices is entered on the Splices page of the beam edit dialog. Do not start adding splices until you have finalised the beam design and section to be used.

You can add one or two splices to a beam. If there are two splices, they must be identical. Enter the splice positions (0 = no splice) and select the splice type, flange plate or end plate. Then enter the requested data in the other fields. The diagram is updated each time you press Apply. If the beam calculation is currently displayed, press the 'Splice' button on the toolbar to display the splice calculation. Press this button again to display a drawing of the splice: as with connection drawings this can be saved as a JPEG file or copied to the clipboard (right click for options). If you have any feedback on this new facility please post it on our support forum

Other changes:

• For better compatibility with Windows 7 this release of ProSteel has been built using Delphi 2010. It will not run on Windows 95/98/ME systems.
• The beam and column edit dialog load table columns now resize automatically in proportion to the width of the data entered in each column so as to maximise the visible data.
• A warning note is now added to printouts where a beam slenderness exceeds 250: there is nothing in Bs5950 to disallow this, but, as the note says, such a member may be vulnerable to accidental impact or handling damage.
• The option to select the menu colour scheme has been removed as it caused program crashes when trying to edit OLE pages
• On the beam bearings pages the plate thickness field now doubles up as the padstone height. This is ignored if 0 and the 'Unreinforced' box is left unchecked. Otherwise if you leave the box unchecked, whatever value you enter will appear on the printout: this will be appropriate where the padstone is reinforced, otherwise the minimum thickness (based on a 45 degree spread from the steel stiff bearing length) is calculated. As elsewhere, if you enter a larger value this is left unchanged.
• The Configuration Information screen now lists the fonts used in page headings
• A new and easier way of marking tab lines in text pages has been added. The new style tab line starts with an exclamation mark, then the tab positions separated by commas - make the number negative to denote a right-aligned tab and add 1000 to denote a centered tab, e.g. '!4,-18-28,1040'. If the last tab on the line is a right-aligned tab then when printing the line is stretched out across the full width of the page.
• Bug fix: if you entered an additional moment on a column and then deleted it, the earlier value continued to appear in the calculations until the project was saved and reloaded.

Release 5.34d, 30 May 2009

Two fixes:

• If you reordered beams within the Project Manager the wrong data for each moved item was displayed - fixed
• In the Beam Edit dialog, selecting a B/F bearing additional load for bearing R2 caused the description to be placed in the field for the R1 additional bearing load description - fixed

Release 5.34c, 11 May 2009

There is no 5.34a or b - this release brings ProSteel into line with SuperBeam 4.55c

• Automatic incorporation of self weight in beam calculations
• Add additional loads at bearings
• Quicker beam load entry

For more information on the above see web page ps534.htm. Other changes:

• The Configuration > User Setup dialog, Preferences now adds an option to 'tile' 1 item when loading a project, i.e. only the first item window is displayed.
• The Project Manager line now adds the section size: normally you will only see this in the hint when you hold the mouse over a particular line

Release 5.33e, 15 April 2009

If you used the 'Copy to clipboard' option to copy a beam loading diagram or connection drawing the copy had a blank rectangle where the popup menu was. Fixed.

Release 5.33d, 24 Mar 2009

This fixes a bug relating to timber beam calculations originated using SuperBeam and then added to ProSteel as a text page: the calculation was correctly displayed when first inserted but the formatting was lost when the project was saved and reloaded.

Release 5.33c, 5 Feb 2009

Fixes a bug in 5.33a/5.33b: B/F loads were not updated if the original load was changed unless the project was saved and reloaded or another change was made.

Release 5.33b, 8 Jan 2009

Fixes a bug in connection diagram printing

Release 5.33a, 2 Jan 2009

There are two major enhancements in this release

• In previous versions you could check a beam extending as a cantilever beyond R2. This is denoted by entering load positions that are larger than the span. From this release you can now also have a cantilever extending to the left of R1: this is denoted by entering negative load positions. The lowest value will determine the cantilever length. For example if you have a 4m span beam and enter a part UDL extending from -1 to 6, this indicates a 1m cantilever to the left of R1 and a 2m cantilever to the right of R2. The steel page of the load edit dialog now includes fields for the effective length and deflection limit for each cantilever, The reaction used for bearing and B/F purposes is now calculated with and without live loads on the cantilever(s) and the highest value is used. Where beam extends as a cantilever at both ends the former will generally return the higher figure. If there is just one cantilever, the reaction at the other end will be higher with no LL on the cantilever.
• Connection printouts can now include a detail drawing of the connection. Options on the first page of the connection edit dialog let you choose whether to include the drawing or not and if so, whether the supported beam is drawing coming out to the right or the left of the supporting beam/column. The drawing can also be displayed on screen, saved as a JPEG file or copied to the Windows clipboard.