This page contains list of changes, fixes and new features in FEM-Design 20 service versions.

Version 20.00.005

Released January 17th, 2022

Added:

• Copy to library function was added to Steel bolt selection dialog.
• Check for minimal steel bar diameter according to EC2 9.5.2 (1).
• Check for minimal steel bar diameter according to EC2 9.8.2.1 (1).
• KLH panels are added to the CLT panel library.

Modified:

• In composite design calculations unnecessary preliminary check for Class 4 sections according to EN 1993-1-1 was removed.

Fixed:

• Setup Rigid option did not work correctly for supports and connections.
• Bar reinforcement was displayed out of physical extent of the bar.
• Calculation of 3D Structure models loaded into Plate or Wall module might have crashed if the model contained plastic objects.
• Current line style was applied on irrelevant objects.
• Detailed result of composite column could crash if the first load combination was not calculated.
• During RC bar design, at those points where the bucking lengths were changing but all the internal forces were constant, the program did not add a design section.
• Elements of factory bolt library were not protected.
• Equation 6.21 and 6.22 was not displayed correctly in timber bar detailed result.
• Files made in earlier FEM-Design versions with detailed results of dynamic calculation may have cased crash at loading.
• Formula for effective length in Timber bar design detailed result was not correctly displayed.
• Foundation insulation calculation failed if not all load combination was calculated in the model.
• If rigidity library was closed by X, changes were not registered in rigidity type lists.
• IFC import registered hollowcore sections in the wrong direction.
• Importing material library created in later version of FEM-Design then the current one did not send warning message.
• In case of listing maximum of load combination results for punching, the load combination order number was incorrect in some cases.
• In some cases HRW steel section was classified to higher class than necessary.
• It was allowed to create or move sections under "Used sections" branch in section library tree-view.
• It was possible to paste file with skew columns, walls, etc.
• Load / Deviation load generation did not apply loads on Fictitious shells.
• Lock numbering did not work correctly for RC concealed bars.
• Numeric values were displayed for reaction result components with 0,0 value, if selection was made by SHIFT-Right mouse button combination.
• Pressing Esc button was not recognized during steel design calculation while Class 4 cross-sections were calculated.
• RC bar design, Multiple selection at Parametric RC Bar Design Parameters did not work properly.
• RC bars within a design group used the the buckling length of the master element, instead of their own.
• RC design / Punching / Automatic Beta calculation: In some cases, not the proper local system was used to calculate Beta.
• RC shell design, selection of quota lines at reinforcement bar fields could be confusing.
• RC shell reinforcement was copied to the "0" layer, if master object of a deign group was removed from the group.
• RC shell reinforcement was not transformed correctly in some special cases, if the shell was member of a design group.
• RC shell, at multiple selection a misleading message was displayed.
• Reinforcement quality could be missing after changing code.
• Result point could show the wrong section of result in Bar Internal force Max. of Combinations list table at the beginning of the bar.
• Section library did not display all existing branches.
• Selection in case of Edge connection end point behavior was confusing.
• Shell applied reinforcement result was not shown for load groups without existing load combination.
• Shell internal forces (Extract) table contained incorrect Node numbers.
• Show warning message in case of modifying the properties of an existing apex to invalid geometry.
• Sign of joint forces was not correct in case of some beam-column joints.
• Some values  in foundation design calculation for Swedish NA were not calculated according to the standard in case of drained conditions.
• Steel bolt library modification were not recognized at loading a model.
• Steel design / Steel bar shell model / Detailed result could show the entire structure instead of the actual bar if construction stages were applied in the model.
• Text for soil input still show "[deg]" if changed to radians as unit.
• Using Undo in steel joint module might have caused crash.

Version 20.00.004

Released October 13th, 2021

Added:

• French translation.
• Time history analysis lists were supplemented with the Time function item and Result point functionality.

• Norwegian NA dependent k2 value - needed for shear calculations - is added to RC shell, RC bar and Composite column calculation parameters.

Modified:

• Automatic support generation for covers has a new option whether to consider all or only visible objects.
• Calculation strategy of maximal distance of stirrups is changed for RC beams.
• Speed up heat transfer calculation in RC bar fire design.

Fixed:

• Apex specific calculations were missing for double tapered timber bars.
• Bars using shell model caused crash at converting objects to plate, wall or wall foundation.
• Bars with apex looked strange in some cases when their cross-section was modified to circular.
• Circular section RC bar's fire design method could have been set to Zone method by copy properties of the calculation parameter.
• Column base steel joint result contained unnecessary comment concerning haunches.
• Copied peak smoothing regions did not work.
• Copying of dimension texts caused crash later.
• Crash when loading a non-SAF-compliant Excel file.
• Creep factor calculator gave inaccurate error message.
• Default value of Xi in Turkish code changed to 0.85 from 0.00.
• Design group was created of shells with different number of reinforcement layer.
• Direction of automatic load generation was not editable.
• DWG import caused crash in some special cases.
• Eccentricity of foundations was not considered correctly in the design check.
• Editing dimension lines might have caused crash if they were included in a user-defined filter.
• Empty subloadgroups were not saved to StruXML.
• f_tor,k strength parameter was missing in the CLT detailed result table.
• 'Fill all table cells' checkbox didn't work at 'Concealed bar, Internal forces' table.
• Foundation slab utilization dialog might have contained wrong status symbol despite of correct utilization values.
• Help/FEM-Design support crashed from Section editor.
• Highlight did not work in UCS tool.
• If an axis was selected for wall definition, program crashed, if the axis was displayed in a vertical view in the Model 1 window.
• If seismic load was defined without unique vertical response spectra, and diagrams were added to documentation, program crashed at entering documentation.
• In case of bars with different start and end section, preview with dimension lines always showed the end section.
• In case of composite columns, members removed from a design group did not get the reinforcement assigned to the master objects.
• In case of RC concealed bars design groups, if the RCbar macro was modified, only the result of the master object was deleted.
• In case of RC Shell utilization results "Max of U/Ua/Us combinations" did not work correctly.
• In case of surface load definition with load assignment option UCS  was not set automatically to shell's local coordinate system.
• In case of thick circular cross-sections not the correct yield strength was used.
• In MATHCAD export, masonry input data picture was missing.
• In Section Editor overwriting an existing section in the section library did not work correctly.
• In Section Editor the digits of calculated data could change randomly.
• In some cases it was not possible to add steel joints of bars in the horizontal plane to the same design group, even if they were identical.
• In some cases of 3D soil calculation when an increment was adjusted to the elastic or compression  modulus with depth of the soil layer the initial modulus was taken into account with a wrong value.
• In some special cases DWG export caused crash later.
• In Steel joint stiffness dialog radio buttons did not work correctly.
• In steel joint stiffness dialog radio buttons were not mutually exclusive.
• M2_Ed value was always 0.0 in RC shell buckling table.
• Modification of Timber panel properties did not work in some cases if more panels were selected.
• Modify region/Split by polyline did not work in case of Box selection.
• Moment resistance of steel joints with bolted end plates were not calculated correctly if some boltrows were neither outside nor inside the flanges.
• Norwegian NA dependent k2 value - needed for shear calculations - is added to RC shell, RC bar and Composite column calculation parameters.
• Numbering of panel types did not work correctly.
• Pasting a model that contained load cases modified the load combinations of the original model.
• Position numbering of moving loads with "Return" option was not correct.
• RC shell applied reinforcement results were invalidated if no-shear regions of the shell were modified.
• RC shell buckling check could crash in special circumstances.
• Region holes were missing when footfall analysis data were exported to StruXML.
• Reinforcement preview displayed layers on the opposite sides for walls.
• SAF import of parametric circle cross sections doubled the width of the sections.
• Scale buttons were disabled on the point converted load's display options.
• Selection counter was wrong for multiple selection with ctrl.
• Some mistakes were fixed in Dutch translation.
• Sorting of quantity estimation table did not work correctly in some special cases.
• Steel joint of built-in module were oddly sorted in Manual design dialog.
• Stirrup capacity of RC bar with circular cross-section was not calculated correctly if its concrete cover was bigger than usual.
• Texts and controls could have overlapped each other in Layer dialog.
• The reinforcement diameters used for calculating minimal reinforcement for RC shells are taken from the applied reinforcement, not from the calculation parameters.
• The minimal reinforcement of the secondary direction is computed with the diameter of the secondary direction instead of the primary one.
• There were some editable unused data in Section Editor.
• Thickness of the middle layer of Martinsons 70-3s CLT panel was corrected from 15 to 30 mm.
• Timber panel panel type identifier could not be changed if the physical model was continuous.
• User defined 2D views did not work correctly in some cases.
• Using Ctrl+A could cause crash sometimes in RC bar reinforcement macro.
• Yield strength of rectangular and circular steel cross-sections was not considered correctly in some cases.

Version 20.00.003

Released May 14th, 2021

Added:

• Dutch language version.
• National annex to Eurocode: Belgian.
• National annex to Eurocode: Dutch.

Modified:

• Cdir value used in wind load calculation has changed from 0.85 to 1.00 in Hungarian National Annex.
• Estonian national annex change in EN1992-1-1:6.4.5(3), formula 6.53 is implemented.

Fixed:

• At RC bar manual design, displaying interaction surface for fire combination could have caused crash.
• Bedding modulus calculation caused crash if model already contained punching reinforcement.
• Creating shell reinforcement by "Pick existing region" option created more reinforcement region if shell was supported by surface support.
• During saving to StruXML some point and line supports were saved wrong.
• In Steel joint module reinforcement quality was not selectable for anchor bolt material.
• In wind load generation dialog buttons in the bottom were not visible.
• Modelling tools layer was not automatically turned on when Fictitious shell command was launched.
• Moving load influence line results may have caused crash if the selected point was at the border of two structural objects.
• Pasting pictures directly into the Documentation with Ctrl-V did not work.
• Post-tensioned cables were not saved to StruXML, if they were assigned to panels, or foundation objects.
• Post-tensioned cables were not automatically renumbered, if they were assigned to profiled or timber panels.
• Some of the edit functions (Curve, Elbow, Divide etc.) didn't work for line of peak smoothing regions after editing (Move, Copy, Rotate, etc.) peak smoothing regions.
• Steel bar interaction check was not correct if second order analysis results were considered.
• Steel Joint module did not read StruXML.
• StruXML could not handle load sub groups of moving loads.
• StruXMl could not handle piles' reinforcements. It is fixed for new objects.
• StruXML saving process could have modified the load cases if the model contained moving loads. This might have caused crash during analysis, if PREFAB-Print has been installed on the computer.
• The CAD regions were not selectable for region offset functions.
• When opening a plate file in 3DStructure, default load cases and combinations were also included.
• When saving to StruXML, truss member reinforcements were not saved.

Version 20.00.002

Released April 6th, 2021

Added:

• Footfall calculation: Transient response and Steady-state harmonics can be examined separately in Model space, Detailed results, and Lists.
• Footfall calculation: Transient response result can be turned off in Model space, Detailed results, and Lists.
• Option to copy buckling lengths from wall to wall.
• *k2 factor of  Norwegian National Annex 1992-1-1:6.4.4(1) can be set by the User.
• New Load group window is supplemented by the Load case Insert dialog.
• Result point is added to Frame, Plate, Plane strain, Wall modules.
• Predefined Colour palette styles (Rainbow / Traffic light) are added to Plate, Wall and Plain strain modules.
• Polish and Hungarian translation.
• All SAF-defined Local Coordinate Systems are supported now at importing SAF file format.
• IfcMember is now imported.
• IfcPlate is now imported.
• IfcRoof is now imported.
• Profile names are used in IFC import.
• New option is added to IFC import/Options dialog for consideration of Load bearing property.
• Steel bar stiffeners are added to struxml schema.
• Wind load parameter on covers are added to struxml schema.
• StruXML reads and writes all apexed beams.
• StruXML writes and reads all rotation type supports.
• StruXML writes and reads all types of bar stiffeners.

Modified:

• According to the Swedish Annex, EKS11 A1.3.1(1) Table B-2 modified 6.10a formula (eliminated temporary groups) is implemented in Load combination generation and Max. of Load groups.
• Default reinforcement quality for RC bar is set to B500C.
• In the new load group dialog, copy and paste options are removed from the drop-down menu of the Import/Export button.
• SAF mapping table at import is now editable.

Fixed:

• "Delete all applied quantities" did not work for Concealed bars if they contained RC bar macro.
• 3DStruct file saved with active Masonry tab caused crash when it was loaded into Wall module.
• Adjust analytical model function caused crash if connection surface was selected.
• Adjust analytical model tool caused crash in some special cases.
• Adjust analytical model toolkit was not available in 3DFrame module.
• At shell graph results, sometimes numeric value was not displayed at certain nodes.
• Bar internal force results were not displayed in storey view if bar layer was switched of.
• Brick material was accidentally available for columns.
• Checking/unchecking automatic arrange option did not work for numeric values of displacement and reaction results.
• CLT detailed result  of  a "Not calculated" load combination in documentation module caused crash at entering documentation.
• Copying buckling lengths from one wall to another is available now again.
• Curved walls were not imported correctly.
• Default steel materials were not consequently set in case of RC shell Calculation and Design parameters.
• Dimensioning in connection force detailed result caused crash.
• Displaying RC shell results  for maximum of load groups calculation caused crash in some special cases.
• Entering documentation caused crash, if documentation contained steel bar or composite column detailed result and the active window was a connection force detailed result.
• Factors and load cases in load combinations were not properly loaded after saving as default.
• File content potentially got corrupted after using Paste file... command.
• Filter numeric value settings of a result were occasionally kept for later results, even is User reset them.
• Find tool did not flash for finite elements.
• Fire protection materials were not protected in the library delivered by FEM-Design.
• Hidden utilization tables on design tabs became visible after moving the model pressing down middle mouse button (pan).
• In concrete material dialog results of creep and shrinkage calculator were stored in some cases, even if User exited dialog by pressing Cancel button.
• In Latvian NA alpha_cc was not correct by default.
• In load combination dialog importing or pasting of three-digit precision load factors for load combinations loaded only the first two decimal digits of the original number.
• In masonry design calculation Young modulus was not calculated correctly if it was dependent on the compression strength.
• In some cases shear stress check was not displayed in steel bar detailed results.
• In some cases type of user defined compound sections were not recognized correctly.
• In some special cases stiffness modifiers were not considered in structural analysis due to tolerance problem.
• In Steel joint module some figures were missing for welded knee joints.
• In supports and connections' dialog detach  displayed 'None' instead of undefined status.
• It was not possible to type some special characters, like "<", or ">", into a text box.
• It was not possible to use dwg files as external reference if their path contained special characters.
• Line reactions result's arrows were not visible, when value was too small compared to maximum value of the line reaction.
• Load combination generation did not generate Seismic max. case with negative sign.
• Modification of line connection direction mode did not work.
• Modification of  hydrostatic soil loads had no effect on the calculation.
• Modification of colour or pen width of structural elements' layer invalidated results.
• Modifying soil calculation mode corrupted already existing foundation objects.
• Moving load, dynamic results may have caused crash after some load cases were deleted.
• Named views were not always stored.
• Numeric values of bar deflection results were not positioned correctly.
• Painting color legend could have caused crash.
• Pointing of line temperature and stress load parts outside of bars was wrong at messages dialog.
• Program could crash in some construction stage calculation with stability.
• Program could crash in wind load generation under some special circumstances.
• Property modification did not work correctly in case of RC bar macro for rectangular cross-sections.
• RC bar macro automatic numbering did not work correctly in some cases.
• RC bar macro caused crash when Quick menu/Properties command was applied on it.
• Reset of vehicle load positions caused crash if number of load positions was not modified.
• Result status handling was not fully correct at RC bar macro.
• Roofs and slabs composed of more planes can be imported via IFC connection.
• Saving bars with shell analytical model to StruXML caused crash.
• Surface stress loads were not correctly transformed when rotating or mirroring them.
• The Trim and the Chamfer function were wrong in case of any kind of circle line loads.
• The vehicle loads acting on covers were not converted in FD version 20.00.001 in case of moving load dynamic calculation.
• Timber bar fire calculation parameters were not automatically modified for all members of a design group.
• Trim function was wrong in case of arcs and circles. Sometimes not the expected part was deleted.
• Trimming or chamfering varying line loads did not modify the end values.
• Weld utilization of column base joints was too high in case of 1st order load combinations.
• When Elbow command was applied on a varying line load, the intensity of the new object was not correct.
• Wind load cover properties dialogs did not work properly if more than one object was selected.

Version 20.00.001

Released February 2nd, 2021

Added:

• The available default set of timber materials are extended and updated according to EN 338.2016.
• The user interface is automatically scaled by the Windows system.

Modified:

• Quick tools is now by default docked to the right panel.
• SAF material mapping database was updated to the new default timber material library.
• Snow macro is removed from this version and will not come back until an advanced snow macro will be implemented in FEM-Design.

Fixed:

• Additional information (load case ID) was not displayed for moving load maximum results.
• If more no-shear region was automatically generated for a shell due to the same supporting object, only one of them was considered in the calculation.
• In Plate module, displacement results' color palette was in positive range, but displayed result was negative.
• Profiled wall height unit was incorrect.
• Tension check was carried out even if timber bar apex was under compression.
• Geometric error in timber wall panel is fixed.