UPDATES TO ACES-BEAM SINCE V1.0.28 _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.13 10 August 2010 1. SELF-WEIGHT LOAD CASE - VARIABLE SECTIONS - In a continuous structure with variable section properties in all spans the program would only generate the self-weight loading for the first span. All other spans would have zero loadings. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.12 9 July 2009 1. VARIABLE SECTION PROPERTIES - Program would crash if one of the rows in the variable property table was deleted. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.11 25 Nov 2008 1. SUPPORT TAB - Clarified the description of the 'Pin' support type in the notes frame of the Supports tab. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.10 3 August 2007 1. BUG FIXES - Browsing for previous ACES-BEAM job files. At times the system would not display all available jobs. A message will now appear with a work-around if this occurs. - Loading reports of Max/min values + correspondings into EXCEL. This would not work correctly for reports of envelopes that were NOT polarised. Fixed. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.9 16 April 2007 1. AUTO-ADJUSTING STATIC & VEHICLE LOADS - An option has been provided to automatically move a vehicle across the entire length of the bridge. If a span length is changed the program will automatically adjust the movement "To" distance on the vehicle dialog box. - In a similar fashion, the program will now detect if a static load case has a loading applied along the entire length of the structure. If it has, and span lengths are changed, it will automatically adjust the loaded length. Note that this feature will only work for a load case that contains a single loading where the start distance 'X'=0 and the load length = the full length of the structure. 2. BUG FIXES - Program would crash if a load case was copied. Fixed - Vehicle files with uppercase extensions (.VEH) could not be previewed and would not analyse. Fixed - Auto generation of the DL load case for haunched and tapered span profiles would not produce trapezoidal load distributions in the variable regions. Fixed _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.8 2 November 2006 1. CODE LOADS - The 'Lane LD, PS, Settlmnt' button is now disabled if the Code Loading option on the Job ID panel is selected. 2. SECTION PROPERTIES - A check is made for negative densities and a warning is given if the user has entered one. 3. READING VEHICLE & OTHER FILES - The program had a bug that prevented files with upper- case extensions from being loaded. Now fixed. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.7 25 July 2006 1. STATIC LOADS - The 'Add a static load' button was changed to handle only normal member and nodal loads. A new button was introduced to facilitate the creation and editing of lane load envelopes, primary moment loadings and support settlement envelopes. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.6 10 July (and 5 June) 2006 1. BUG FIXES - Input data is no longer wiped out after analysing a previously loaded job where the clear form option on start-up was set to 'No'. - The existing file name is reset to blank when clearing all job data and starting a new project. - The “Clear all model data” button on the Job ID tab has been renamed to “Start new job”. - Program no longer crashes when only span data is present and the 'Save' or 'Save As' options are invoked. - Vehicle name and file name fields were disabled to prevent the data from being changed (this is the only change made to the 10/7/06 version). 2. VEHICLE LOAD CASES - If the user omits the vehicle load case name on exit from the dialog box the system will generate a name based on the vehicle file name and specified parameters. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.5 3 February 2006 1. GENERAL - A node data block has been created that allows all additional sections to be explicitly included in the model. Nodes are only moved to accomodate these new sections if they are outside a tolerance specified under 'Settings'. - Additional nodes are also created at points where there are changes in section properties, and at concentrated loads, moments and primary moments that also fall out- side the tolerances. 2. PRIMARY MOMENTS - Primary moments can now be added as a load case via the Static Loading dialog box. The code "PM" is used to designate this loading type. - Primary moments can be added directly to the static loading table or by importing a list of values from a text file created in another application (such as EXCEL). _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.4 6 February 2006 1. MOMENTS AT END SUPPORTS - The program would crash if a moment was applied at the end support. This has been fixed in this release. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.4 2 February 2006 1. SETTLEMENTS (Sign Convention) - The sign convention displayed on the dialog boxes and stated in the on-line help files is incorrect. Downward settlements should be entered as negative and given as positive for UPWARD movements. ____________________________________________________________ V1.1.4 5 December 2005 1. SECTION PROPERTIES - Separate dialog boxes for symmetrically haunched and tapered girders have now been included. 2. LANE LOADINGS - A facility has been provided for automatically generating a series of lane load cases where each load case corresponds to lane loading in an individual span. 3. ENVELOPES - A warning is now given if the user attempts to make the Settlement Envelope load case permanent when creating an envelope. 4. GENERAL MODEL CREATION - An option has been provided on the Analysis form to display the current model file (ACES.CBM) in exactly the same form as it will be presented to the solution module. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.3 26 August 2005 1. GENERAL - Bug fix in the saving of data files. The name of the data file just-saved was not being echoed in the form header and it did not automatically appear in the list of recently saved files. - Checks were put in to ensure that: an analysis was not performed with zero load cases; or that an envelope was not created without at least a single load case included in the envelope. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.2 22 August 2005 1. REPORTS - The EXCEL report for a Polarised envelope of maximum and minimum values plus corresponding vectors plus load cases producing the maxima now lists ALL results values, including loadings and titles, in separate columns. 2. SECTION PROPERTIES - Bug fix in the variable section properties dialog box. Properties were not being properly mirror-imaged when that option was invoked. _____________________________________________________________ V1.1.1 16 August 2005 1. SUPPORTS - A new pinned support type has been introduced. The former "Pin" support is now a "Knife-edge" while the new "Pin" support type incorporates moment releases at the support. 2. VEHICLE LOADINGS - Axle group spacing data can now be specified for user specified vehicles. However, the system will only vary the axle group spacing by 4 equal increments, basically allowing a maximum of five spacings to be analysed. (In reality the system creates 5 vehicles with axle spacings varying linearly from the base value to the final value and runs them sequentially within the same load case.) - A concurrent UDL can now be specified with a vehicle. The vehicle can run in either, or both, directions. Note, however, that pattern lane loading of alternate spans does not occur. 3. STATIC LOADS - A settlement envelope load case can be defined that creates an envelope of all possible upwards and downwards movements of supports (within a user- specified range). 4. ENVELOPES - All envelopes can optionally be set to "Polarised". This enables all selected load cases within the envelope to be added together to produce the worst effect (useful when extracting the worst combinations for settlement and lane load envelopes). 5. REPORTS - The tabular report for a Polarised envelope of maximum and minimum values plus corresponding vectors plus load cases producing the maxima now lists ALL loadings contributing to those maxima (not just the vehicle). - Options have also been provided to display the loading titles or to suppress the display of both numbers and descriptions. 6. RESULTS INTERFACE - The Results form has been redesigned and the graphical results interface has a number of new functions viz: - Zoom in/out/full and pan left/right buttons - Set decimal places button - Buttons to rescale the diagrams up and down - A "fit-all" button that will expand/contract all diagrams to fully fit into the screen viewing area - Separate scale factors for all vectors - Saveable settings for vehicle attributes, node and member numbers, printer options, and diagram and interface colours. _____________________________________________________________ V1.0.32 22 April 2005 1. SECTION PROPERTIES - The Iz diagram for spans with Variable section properties that taper is now also shown tapered. - For variable and plated sections the Iz and Area values in the table are maximums and are shown labelled as such. - The Iz diagram is drawn to a slightly larger scale. 2. SUPPORTS - Fixed supports now work (bug in previous versions). 3. GEOMETRY - Better error trapping and range checking for all parameters in the geometry table has been implemented. 4. SETTINGS - The default path for model files now works properly (when browsing for a previous model file the system will open up in the folder specified by the user). - Contact details in 'About..' have been changed to reflect the current arrangements for technical support. _____________________________________________________________ V1.0.31 9 February 2005 1. SECTION PROPERTIES - The system will now allow plated sections to be defined via a separate dialog box. 2. RESULTS DIAGRAMS & REPORTS - The sign of moments and shears in the diagrams and result tables have been reversed to conform to the convention that sagging moments are (+)ve and hogging moments (-)ve. - Headings in the envelope tables have been changed to "MAXMIMUM HOGGING MOMENT" and "MAXIMUM SAGGING MOMENT" - The decimal place parameter specified in the RESULTS tab is now correctly applied to all tabular reports as well as the graphical diagrams. 2. GENERAL - Exit buttons have been placed on each tab. - Additional warning messages have been provided at various points throughout the module. _____________________________________________________________ V1.0.30 23 November 2004 1. ANALYSIS - The system will now allow an analysis to be performed in situations where the user changes the Design Code from 'None' to 'AS5100' and there are more than three load cases in the model. Deleting all load cases prior to generating the M1600 or S1600 loadings now works. - Results are no longer written to an intermediate output text file during analysis, so the overall solution time is much faster. 2. REPORTS - Tabular reports are now generated using the ACES Report Viewer module (the system is now more stable under XP). - The report viewer save/print menu now appears after the report is closed (not concurrently). The menu dialog box has been centred and the buttons on the box renamed to be clearer and more descriptive. _____________________________________________________________ V1.0.29 1 November 2004 1. ANALYSIS - The system will now warn you if you attempt to perfom an analysis with more than 3 load cases and the Bridge Design Code set to AS5100. The MS1600 loadings can only be auto-generated using the special button on the 'Loadings' form. 2. GENERAL - Minimise and terminate buttons have now been included on the form. Note, however, that model data will NOT be saved to the auto-load temporary file and the EXIT button on the ACES-BEAM form may still have to be used if the program does not close properly on exit. _____________________________________________________________ V1.0.28 27 July 2004 1. MODULE FIRST RELEASED _____________________________________________________________