This page contains list of changes, fixes and new features in FEM-Design 23.

Version 23.00.004

Released: 30th of Sept 2024

Added:

• Danish translation added, only documentation module.
• Allplan connection is added to the Plate module.
• Plastic data table is available for listing.
• New basic documentation templates for plastic analysis of RC concrete and structural steel.
• IFORT compiler has been changed to IFX  LLVM-based compiler technology.
• Error message is shown before running load case/combination analysis, when seismic analysis calculation settings are incompatible with the load cases/load combinations.
• List tables for plastic shell stress and strain results.
• Detailed result of the Plastic shell stress/strain results.
• fdscript PROJDESCR command to read/write project fields.
• Soil calculation support to globalcfg command in fdscript.
• 'All' button is added to the 'Hide' tool window.

Modified:

• The limit for EI of DELTABEAMs is increased.
• New buttons are added to the Plastic data dialog to reset the data to the factory settings.
• Solid steel section definition was different from the way used in earlier FEM-Design versions.
• The character limit for Text's title is increased to 39.
• In the case of a steel plate thicker than 400 mm, the yield strength corresponding to 400 mm is now used instead of 0 in the plastic calculation.
• During the auto-design of reinforced concrete or composite circular bars, the minimum number of rebars changed from 7 to 4.
• Duration class can be edited for moving loads.
• In the Norwegian National Annex the fu value of S355 steel material has been modified according to NS-EN 1993-1-1.

Fixed:

Analysis

• In some very rare geometrical circumstances the line load conversion by covers was not complete.
• The Virtual bar - Result step setting had no effect. In all cases the result step was 1.0 m.

CAD/System

• Transparency was not kept when fillet was applied to shell.
• It was possible to curve fictitious trusses.
• Arrange labels command modified the position of storey level values, too.
• It was not possible to confirm Filter selection by pressing Enter.
• It was not possible to set Surface connections's filling mode to 'No fill'.
• Transparency was not kept when geometry of regions was modified.
• Saving object layer configuration could cause crash.

Documentation

• Spacing before a document object had no effect in some special cases.
• Rotate to screen plane option for Labels was not working in docx export.
• Timber and steel bar fire detailed result was not displayed correctly if it was created from inside the documentation module.
• Graphical windows were not printed in some special cases.
• When printing documentation to PDF, sometimes  the images were not included.
• 'Fill all table cells' option did not work for Line connection table.
• Arrangement of documentation items was not correct in some cases after empty tables.
• It was not visualized if an item was selected for Cut or Copy.
• Behavior type (bended bar/ truss), unit mass and truss characteristics columns were missing in table of Structure/Fictitious bars.
• Settings of Report saved as default was not loaded by default.
• Entering documentation module caused crash in some cases if it contained invalid detailed results.
• Sc and Sq factors were swapped when Construction stage table was listed.

Graphic engine

• Rotating has been speeded up in model space, when there were lot of text displayed.

IFC

• If storeys were imported from IFC, the newly created storeys were not aligned to the old ones.

Input (structural)

• VCKR Steel sections' manufacturing mode is fixed from "Cold worked" to "Rolled".
• Naming convention of timber rectangular cross-section was different from the one used for steel and concrete cross-sections.
• When defining new cross-sections, it was possible to insert steel IO sections into RC IO types.
• Defining apex for a timber bar that has intermediate section might have coused crash.
• Building covers were not regenerated correctly in some cases after their properties or base region was modified.
• It was not possible to add newly created rectangular hollow welded sections to an existing section type.
• When defining new cross-sections, the Type listbox in the New size dialog contained both suitable and unsuitable elements.
• In the case of arc close to circle, the edge connection symbol was drawn incorrectly.
• Manufacturing mode of HSQ section type was not correct.
• It was possible to convert a curved fictitious bar into truss.
• When defining new cross-sections, the Manufacturing listbox in the New size dialog contained both suitable and unsuitable elements.
• For  Haunch/Properties the Top haunch/Bottom haunch options were not enabled.
• Plate thickness was wrong in bar-shell model when it was converted from bar haunch.
• When defining new cross-sections, it was possible to add unsuitable elements to the Type listbox via the Type dialog.
• It was not possible to add new general cross-section type to an existing section type.

IO / Compatibility

• IDEA StatiCa Relink function did not list the already existing projects in some cases.
• Diaphragm loads were not copied by the Copy/Paste commands.
• crash after an error message is received after loading the building cover.

Loads

• Deleting load cases caused problem in the Periodic excitation table in soem special cases.
• There was no warning that the loads acting along the fictitious trusses are not considered in the calculation.
• Deleting load cases caused crash if they were used for dynamic calculations.
• For models including temporary load groups, where at least one overridden psi value is set in the relation table, GMAX calculation could give a lower value than the maximal.

RC bar design

• The concrete cross-section width in calculation of beam shear capacity was wrong if the cross-section was point symmetric but not rectangle.
• During auto-design of reinforced concrete bars, overlapping rebars are now merged into one.
• It was possible to put two concealed bars with different materials into the same design group.
• RC bar detailed result caused crash in the documentation if there wasn't any load combination of ultimate limitstate claculated.
• The calculation of the torsional capacity T_Rd,s of reinforced concrete beams has so far not taken into account the scratch angle ?.
• Copying bar buckling lengths caused crash if the model contained tapered concrete bars.

RC shell design

• In some special cases the auto design of shear reinforcement was not correct.
• There was not enough decimals shown for the material safety parameter gamma C,u in RC shell shear reinforcement detailed result.
• Unnecessary error message could appear when calculating reduced shear forces for shells with curved edges.

Composite design

• "Copy properties" command for the calculation parameters of composite bars did not copy all the attributes.
• Especially in the design calculation, some warning messages were treated as errors, and conversely, some error messages were treated as warnings.
• Beta calculation for second order moment in composite column design could give wrong values.

Mesh

• If an object contained many circles or arcs, FEM-Design previous versions of 23 could slow down unusably when the mouse hovered over the object.

Results

• An empty table was displayed under 'Plastic shell - Reinforcement stress and strain' when 'Calculate stresses and strains' option was turned off.
• In the Plate module the Stretch function for columns can cause geometrical system problems.
• Fix occasional crash when generating load cases by traffic load patterns.
• Program crashed at changing the properties of converted mass result's numeric values.
• In case of N1/N2 and M1/M2 shell results, only N1 or M1 component's numeric value was displayed, and only it was the part of the maximum searching.
• Virtual bar results were not refreshed correctly after the virtual bar was edited.
• Listing of load combination results for virtual bars was not correct.
• Only in 2D view for line connection/reaction results, the displayed absolute maximum numerical values were wrong.

Steel design

• The warning for mismatching objects at creating steel and steel fire design groups is updated.
• In case of steel bars with Class 4 cross-section and Ignore stability checks calculation option on, the normal stress utilization was not calculated correctly.
• Interaction check gave too high utilization in case of some rare cross-sections.
• It was not possible to put into the same design group steel bars with shell model, if one of them was defined as Beam and the other one as Column.

RC punching design

• It was possible to add punching objects belonging to shells with different thicknesses to the same design group
• The warning message for mismatching punching objects - selected for the design group - is modified.

StruXML

• StruXML: "Ground" attribute for Norway in Response spectrum cannot be set to S1/S2.
• The line loads generated by Notional load function for apexes was not loadable with struxml format.

Timber design

• CLT fire detailed result crashed in some special cases.
• Apex check for timber bars with inserted section was not accurate in some special cases.
• The warning for mismatching members of a timber bar design group is updated.

User interface

• Toolbar placement was reset after entering and exiting Documentation module in some cases.
• The name of the view was not updated in the window after a new view was selected form the view list.
• In the Note dialog the colours were not updated immediately when an earlir saved setting was loaded.

Parametric model

• Tools menu / Apply parametric model crashed at educational version.

API

• RC design configuration attributes are added in fdscript config

Misc

• Pick properties command was not enabled when Convert option of Plane plate toolwindow was active.
• If an old model with applied sections on bars was loaded, the cross-sections were modified upon running the calculation.
• Quantity estimation of reinforcement did not ensure the uniqueness of the rows.
• Program crashed in some cases when comparing models.
• The duplication handling of point and line supports were wrong.

Version 23.00.003

Released: 16th of May 2024

Added:

• Fdscript header can define attributes fContinueOnError="1" to continue execution after a failed step and fIgnoreParseError="1" override xml parse errors in <applycfg> in case checks introduced in 002 hurt.

Fixed:

Input (structural)

• Shrinkage and creep factor calculation dialog did not work in Beam/Column dialogs in some cases.
• Some actions in the Section tab of the bars' dialog caused crash.

Analysis

• Traffic load pattern could be wrongly positioned when variable distances were applied.

Steel design

• Steel bar interaction calculation was not correct in some cases, if different buckling lengths or buckling data were defined for the top and bottom flanges.

Graphic engine

• FD no longer crashes after selecting a non-working graphic engine but properly reverts to previous.

IFC

• Handling of column coordinate systems caused positioning issues at import.
  
   

Version 23.00.002

Released: 29th of April 2024

Added:

• Plastic shell calculation results are extended by stresses and strains.
• Fdscript command to get GUID of selected items.
• Hide layer command was added to the menu that pops up at right-clicking in the model window.
• Reset display status command is added to the menu that pops up at right-clicking in the model window.
• Properties of plates in a steel bar-shell model can be modified individually.
• New API functionalities. (See details at "API changes in details" Added part.)

Modified:

• Chapter dialog was modified to enable a smoother workflow.
• Colour is added to Field dialog, so from now on it can be used to change its colour instead of Change appearance command.
• At the start, FEM-Design selects the most efficient (best) graphical card (if any real monitor is connected to it), not the the primary one (set by Windows). The option is added to the  settings dialog: Settings/Environment/Graphic engine/Graphic card...
• FEM-Design and FEM-Design Setup Wizard don't show up separately in the Installed apps list anymore.
• Installer reference slideshow does not stop when the installation is finished.
• A more informative message is sent when File/Export to/IDEA-Statica - Checkbot is used for an existing IDEA StatiCa project.
• In Danish national annex wind load generation uses the updated values for cdir according to DS-EN 1991-1-4 (NA 2024).
• Track tab is introduced for train traffic loads in order to control the number of rails.

Fixed:

Analysis

• In case of CLT and general laminated composite stress calculations the calculation time was long with new generation Intel processors with P-Cores and E-Cores.
• There was no plastic calculation for shells converted from steel bars.
• Unicode file handling on Fortran side to manage files in different windows environments.

CAD/System

• Drawing layer editing could crash.
• Editing drawing layers could cause crash in some special cases.
• Labels of shells and bars displayed in section view were not hidden.
• Sometimes preview was missing in open dialog.
• Spelling error in dimension dialog.
• Subtract word was misspelled.

Documentation

• Chapter level indicator did not work well when multiple chapters with different level were selected.
• Chapter titles were not broken into multiple lines if they did not fit to the page.
• Current page may have jumped unexpectedly when a report was switched off.
• Decimal number of the tables could be overwritten to the default value in doc module, if the file was saved at FD22.
• Display result could cause crash in some very special cases.
• Font properties of Field objects were not modified properly.
• Font type of texts did not change in paper space despite it was changed in the editor.
• If Zoom independent option was turned on in Documentation module, numeric values are not shown fully.
• In the texts the line spacing was not considered correctly in case of empty lines.
• Number of pages was not counted correctly in some cases if some of the Reports were switched off.
• Reset to report's default command worked on report independent data in graphical windows.
• Some units were not correct in the pop-up dialog of table columns in the Documentation module.
• Text width limit was too big in the Text dialog.

Foundation design

• If the "Calculate soil as solid element" option was switched on, it was impossible to create curved wall foundations.

Graphic engine

• Automatic label background was too dark in OpenGL graphic mode.
• Change of graphic engine mode to DirectX caused crash in case of some graphic cards.
• Multi-line labels had a small unwanted gap on the right side.
• Numerical values were not displayed, at some graphical cards, when graphical engine was set to OpenGL mode.

IFC

• IFC reference layers could not be unlocked.

Input (structural)

• Copying properties of a concrete or steel shell to an other shell with different material caused crash in some cases.
• Disabled cell was not gray in plastic data table of steel shells.
• Selected shells were not visualized correctly at edge connection modification.
• Steel/Plastic data dialog crashed if the mouse was hovering over some of the table cells.

License system

• After loading the model the Design licenses (steel/concrete/timber/etc...) were occupied, even though the calculations were not valid, if the model contained any stored result.

Loads

• Displacements of bars caused by traffic loads were not transformed into global coordinate system.
• Excitation force command caused crash in some cases if load cases used by it were deleted previously.
• Excitation force dialog could crash in some special cases.
• Filling Excitation force dialog could fail.
• Load modifier function in traffic loads was not applied on train simple line models.
• Optional status in load group combinations could lead to wrong results in max. of load groups calculation.
• Selecting objects for Properties option of  Footfall analysis data/Full excitation caused crash.
• Surface loads could have been added to train traffic load models.
• Unnecessary error message was sent when Internal force components of more traffic loads was modified in Properties dialog.

RC bar design

• Crash could occur after modifying the cross-section in manual design.
• If an RC bar had intermediate section, RC design calculation caused crash.

RC shell design

• Modifying material for RC shells that were already members of a design group might have caused crash.
• RC shell buckling check was carried out even in points in pure tension.
• RC shell detailed result crashed if there were serviceability load combinations in the model but none of them was allowed for the crack width calculation.
• RC Shell shear design parameter dialog lost some data when changing between design approaches.

Results

• At List tables, scientific form didn’t consider Regional decimal symbol option being switched on.
• Displaying plastic shell condition result was flashing in some view.
• Exporting bar stress detailed results to .docx caused crash in some special cases.
• In some cases Custom results were displayed only after an other result with Automatic numeric value options was displayed.
• It was not possible to create numeric values with the "Original shape" mode for concealed bars.
• Labeled sections result for periodic excitation calculation caused crash.
• Labelled section calculation ran even if it was not necessary.
• Listing virtual bar results for maximum of load combinations caused crash.
• Local stability result numeric value contained "%%" instead of "%".
• Modification of reinforcement was ignored in plastic calculation in some special cases.
• Numeric value/Select/Original shape option did not work for virtual bars.
• Numeric values and labels with background were not highlighted if the cursor was hovering over an empty part of the background.
• Numeric values changed in some cases when rotating view, if the Zoom-independent option was on.
• Numerical values were changed in some cases when zooming in or out the displayed result.
• Reaction and connection force detailed results were not displayed correctly for Max. of load combinations/All components results.
• Reaction/Connection result's resultant arrows may have disappeared due to scaling or rotating the model view.
• Regression in listing with regional decimal symbol: several tables ignored it.
• Result animation background color was always white.
• Settings/Display/Result/Virtual bar/Result step was not saved with the model.
• Text was misplaced in Result point label dialog.
• The characters at palette legend and title in the documentation module's Graphical window were was not so nice and sharp as in were in model space.

Steel design

• In Steel bar buckling length tool window the "For both flanges" option was always disabled.

Steel joint design

• Result window disappeared sometimes in steel joint module and could not be restored.

StruXML

• point_support_load_type was missing LoadType attribute in StruXML.
• StruXML had an interpretation range error in Plastic Data: elasto_plastic_strain_limit_option_U > 0, now >= 0.

Timber design

• The message was not accurate if creation of a timber panel design group failed due to mismatching members.

User interface

• Crash could happen upon manual modification of label font size/width.
• Spelling in settings dialogs.
• The program crashed sometimes  while using Filter.

API

• More input validation is applied in the API. (See details at "API changes in details" Fixed part.)

Misc

• DELTABEAM name spelling was fixed according to Peikko convention.
• Idea StatiCa Relink did not work if the IDEA StatiCa project name differed from the FEM-Design model name.
• In timber panel quantity estimation table the total weight was  always listed in tons instead of the unit set by the user.
• Tools/Find function did not work for GUIDs.

API changes in details:
Added:
1. New user command to query selection CXL CS2EDIT SEL2CLIP usable in the command box, <cmduser> or pipe command places current selection to the clipboard as list of guids, one per line.

2. Calculation setup added for ground acceleration and excitation force, see example.fdscript for details.

3. Calculation setup for load combinations can configure 'Calc' column it defaults to "1" so old scripts shall run with no behavior change setting "0" turns off that combination 'CS' can not be configured as it is implied form the nature of the combination and is either forced or not applicable (same as before).

4. Calculation setup for load combinations new attribute "PlShellCalcStr" to configure calculation of stresses and strains.

5. Design parameter cross-sections for auto-design now can be set via API.

Fixed:
That may especially impact the applycfg command. Some configurations that previously worked may now be rejected with a validation error, that appears in the log file. In case you get such notice and believe the value should not be rejected, please contact support,
so we can look into it.

 

Version 23.00.001

Released: 12th of February 2024

Added:

• Labelled sections are preserved when pasting files.

Modified:

• When line supports are defined by selecting existing lines, only one support is created even if multiple identical lines are selected.
• Wind load calculation is modified to consider the area of the whole climate panel instead of the area of A/B/C/etc. regions.
• Calculation of RC shell maximum crack spacing is slightly modified (the detailed calculation appears in the detailed results).

Fixed:

• For some edits of the applied reinforcement regions, the assignment of the resulting new regions to shells did not work.
• CLT design calculation did not consider the kfi value.
• Company settings did not import the title blocks and documentation templates to the correct folder.
• Colour palette of Colour schema was not saved.
• Equivalent uniform moment factors were not calculated accurately in some special cases.
• Incorrect reference was removed from steel bar detailed results.
• Steel bar interaction check did not use the internal forces that acted in different sections.
• Interaction check was unnecessarily done for steel bars without compression.
• Sway buckling mode of a steel bar buckling length is considered in the calculation of the equivalent uniform moment factors (Cmy, Cmz).
• DWG export did not consider correctly the window settings in some cases.
• The state of the Manage note-window was not refreshed when "Display only visible notes" was checked.