CONCISE BEAM REVISION HISTORY (Since Version 3.1) VERSION 4.62L (December 12, 2019) -Adjusted the minimum shear reinforcing requirement at the ends of prestressed beams under ACI. -Corrected an unneccesary warning about maximum shear reinforcing spacing. VERSION 4.62k (October 21, 2019) -Adjusted long. reinforcing check with shear (CSA codes) for beams with compression steel. VERSION 4.62j (September 4, 2019) -Updated a warning explanation in the flexural strength table. -Updated a warning explanation in the interface shear tables. -Updated notes under torsion steel table. -Added checks on zero load factors. -Correction to PCI Simplified loss method when using transformed section properties. VERSION 4.62i (July 11, 2019) -Corrected generation of new load group name when duplicating an existing group. VERSION 4.62h (June 10, 2019) -Corrected development length of very short unstressed strands. -Corrections to the Shoring Reactions table. -Added check that at least one ULS combo is active. -Adjusted number of load groups showing in handling stress reports. VERSION 4.62g (May 14, 2019) -Corrected saving of default load combo names in customized code. VERSION 4.62f (April 1, 2019) -Adjusting and corrected FLS stress ranges. -Reworked the shear design for beams and hollowcore without shear reinforcing that require minimum reinforcing. In some circumstances minimum reinforcing can avoided if the concrete shear strength is twice the shear load. Prior versions of Concise Beam doubled the required shear strength to satisfy this condition. This new version halves the calculated concrete shear strength instead of doubling the required strength, which reads better with the code and more recent common practise. It can also reduce the amount of extra strengthening needed for thinner hollowcore. - Corrected the load factor and name of dead load groups under CSA S6. - Corrected defining openings at the start of a segment. - Corrected exclusion of DLA in S6 lane load. VERSION 4.62e (March 8, 2019) - Adjustment to check of maximum number of divisions along beam. - Adjustment of long. Steel check with shear for compression side of section (CSA codes only). - Clarified the crack control table for CSA A23.3. VERSION 4.62d (February 10, 2019) - Extended the PCI Hollowcore load distributions to include the new distribution for cantilevers in the 3rd edition of the PCI Hollowcore Manual. Concise Beam is not able to account for the location of the loading on the cantilever so it assumes that the loads are on, or extends to, the end of the cantilever. Other loading conditions may require the default distribution to be edited. VERSION 4.62c (February 1, 2019) - Corrected display of span length for lifting and transport in Summary Report when stability checks turned off. - Adjusted effective flange width under CSA S6. VERSION 4.62b (January 8, 2019) - Corrected defining openings at the start of the beam. - Some adjustments to the Summary Report. - Adjustment to the flexural calculation. VERSION 4.62a (November 9, 2018) - Corrected section trim dialog. - Restored revised uncracked concrete stress reports and graphs for non-prestressed beams. - Corrected changing library path when selecting materials. - Corrected a crash that can happen when leaving the Beam Definition dialog with no segments defined. - Corrected reading older files that used custom codes. - Corrected stress analysis of shored beams. VERSION 4.62 (October 17, 2018) New Features - Added check of effective width of cast-in-place pour. - Added third method for calculating shear strength of hollowcore fill (new default). - Added option to include wind load with live load in ACI span/deflection check. - Beams can now be defined with a fractional number of strands and reinforcing bars to allow modelling a partial width beam or slab. - Added optional CPCI stress-strain curves for prestressed stress-relieved strand, single wire, and bars. - Added option to Precast section dialog to average the shear width over a taper or not (averaging the default before this version). - Added new option for rebar definition. - Added overall dimensions to cross-sections in the Beam Definition and CIP Pour Definition dialogs. - Added detail report for prestress losses. - Added CSV export option for loading, reinforcing, and core fill. - Added extent of warnings to design tables. - Added option to reverse the sign of moment graphs. Calculation Changes - Updated minimum shear stirrups requirement for ACI. - Adjusted the shear depth, dv, for longitudinal steel check under CSA. - Improvements to the rotation calculations. - Averaged fc for shear by depth if CIP depth /full depth is greater than 10% or 60 mm. - Adjusted the density factor and material resistance factor for concrete to better account for mix of precast and cast-in-place concrete in shear. - Adjusted calculation of Vci for ACI and NZ codes. - Changed how required core fill is calculated if core fill already provided (assumes no provided fill). - Corrected use of prestress material factor under A23.3 for strand that are not fully developed. - Corrected stress of compression steel in CIP pour with cracked section. - Updated PCI stress-strain curves for prestressed stress-relieved strand, single wire, and bars. User-interface Changes - Adjusted how prestressing, stirrups, and hollowcore fill are altered when the beam length changes. - Updated S6 load distribution parameters dialog. - Rearranged rebar dialog and added options for how the longitudinal extent of rebar is specified. - Corrected turning beam openings on or off. Reporting Changes - Turned off uncracked stress reports and graphs for non-prestressed beams. - Shear steel strength added to shear steel report. - Reworked reaction report. - Rearranged flexure and shear report tables. - Adjusted shear details report for ACI and NZ codes. - Moving load axles will now be adjusted so that the offset of the first axle is zero (remaining axles are offset from axle 1). - Adjusted shear reinforcing text report. Installation and File Changes - Updated Verification Suite and report for the 8th edition of the PCI Design Handbook and the 5th edition of the CPCI Manual. - Updated the PCI library files for the 8th edition of the PCI Design Handbook. - Renamed all standard library files that are installed with Concise Beam with a "zz_" prefix. Users are no longer able to save changes to these standard library files. A standard library with user changes can be saved under a new name that does not start with "zz_". The letters "zz" have no meaning other than ensuring that user saved library files will be listed alphabetically before the standard files. Protecting the standard library files allows them to be over-written or uninstalled by newer versions of Concise Beam without risk of losing user-defined changes. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.62. Version 4.62 will read files created by Concise Beam version 2.x, 3.x, and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. You may not be able to read some of the files created by early beta releases of version 4.62 (you were warned!). VERSION 4.61k (October 8, 2018) - Corrected analysis of partial length area loads. VERSION 4.61j (August 6, 2018) - Corrected the generation of ledger beam sections. - Corrected the amount of shear steel at the ends of prestressed beams for ACI codes. VERSION 4.61i (July 10, 2018) - Corrected inclusion of snow, ice, and rain loads in live load deflections. - Corrected display of cracking results in the top of untopped beams. VERSION 4.61h (June 24, 2018) - Adjusted calculation of Vci for ACI and NZ codes. VERSION 4.61g (March 28, 2018) - The cracking calculations have been extended to check cracking in the cast-in-place pour at the end of the beam where continuity is being simulated. Included a general review of the cracked properties calculations. - Adjusted the calculation of the first flexural frequency. VERSION 4.61f (February 25, 2018) - Adjusted longitudinal steel tension check for CSA A23.3 and S6. - Some adjustments to the beam opening generator to avoid overlapping openings. - Corrected problem entering the long/torsion stiffness parameter in the S6 Distribution Parameters dialog. VERSION 4.61e (January 28, 2018) - Added invertible prestress load factors at SLS for stress and deflection. VERSION 4.61d (December 28, 2017) - Added option (D4) to control how prestress camber is restrained or not when the beam is shored for it's own weight. - Corrected the shear depth used for horizontal shear for beams with only non-composite section resisting vertical shear. - Corrected support rotations when using US units. - Allow higher lock-off stress for strand. - Corrected CIP Pour stresses with shoring. VERSION 4.61c (December 4, 2017) - Corrected graph for concrete stress at bottom of cast-in-place pour. - Corrected Warning C explanation for the Shear Design graph. - Turned off erection deflection for shored beams. - Corrected the calculation of the tensile steel during lifting. - Corrected display of graphs when opened by double-clicking on them. - Added new moving load files for LRFD and Standard AASHTO. VERSION 4.61b (November 22, 2017) - Adjusted check for rupture of strand. - Reinstated load group reactions to Summary Report. This table will be reworked in the next version with an option to turn load group reactions on or off in the Summary Report. VERSION 4.61a (November 10, 2017) - Adjustments to the section generator. - Added new libraries based on the CPCI Design Manual, 5th edition to replace the 4th edition libraries. - Correction to shoring calculation where the beam weight is also shored. - Adjusted check for rupture of strand. - Fix a problem starting program from an icon on 64-bit systems. VERSION 4.61 (October 27, 2017) - Added additional shoring options. Previous versions of Concise Beam only had the option of continuous shoring where the weight of the cast-in-place (CIP) pour is carried completely by the composite section after removal of the shoring. Version 4.61 now allows you to defined discrete shoring points. They can be evenly spaced, spaced at a maximum distance apart, or placed at specific locations. Discrete shoring points will cause some bending in the precast beam during placement of the CIP pour which will result in some additional built-in stresses. - Added optional limits to the travel of the moving load. In the previous version the moving load travelled over the full length of the beam, as in the case of a bridge girder. Applying limits will make it easier to model such applications as crane travel, or the transverse variation of traffic moving perpendicular to the beam. For instance trucks in a loading bay supported by slab planks spanning transverse to the direction of travel. In that case a special moving load representing the two wheel lines as axles would have to be created. - Completed the maximization/minimization of load effects and the tracking of corresponding load effects. Transient and rare loads are disregarded if they don't maximize, or minimize, a load effect at any section along the beam. Reversible loads are reversed in sign from the input values in order to maximize, or minimize, a load effect at each section. Corresponding load effects are also disregarded or reversed (e.g. to maximize shear a load may be reversed which reverses the shear effect, and corresponding moment and torsion effects). In this context maximized means most positive and minimized means most negative. With this change all default load combinations now only use positive load factors. Negative load factors are used in some building codes to account for reversed loads (e.g. wind and EQ). This is no longer necessary in Concise Beam. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.61. Version 4.61 will read files created by Concise Beam version 2.x, 3.x, and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Added facility to generate a new standard section using dimensional parameters. - Added facility to trim a section to width or height (e.g. ripping a hollowcore plank to width) - Added indication of design check warnings to the graphs. - Warnings are now distinguished from notes in text reports by using a capital letter instead of a number for reference to the explanatory text. - Added definition of openings to the Summary Report. - Added first flexural frequency to Summary Report. - Added width to the load description of area loads in the Summary Report. - Added lifting and truck support locations to Summary Report and Stability report. - Added indicator of special points to text report tables. - Added option to only use the non-composite section depth for vertical shear. - Added kg and tonnes (t) to the list of Metric (MKS) force units for non-SI users. - Added warnings that large openings in beam may be outside the scope of Concise Beam. - Added variable strip height for strain compatibility analysis. - Added check for rupture of steel in the flexural capacity calculation. Capacity will be reduced to avoid or account for rupture. - Added check of load group type against ULS combinations to ensure that load group types selected by the user are included in at least one ULS combination. - Added ability to define arcs in the text-based precast section import files. - Completed and updated some tutorials (completing the tutorials still in progress). - Added additional material to the Technical Background portion of the Manual (always a work in progress). - Reviewed and adjusted cracking calculations and crack control steel. - Added S6 cracking method. - Rearranged cracking report. - Importing sections to a library from the problem file now only includes user-selected sections and not generated sections (e.g. at openings). - Added shear strength to check of applicability of minimum flexural strength for prestressed beams under ACI. Also added a calculation option to not use shear strength to match previous versions of Concise Beam. - Added an adjustment for the check of long. steel for flexure and shear (Canadian codes) for beams without stirrups. - Revised calculation of crack spacing parameter for MCFT shear method for Canadian Codes. - Put restrictions on load stages that certain load types can be applied or removed. - Reworked the analysis results to better track corresponding load effects. - Rearranged the applied loading and reactions tables in the Summary Report. - Renamed the "Final" stage to "Final Service" stage to clarify that it is the in-service stage after long-term deformations, where appropriate, have taken place. - Removed reference to torsion in reports and graphs if there is no torsional loading. - Lateral offset to vertical opening now taken to center of opening instead of left edge as in version 4.60. - Check limits on calculation of sze (CSA shear) for long. steel in only part of section depth. - Adjustments to Shear Reinforcing dialog for hollowcore planks. - Adjustments to Loading dialog. - Adjustments to Prestressing dialog. - Adjusted shear tables to show required values when design option turned off. - Corrected reading and writing of target theta angle for torsion in problem file. VERSION 4.60s (July 31, 2017) -Corrected creation of single hold-down harp profiles to avoid duplicate nodes. VERSION 4.60r (June 12, 2017) - Corrected calculation of long torsion steel for Zia-Hsu Method. - Corrected min steel note in Horizontal Shear by Section table. - Corrected typo in Deflection Multiplier dialog for sustained live load. VERSION 4.60q (May 8, 2017) - Fixed the reading of sustained live loads from older problem files (before version 4.60). - Corrected the display of reversible loads. VERSION 4.60p (April 10, 2017) - Limit deflection during construction (up to Completion stage) to sustained loads. - Corrected flexural over-reinforcement check within development lengths. - Additional check that stirrup strength properties are set even if stirrups not used. - Revised max/minimization of loads to better handle negative loads. - Expanded and corrected load reaction table. - Increased number of decimal places for some units. - Adjusted load combination dialog to maintain SLS and FLS combo names. VERSION 4.60o (March 11, 2017) - Fixed area loading width controls. - Adjusted light-weight concrete limits. - Corrected ability to turn off load combinations. VERSION 4.60n (February 16, 2017) - Corrected reporting of negative load group torsional reactions. - Corrected generation of segment properties after leaving torsion dialog. - Changed Long. Steel check to use moment lever instead of effective shear depth for M/dv (CSA A23.3 only). - Corrected a problem writing and reading non-english file names. - Corrected shoring of beam weight. VERSION 4.60m (January 12, 2017) - Corrected conversion of sustained live load case from old file to version 4.6 file. - Corrected deflection due to sustained live load. VERSION 4.60L (December 31, 2016) - Corrected use of theta angle for torsion steel under A23.4-04 & 14 and S6-06 & 14. - Adjusted display of stirrup spacing. - Adjusted reporting of shear strength required with torsion. VERSION 4.60k (November 23, 2016) - Corrected problem adding torsion parameters during load analysis. - Adjusted longitudinal steel force with flexure and shear (A23.3). VERSION 4.60j (October 31, 2016) - Changes to custom code base code will reset the problem level combinations. - Edited Concrete Stress All Stages report. - Corrected problem with Design Graph dialog. - Corrected reading custom code default values. VERSION 4.60i (October 13, 2016) - Limited moving load to the Final loading stage. - Corrected potential crash in Beam Definition dialog when creating the first segment. - Corrected the drawing of void polygons in the section editor. - Corrected cracking classification under ACI for light-weight concrete. VERSION 4.60h (September 27, 2016) - Corrected setting the beam spacing in the bridge parameters. - Corrected application of distribution factors to moving loads. VERSION 4.60g (September 18, 2016) - Corrected display of load distribution diagram in the load distribution edit dialog. - Corrected saving of edge pattern load distributions to file. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.60g. Version 4.60g will read files created by all prior versions of Concise Beam. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Corrected a problem with unchecking all rebar groups. VERSION 4.60f (September 10, 2016) - Corrected symbol for negative point moments in Loading Dialog. - The Concise Beam program and installation files are now digitally signed in the developer's name. - Corrected selected load groups in analysis graphs. VERSION 4.60e (August 31, 2016) - Removed service level earthquake as a default in the SLS stress load combo. - Reading older files (before 4.60) that include wind loads will prompt users whether to include those wind loads in SLS checks (now the default). - Corrected long-term deflections for beams with cantilevers. VERSION 4.60d (August 29, 2016) - Corrected problems with beams with openings and torsion. - More improvements to the section editor. - Improvements to the automatic modification of load groups in the load dialog. VERSION 4.60c (August 23, 2016) - Corrected problems in creating new empty library files. - Improvements to the section editor. - Corrected a problem with inactive load combinations. - Updated the Manual table of contents. - Improved handling of loads added before a load group is defined. - Corrected a problem with the limiting of design torsions at supports. VERSION 4.60b (August 4, 2016) - Corrected loading user defined load distributions. - Corrected problem with shear steel input table in Summary Report. - Corrected loading of a problem file when double clicked or dragged onto the Concise Beam icon. - Corrected generation of harped profile. - Corrected various issues involving the Segment Opening dialog. - Corrected unit conversion or torsion forces in reaction report. VERSION 4.60a (July 30, 2016) - Corrected a problem with the Torsion Parameters dialog. - Improved entry of floating point numbers in edit fields. You can now start typing number with "." and "-" without a warning. VERSION 4.60 (July 25, 2016) DESIGN CODES - Added support for ACI318-14, CSA A23.3-14 and CSA S6-14. Concise Beam now supports 14 design standards or codes. - Updated CSA S6-06 support for Supplement #1 (2010). - Updated CSA S6-06 loading to include dead load only load combination (#9). LOADING - Eliminated the fixed load cases used in older versions of Concise Beam. The user can now define their own load groups which contain a number of related loads. User-defined load groups represent the related loads of a given type (i.e Live Load), duration, and load distribution. Predefined load groups are provided to simulate most of the old load cases. - When defining static loads the user can now apply area loads to the beam. In previous versions users had to convert area loads to linear loads. The user is now also able to define a lateral offset to the load so that the program will automatically determine the applied torsional load component. In previous version the user had to define separate torsion loads to account for load eccentricity. - Moving loads have been added to the available loading options. Libraries of predefined moving loads such as highway live loads are provided with the program. The user is also able to create their own moving loads and save them to a library file for future use. The moving load library can be accessed through the Libraries dialog as with section and material libraries. The Moving Load library files have an XML based file format. Existing binary file formats of the other library types will be switched to XML in the future. - Pre-defined moving loads, such as code based highway live loads (S6 only for now), include automated load distribution. User will have to supply distribution parameters. - Added additional load combinations for deflections and fatigue. - Load combinations can now be customized in a problem file without having to customize the selected code. - Concise Beam can now better maximize the load combination effects in service and at ultimate. - Added a diagram to preview load distributions in the Load Distribution dialog. - Added beam option to account for torsion of cip pour offset. BEAM MODELLING - Added a new facility to define vertical or horizontal through openings the beam and cast-in-place pour. The program will create the openings automatically with no need for the user to define special sections. - Added user-defined stations for evaluation and design check. - Changed check of lifting offsets to be either side of the centre of gravity of the beam. SERVICEABILITY CHECKS - Added additional check of use of old deflection modifiers (checking ini file for need to update). - Added an option to allow user to define the length of the beam end zone for concrete stresses at transfer. - Improved erection deflection estimate when there is a large difference between transfer blocking and final supports. - Added SLS stress limits for CIP Pour stage. - Adjusted decompression force calculations. PRESTRESSING - Added a facility to generate a harp profile for a specific strand group. - Renamed the CPCI Detailed and PCI Simplified loss methods to encourage ACI users to use the more accurate detailed method. The simplified method is still the default for ACI users since it's used in the PCI Design Handbook. - Revised check for tension when doubling development length. An option is now provided to control whether the check if for any tension anywhere along bottom of beam in service or just in development length. - Adjusted check of prestressing to avoid good strands being seen as outside the concrete. FLEXURAL DESIGN CHECK - Added calculation option to use a rectangular stress block for ultimate flexural strength (on by default as in previous versions). A concrete stress-strain curve will be used instead when the stress block is not used or is inappropriate (i.e. for reduced maximum concrete strains). The user can select a concrete stress-strain curve within the Concrete Definition dialog. The PCA parabolic/linear curve had been used internally in the past. - Adjusted the flexural calculation option for slipped partial-length strand. By default Concise Beam will now assume that slipped partial-length strand still carry load prorated for the strand development. This change follows changes to the PCI Handbook, 7th edition errata (2011). Discounting slipped partial length strands as per the Martin-Korkosz method is available as an option. - Added an option to reduce phi for flexure in the strand development length for CSA A23.3. SHEAR AND TORSION DESIGN CHECK - Further adjusted calculation of sze for shear under CSA A23.3 and S6. sze for beams with less than minimum shear steel is now limited to a minimum of the lesser of 300 mm or dv to agree with the value proscribed in the code for beams with minimum shear steel or the simplified method. - Added calculation option to check the principle stress in the calculation of Vcw (ACI and NZS codes) as allowed as an alternative by the code. This principle stress check was performed by default in Concise Beam from version 4.59 through version 4.59u. This option is now off by default which is more conservative. - The definition of shear stirrups and horizontal interface ties have been separated. - Added estimation of top of web and height of loading based on section type. Height of web is used in fpc & Vcw calculation. Height of loading used for length of shear limit at supports. - Added option to calculate bursting steel requirements. - Rewrote the long. steel check section for CSA codes. - The maximum limit on interface shear strength is now more explicit. The shear strength provided is now reduced to this limit. - Adjusted the limiting of design torsion near the supports. - Corrected the calculation of Vo under AS3600-2001 in negative bending. - Corrected maximum horizontal shear strength under ACI codes is shear friction is not used. - Corrected simplified concrete shear strength within the transfer length for ACI and NZ codes. - Corrected check for minimum shear steel if hollowcore fill is provided. GENERAL - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.60. Version 4.60 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Added command line flag for safe mode to turn off update checking. - Added Restore to Factory button for calculation options. - Added option numbers to the Calculation Options for easier referencing. - Added Reset and transparency to preferences dialog. - Added filled voids to the 3D view of the beam. - Added ability to show beam as a wire-frame (except the ends). - Added transparency to 3d view between segment ends. - Revised and added new tutorials. - Adjusted the design process dialog updates. - Added user notes field to Problem Identification dialog. - Corrected display of current version installed. - Corrected saving the default calculation options. INPUT - Add and Modify buttons will now be highlighted in red to indicate that user-input changes have been made that should be saved with the "Modify" or "Add" buttons. - Added user notes facility to Problem Identification dialog. - Corrected the check for the need for torsional parameters. - Fixed Custom Code Stress dialog. OUTPUT - Revised the Loading, Analysis and Reaction tables to suit new load groups, combinations, and envelopes. - Added code references to the text report table notes and warnings. - Added black and white printing of graphs. - Added low density factor, lambda, to shear details report. - Added Moving load details report. - Added Moving load distribution report. - Added export of text reports. - Added Non-Default Options settings to Summary Report including option to turn on/off. - Added Problem Notes to Summary Report including option to turn on/off. - Added addition Summary Report on/off settings for future use. - Clarified labels for maximum allowable stirrup spacing. - Corrected reporting of cracked stresses. LIBRARIES - Added new moving load libraries for highway live loads. - Added ability to change the system of units used in a library file. - Corrected the Section Editor to handle negative numbers better in X and Y controls. - Corrected the check of end of file when importing text library files. VERSION 4.59x (February 13, 2016) - Corrected calculation of V/M where M = 0 for prestressed beams under ACI 318. - Corrected the label of the Principal Stress option and how it's saved to file. - Adjusted the reading of version 2 files by resetting the deflection multipliers to default values. - Corrected table header for non-ACI torsion. - Added section libraries for Ultra-Span in metric and US Units. - Revised section libraries for Spancrete to represent full grouted width. - Axial strain for CSA MCFT Vc will now check max V with corr. M versus max M with corr V to get most tensile strain. VERSION 4.59w (December 09, 2015) - Corrected calculation of point moment at point of application. - Corrected slippage note in flexural table. - Adjusted calculation of sze for shear under CSA A23.3 and S6. sze for beams with less than minimum shear steel is now limited to a minimum of 300 mm to agree with the value proscribed in the code for beams with minimum shear steel. - Adjusted the selection of sections included the text report tables to improve symmetry where appropriate. VERSION 4.59v (September 24, 2015) - Added ability to read Concise Beam version 2 files. - Improved reading of Concise Beam version 3 files. - Added option to not check principal stress (alternative method) for Vcw. VERSION 4.59u (April 29, 2015) - Corrected calculation of fpc. - Corrected a bug that caused the section editor to suddenly zoom in or out when editing the section. - Improved the panning within the section editor when using the mouse (left and right button held down). VERSION 4.59t (February 22, 2015) - Adjusted the Shear Design report tables for the combined effect of shear steel (stirrups) and filled cores in hollowcore planks. - A few small corrections to the Section Editor. - Tutorial #4 has been revised to demonstrate how to create a section that has been cut vertically through a void (e.g. a hollowcore section). VERSION 4.59s (December 18, 2014) - Adjusted wording of Stress and Cracking Tables in Summary Report for non-prestressed beams. - The Cracking Table now indicates if cracking occurs before the beam is composite along with the estimate. VERSION 4.59r (October 29, 2014) - Corrected the relaxation loss of the AS3600 prestress loss method. - Removed the explicit elastic shortening loss regain for superimposed sustained loads in the AS3600 prestress loss method. This better matches the recommendation of the NPCAA manual which presumably assumes that the ES regain is empirically accounted for by AS3600 parameters. VERSION 4.59q (October 22, 2014) - Some bug fixes and adjustments to the cracked section analysis and stress report. VERSION 4.59p (September 26, 2014) - Modified creep loss calculations to account for change in support conditions between transfer and service on beam self-weight. This will have an impact on beams with long cantilevers. - Adjusted search of steel for long. steel check (CSA codes only). - Separated bearing movement table from combined deflection table. - Corrected calculation of force induced in rebar by creep loss. VERSION 4.59o (July 24, 2014) - Corrected a bug that was preventing the "Prestressed Force Induced in Rebar" report from being generated properly. VERSION 4.59n (June 25, 2014) - Added support rotations and beam length change due to creep and shrinkage to combined deflection report. - Corrected conditions on use of PCI effective shear friction coefficient (Handbook 7th ed.) and use of density factor. - Minor correction to shear steel spacing for S6-06. - Corrected the reported strand force at jacking for AS3600-09. Could effect the results if user-defined losses are used. - Adjusted use of PCI recommendation for minimum prestress shear strength under ACI318. - Adjusted the calculation of Vci (flexural shear strength) for ACI 318 and NZS 3101. - Adjusted the check for program updates to avoid potential crashes on some systems. VERSION 4.59m (April 8, 2014) - Corrected the reporting of the immediate deflection for live load when roof loads, etc. are included. - Simplified the Deflection Parameters dialog for non-composite beams. - The "Do Not Include Cast-in-Place Pour" option now indicates that any defined cast-in-place pour will be ignored for the current analysis and design check but is included in the final beam configuration. VERSION 4.59L (March 11, 2014) - Extended the use shear friction for horizontal shear with ACI codes. - Corrected the use of the PCI maximum limit on shear friction. VERSION 4.59k (January 10, 2014) - Updated PCI recommended concrete stress limit for tension at transfer to TR-7-05. - Completed the help file contents for the Technical Background document. - Corrected bug in Select Materials with empty directories. VERSION 4.59j (November 30, 2013) - Adjusted the printer font to automatically account for different resolution printers. - Reinstated printing of node data when printing section sheet. VERSION 4.59i (September 25, 2013) - Added a new load case for construction LL. - Added new graph and reports for the cip construction stage (SLS checks) - Added additional checks that old prestress deflection multipliers at completion of construction have been updated. - Corrected the display of units of measure in the Hollow Core Parameters dialog. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.59i. Version 4.59i will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. VERSION 4.59h (August 16, 2013) - Adjusted the search for reinforcing steel for the shear strength under AS3600. - Added a new section library file for Canadian bridge girders from provincial MoTs (initially Ontario). VERSION 4.59g (July 25, 2013) - Corrected lateral stability check for non-prestressed beams. - Ensure that lifting and transportation offsets are less than 1/4 of the length of the beam. - Some adjustments to the reading of text based library files. - Some adjustments to the hollowcore design facility. - Adjustment to the decompression moment. - Corrected the entry of negative numbers in the section editor. VERSION 4.59f (June 5, 2013) - Corrected problem with hollowcore containing more than 10 cores. VERSION 4.59e (May 31, 2013) - Corrected the calculation of flexural strength for sections with toppings offset below or above the top of the precast section. VERSION 4.59d (May 10, 2013) - Corrected the check for long. steel under CSA codes when "Supports not in Compression" option is turned off. - Corrected a crash that can occur when a hollowcore section is reduced after filling cores. VERSION 4.59c (May 4, 2013) - Corrected an error in the cracking calculations that can cause a crash when some strands or rebar groups are turned off. VERSION 4.59b (May 2, 2013) - Improved the estimation of printed pages in the Print dialog. - Adjusted the calculation of prestress eccentricity for partially stressed strands. VERSION 4.59a (April 23, 2013) - Adjustment to the check for updates. VERSION 4.59 (April 10, 2013) - Added a new facility to calculate the addition shear strength provided by filling cores in a hollowcore plank. Concise Beam can now estimate the extent of fill required for the required shear strength of hollowcore planks. - Added a new dialog to specify the hollowcore fill parameters and the actual extent of the fill in the cores. The weight of this fill is also accounted for in the load analysis. - Added an option to allow Concise Beam to calculate the long-term deflection multipliers for prestressed beams based on the actual beam characteristics. You still have the option to use the predefined multipliers recommended by PCI or to supply your own multipliers. - Added a new option to allow Concise Beam to allow slipped strand to carry load. This option affects the calculation of the flexural strength within the development length of a partial-length strand and is now recommended by PCI (I currently have doubts about this approach). - The About Concise Beam dialog now shows program updating information. The program will now tell you if a new version is available for download. - Implemented active switches for applied loads, long. rebar, and strand groups. These switches allow you to turn load, bar or strands groups off without having to delete them. - Implemented the alternate method (non CSA code) for calculating web shear strength based on principal tensile stress. This can lead to a higher shear strength near the ends of a beam. - Some codes (e.g. ACI 318) allow the designer to choose the compression strut angle to be used to optimize the design of torsion steel. Concise Beam now allows the user to specify this angle in the Torsion Parameters dialog. - Concise Beam now allows the user to choose the font used for text reports on screen and in print. - Added a font selection dialogs in the View menu for print and screen fonts in text reports. - Add additional verification problems for PCI 7th. - Added Section Type field to Beam Definition dialog. - Made printed headers/footers in text reports and graphs more consistent. - Added numeric keypad numbers 9 & 3 to controls that scroll through graphs. This allows you to use PgUp and PgDn without having to have the Num Lock key on. - Separated the torsion report from the shear report. - Now show the torsion/shear interaction stresses in the Torison Report. - The torsion steel reports now reports the total long. torsion steel required and allowable reduction in the compression zone. The previous method of applying the reduction to the compression side of the section did work for all sections. - Reformatted the stress reports. - Reformatted the shear and torsion reports. - Better defined the tensile stress limits in the stress reports. - Revised the Horizontal Shear - Moment Region report to give more detail. - Revised many reports to reduce width in print (based on Lucida Console 7 pt). - Adjusted zooming and panning rates in the section editor. - Corrected Grid Snap dialog. - Corrected minimum envelope for the load analysis. Changed shear and moment design to consider only + or - values (not just envelope). - Corrected the section editor to prevent crashes on new sections and zooming in too much. - Corrected the check for tension in the calculation of the development length multiplier for debonding. - Corrected the loss percent summary with partial length strand. - Corrected bug when deleting a folder in a library file. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.59. Version 4.59 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. VERSION 4.58h (January 18, 2013) - The program now checks for and corrects zeroed out concrete paramaters (Design Parameters dialog). - Fixed a bug in the S6 loss method when using single wire tendons. VERSION 4.58g (January 08, 2013) - Adjusted the PCI deflection multipliers for the completion of construction and some final conditions. - Corrected the moment used for transfer deflections when using the midspan section properties option. - Corrected the tensile rebar stress limit at transfer when using the PCI Standard Practice. - Corrected the calculation of cracked stresses of untopped beam. VERSION 4.58f (October 14, 2012) -Turned off Folder Rename and Folder Delete buttons from Edit Precast Section dialog when editing a section in the problem file (ouside of a library file). -Corrected bug in Stress Summary report. VERSION 4.58e (September 19, 2012) - Corrected calculation of strength reduction factor under ACI for short beams. VERSION 4.58d (September 17, 2012) - Corrected the operation of the transfer length button in the prestressing dialog. - Minor correction to the Summary Report layout. VERSION 4.58c (August 30, 2012) - Added Box Girder to list of section types. - The Summary Report will print in Landscape mode by default. - Corrected rounding of Y offset in the Beam Definition dialog. VERSION 4.58b (August 20, 2012) - Support locations will now retain offset from each end of beam with any change in total beam length. - Corrected calculation of deflection multipliers with upward loading. VERSION 4.58a (August 7, 2012) - Corrected calculation of Vc Provided (with stirrups). VERSION 4.58 (July 31, 2012) - Added ACI 318-11 to the list of supported design codes. - Added optional lateral beam stability checks during lifting and during transport by truck. - Added an optional stress check during transport by truck. - Extended the lifting stress checks to distinguish between initial lifting from the casting bed and lifting for transport and erection. - Added new dialog labelled Beam Handling to input all parameters related to optional stress and stability checks during lifting (initial and erection) and during truck transport. - Moved lifting locations from Beam Definition dialog to the new Beam Handling dialog. - Added initial lifting to schedule. - Added transport and erection lifting properties to reports. - Added transport and erection lifting stresses to reports. - Library text files for precast sections can now include circles. - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.58. Version 4.58 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Added immediate deflection graph. - Concise Beam now remembers it's main window size and location. - When checking licensee names the spaces are now removed first. - Added Move Up/Move Down button to segment, load, load distribution, rebar, strand dialog lists. - Added Uncracked Section Properties Summary Report and now use it in Summary Report. - Show Stress Summary Report in Summary Report for non-prestressed beams. - Added strand transfer calculation method to text report and Prestressing dialog table. - Added Restore button to Title dialog to restore the default engineer and company name from file. - Set required stirrup spacing to zero if no stirrups are required or provided. - Improved calculation of fpc for torsional threshold calculation. - Numerous corrections and adjustments to the Section Editor. - Corrected flexural resistance factor under ACI318-02 - Corrected Analysis Report note about low live loading. - Corrected graphed location of long. shear steel critical section. - Revised drawing of bearing in graph so that it's accurate for printing. VERSION 4.57i (July 4, 2012) - Improved calculation of fpc for torsional threshold calculation. - Corrected flexural resistance factor under ACI318-02 VERSION 4.57h (June 19, 2012) - Corrected Analysis Report note about low live loading. - Corrected graphed location of long. shear steel critical section. - Revised drawing of bearing in graph so that it is accurate for printing. - Adjusted calculation of strand development length for no prestress. - Added new libraries for NU and Florida I Beams. VERSION 4.57g (April 15, 2012) - Adjusted calculation of depth of compression in flexure calculation. - Corrected order of custom code compression limits, VERSION 4.57f (April 3, 2012) - Further adjustment to the reduction of the flexural strength reduction factor within the development length of strand to handle beams without steel in the tension half of the section. - Corrected the display of the Torsion Strength. VERSION 4.57e (March 27, 2012) - For ACI318-05 and later, adjusted the reduction of the flexural strength reduction factor within the development length of strand. Previous versions of Concise Beam used the conservative approach described in the commentary of ACI 318. Concise Beam will now use a weighted average for the reduction of strands in development in combination with adjacent fully developed strand or rebar. This will generally result in an increased strength reduction factor at the ends where mixed reinforcing is used. The conservative approach is not required since Concise Beam already checks for slippage of strand in development. - Corrected reporting of strand end type in development length report. VERSION 4.57d (March 15, 2012) - Corrected the deflection multipliers for the AS codes. VERSION 4.57c (February 28, 2012) - Added a new precast section library file to represent the PCI Bridge Manual. - Adjusted the version number at start of precast text library files. - Corrected a problem with the display of the analysis of point moments. VERSION 4.57b (January 26, 2012) - Corrected the display of negative load factors. VERSION 4.57a (January 6, 2012) - The required stirrup spacing is set to zero if stirrups are not provided or required. - Corrected open of some older project files with non-english names. - Corrected reading from older project files. - Corrected calculation of transfer and development length with given slippage. VERSION 4.57 (December 19, 2011) - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.57. Version 4.57 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Added AS3600-09 to the list of codes. - Added Unicode support to Concise Beam. User input text (i.e. labels) can not be in any language using Unicode. - Added stirrup spacing graph. - Added mouse wheel zooming to 3D image and section editor. - Added additional cracking anaylsis for fatigue limit state (FLS) loading. - Added FLS cracked properties and steel stress reports. - Added calculation of torsion resistance to shear report. - Added all section properties to the text reports. - Added versioning to text files for libraries. - Added the section type to the Summary Report. - Added a flag to report that maximum stirrup spacing is reported. - Added warning to Summary Report for concrete densities and strengths outside of code limits. - Added ability of user to override density limits. - Added c/dmax where dmax is depth to extreme steel (for AS3600-09). - Added option for average ambient temperature (for AS3600-09). - Added ductility to rebar. - Added longitudinal steel graph for S6. - Added ability for user to choose unit system of new library. - Removed the need for a library to have a dummy item/section. - Reformated text reports with table outlines. - Rearranged the text reports. - Modifying a section with a new name no longer adds a new section. It modifies the existing section. - Section editor now allows the first polygon to be deleted if other outer polygons exist. - Shear Depth of non-prestressed is now at least half the section depth. - Revised NPCAA prestress library to correct steel type and added new library for AS3600-09. - Some changes to the shear calculations for AS3600-01. - Created default code variables for concrete density and strength limits. - Changed c/d ratio to use d (depth to tensile force). - Adjusted search for c in ULS flexure. - Corrected display of the Transfer and Lifting strength reports. - Corrected d in trial design performance factors. - Corrected flexural calculations for over-reinforced beams. - Corrected the minimum stirrups under A23.3 for interface shear regions. - Corrected a header note in the horizontal shear tables. - Corrected the top strand multiplier. - Corrected max stirrup spacing for AS3600-01. - Corrected relaxation provisions of AS3600-01 for all tendon types. - Corrected theta angle for AS3600-01. VERSION 4.56d (August 17, 2011) - Corrected the flexural strength where the strain has been reduced to avoid slippage (ACI and AS codes). VERSION 4.56c (August 2, 2011) - Corrected display of V/M in shear details report to include dimension. - Added explanation of shoring beam weight to help file. - Corrected the analysis of point moments. - Updated the load combinations for AS3600 & NZ3101 to AS/NZ 1170-2002. - Corrected the concrete stress limits for AS3600-01. - Updated the cracking report for AS3600-01. - Adjusted top strand multiplier for transfer and development for shallow beams. VERSION 4.56b (May 12, 2011) - Corrected the threshold torsion under ACI when Zia/Hsu method. VERSION 4.56a (May 2, 2011) - Added a warning when minimum stirrups are required when user doesn't want stirrups designed. - Corrected detection of solid slabs. - Corrected the initialization of strand stresses for cracked sections. - Summary report is pre-selected when you open the reports dialog. - The long-time multiplier for the deflection of non-prestressed beams has been adjusted a bit. - Some minor adjustments to the cracking and deflection calculations for non-prestressed beams. VERSION 4.56 (Apr. 27, 2011) - Revised the CPCI Precast Section Library to account for an error in the Manual (4th edition). The Manual details inverted tee beams with a 300 mm wide stem and 200 mm wide ledges (page 7-29). The associated section properties are for a 400 mm wide stem. The revised library file includes sections with 300 mm and 400 mm wide stems (IT_700 & IT_800 sections) with the appropriate section properties. The new file is named "CPCI_4 rev.1.precastLib" to avoid overwriting the old library file ("CPCI_4.precastLib") which may have been customized by some users. If you haven't customized the old file I recommend deleting it. - Revised the text format for exporting/importing precast section library files. - Added the ability to select multiple reports. - Implemented composite net section properties. This would be used for a fully shored beam. - The material selection dialog has been enhanced to show full properties of the selected section, stand, or bar. - Corrected the minimum steel under ACI when Zia/Hsu method used without a torsion design. - Corrected number of distribution patterns in the Load Distributions text report. - Corrected setting of the library path on first use. VERSION 4.55a (Mar. 08, 2011) - Corrected problem with fully debonded strands. - Corrected the saving of strand and stirrup type to file. VERSION 4.55 (Mar. 02, 2011) - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.55. Version 4.55 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Added labels to print of 3D image. - The prestressing graph will not show individual strand groups if there are more than 6. - Modelling options are now reported throughout the Summary Report. - Consolidated concrete stress reports. - Included depth of uncracked tension in concrete stress reports. - Changed stress check for doubling of ld for debonded strand to check beam extremity instead of height of strand. - Corrected the display of the jacking force, and initial prestress prior to transfer in the presence of debonded strands. VERSION 4.54 (Feb. 13, 2011) - A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.54. Version 4.54 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Removed the strand type from the Loss Parameters dialog. The strand type in the Prestressing dialog is now used. - Corrected minimum shear rebar for deep hollowcore under ACI 318-08. VERSION 4.53b (Jan. 17, 2011) - Updated the security checks and copyright for 2011. VERSION 4.53a (Nov. 17, 2010) - Added calculation option to make zeroing of shear values in short cantilevers optional. - Corrected the zeroing of shear values in the right cantilever. VERSION 4.53 (Nov. 8, 2010) - Material libraries no longer need to be preselected. The user now selects the library file when selecting concrete sections, strand or rebar for a problem file. The Library Management and Material Selection dialogs have been updated. - The name of load in Load dialog is no longer set to a default when changing the load type. - Clarified labels in Reinforcing Steel Dialog. - Replaced T (strain) load case with E (Seismic) and reworking load combinations. This separates earthquake from the wind load case. - Added end type to rebar table in summary report. - Cracked section properties, deflection and cracking calculations have been improved for the case of the precast beam cracking before the cast-in-place pour is composite. - Shear and torsion is now ignored (zeroed out) in short cantilevers (less than shear depth). - Rearranged the shear design tables and graphs to separate resistance required and provided instead of a best of curve. - Rearranged the hor. shear design tables and graphs to separate resistance required and provided instead of a best of curve. - Changed hor. shear design to account for flag not allowing Concise to design ties. - Made slab shear method under A23.3-04 part of the simplified method only. - Expanded technical background of the horizontal shear check in the Help file. - Changed program and setup to use Windows public/roaming directories. - Changed offset of prestressing back to geometric y from loss offset. - Clarified the help file for horizontal spacing of rebar. - Changing a segments section no longer erases the cip pour data. - Added summary of minimum flexural strength to provided strength in table. - Relabeled flexure table and graph. - Corrected cast-in-place dialog so that previous cip segment definition is retained for next segment. - Corrected display of license expiry date in Title and License dialog. - Corrected Summary Report to avoid crash before steel is defined. - Corrected the labeling in the CIP Pour dialog. - Corrected the strand offset for haunched beams (with a Y offset). - Corrected the setting of "not reinforced" stirrup option from old files. - Corrected default steel prestress strength to 1860 for a new library file. - Corrected bug in prestressng dialog which didn't allow end of prestressing to be different. - Corrected spelling in Summary Report. - Adjusted menu and dialog names as well as text report and graph names for consistency. - Turning off the cast-in-place pour no longer affects the self-weight settings. VERSION 4.52d (Aug 11, 2010) - The installation file has been modified to avoid over-writing existing configuration and library files. - A correction has been made to the averaging of stirrup area (Av/s) under the CSA codes. - The current strand or rebar group will only be displayed if the number of strands or rebar is greater than 0. VERSION 4.52c (Aug 3, 2010) - Changed the calculation of Vp to use the slope of each strand instead of the change in offset of the prestress force. - Corrected sqrt(fc) max limit for shear under ACI. - Corrected calculation of dp for ACI prestressed shear in the presence of top strand. - Corrected exclusion of min. reinforcing under ACI 318-08 for thin hollowcore slabs. VERSION 4.52b (July 9, 2010) - No longer converts pre-version 4.5 ini file. - Updated tutorial #4. - Added note 1 regarding the critical shear section to the Shear Design Details report. - Corrected the location of the ends of a rebar group in the calculation of development lengths. VERSION 4.52a (June 23, 2010) - Corrected search for critical concrete stresses. VERSION 4.52 (June 17, 2010) - New option to allow a stirrup region to be unreinforced. - Alter reading of old files so that rebar referenced from bottom of precast which lies above the precast is now corrected to be a cast-in-place bar instead of corrected to be in the precast. - Created the NEBT.precastLib file for Northeast bulb-tees. - Rearranged the library import dialogs. - Updated help files for library import options. - Corrected reading of old files. - Corrected foldername when reading in a single section from a text file. - Protected against divide by zero in prestress offset of all strands. VERSION 4.51a (May 15, 2010) - Changed concrete strength limits for ACI to code values. - Changed check of concrete to warn of use if out of range instead of deny it. VERSION 4.51 (May 4, 2010) - Added graph for deflection limits. - Corrected a bug in printing sections with more than eight polygons. - Change names of stress limits in *.ini files. - Correct default *.ini file to include 8th default stress limit. VERSION 4.50h (March 23, 2010) - Changed A23.3-04 shear provisions to use net concrete area in compression for axial strain. - Corrected unit conversion problem when converting old steel libraries. VERSION 4.50g (March 17, 2010) - Corrected the display of the strand profile in the strand edit dialog when no strands had yet been added. - Allow the change of end strand offsets from within Profile dialog. - Corrected amount of tensile steel resisting transfer stress. Removed steel in CIP pour. - Changed service stress tensile limit to 7.5 sqrt(f'c) for ACI318-02-08. - Changed 1.2Mcr to minimum flexural strength in reports and graph. Minimum strength lesser of 1.2 Mcr or 1.33(or 2.0) Mu. VERSION 4.50f (February 25, 2010) - Adjusted the trial design facility to avoid over-reinforcement. - Corrected a few problems with the horizontal shear calculations. VERSION 4.50e (February 16, 2010) - Adjusted the flexural calculations to avoid spikes in capacity within the development length of debonded strands. - Extended the combined stress report to cover lifting. - Increased precision on self-weight reports. VERSION 4.50d (December 31, 2009) - Adjusted the checking of section properties in the beam dialog for sections not lying on the x-axis. - Adjusted the educational license. VERSION 4.50c (December 21, 2009) - Corrected calculation of section properties in section editor for sections not lying on the x-axis. - Corrected Add button in library editors to avoid sections of the same name. VERSION 4.50b (December 17, 2009) - New File Format. A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.50b. Version 4.50b will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Corrected the use of the strand development length modifers. - Corrected display of y in properties reports. - Corrected heading of combined deflection report (D-C changed to E-C). VERSION 4.50a (December 11, 2009) - Adjusted the horizontal shear strength provided for ACI if shear friction is not needed. - Added flag and note indicating use of shear friction method for horizontal shear strength. - Changed the note regarding the use of the PCI Standard Practices. VERSION 4.50 (December 1, 2009) (was 4.48 in development) - New File Format A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.50. Version 4.50 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Setup Concise Beam's library and problem files are now installed in the Concise Beam Files directory under the (Windows) Documents or My Documents folder. Concise Beam's configuration file (*.ini file) will also be stored in that directory. - Design Codes Concise Beam now supports ACI 318-08 as well as retaining support for ACI 318-05, 02 & 99. NZS 3101.1:2006 is now fully implemented within the scope of Concise Beam. The Custom Code - Concrete Parameters dialog has been rearranged for clarity. The Custom Code - Concrete Stress Limits dialog has been extended to suit ACI 318-08 (variable compression limit at transfer). - Libraries Have eliminated steel grade and material libraries and replaced them with combined steel library files. The precast section and steel libraries have been changed to a new file format with new extensions. Old library files can be converted to the new format for use with Concise Beam from within the Library Management & Selection dialog. Have eliminated the limits on length of names in the library files and number of nodes in a section polygon. The user can now rename and delete folders within the edit library dialogs. The edit library dialogs have been rearranged for clarity. The precast section library now includes the type of section such as Double Tee. The section types are predefined and allow Concise Beam to make certain calculation decisions based on the section type. For instance the shear provisions are different for hollowcore slabs under some codes. The steel libraries now include the type of bar or strand such as Deformed Bar. The bar or strand types are predefined and allow Concise Beam to make certain calculation decisions based on the type. For instance the development length provisions are different for different bar or strand types. - Calculation Options An option has been added to the Flexure tab to make Concise Beam use strict strain compatibility in the determining the strain in the development length of fully bonded strands. [Zia/Hsu Torsion Method] To complete Concise Beam's support for PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05 the PCI recommended Zia/Hsu torsion design method has been implemented for ACI users. It's implemented as an option under the Shear tab, off by default, if the ACI code is selected. An option has been added to the Deflection tab to allow the inclusion of highly dynamic loads in the live load deflections. This would include wind and seismic loads. The option is off by default since these loads are not generally considered serviceability loads. The "Use Midspan Properties for Full Length of Beam" calculation option (Deflection tab) is now saved with the problem file. - License Have added some additional measures to try to discourage unauthorized use of Concise Beam. Version 4.5 uses a new format of license key. License keys issued for use with prior versions of Concise Beam will not work with version 4.50. All current license holders will receive a new license key. - Concrete Material Cleaned up Concrete Dialog by removing the fci/fc ratios which were of minimal use. Have added two options to specify whether the concrete in the precast beam is steel fibre reinforced or flowable (SCC). These options can affect shear strength and strand development respectively. The density factor for concrete in shear(lambda) is now interpolated for the ACI codes between normal density, semi-low density (sand) and low density concretes. The higher concrete density limit for the calculation of Ec under ACI318-08 has been retroactively applied to previous versions of ACI 318. - Beam Definition Added a warning about defining deep beams in Concise Beam. Concise Beam uses beam theory which is not applicable to deep beams. The strut-and-tie method is recommended for deep beams. The cross-section chosen from a library files can now be edited, from the Section Properties dialog, using the section editor without having to modify the currently selected library file. This can be more convenient when editing unique sections that won't have to be reused in the future. The edited section could always be added to a library file (imported into a library) at a later date. You can now even create a new precast section without having to pick one from a library. The bearing length in service can now be specified at each end of the beam. - Cast-In-Place Pour (was Topping) The topping is now referred to as the cast-in-place pour to reflect the increased flexibility in which Concise Beam can model this part of the composite cross-section. The topping or CIP element can now be adjusted vertically and laterally relative to the top of the precast section so that it can now lie below the top of the precast beam. The CIP element is assumed to be composite with the precast beam. The user can now also specify the exact width and height of the composite interface in case this isn't obvious to Concise Beam. The composite interface is always assumed to be horizontal. An option has been added to the Cast-In-Place Pour Definition dialog to specify whether the composite should be considered intentionally roughened. - Torsion Parameters The Torsion Parameters dialog has been extended to accomodate the use of the Zia/Hsu torsion method as recommended by PCI. This optional method is only available if using one of the ACI codes. The torsion dialog also now allows the user to specify whether the applied torsion can be reduced by moment redistribution. Adjusted the torsion calculations for hollow sections under the ACI codes. - Applied Load Definition The Applied Loads dialog now gives you the option to specify whether a load is applied directly to the current beam or to an adjacent beam. If applied to an adjacent beam then the current beam would only be affected by load distribution. - Reinforcing Steel Definition You can now select whether a selected reinforcing is rebar or wire. This may affect certain limits such as the maximum yield strength for stirrups under ACI. Selecting wire allows you to model WWR. The reinforcing steel ibraries have been expanded to show commonly available wire sizes and grades in Canada, the USA and Australia. When modelling WWR the user can specify the spacing of the cross wires for shear steel or the number of wires for longitudinal steel (assuming laid horizontal as in a slab). The spacing of the bars and wires can now be specified for the sake of development length calculations. This spacing isn't used to calculate the number of bars or wires included in the section. The steel material is now specified directly by the user instead of selected from a library. The bar/wire size can still be selected from a library or it could simply be input by the user directly. The end type of the bar or wire is now expanded to include straight embedment (old non-hooked option), fully developed, standard hook, or headed bar. Fully developed means that the development length is zero. This would match the old hooked option and can be used to model a continuous bar when simulating a multi-span beam. The standard hook and headed bar have a development length as calculated by the relevant design code. - Prestressing Steel Definition The steel material is now specified directly by the user instead of selected from a library. The strand size can still be selected from a library or it could simply be input by the user directly. The user can now specify whether a strand is epoxy coated. The user now has more control over the calculation of the strand development length including accounting for actual strand end slippage or providing user defined transfer and development length. The user can also specify modification factors for debonding, top location, and coating for each strand group. Thanks to Karl Truderung of Lafarge for the suggestion. - Shear Reinforcement Definition The steel material is now specified directly by the user instead of selected from a library. The bar/wire size can still be selected from a library or it could simply be input by the user directly. - Trial Design The steel material is now specified directly by the user instead of selected from a library. The bar, wire, or strand size can still be selected from a library or it could simply be input by the user directly. - Reports Added two new text reports for service concrete stresses in the cast-in-place pour. Added a text report for the uncracked transformed section properties at the lifting stage. Updated the Externally Applied Loads table of the Summary Report to show the load distribution. The text reports list has been rearranged. The analysis reports now show the serviceability load combinations (total unfactored loads in some codes). The rebar and strand development lengths have been removed from the Summary Report and given their own report - "Strand, Bar and Wire Development Lengths" report. The Summary Report has been rearranged a bit. The Summary Report now includes the UNCRACKED TRANSFORMED SECTION PROPERTIES IN SERVICE table which includes the transformed section properties of the steel and how that may vary along the length of the beam. The deflection table in the Summary Report now includes an explanation of the columns. Thanks to Chad Kohler of CKR Engineers for the suggestion. The calculation of long-term deflections has been improved by properly accounting for the construction schedule dates including a newly scheduled date for completion of construction. Extended the Prestress Force reports to show initial prestress and offsets. Extended the section property reports to show net properties if used. - Graphs The graph list has been rearranged. The graphing functions were rewritten to allow for partial length lines. The "Flexural Design Check" report now includes a curve for the minimum required flexural design strength (i.e. 1.2 Mcr) unless the "Check Minimum Strength at Critical Sections Only" (Options->Calculation Options) is selected. The longitudinal shear steel graph (for CSA A23.3) has been clarified a bit. New graph for Horizontal Interface Shear. Changed graphs to show bearing lengths if available. - Bug Fixes and Adjustments Corrected the saving of Imperial units as default values in the Units of Measure dialog. Thanks to Brian McDonald of JB McDonald & Associates for reporting the problem. Corrected the updating of the Concrete Material dialog when the user leaves the dialog by using the "Enter" key. Thanks to Adam Stenberg of Molin Concrete Products Co. Corrected the inappropriate display of the Service Stresses graph for the topping when a topping doesn't exist, or is turned off. Thanks to Steve Hunsberger of Mid-States Concrete Industries. Adjusted the modification of stirrup regions in the Transverse Shear Reinforcing dialog. Thanks again to Steve Hunsberger. Corrected the input of long names in the load dialog. The length limit has been removed. Thanks to Scott Reay of The Spancrete Group. Corrected a bug in the area in tension in the cracking calculation of a composite beam with a small depth in compression. Corrected the torsion on the cantilever side of the supports. Adjusted the calculation of shear depth for non-prestressed beams where some bars might slip and for prestressed beams. Corrected the calculation of the flexural strength reduction factor within the transfer length of the strand under ACI318-05. Corrected the calculation of aggregate size for shear under A23.3-04 for concrete strengths between 60 and 70 MPa. Added warning about providing bearing lengths to beam dialog. Changed Ap in strain calc. for A23.3-04 shear based on Karl's email. Added use of net section properties for stress analysis of prestress. Corrected use of using Kcir = 1.0 with transformed properties under PCI loss method. Placed minimum shear critical section at face of bearings. Countless adjustments I made myself and forgot to record. VERSION 4.47j (March 6, 2009) - Corrected a bug that would affect crack section calculations. - Adjusted the calculation of transformed section properties with large amounts of reinforcing steel. VERSION 4.47i (January 7, 2009) - Corrected a bug that would allow point loads a distance h/2 from the support from being considered when determining whether the design shear force could be limited to the critical shear force at h/2. - Removed the limits on the input values for the torsional section parameters. Adjusted the calculation of shear depth where the effective depth is small. VERSION 4.47h (August 11, 2008) - Adjusted the calculation of bilinear deflections where the section properties at midspan are used throughout the length of the beam. This method is used when the "Use Midspan Properties for Full Length of Beam" calculation option (Deflection tab) is turned on. This option is only used for comparison with hand calculations only. VERSION 4.47g (June 10, 2008) - Corrected a bug that caused the licensee name to change temporarily when loading some previously saved files. Thanks to Abdo Makhoul of AlMarshad Tarraf Precast Co. for reporting this problem. VERSION 4.47f (June 3, 2008) - Corrected a bug that caused the strength reduction factor for flexure under ACI318-02 & 05 and AS3600 to be miscalculated for transitional and compression controlled beams. Thanks to James Gerloff of Computerized Structural Design for reporting this problem. VERSION 4.47e (February 27, 2008) - Adjusted the calculation of flexural strength for cut strands within their development length. Thanks to Melgre Mariano of AlRashid-Abetong Company for pointing out the issue. - Corrected the display of the over-reinforcement warning for prestressed beams under ACI318-02/05. VERSION 4.47d (February 14, 2008) - Corrected a bug in the calculation of the c/d ratio for beams with large amounts of prestressing near the compression face of a beam. Thanks to Kaz Simbeya of Cook Engineering for reporting this problem. - Corrected the search for tension steel to resist cracking at transfer. Thanks to Dwayne Van Harberden of Stubbe's Precast. VERSION 4.47c (February 7, 2008) - Corrected a bug in the Lifting Stage Stress graph where the transfer stress limits are shown instead of the proper limits at the lifting stage. Thanks to Osama Eissa for reporting this problem. VERSION 4.47b (November 27, 2007) - I've corrected a bug in the Load Distribution Editor dialog where the position along the beam was being mis-converted when Adding or Modifying an effective width. Thanks to Scott Reay of Spancrete for reporting the problem. - Concise Beam is now required to support a Microsoft library ("gdiplus.dll") which was not available prior to Windows XP. To use Concise Beam in versions of Windows prior to Windows XP the "gdiplus.dll" library file must be distributed with Concise Beam and place in the Concise Beam directory. This file is now included in the installation file and is installed along with Concise Beam. VERSION 4.47a (November 19, 2007) - I've corrected a bug that can prevent the crack results from being updated. Thanks to Brian McDonald of JB McDonald & Associates for reporting the problem. VERSION 4.47 (November 14, 2007) - A new load distribution method has been implemented in Concise Beam. Each individual applied load can be assigned a pre-defined, or user-defined, load distribution. This will allow concentrated or line loads to be input as the full load while the load results are distributed to adjacent beams. This load distribution contains independent patterns for shear, moment and torsion effect. By default each applied load is assigned a special pre-defined load distribution which results in no load distribution to adjacent beams. - New Lifting Load Case Prior versions of Concise Beam performed a stress analysis at the transfer and in-service stages. The support conditions for these stages are defined in the Beam dialog. This version adds a new stage at lifting shortly after transfer. The new support conditions (lifting points) can now be defined in the Beam dialog. A stress analysis is performed at this load stage for all design codes except the Australian code where a strength check is performed at this stage. - Long-Term Deflection Modifier Changes Changed the adjustment of long-term deflection multipliers for rebar by measuring the rebar properties at the point of maximum moment instead of at every section. This avoids discontinuities in the deflection curve where there is a sudden change in the rebar or strand amounts - particularly where all strands stop short of the end of the beam. - Summary Report Changes The analysis results in the Summary Report now show the load combination that governs the factored results. The Summary Report has also been updated to reflect the addition of the lifting stage. - Combined Graphs The number of design graphs has been reduced by combining graphs for the top and bottom of beam stresses. There have also been some changes to the graph titles. - New Help System For the Windows Vista release Microsoft has dropped support for it's Microsoft Help system used by Concise Beam for it's on-line manual. I have converted the manual to Microsoft's alternate HTML Help system. The new help system will be familiar to most users. - New Libraries and Library Names The Canadian and American libraries have been updated to reflect the content of the latest editions of the CPCI Design Manual, 3rd Ed. and the PCI Design Handbook, 6th Ed. The library files have also been renamed to reflect the source of their contents. The Canadian library names are now CPCI_3.*, the American are PCI_6.*, and the Australian are NPCAA_1.* for the NPCAA Precast Concrete Handbook, 1st Ed. - New Text Report Creation Method Unannounced security changes made by Microsoft to some versions of Windows through their updates has prevented some users from being able to open text reports within Concise Beam. Concise Beam uses temporary files to generate the text reports (a memory saving scheme required by the limited computer memories of the early 1990's). Some standard directories used by Concise Beam have been (silently) declared off limits by Microsoft in their fight against viruses. I have rewritten Concise Beam to eliminate the creation of these temporary files. The reports are now stored in memory. Given the small size of the reports and large memories of current computers this won't be noticeable to the user. - New File Format A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.47. Version 4.47 will read files created by Concise Beam version 3.x and all prior versions of Concise Beam 4.x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. - Corrections Corrected a problem in selecting the library directory in the Library Management dialog. Corrected a bug that would allow the program to crash if any section of the beam is unreinforced. Many changes for the sake of efficiency or for future use. VERSION 4.46h (September 3, 2007) Corrected a problem with the calculation of the deflection of cracked sections inadvertently introduced in version 4.46g. Adjusted the Edit Strand Profile dialog so that you can Modify the ordinate of the ends of the strand. Corrected an anomaly in the deflection due to long-term prestress at the end of a cantilever. VERSION 4.46g (August 15, 2007) Adjusted the stress and cracking calculations to handle a beam that can have net residual tension in service due to very high prestressing. More detailed adjustments will be included in the next major release of Concise Beam (4.47). VERSION 4.46f (June 5, 2007) Corrected a problem with the flexural text reports that could prevent Concise Beam from warning that a section was under strength in flexure. This only affects over-reinforced beams designed to ACI318-99 (main clauses - not Appendix B). VERSION 4.46e (May 15, 2007) Adjusted the calculation of the flexural strength under ACI 318-99 where the maximum concrete strain is reduced to avoid slippage to ensure that the strength isn't reduced unless the maximum concrete strain is close to the limit. Corrected a bug in the Beam Definition dialog that could incorrectly convert the beam length when switching metric and Imperial units. This would result in a warning message about the location of the supports. VERSION 4.46d (March 19, 2007) Further corrections to a problem that could prevent text reports from being opened on some machines. VERSION 4.46c (March 8, 2007) Corrected the calculation of the flexural strength reduction factor under ACI 318-02 & 05 within the development length of strands for very short beams. Adjusted the calculation of the flexural strength reduction factor under ACI 318-02 & 05 where the maximum concrete strain is reduced to avoid slippage to ensure that the section isn't classified as compression controlled unless the maximum concrete strain is close to the limit. Corrected a problem that could prevent text reports from being created on some machines. VERSION 4.46b (March 6, 2007) Increased the maximum length of directory path for a local user's temporary file directory. (i.e. "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp") VERSION 4.46a (February 26, 2007) Corrected a problem in the calculation of the long-term deflection multipliers caused by sections where all strands are debonded. VERSION 4.46 (February 21, 2007) An option has been added to the loading dialog to allow the user to specify that a live load represents a storage occupancy, equipment are or service room when using CSA A23.3-04. This will cause the companion live load factor to be increased from 0.5 to 1.0. The load case summary in the Summary Report now shows any changes to the default load factors due to special situation such as above. The cracking calculations have been adjusted to handle crack depths that are equal or less than the depth of the tension steel. Up to this point Concise Beam has implemented the recommendations in PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05 for ACI users. For instance Concise Beam has used the higher concrete and steel stress limits at transfer as recommended in TR-7-05. The use of TR-7-05 is now optional and can be turned off in the Calculations Options dialog. Adjusted the headings for the "NET DEFLECTION ESTIMATE AT ALL STAGES" report to clarify the difference between the net deflections and the changes in deflection. The CSA and ACI codes allow a higher tensile concrete stress limit at transfer of prestressing at the simply supported ends of a beam. Neither code defines the extent of the end of the beam over which this higher limit should apply. Prior versions of Concise Beam arbitrarily took the end zone of the beam to be the end 1/10 of the beam length. I have changed this definition within Concise Beam to be twice the transfer length of the strand. This places the potentially high tensile stress at the transfer point of the strand in the middle of this zone. I believe this more accurately addresses the intent of the higher stress limit which, according to the code's commentary, is intended to excuse the potentially high tensile stress at the transfer point. Added the ability to switch units within the concrete parameters dialog for custom codes. Adjusted the text labels of the Beam Definition dialog related to the support locations for better clarity. The bearing width, if specified, is now shown in any images of the beam. In A23.3-04, clause 11.3.6.4, equation 11-13 the area of non-prestressed steel, As, is reduced in proportion with the development length of the bar. There is no mention of similarly reducing the area of the prestressing steel, Ap, in the denominator (resisting strength). With this version of Concise Beam the area of prestressing, Ap, in the denominator is now also reduced in proportion with the strand development length to be consistent with the treatment of the rebar. Note that the term Apfpo in the numerator (decompression force) is reduced in proportion with the transfer length of the strand and fpo is taken as 0.7fpu when fully transferred. This has not changed in this version of Concise Beam. The name of the ACI standards have been shortened from ACI318/318M-xx to ACI318-xx. Concise Beam uses the factors in ACI318-xx and hard converts them to metric as required. ACI318M-xx uses soft converted factors from ACI318-xx which can vary by as much as 20% from the hard converted values. For consistency I had decided many years ago to only support ACI318-xx, the dominant form of the standard, to avoid these differences. The name change confirms that the values from ACI318-xx only are being used by Concise Beam. You are, of course, still able to work in either US Customary units, or metric. With reference to feet and inches the term US Customary units is now being used in place of English units since most users of this system in Concise Beam are American. The term Imperial units is still used for the same (almost) unit system for our Canadian and Commonwealth users. Units that differ between the US Customary and Imperial unit systems (such as tons) are not used in Concise Beam. VERSION 4.45f (January 27, 2007) A recent update to Microsoft's software development tool (compiler) used for Concise Beam has caused a problem with the print preview feature in the last version (v4.45e) of Concise Beam. The program will crash when using print preview on a text report. Until I can get a solution from Microsoft or find a work-around, I have reverted to an older version of their compiler for this version of Concise Beam to avoid the print preview problem. Apart from the change in compiler this version is the same as Concise Beam version 4.45e. VERSION 4.45e (January 9, 2007) Adjusted the calculation of shear depth for beams that are in negative bending. VERSION 4.45d (December 27, 2006) Corrected a bug in the long. steel shear calculations under A23.3-04 with draped strands (right end of beam). When checking the shear/torsion interaction limits Concise Beam used the full shear at the bearing. This has been changed to use the limited applied shear a distance d (or h/2) from the face of the bearing if applicable. VERSION 4.45c (November 16, 2006) Corrected a bug in the stress calculations that can through off the deflections of large cantilevers. VERSION 4.45b (November 1, 2006) The PCI Standard Design Practice, TR-7-05, discusses using a higher concrete tensile stress limit at transfer of 7.5 sqrt(f'c) over the full length of the beam. In conjunction with this higher limit they recommend the equivalent of two #4 reinforcing bars at the tensile face where the tensile stress is below this limit. The ACI code gives a limit of 6 sqrt(f'c) at the ends of the beam and 3 sqrt(f'c) elsewhere. Tensile reinforcing is not required where tensile stresses are below this limit. I've adjusted Concise Beam to accommodate both documents. For tensile stresses below the ACI limits no tensile steel will be required. This can be important for hollowcore producers who won't want to add steel if not required. For tensile stresses above the ACI limits the amount of tensile steel required will be the greater of two #4's or that required by ACI based on the tensile force. The tensile limits shown in the text reports and graphs will be the ACI limits. Adjusted the flexural calculations to avoid anomalies (spikes, etc) caused by excessive numerical error when a reduced concrete strain is used. Corrected a problem in the "Av/s Provided" curve for sections adjacent to portions of the beam that do not have stirrups (CSA code only). VERSION 4.45a (October 18, 2006) Adjusted the order of the graph lines and colours for the "Longitudinal Steel for Flexure, Shear and Torsion" graph. Corrected the calculation of the tensile strength of the long. steel for flexure and shear (CSA codes) within the development length. VERSION 4.45 (October 17, 2006) Added a new field to the Beam dialog to allow the user to specify a bearing width (along the length of the beam). This width is used in the shear calculations to locate the edge of support. This width is used for both supports. Added a new graph for longitudinal steel under shear loading for the CSA codes. Altered the longitudinal shear steel table (CSA codes) to show the steel requirements at the top and bottom of the beam instead of the flexural tension and compressive side of the section. Corrected the amount of horizontal interface ties shown in the graph. Adjusted the calculation of long. steel load and capacity with shear under the CSA codes near the supports. Corrected the estimate of steel required for negative bending in the Trial Design facility. Corrected a unit conversion problem in the rebar dialog (left offset in the rebar group list). Corrected a problem in the Prestressing dialog, when editing a strand profile, that can lead to a crash when viewing the Summary Report. VERSION 4.44 (September 29, 2006) A new command has been added to the Options menu and the toolbar called "Switch to Metric (or Imperial)". This command allows the user to switch unit system without having to enter the Units of Measure dialog. To change the individual units such as inches to feet the user will still need to use the Units of Measure dialog. As per standard Windows behaviour the Switch to Metric(Imperial) command is not available within any dialogs. To avoid this restriction a button has been added to the bottom right corner of most unit dependent dialogs which allows the user to switch unit system. Dialogs associated with the library files do not allow switching of the unit system since the library files are dependent on a single unit system. A new field has also been added to the status bar at the bottom of the main window to indicate the currently selected system of units. The metric and Imperial individual units of measure are now independent of each other. Prior to this release if a user selected "mm" in metric then they were also implicitly selecting "in" in Imperial. Similarly for "m" and "ft", "N" and "lbs", "kN" and "kips", etc. A user can now select "mm" in metric and "ft in Imperial from the Units of Measure dialog. New keyboard shortcuts have been added to a few of the menu commands; Ctrl+U = Options Menu -> Switch to Metric (or Imperial) Ctrl+A = Options Menu -> AutoSave Ctrl+R = View Menu -> Image and Graph Reset Adjusted the search for resisting tensile reinforcement in the tensile zone of a prestressed beam at transfer. It will ignore any steel near the neutral axis which isn't near the tension face of the beam. Made a few adjustments to the Shear graph. The minimum concrete component of the shear strength, Vc, for fully prestressed beams under the ACI codes has been increased from 1.7sqrt(f'c)bwd to 2.0sqrt(f'c)bwd in the detailed calculation method in accordance with the PCI Design Handbook. Previous versions of Concise Beam only used the higher limit for the simplified method in accordance with the code. Reworked the stress table in the Summary Report to ensure that the most critical section is found. This section isn't always the highest stress point if the stress limit varies along the beam (e.g. tensile limit at transfer). Corrected the check of factored shear versus shear strength near the supports. Also corrected the note associated with this check. Corrected the concrete shear strength under A23.3-04 at the very end face of the beam where no cantilevers exist. Corrected the check of compression side long. steel under A23.3-04 in the shear design tables. Corrected the reading of the shear steel specifications of some older files. VERSION 4.43a (September 6, 2006) The calculation of shear width, in the section editor, has been adjusted to improve the results for tapered stem sections such as double tees. The shear width is the average of the stem width for such a section. Corrected a problem with the concrete section libraries where sections that didn't lie on the y = 0.0 axis would be found to have incorrect section properties. VERSION 4.43 (August 30, 2006) The user is now able to specify the support locations at transfer in addition to in service. Prior versions of Concise Beam used the same support locations for transfer and service. This was a problem for beams with large cantilevers. Concise Beam now also includes a number of new text reports and graphs that distinguish between the transfer stage and in service. The deflection calculations have been rewritten. The program will now more accurately calculate dead load deflections in partially prestressed beams where cracking occurs during addition of the dead loads. The long-term deflection multipliers used by Concise Beam can now be changed by the user from the Options menu. Prior versions of Concise Beam allowed the multipliers to be changed by the user within a custom design code. This change no longer requires a user to use a custom design code when using customized multipliers which aren't code dependent. The numerical method used for the flexural calculations has been rewritten in order to speed it up, particularly for trial design. The user may see some small differences in the results with previous versions due to changes to the numerical method. The calculation of c, the depth in compression under flexure, has been adjusted. The adjustment involves the decision on whether the beta value should be based on the beam or topping concrete in the appropriate circumstances. This may have a small effect on the flexural resistance/strength. Clause 18.8.2 of ACI 318-99 has now been implemented. This clause allows the calculation of a reduced flexural strength for over-reinforced prestressed beams. This clause was made obsolete under ACI 318-99 Appendix B and ACI 318-02 & 05. ACI 318-99 and earlier is still used by many jurisdictions so I had to step back in time to patch that hole in the code implementation. The notes/warnings in the text reports have been adjusted to suit. Have updated the program to the latest PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05. In Concise Beam the provisions of this document supercede the relevant clauses of each of the ACI codes only. One exception that has not yet been implemented is the use of the Zia-Hsu torsion design method recommended by PCI in place of ACI 318 clause 11.6. Have updated the notation used for prestress force for ACI users. Have made some adjustments to the decompression force calculations. The decompression force now consistently includes the elastic shortening loss added back in. The decompression force is the force required to counter the prestress in order to achieve a zero concrete stress at the centroid of the prestress total force. The value and location of the shear force limit at the supports are now calculated more accurately. The previous version of Concise Beam took the values at the closest station along the beam. The program now linearly interpolates the values from the station on either side of the limit location. This also applies to the calculation of the axial strain under the general shear method of A23.3-04. The Shear reports have been adjusted to eliminate columns that are applicable under a specific code or beam type. The calculation options have been rearranged into a tabbed dialog to allow more room for additional options. A new calculation option has been added to allow a user to use a simplified method alone to calculate the shear strength of concrete, if applicable. When the new option is turned on the program will taken the higher value of the simplified and detailed calculations for the concrete shear strength. A new calculation option has been added which controls whether Concise Beam includes the transformed area of prestressed and non-prestressed steel in the uncracked section properties. This option is set to ON by default meaning that the steel is included in the uncracked section properties. A new calculation option has been added which controls whether Concise Beam uses the full capacity of the topping when checking horizontal interface shear or the actual force on the topping from the applied loads. This option is set to ON by default meaning that the full topping capacity is taken as the design interface shear force unless the actual force is less than half of the full topping capacity. This exception is to avoid having to design short interface shear lengths at small moments, such as the negative moment at a small cantilever, for the full topping capacity. The calculation of the effective depth for shear has been loosed to ignored any tensile steel on the compression half of the section. This helps to prevent top bars, which may be in tension, from raising the centroid of the tensile steel and thus reducing the effective depth. This may increase the shear strength and maximum stirrup spacing somewhat. Corrected the ultimate strand stress, fps, for the calculation of the development length of the strand under Canadian codes. The previous versions incorrectly included the material resistance factor in fps. VERSION 4.42d (July 17, 2006) Corrected the tensile stress limits under CAN/CSA-S6-00. VERSION 4.42c (May 4, 2006) Corrected a problem with the flexural calculations that could cause incorrect negative bending strength. The negative bending strengths would appear to be of the wrong sign thought the strength value would also be wrong. VERSION 4.42b (April 12, 2006) Added some notes to the deflections reports clarifying how long-term growth estimates for camber and deflection are calculated. There had been some confusion that the construction schedule defined with the prestress loss parameters were used to calculate long-term growth of camber/deflection. The construction schedule is only used to calculate prestress losses. Long-term camber/deflection growth is estimated with PCI suggested deflection modifiers as published in the PCI Handbook. Corrected the calculation of size in the shear calculations under CSAA23.3-04 for beams where minimum stirrups are determined by Concise Beam. Corrected a problem with the cracking calculations that could prevent the estimation of crack width in a reinforced topping under negative bending. VERSION 4.42a (March 6, 2006) Adjusted the flexural calculations for non-prestressed beams that have equal tension and compression reinforcement so that the concrete theoretically carries no load. Increased a limit in the 3D display that used to restrict the number of polygons that could be displayed in each section to 24. The limit is now 128 polygons. VERSION 4.42 (February 24, 2006) Added the option in the Calculation Options dialog to use Appendix B of ACI318-99 for the flexural design check. The Flexural Design Check report has been updated to provide better feedback on the reinforcing limits and whether those limits are exceeded at any section along the beam. The report also updated to accommodate ACI318-99 Appendix B. Adjusted the flexure calculations so that you may see an increase for beams with low strength toppings. Modified the "Go To Next .." buttons in the Beam and Loss Parameters dialogs so that they would be inactive prior to defining any beam segments. Added the word ESTIMATE to the title of all deflection/camber to reports to highlight the fact that the reported deflections should not be considered any more than estimates as per the PCI Design Handbook. This is particularly true for deflections/cambers after long term growth. Adjusted the cracking calculations so that they stop complaining when there is no steel found in very shallow cracks (50mm, 2" or less). Reversed the "f'c at Limit" fields in the Concrete Parameters dialog of the Custom Design Code dialog to better agree with the order of the Beta and Alpha fields. Corrected the units in the Prestress Loss - Forces report. Corrected a bug in the PCI and S6 loss methods that could cause the creep losses to be zero. Corrected the selection of the a new library file location in the library dialog. VERSION 4.41h (February 16, 2006) Corrected the calculation of the location of the compressive force due to flexure. This affects the calculation of the shear depth under some codes. Corrected the unit of the jacking force in the Prestressing Steel Tendons table of the Summary report. Corrected the display of the minimum stirrup spacing in the presence of torsion when the stirrup size is not specified. Corrected the creation of the initial stirrup region and corrects any improper stirrup regions in pre-existing problem files. VERSION 4.41g (February 12, 2006) The program will now report when no longitudinal steel is found in the flexural tension half of the section in the shear design check table - particularly where the beam is in negative bending. Adjusted the calculation of the V/M ratio in the relevant shear calculations where M is zero. Corrected a problem that could cause a crash when changing some of the beam properties when a shear graph is open. VERSION 4.41f (February 7, 2006) Corrected a bug in the moment resistance calculations that could cause a crash in some rare circumstances. VERSION 4.41e (February 6, 2006) Corrected the type of units displayed in the Section Properties dialog of the Beam Definition dialog when not using mm or inches for sectional dimensions. Corrected the display of the stirrup area provided curve in the Shear and Torsional Stirrups graph. Corrected the minimum shear strength under ACI318 when the simplified method is allowed. VERSION 4.41d (February 1, 2006) Added some license certificates for future license key codes. This will have no impact on current users. Adjusted the calculation of transverse shear steel near supports if a critical shear section is applicable. VERSION 4.41c (January 30, 2006) Adjusted the load combinations for CAN/CSA S6 to include a load combination with dead load factors of 1.25 (the minimum avg load factor). The load combination with dead load factors of 1.35 has been removed. Adjusted the colours of the graph lines for the analysis graphs. Corrected a problem with the calculation of Eci in the Concrete dialog. Corrected a bug in the horizontal shear calculations that could cause a crash when generating a report or graph. VERSION 4.41b (January 26, 2006) Adjusted the Topping dialog so that the "Beam Weight Shored" option is only selected if the "Beam Shored During Topping Placement" option is selected. Corrected a bug in the shear design calculations that could cause inappropriate changes to some of the beam segments. For instance a segment may change to be the same as another segment. VERSION 4.41a (January 24, 2006) Removed the "(incomplete)" qualifier from CAN/CSA S6-00 since the code provisions are fully supported though Concise Beam has no provision (yet) for moving loads. Corrected a problem with the "Edit Strand Profile" dialog when Modifying intermediate hold-downs. There have also been a few other small changes to this dialog. VERSION 4.41 (January 23, 2006) Beams that have the "Beam Weight Shored" option selected and have net deflections under their own weight, including prestress, are now assumed to be continuously supported from casting until the shoring is removed at which point it is composite with the topping. In this case the transfer stresses will only be due to the internal axial prestress and eccentricity. The deflections at transfer and erection will also be shown as zero. Have adjusted the list of available codes in the Design Code dialog to properly show the custom code when selected. The New Zealand concrete design code is now selectable though it's implementation is not yet complete. Made some adjustments to the check of longitudinal steel for shear and flexural tension under A23.3-04. The behaviour of the Concrete dialog has been changed such that any changes to the concrete strength will cause an adjustment to the f'ci/f'c ratio instead of the release strength. Any direct changes to the f'ci/f'c ratio will cause an adjustment to the release strength a before. If the "Allow Concise Beam to Calculate the Transverse Shear Stirrup Size and Spacing if Not Specified" in the Transverse Shear Reinforcing dialog is unchecked the "Shear and Torsional Stirrups" graph will no longer show the required stirrups line, which would be zero. Also, the required stirrup columns in the "Transverse Steel (Stirrup) Design for Shear" table will be marked N/A instead of showing zero values. Removed the "unlimited" curves in the Shear graph. Concise Beam now only limits the applied factored shear at the critical section near the supports when the proper conditions apply as per selected design code. Corrected the calculation of the axial strain in the A23.3-04 shear design method near supports. The strain at dv from the support is used through to the support. Corrected the display of concrete strengths and concrete stress limits in the Custom Code Parameters dialogs. Corrected a long standing problem with editing node coordinates in the Section Editor. If the mouse pointer strayed into the section window while editing the coordinates the values of the coordinates would be reset to their original values. This will no longer happen. Corrected the display of the aggregate size in the Loss Parameters dialog, concrete release strength in the stress table of the Summary Report when using Imperial units. VERSION 4.40d (January 9, 2006) Altered the Prestressing dialog so that if a strand is set back to "Fully Bonded" after having been "Debonded", "Cut", or "Anchored" the related offset will be reset to zero. Replaced the standard Windows dialog used to pick a directory for the libraries due to changes made by Microsoft to one of their programming libraries. Corrected the display of the aggregate size in the Loss Parameters dialog, concrete release strength in the stress table of the Summary Report when using Imperial units. Corrected excessive rounding of the recommended crack width limits. Corrected the calculation of y in the Section Editor for sections that don't lie on the y-axis. VERSION 4.40c (January 6, 2006) Corrected a bug that would corrupt the default values in the Concrete dialog if the defaults had been saved in Imperial units. The same bug also affects the slump and cement content values in the Loss Parameter dialog. After installing this new version you will need to correct the default values affected and resave them as defaults. Corrected the values for rebar and strand stress in the Cracked Section Stresses at Service report when using Imperial units. VERSION 4.40b (December 29, 2005) Adjusted the search for longitudinal steel in the general shear strength method of A23.3-04 to find bars or strand closer to mid-height of the section. Corrected a bug in the horizontal shear calculations that could cause a crash when generating a report or graph. VERSION 4.40a (December 20, 2005) A unit conversion problem has been fixed in the diagram of the Applied Loads dialog. A problem in the trial design facility has been fixed. Corrected the display of some unnecessary warnings in the flexural table. Corrected a problem with the deletion of polygons in the section editor. VERSION 4.40 (December 15, 2005) Concise beam now supports two new design codes, ACI 318-05, and CSA-A23.3-04. Two further codes the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code CAN/CSA-S6-00, and the draft New Zealand concrete design code DZ3101.1 are mostly implemented and will hopefully be finished shortly. Concise Beam still supports AS3600, CSA A23.3-94, ACI 318-99 & ACI 318-02. All users will have access to each of these codes and they can all be used as the basis for a customized design code. Have updated the program to the latest PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05. In Concise Beam the provisions of this document supercede the relevant clauses of the ACI codes only. A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.40. Version 4.40 will read files created by Concise Beam versions 3.x, 4.0x, 4.1x, 4.2x & 4.3x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. Default shear width calculations by the section editor have been enhanced to account for tapered webs (i.e. double tees). The program will average the shear width over any portion of the section where the side inclination of the web is less that 20 degrees. The shear depth calculations have been enhanced for some codes that require the depth to be based on the moment arm of the tensile and compressive force couple in flexure. The import facility in the concrete section library dialog now includes a method that allows input of a section described in a plain text file. The text file could include section data that was developed in a spreadsheet and cut and pasted into the text file. This facility is a bit crude but should be useful for now. I hope to expand it's capabilities in the future. The required format of the text file is given in the online manual and an example file is provided. The warnings and notes column of the flexure and shear design tables have been improved and clarified. The text report tables have been reviewed and altered to ensure that they fit into the width of a printed page. An additional text report has been created that provides details of the shear design calculations. There is now a new option in the prestressing dialog that allows the user to specify where a strand may have been cut within the length of a beam, perhaps at an opening or dapped end. Prior to this release the user had to use the debonding option to cut a strand within the length of the beam. Unfortunately this often meant that the transfer and development length of that strand was doubled because of the debonding. The new CUT option avoids this problem. The prestressing dialog behaviour has been changed so that any changes made to a strand group, before Adding or Modifying it, will not be lost when the user edits the profile. The shear stirrup dialog includes a new option that allows the user to prevent the program from calculating shear steel requirements. This allows the user to check a beam that has no stirrups without having to specify that the beam is part of a slab. All design codes allow the design for shear near supports to be limited to a critical section a certain distance from the support (i.e. d or h/2) under certain conditions. The program can check for the condition regarding concentrated loads between the critical section and the support. The condition that the beam be in compression in the region of the support, as in the case of support from the underside of the beam and loading on the topside, cannot be checked by the program. Therefore a new option has been added to the shear stirrup dialog which allows the user to specify that these conditions do exist so that limiting shear at the supports is applicable. The default for this setting is FALSE or OFF in order to be conservative in the event that the option is overlooked by the user. In most cases, other than such cases as ledger beams, the user will want to select this option making it TRUE or ON. When using A23.3-04 Concise Beam will now check the longitudinal reinforcing for the combined effect of flexure and shear. Prior versions of Concise Beam divided the length of the beam into the number of divisions specified in the Load Analysis Parameters dialog. Load effects are calculated and the beam design is checked at each of these division points. Starting with version 4.40 Concise Beam will now divide the span (between the supports) into the specified number of divisions. The cantilevers will be divided into a number of divisions such that the length of each division in the cantilevers is approximately equal to the length within the span. The span will now be divided into an even number of divisions regardless of the length of the cantilevers. Concise Beam now accounts for the concrete properties of the topping when calculating the flexural resistance of the section. Rebar development length calculations have been enhanced to account for the spacing of shear stirrups if specified. This may reduce the development length under some design codes. Under AS3600 the development length may increase due to a bug fix with the k2 factor (it was being taken as 1.0). Added the buttons "Save as the Default Properties" and "Restore the Default Properties" to the Concrete Material dialog to give the user more control over when the concrete properties are saved as default values. Prior to version 4.40 the current properties were always saved as default values when leaving the Concrete Material dialog. Added "deflection" as an additional unit of measure in the Units of Measure dialog. This gives the user more control over the scale of unit (i.e. in versus ft) for deflections. Prior to version 4.40 the Sectional Dimensions units of measure was used for deflections. Have altered the graph line colours, weights, and order to make them easier to see on the screen, particularly for shear where two lines often overlap each other. The equivalent crack width parameter z has been added to the Recommended Crack Width table for easier correlation with design codes and handbooks. Corrected the value of the k1 factor in the cracking table in Imperial units. The correct factor was being used for the calculations - it was only being displayed wrong in Imperial units. VERSION 4.39e (December 5, 2005) Updated the license certificates for licenses extending into 2007. VERSION 4.39d (November 7, 2005) Corrected a bug in the graph for shear stirrups. The value for Av/s Provided includes the torsion stirrups (outside legs) twice. VERSION 4.39c (September 22, 2005) Corrected a bug in the prestressing dialog that could prevent strands with debonded lengths at the right end of the beam from being recognized as being within the beam. VERSION 4.39b (August 12, 2005) Corrected a bug in the prestressing dialog that could cause a crash. VERSION 4.39a (August 4, 2005) Corrected the maximum stirrup spacing when torsion is required. VERSION 4.39 (August 3, 2005) Corrected a bug in the calculation of live load deflections for partially-prestressed beams. Corrected a bug that could cause a crash with long debond lengths. VERSION 4.38a (June 8, 2005) Fixed a bug in the Trial Reinforcement Estimate at Ultimate dialog which could prevent the program from providing an estimate. When the problem occurs the program will report that more than 999 rebar or strands are required. The Trial Reinforcement Estimate at Ultimate dialog will no longer ask if you want to save your data before leaving the dialog. It shouldn't have been asking this since there is no data to save to the beam definition. The LONGITUDINAL REINFORCING STEEL table in the Summary Report has been changed to show the extent of a rebar group with "From" and "To" along the beam instead of the old "Start" and "End" which represented the offset from each end of the beam. This change is simply for clarity. VERSION 4.38 (May 17, 2005) Increased the precision of the Moment Capacity calculations to avoid excessive error in the capacity of a beam based on a concrete strain less than the maximum within the development length of a debonded strand. You may notice a slight slow down in the initial display of text reports or graphs when the design check occurs. VERSION 4.37 (April 28, 2005) Corrected a problem that causes a miscalculation of composite section properties for beams with partial length toppings. Corrected a few problems with the concrete stress table in the Summary Report related to overstress notices and the value for the specified f'c. VERSION 4.36 (April 27, 2005) Corrected the deflection limits for live load in the "NET CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS AT ALL STAGES" report for the CSA and ACI codes. The limits for roof and floor were reversed. Corrected the flexural resistance of a beam within the development length of strand that is prestressed to a low level or not prestressed at all. The program will also no longer complain that the losses are higher that the prestress for strands with a low level of prestress. VERSION 4.35 (April 21, 2005) The "NET CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS AT ALL STAGES" report has been upgradedto include "Net @ Completion", "DL Growth + LL" and "LL Alone" deflections. This report has also replaced the "DEFLECTION/CAMBER ESTIMATE RESULTS" table in the Summary Report. A new report title "CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS ON COMPLETION OF CONSTRUCTION" has been added to the list of reports to summarize the deflections at the end of construction when all dead loads have been added but before dead load growth (long-term creep and shrinkage) and live load. Removed the reinforcement ratio results from the reinforcing table in the Summary Report for non-prestressed beams. The maximum reinforcement ratio is no longer required due to the use of a strain-compatibility analysis by Concise Beam. The minimum reinforcement ratio is no longer required since Concise Beam now checks the more general condition of 1.2*Mcr for minimum flexural strength of prestressed and non-prestressed beams (including under ACI). The spacing of the ordinate values in the legends of the graphs has been made more consistent. Improved the search for tension steel in the cracking calculations. Expanded the View Section Properties sub-dialog of the Beam Definition dialog. Added the width of the section to the PRECAST SECTION PROPERTIES (NON-COMPOSITE) table in the summary report. Corrected the label for the shear depth under AS3600 from "d" to "do". Corrected the value for the Net Deflection (Sustained Loads) in Summary Report when using the ACI codes with metric units, or the CSA and AS code with Imperial units. [this report is now obsolete - see above] Adjusted the flexural design results to ensure that they remain symmetrical for symmetrical beams and loading. Corrected a problem that could cause a crash with sections that contain polygons of 24 nodes with a point at the top or bottom. VERSION 4.34 (March 28, 2005) The flexure design reports now summarize the maximum positive and negative critical moments along the beam as well as summarizing the maximum positive and negative applied factored moment. The maximum critical moment is defined as the highest ratio of the factored moment to the moment resistance (strength). The material resistance factors are now explicitly shown in the flexural design table for the CSA code. Also the strength reduction factor for flexural is now shown explicitly in the flexural design table for ACI 318-99. The number of decimal places shown for beta (gamma in AS3600) and alpha in the flexural design tables has been increased to three. Changed the minimum offset from the top or bottom of the beam from 25mm (1") to half of the strand or rebar diameter. This means a minimum clear cover of zero. The column headings of the FINAL CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS report have been corrected. The headings of all of the deflection reports have been adjust for readability. The span/deflection column in the NET CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS AT ALL STAGES report has been changed to two reports for DL growth + LL and LL alone to match the deflection table in the Summary Report. Corrected a problem with the FLEXURAL DESIGN - STRAIN COMPATIBILITY DETAILS report where the results of debonded strands are not always shown where the strand is bonded. Similarly for partial length rebar. VERSION 4.33 (March 14, 2005) Prior versions of Concise Beam have required that a Windows subsystem called OpenGL be working properly on your computer. Any incompatibilities between Windows and OpenGL can prevent Concise Beam from starting up. These incompatibilities are caused by some older video cards or, potentially, the upgrade to Windows XP SP2. In both cases updating your video drivers will cure the problem. Starting with Concise Beam version 4.3 a properly operating OpenGL subsystem shouldn't be required except to allowing printing of the 3D beam image. This may cause interaction with the 3D image to slow down, but this shouldn't be noticeable except on some old computers (7+ years old). If you find that the 3D image moves too slowly please contact us so that we can tell you how to speed it up. This may cause previous problems to reoccur. Updated the license key certificates for future releases. Corrected the amount of additional longitudinal torsion steel required. Corrected the calculation of beta1 in the shear calculations for AS3600. Corrected the labelling of the table in the Topping dialog (h1 & h2 changed to t1 & t2). VERSION 4.32 (March 5, 2005) Adjusted the calculation of strand development lengths under the AS3600 code. Corrected a problem with the application of a factor to lengthen the transfer and development length for strands at the top of the beam under AS3600. Corrected a unit conversion problem with the reported value of the specified f'ci in the Concrete Stress table of the Summary Report. Removed the addition of offsets along a prestressing strand at the ends of debonding lengths. VERSION 4.31a (March 2, 2005) Corrected a problem with the illustration of the prestressing in the prestressing dialog for strands with debonded ends. Corrected a problem with the order of magnitude of the Y axis of some graphs. The problem could lead to a crash after opening the Units dialog and rechecking the graph. VERSION 4.31 (March 1, 2005) Corrected a problem with the loss parameters dialog whereby the program would save garbage values when using "Save the Loss Settings as Default". I have also added a button that will allow the user to reset the settings to the factory settings built into Concise Beam. Corrected the labeling of the concrete stresses in the custom code dialog for the ACI codes. Clarified the overstress notes in the summary report. VERSION 4.30 (February 27, 2005) Concise beam now supports the Australian Concrete code AS3600-2001. This support also includes a number of recommendations from NPCAA, the National Precast Concrete Association of Australia. Material libraries specific to Australia have also been added as detailed in the NPCAA Precast Concrete Handbook. These libraries use metric units though as before the user is free to work in either metric or Imperial (English) units. The support for AS3600 is added along side the existing support for CSA A23.3-94, ACI318-99 & ACI318-02. All users will have access to each of these codes. Like the other codes AS3600 can also be used as the basis for a customized design code. A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.30. Version 4.30 will read files created by Concise Beam versions 3.x, 4.0x, 4.1x & 4.2x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. A new cracked section analysis facility has been implemented for the serviceability limit state. This will make cracking and deflection calculations more accurate. The cracking and deflection calculations have been rewritten to use the new cracked section facility. The graph windows now show a vertical line that will move to the right or the left with the mouse to specify a particular position along the beam (as shown on the x-axis). The ordinate (value) of each curve in the graph at this x position is given in the legend beside the description of the curve. The actual location of the mouse pointer is still shown at the bottom of the main Concise Beam window. Inverted the moment diagrams for the CSA and AS codes. Positive moments are now downward. Positive moments are still upwards for ACI users. Added a calculation option that affects the flexural strength reduction factor, Ø, under ACI 318-02. ACI 318-02 requires that the strength reduction factor be a maximum of 0.75 within the development length of a strand. This can cause a sudden drop in flexural capacity at the end of the development length. To address this problem ACI has proposed changing this reduction to a linearly varying reduction from a maximum of 0.75 at the start of the development length to the full tensile factor (usually 0.9) at the end of the development length. This change will occur in ACI 318-05. This calculation option will allow the user to use this variation in Ø under ACI 318-02 in advance of the release of ACI 318-05. Note that if a section is compression controlled Ø may be as little as 0.65. The user will now be asked to confirm whether or not they would like to exit most dialogs when they hit the Esc key or select Cancel. A new check box has been added to the Shear Reinforcing dialog labelled "Symmetrical about Center of Beam". When selected this option causes any modification or addition of a shear stirrup region at one end of the beam to be mirrored symmetrically about the centre (mid-length) of the beam. An option has been added to the Shear Reinforcing dialog which allows the user to specify that the beam is part of a slab system. With this option selected Concise Beam will not calculate minimum shear stirrup requirements for the beam. A new parameter has been added to the Loss Parameters dialog to allow the user to specify the base shrinkage strain for use with the Detailed (CPCI) Loss Method or the AS3600 Loss Method. The program had previously used an average default value for normal density and strength concrete. This value will still be the default but it can now be changed if more accurate information is available for a specific concrete. Previous versions of Concise Beam have based the concrete shear strength, under ACI 318, on the best of either the detailed calculation method of the simplified method, if applicable. While this gives the best possible shear strength values it also leads to an inconsistent concrete shear strength curve which doesn't agree with references. In this release we have turned off the automatic checking of the simplified method. By default only the detailed method will be calculated. If a user still wants to check the simplified method they can turn on a new option in the Calculation Options dialog of the Options menu. For prestressed beams, the decompression force on each section is now reported in the "Prestress Force Levels" report. The decompression report includes the decompression force in any non-stressed rebar. This report also shows the percentage of the prestress at each section which is transferred to the concrete (i.e. not lost to slippage in the transfer length). Concise Beam can now run on computers that do not have stable OpenGL support. If you find that Concise Beam closes immediately after displaying the opening graphic image with the Black Mint logo then contact Black Mint Software at support@BlackMint.com to find out how to avoid this problem. The problem is cause by an incompatibility between Windows and a Windows sub-system called OpenGL. Increased the precision of data stored to file and used in calculations throughout the program. Added a new command to the view menu to allow the user to open the window showing the 3D image of the beam if it had previously been closed. If that window is closed without any other windows (i.e. a graph window) being open then the whole problem file is closed and has to be reopened. Cleaned up some of the section editor controls. Some of the edit modes, such as adding polygons or circles and moving or copying polygons, will now turn off after a single action. Corrected the Tab order in the Grid/Snap dialog. Removed the "Save Current Settings" from the Options menu. Default settings are now automatically saved or there is an options to save the defaults in specific command dialogs, such as the Libraries dialog. Most of the Calculation Options (Options menu) are now saved with the problem file. If you set a particular option you can now send you file to another user and ensure that they are using the same options for that problem file. The way standard library files are selected is now easier. The user is simply asked which standard file group to select instead of basing it on the current unit settings. Apart from being easier to use this change was required to distinguish between the Canadian and Australian libraries which are both metric. Corrected a number of problems that could cause crashes. Corrected a problem where a full length line load is not extended when a beam is extended in length. This can occur when the user makes more than one change to the beam segments each time they enter the beam dialog. Corrected the stress tensile stress limits under ACI for beams with lower density concrete. A density factor was mistakenly being applied (only required by CSA). Corrected a problem with the prestressing dialog that could prevent allowing the addition of new strands. The program complained that the added strands lay outside of the beam when leaving the dialog. Corrected a bug that affected the accuracy of the positive moment capacity and the depth of compression, c. VERSION 4.24a (October 28, 2004) This is a maintenance release while we further test and update version 4.30 (see partial list of changes to 4.30 above). Added the depth of concrete in tension at transfer to the stress reports at transfer. In the Loss Parameters dialog the air content can now be zero. Adjusted the calculation of bw, shear width, in the Edit Concrete Section Library dialog to avoid any chamfer or slopes on the top and bottom of the section. When searching the depth of the section for the minimum width the program will now ignore the top and bottom 50mm or 2", or 25% of the section depth whichever is less (for slabs 100mm or 4" thick or less). Made a correction to the anchoring of strand. Corrected a problem in the load analysis when the left and right intensity of a line load differs in sign. VERSION 4.24 (October 15, 2004) This is a maintenance release while we further test and update version 4.30 (see partial list of changes to 4.30 above). Updated the software protection certificates for use in future years. Corrected the calculation of "Prestress carried by Rebar". This is a temporary fix since it is being rewritten for version 4.30. Improved the detection of rebar and strand at the extreme right end of the beam. Changed the behaviour of the section editor so that edited sections are no longer automatically moved to lie on the X and Y axis (in the first quadrant). VERSION 4.23f (September 30, 2004) All previous version of Concise Beam have limited the maximum fps at ultimate to 98% of the strand strength, fpu. This is standard practice for Canadian and Australian users but apparently not for ACI users. This limit has been removed for ACI users. This will lead to a slight increase in the flexural strength, up to 2%. The next major release of Concise Beam, version 4.30, will include an option to allow users to turn this limit on or off. Corrected the calculation of beta for the ACI codes. VERSION 4.23e (September 22, 2004) Corrected a problem with the prestressing results which lead to spikes and inappropriate scales in the graphs. Remove an inappropriate reference to Conformance Note [1] in the shear interface table when it isn't required. Corrected the display of the conformance notes in the shear table. VERSION 4.23d (September 16, 2004) Non-public test release - no change. VERSION 4.23c (September 8, 2004) The program will now perform more checks in whether a concrete material has been defined for the topping before proceeding with the design check. Eliminated the inclusion of the prestress load case, P, in the list of ultimate limit state load cases in the summary report. Corrected a problem that allowed previously defined strands to be visible in a newly created problem file. Corrected a problem in the stress diagrams and section properties. Corrected a problem with the shear interface design where a peak negative moment at the end of the beam could be missed. Corrected a situation where a flexural resistance can be underestimated within the development length of a rebar or debonded strand under ACI 318-02. When this occurs the section is being found to be compression controlled when it should be tension controlled leading to a higher strength reduction factor. VERSION 4.23b (August 25, 2004) Corrected a problem in the prestressing dialog that could cause a crash when adding strands. Improved the determination of whether strand development lengths need to be extended due to tension within the development length. Previous versions checked for cracking at the end of the transfer length only. The program now checks for serviceability tension anywhere along the development length, including the transfer length, before extending. VERSION 4.23a (August 14, 2004) Corrected a problem in the moment calculations that could cause a sharp drop in the moment resistance at a single hold-down. This problem also occasionally affected the hold-down forces reported and the interface shear. VERSION 4.23 (August 10, 2004) Hold-down forces have been added to the prestressing table in the Summary Report. If a beam is lengthened any previously defined line loads will now be extended with the beam. Added a note to the shear/torsion stirrup table to note whether the required longitudinal steel is based on minimum stirrup requirements and not on a specified stirrup size and spacing. The wind load case can now be used for any vertical earthquake loading as well. This has always been true but now it's explicit. The standard load factors are still based on wind loading. Special load cases will have to be added for any earthquake loading. The governing cracking calculations are now given on the top and bottom of the beam. The interface shear calculations have been adjusted to ensure that the contact area of the slab/beam interface isn't wider than the beam if no haunch is specified. Corrected the calculation of the reinforcement ratio provided in normally reinforced concrete beams. Corrected a logic problem that prevented the calculation of longitudinal torsion steel if the stirrup size is specified but not the spacing. VERSION 4.22g (July 30, 2004) Corrected a unit conversion problem that could cause a crash while viewing analysis results before a beam is detailed. VERSION 4.22f (July 28, 2004) Corrected a inaccuracy in the shear calculations that could mistaking show that the level of prestressing drops below 40% in the transfer zone. This can mean that the simplified method of shear strength is not applicable. Concise Beam checks both the simplified (if applicable) and the detailed method and takes the larger result. VERSION 4.22e (July 16, 2004) Corrected a bug in the loss calculations which may be evident in the incorrect scaling of some of the graphs and an incorrect summary of stresses and cracking. VERSION 4.22d (July 13, 2004) Corrected a bug which would cause deflections at midspan to go to zero when the "Summary Report at Midspan/Tip of Cantilevers" calculation option is turned on. VERSION 4.22c (July 12, 2004) - NOT RELEASED PUBLICLY Partial implementation of a diagnostic reporting system to track bugs on users computers. For use by Black Mint technical support. VERSION 4.22b (July 6, 2004) Corrected a bug that can cause rebar at the right end of a beam from being recognized in the moment resistance calculations. VERSION 4.22a (July 1, 2004) A few users have found that the new moment resistance calculations based on full strain compatibility in the development length can lead to no moment resistance within approximately 600 mm (2 ft) of the ends of some slabs. This generally affects thin slabs like hollowcore with only a few strands. Adding additional strands solves the problem. The program was finding that there is insufficient development length to develop any stress in the strands beyond the decompression stress (prestress) resulting in a slip at cracking. Until this behaviour can be investigated further we have disabled strain compatibility within the development length of non-debonded strands (at the beam ends). The strength of the strands will now be linearly prorated along the development length. This will provide a moment resistance close to, if not the same as that determined by strain compatibility. Full strain compatibility is still checked for rebar and debonded strands. VERSION 4.22 (June 25, 2004) The moment resistance calculations have been rewritten to allow a proper determination of the resistance at sections where some or all strands or rebar are not fully developed. Concise Beam uses strain-compatibility to determine the moment resistance. Prior to this release the program used the standard practice of linearly prorating the stress in a strand along it's development length (bilinear variation in the case of strand). This does not satisfy strain-compatibility within the section, particularly in the case of debonded strands and partial-length rebar. The program now checks whether each strand or rebar may slip (i.e., not developed sufficiently for required stress). If a slip is detected then the section is reanalyzed firstly with the strand or rebar discounted (slipped), and secondly with the ultimate concrete strain reduced to prevent the slip. The program will iterate through each potentially slipped strand or rebar. The higher resulting resistance is taken as the final moment resistance. This can result in a lot of iterations in beams with a lot of strand or rebar groups. A short delay in viewing the text reports or graphs may now be noticeable when the moment resistance has to be recalculated. A new text report has been created to report the results of the moment resistance calculations in detail. The user-defined losses now affect each individual strand group instead of the total. The program will now report the losses at each point along the beam with user-defined losses (at transfer and final only). There is also now an option in the Calculation Options dialog that causes the program to use the user-defined loss as a minimum loss. The actual losses along the beam will vary from the minimum to account for concrete stresses. This option is ON by default. Turning the option OFF will force the program to use the user-defined losses along the full length of the beam despite the variation in concrete stresses, with the exception of the transfer lengths. Prestressing strand is now counted when determining the amount of steel available to resist tension in the precast beam at transfer. This is particularly important when unstressed strands are used as reinforcing in hollowcore slabs. Adjusted the check of the condition where the transfer and development length of strands needs to be doubled. The program had previously checked whether the precast concrete experienced any tension at service loads anywhere along the beam. It now checks whether the precast beam cracks in the development length. The transfer and development lengths are only doubled if the beam is cracked within the development length. The shear and torsion stirrup graph has been reintroduced with a comparison of the amount of shear and torsion stirrup steel area per unit length required versus the amount provided, if specified. The prestressing transfer and development length table in the Summary Report has been rearranged to show more detail. The effective and ultimate prestress used to determine the transfer and development lengths is now determined for each strand group. Increased the size a load that can be input to greater than 100000 to allow the use of pounds for large point loads. Corrected a problem with the shear stirrup dialog that prevented a user from deleting /clearing all of the shear stirrup data. Corrected a problem determining stresses in the calculation of Vci and Vcw under the ACI code. Corrected a problem with the conformance notes for the shear stirrup table. The long. steel required for torsion now accounts for the actual stirrup spacing if specified. Adjusted the minimum offset to the centre of a strand. It is now half of the diameter of the strand. The default offset for a new strand is still 25mm or 1". VERSION 4.21c (April 18, 2004) Corrected a problem with the horizontal shear table. VERSION 4.21b (April 1, 2004) Corrected a further problem with the conformance notes for the moment and shear tables. VERSION 4.21a (March 25, 2004) Corrected a problem in the maximum limit on the concrete shear strength, Vc, under ACI. VERSION 4.21 (March 22, 2004) A new strength reduction (resistance) factor has been added to the custom design code dialogs for cast-in-place concrete. This factor is required by the CSA code and for any custom code based on CSA. A correction has been made to the use of custom alpha and beta factors. Corrected a problem with the conformance notes for the shear table. Rearranged the concrete dialog to make it more obvious that a value was required for the concrete density before proceeding. VERSION 4.20 (March 15, 2004) A new file format has been created for the problem files to accommodate additional data used by the program. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.20. Version 4.20 will read files created by Concise Beam versions 3.x, 4.0x & 4.1x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. Additional options have been added for the definition of shear stirrups and ties between the beam and the topping. The users now has three options. The first option is to specify only the grade of steel for the stirrups as in previous versions of the program. With this option the program will calculate the amount of shear and torsion steel required per unit length of beam as well as the maximum allowable spacing. The second option is to specify the steel grade, bar size, and number of legs. The program can then determine the stirrup spacing required for the given stirrup size. The third option is to define the steel grade and size, number of legs, and the spacing of the stirrups. This allows the program to flag any points along the beam where the stirrup spacing is inadequate and to calculate the total shear resistance/strength. This provides a design check of the specified stirrups. The shear tables and graph have been rearranged to accommodate this new input data and now include the total shear resistance/strength. The horizontal shear table in the Summary report has been adjusted to include the interface shear capacity available without any ties. A bug was also corrected that affected some beams with very short overhangs. The concrete material (*.lcm) library files have been eliminated. You now simply specify the concrete density and class (strength) in the Concrete Material dialog. Default values will be provided and any changes will automatically be remembered for future use. The ratio of fci to fc for the beam is also now shown explicitly so that the user can modify this value instead of fci directly. The value of this ratio is also set for future use. A new edit mode has been added to the section editor that allows the user to mirror any polygon in place using the left mouse button. Used in conjunction with the existing move and rotate modes the user now has full control over the position and orientation of polygons. An option has been added to the topping dialog which allows the user to specify that the beam be shored for the weight of the beam itself in addition to the weight of SDL applied before the topping and the topping weight until the topping has reached full strength. The Prestress Force graph now includes the force in each strand group in addition to the total force. The prestress loss and force reports also include the loss or force in each strand group in addition to all of the strands together. The prestress loss report has been split into two reports, one reports losses by stress and the other by force on the strand group(s). The custom settings for the Summary Report are now saved with the problem file. These settings can also be saved as defaults for new problem files. The Loss Parameters dialog has been expanded to allow the user to specify the schedule of each stage of construction. There have been some adjustments to the transfer length of the prestressing strands. There have also been adjustments to the loss calculations for composite beams. Some minor changes to the stress level of each strand group may be evident. The program used to check that all rebar and strands lie within the beam by checking the centre of the strand or rebar against the edge of the beam. The program will now check that the strand or rebar has a minimum offset (to the centre of the strand/bar) of 25mm (1"). This is not meant as a check on proper concrete cover. The default offset is now 25mm (1") for rebar and strand. Two controls have been added to the Preferences dialog that allow the user to adjust the darkness of the 3D image of the beam, both on-screen and in print. Updated the loss calculations to account for the level of concrete stress at each strand group instead of at the centre of gravity of all of the strands. Corrected the prestress camber when strand groups had widely varying stress levels. An average stress had been used for all of the strand groups. Now the stress in each strand group is account for. If you want to include an unstressed strand as reinforcing (i.e. in hollowcores) you can specify a Stress at Lock-Off ratio (fpj/fpu) of zero. A correction has been made to amount of reinforcing steel that is accounted for in resistance to tensile stresses in the beam at transfer. Older versions add included rebar that was in the topping. The calculation of the reduction in the longitudinal steel required for torsion, Al, was corrected. Corrected a bug that could cause the program to crash when starting a new problem with the New command in the File menu. The spacing of the columns in some of the stress reports have been adjusted to fit on a printed page. Corrected a limitation in the program that would cause a crash if the beam contained more than 25 segments. The program would crash when opening the load or prestressing dialogs. Corrected a problem that would cause the graphs to freeze the program while scrolling through them. VERSION 4.19d (December 11, 2003) Adjusted the concrete dialog to ensure that the values for Ec & Eci are updated when needed. Corrected the explanation of the Flexure option in the Calculations Options dialog. Corrected a bug in the beam dialog that could crash the program when adding beam segments. Added a missing footnote to the horizontal shear table. VERSION 4.19c (December 2, 2003) Updated the security certificates to prevent a reported license abuse problem. A few internal corrections related to the summary report. These should not be visible to the user. VERSION 4.19b (December 1, 2003) Corrected a problem selecting adding new items to a library. Corrected a problem importing prestressing or rebar materials from the current problem file into the currently open library file. VERSION 4.19a (November 29, 2003) Corrected a problem selecting new sections in the beam dialog and the graphic in the topping dialog. VERSION 4.19 (November 28, 2003) You can now print and print preview the 3D image of the beam. The print-out will reflect the image on the screen. So if you zoom or rotate the image that will be shown in the print-out. At this point the print-out is unadorned with a header or footer indicating the problem name, etc. We'll try to add that later. I have limited ability to test the print quality on a variety of printers so please let me know if your results are not satisfactory. The undo feature in the section editor will now undo all past edits, not just the last one. Added the unfactored total and sustained moments to the analysis results table in the summary report. These values are useful for calculations such as fire rating. To allow room for this I have combined the max. and min. columns for the factored results. The absolute maximum (positive or negative) is now shown. The detailed analysis reports can be viewed for greater detail. An option has been added to the Calculation Option dialog allowing you to force the program to only check the minimum resistance/strength of the beam (i.e. Mr > 1.2Mcr or ØMn < 1.2Mcr) at points of maximum and minimum moment. CSA requires a check of all sections, but ACI is silent on how often this check needs to be done (PCA recommends every section). It's the convention of many engineers to only perform this check at the points of maximum and minimum moment. By default the program will check every section along the beam. Use this new option to restrict the check to the points of maximum and minimum moment. The setting for this option will be remembered for future use. The maximum number of divisions along the beam used for analysis (see the Load Analysis Parameters dialog) has been increased from 150 to 200. Some users found that setting this number had no effect. This has been corrected. "Go To Next ..." dialog link buttons have been added to the self-weight dialog. The topping dialog now also includes a link to the self-weight dialog. All of the internal calculations made by Concise Beam have been upgraded from normal precision to double precision. This won't have a significant impact on the results (you may see changes to the flexural results) but will help to improve the integrity and maintainability of the program. Corrected the edit mode buttons in the section editor. The mode didn't always switch properly. Adjusted the column spacing for the nodes in the cross-section printout. Corrected a problem with the horizontal shear lengths for very large moments. The conformance notes were occasionally duplicated needlessly in the shear results tables. This has been corrected. Corrected a problem that could the program to crash under Windows 95, 98 or ME when print previewing a text report. A lot of internal rewriting to improve the ability to extend the program. VERSION 4.18a (released November 5, 2003) Corrected a problem with the minimum shear steel for prestressed beams under ACI318-99 & 02. VERSION 4.18 (released October 21, 2003) The reporting of horizontal interface shear between the beam and topping has been expanded in the shear section of the summary report. Prior to 4.18 only the maximum moment was considered with a shear length, lv, equal to half the span. The average tie requirements over the shear length Av/s was also report. This ignored the presence of negative moments over the supports and the need to properly distribute any required ties in proportion to the shear stirrups (which they are usually an extension of). The report now shows each shear length - both positive and negative bending (peak moment to adjacent point of zero moment) and the total area of ties required. The user will be required to distribute this total properly. The level of shear force transferred is based on the applied moment and not on the ultimate moment resistance. This is particularly important where a small negative moment exists over a bearing with a small shear length, lv. If the ultimate moment resistance needed to be resisted the shear transfer length, lv, would be far too short. [In the future we will be adding the ability to define the stirrup/tie size so that the program can determine the appropriate spacing.] The calculation of fr has been changed to allow linear interpretation of the lambda (concrete density) factor as per the code. It had previously used a step function that could over-estimate the lambda for less that normal density concrete. The above change also included a correction to the strength reduction factor used for horizontal interface shear under ACI 318-02. When entering loads the tab order for inputting linear loads has been changed. Changed the term Mr to phiMu in the conformance notes of the flexural check in the summary code if ACI is selected. Corrected an occasional problem that caused the flexural results to be wrong the first time a report of graph is generated. If the beam was reanalyzed the problem would disappear. Corrected a problem that would cause mouse editing of a cross-section in the section editor to be disrupted by clicking on a button outside of the image window. While editing the section with the mouse all of the other buttons except Cancel are disabled. Corrected a problem that would crash the program when printing sections under Windows NT 4.0. VERSION 4.17a (released September 10, 2003) This a maintenance release that doesn't include any new features. Added some additional license certificates for users that will be licensed beyond September 2004. Fixed a problem with unit conversion when selecting concrete material items from library files that are in different units from the current user input units. Fixed a bug where the X and Y snap settings were reversed. VERSION 4.17 (released September 2, 2003) A new button, labelled "Print", has been added to the Edit Concrete Sections Library dialog. This button will print a one page description of the currently selected item including section properties and polygon list and node coordinates. The print-out will only include data that has been saved to the currently selected item. Therefore any changes you have made to a section item will not be included unless you have "Added" or "Modified" the current item with those changes. In order to streamline the data input we have added a number of buttons in a section of many dialogs labelled "Go To Next ...". These buttons will provide short-cuts to the next logical dialog, or choice of dialogs, in defining the beam. This works similar to the old "Auto-Design" feature of version 3 but gives you more choice. VERSION 4.16 (released July 30, 2003) You now have an option to customize the summary report. That report consists of a series of summary tables of the input, analysis results, and design check results. Using the Customize Summary Report button in the reports dialog you can select which tables are included in the Summary Report. We have finally eliminated the blank page that prints at the end of a text report. Let us know if you still experience this problem. The printing dialog now shows the number of pages in the report so that you can easily select which pages to print, if not all of them. We have reduced the size of the font in the header and footer of the printed text reports in order to free up a bit more page space. Fixed a problem with loss calculations when rebar isn't full length. Fixed the titles in the deflection reports. VERSION 4.15 (released July 21, 2003) When adding nodes to a section in the section editor the new nodes will be snapped to the nearest crossing snap line, if the snap setting is on. Snap settings will be ignored when adding nodes to diagonal lines or if a snap line doesn't occur between the two adjacent nodes. In the prestressing loss parameters dialog, the slump can now be zero. In the trial design dialog, prestressing is now assumed by default as the primary steel reinforcement. The large markers on all of the lines in the graphs have been turned off by default when viewing a graph on screen to remove clutter. They will still show up in printed output, and the print preview screen, since most output is black and white. If you would like to see the markers on-screen then you can select a new option in the View->Preferences dialog which will turn them back on. This setting will be remembered the next time you run Concise Beam. Fixed an incompatibility with Windows NT 4.0 that would cause the program to crash when selecting section sizes in the beam dialog. Corrected a unit conversion problem for the output of shear forces in the case where input force units are different from output shear units. VERSION 4.14 (released July 10, 2003) The transformed area of any embedded rebar and strand are now more consistently included in the beam's section properties. Before this release the steel had only been included in the properties used for prestress loss. The summary report still shows the section properties of a segment without steel since the properties would vary along the length of the beam, and within the segment. An additional text report has been created detailing the transformed section properties along the beam at a user defined reporting frequency. With this change you will notice that stresses, cracking, and deflections are a bit lower. We've added the ability to extract library items, such as concrete cross-sections and rebar materials, from existing problem files and have them added to a library file currently opened for editing. While editing a library file of any type you can click on the "Import" button to import unique folders and items from either the currently open problem file or from another library file on your system or network. We've given up trying to protect the current library files shipped with Concise Beam. Up to now we have required that you save any changes to these files to a new file name. This was supposed to allow us to change the content of these files at some future date. When installed these files were supposed to be write-protected to prevent them being altered by the user. These files would also be over-written each time Concise Beam was reinstalled (i.e. for a new version). We've found that the installation program we were using was not write-protecting these files on a lot of systems. This allowed a lot of users to alter these files. We will no longer try to protect these files and will not automatically over-write any existing files when installing Concise Beam. If we change the content of the standard files in the future we will issue them under a different name. When editing items in the library files you will be asked to confirm whether you want to discard changes to an item before switching items, if not already modified or added. We've made a few additions to the concrete section editor. You can now rotate a polygon or the whole section. This can be useful in determining the minor axis section properties, or defining sections that have a tilted major bending axis (i.e. stadia seating). The second addition is the ability to undo your last edit. We've corrected a problem that would occasionally cause a program crash when trying to select a library item (section or material). It was related to keeping track of the last item selected from any particular library so that it is automatically selected the next time you choose an item from the same library in the future. The program was getting confused if items were deleted from the library or if the library file was over-written by a prior version that didn't contain the item (i.e. on re-installation of the program). We have cleaned up the code that initializes a problem. This has corrected a crashing problem that some Windows 98 users have had trying to load a second problem file. Corrected the negative moment capacity within the development length of a strand. In the prestressing dialog we changed the colour of the prestressing strands that are not selected to grey to easily distinguish them from the currently selected strand. The Library dialog now show file names in long format under Windows 9x. The help file has been brought up-to-date and edited for typos. Let us know if anything doesn't agree with the program. The tutorials are now complete. We're always looking for the need for further or improved tutorials. Your suggestions would be appreciated. Still a lot of cleanup of the original program code (pre version 4) to make it easier to maintain and upgrade. This month's target was the unit conversion code. These changes shouldn't be noticeable by the user. It also corrected a problem in the trial design facility. VERSION 4.13 (released May 27, 2003) With the introduction of wind loads that may reverse in direction we have found that some load combinations may show net effects counter to dead load. To accommodate this we have expanded the load analysis table and graphs to show both maximum and minimum load effect envelopes. The moment design table and graph will also now show both positive and negative strengths at each point where the factored moment may reverse. We rearranged the dialog for resistance/strength reduction factors for the custom code. You will now only see the relevant factors for the base code of your custom code. We've also removed the reference to the ACI318-99 code being equivalent to ACI318-02 Appendix B & C. One substantial difference between them is that the strength reduction factor for flexure of ACI318-99 is based on type of load (axial load or not) while ACI318-02 Appendix C bases the strength reduction factor for flexure on maximum extreme steel strain (unified design provisions). We have elected not to support ACI318-02 Appendix C. We have improved the flexure and shear tables by including a column labelled "Conformance Notes". Any non-conformities such as not meeting minimum strength requirements will be shown in this column with a note reference number. A description of the non-conformity will be shown at the bottom of the table identified by the reference number. With the addition of the "Conformance Notes" column we have removed the "Minimum Resistance Applicable" column from the moment table. The program now does this check for you. Some cross-sections that included points very close together or coincident couldn't be displayed in the 3D window and caused the program to shut down. We have corrected this problem by performing an additional analysis on the section to rearrange these points. This additional analysis will slow down the responsiveness of the 3D display for these types of sections. We recommend that your sections not include coincident or closely situated points in order to avoid this slow-down. Corrected a problem that could affect Vc under ACI. You may see a slight increase in Vc near the supports. We have made an improvement to the determination of effective depth, d, and shear depth, dv, when both prestressed and non-prestressed reinforcement act together. Corrected a problem setting the "High live loading" option in the loading dialog. We are continuing a lot of internal changes aimed at making the program more flexible for future improvements. Most of these would not be noticeable to the user. The last three tutorials are almost done and will be included in the next release in June. If there is anything you are having trouble understanding please contact us and we will give detailed instructions or explanations. VERSION 4.12a (released April 21, 2003) Correction in the reporting of minimum flexural resistance for negative bending. Correction in the calculation of flexural moment where the curvature is of opposite sign between SLS and ULS. Correction in the amount of shear steel required under the CSA code. Made the library files read-only again. VERSION 4.12 (released April 18, 2003) The deflection table in the summary report has been expanded to separate the instantaneous deflections from the deflections at transfer. This has always been confusing. Another column showing deflections at the completion of construction has also been added to illustrate the basis for the long-term DL growth to the final deflection. The completion deflections are taken to be the same as the erection deflections with no interim growth. Changed the shear steel tables so that they now report the total amount of additional longitudinal steel required for torsion for the entire section. The allowable reduction in this additional steel in the compression zone is report separately. In previous versions we had divided the additional steel required between the top and bottom of the beam and applied the reduction to which ever half was in compression. This was rather crude and confusing. The new tables now read better with the code provisions. Corrected the minimum amount of longitudinal rebar required for torsion under ACI. Corrected some of the labelling in the moment resistance table for the ACI codes. Corrected the inclusion of sustained live load in the reactions. Corrected a bug that could cause a crash when Modifying a rebar group when there are no existing rebar group. The program will now Add the new rebar group instead of modifying a nonexistent one. VERSION 4.11a (released April 3, 2003) Corrected the labelling in the deflection reports. VERSION 4.11 (released April 2, 2003) Corrected a problem with beams with only partial length prestress (i.e. dapped end beams). Corrected a problem with modifying a beam segment in the beam dialog. The segment could in some circumstances use out-of-date data. A number of internal changes to enhance the maintainability of the program. VERSION 4.10b (released March 19, 2003) Fixes a few old bugs that have just been reported, library file names had been limited to 16 characters. This has now been increased to 256 characters, cracking in a beam that is in negative bending over it full length would cause a crash when displaying the Summary Report, the maximum moment of long span beams would not always be maximized near midspan. The same bug also caused the shear diagram, Vc, to look ragged in some spots under CSA A23.3. VERSION 4.10a (released March 18, 2003) Minor internal change. VERSION 4.10 (released March 18, 2003) Added ACI318-02 to list of supported design codes. Due to substantial changes related to support for ACI318-02 a new file format has been created for the problem files. It still uses the *.con extension but cannot be read by versions of Concise Beam prior to version 4.10. Version 4.10 will read files created by Concise Beam versions 3.x & 4.00x. Files will now be saved in the new file format. All of your custom code parameters are now saved when you select "Save Current Settings". These values will always be your custom factors unless you explicitly revert to a base code (i.e. ACI318-99) and save the options. The "Custom Code" dialog also allows you to reset any changes made to the custom code parameters to these saved values. There are three new load cases - roof loads (live load, rain, snow), wind (vertical component), and fluid weight. A fourth load case, strain, has also been added but is not yet available for use. These load cases were required to support ACI 318-02 but can be used with any of the design codes. There a number of new load combinations added to the program to accommodate the service and strength loading states. The two service load combinations are for the total sustained load, and total load, including unsustained loads (i.e. live load, rain, etc). These have always existed but are more explicit and include the new load cases. There are also ten strength (ultimate limit state) load combinations that allow for the variety of load case combinations required by each code. By default not all ten load combinations are used under each code. You can create your own combinations under the custom code. This will be extended to the standard codes in the future. The load factors for each load case/combination are reported to the user and can be edited if you select the custom code option. An additional strength load combination is also included that represents the maximum envelope of the ten individual load combinations for each load effect. This is the governing load combination used for all strength checks. Other changes - all tables that report results along the beam now include the support locations and midspan in addition to the evenly spaced sections. - the flexural design reports have been updated. - maximum flexural steel spacing to control cracking is now shown for the ACI codes. - you can now import a library file into another library file being edited. This will allow you to consolidate a number of separate files. - the debonded portion of a strand can now lie outside of the beam. - the debonded portion of the strand is now shown dashed in the prestressing dialog. - the 3D view window has been adjusted to show the beam better when the window is narrow or tall. - added an option to the Calculation Options dialog under the Options menu to force the Summary Report to report deflections at midspan and at the end of cantilevers regardless of where the maximum and minimum deflection are. - increased the size of the markers on the graph lines for clarity. - a few adjustments and small bug fixes. [VERSION number 4.009 was skipped] VERSION 4.008c (released February 4, 2003) Corrected a bug that prevented the display of the concrete cross-section in the "Edit Concrete Section Dialog" of the beam dialog if no segments were defined. It also corrects a unit conversion problem with the default shear steel. VERSION 4.008b (released January 22, 2003) Corrected a bug that prevented the display of graphs or reports before the beam is reinforced or prestressed. A number of internal changes preparing the program to support ACI318-02. VERSION 4.008a (released January 21, 2003) Added a new license certificate allowing for 60 day non-commercial license usage. VERSION 4.008 (released January 16, 2003) This is an interim release before the release of the ACI318-02 capable version of Concise Beam to address a few changes and corrections. You no longer have to explicitly perform the load analysis. The load analysis will be performed automatically once the basic beam is defined (i.e. when leaving the Beam Definition dialog). The analysis will be updated with each subsequent change to the definition of the beam for change in analysis parameters (when leaving an applicable dialog). The Load Analysis dialog is now just used to set the number of divisions along the beam, though if you change this value the analysis will be updated when you leave that dialog. The load analysis is very quick and should not slow the program noticeably. This allows us to stop saving the analysis results in the problem file. This makes the problem file very small and allows us to change the internal analysis structure without changing the problem file format (*.con). We've phased out the use of the user-defined flange properties in the concrete section. These values weren't used for much recently and have been removed to simplify the creation of sections and to eliminate a potential source of problems if these values weren't set properly. Concise Beam will now calculate section properties as required. The summary report now includes the height of the segment (non-composite and composite) in the section properties table. The live load deflections have been improved and now agree with example problems in the PCI and CPCI references. There is also an option available that can be set by the user to allow the section properties (cracked or not) at midspan to be used to calculate the deflections throughout the length of the beam. The program would normally calculate the section properties at each section of the beam accounting for cracking at each section. This option allows users to compare the results of Concise Beam to hand calculations that generally assume the mid-span section properties for the full length of the beam. Using the mid-span properties will lead to larger deflections since the whole length of the beam will be assumed cracked if the beam is cracked at mid-span. Shear steel requirements (not minimum steel) for thin slabs are now shown properly where they are required for strength. VERSION 4.007 (released December 16, 2002) Added the version number of the program to the main window title to make it easier to know which version is used. Loads now have a default name created for you of the form "Load #x" where x is the next available load number starting with 1. A lot of internal changes in preparation for support of ACI318-02 (hopefully available in the next release). There are a few additions to the problem reporting system used by the program when it crashes due to problems with the computer or the program. Adjusted the way minimum torsion steel is sized in the absence of shear stirrups (i.e. for slabs). Adjusted the minimum concrete shear strength for prestressed beams under ACI. Corrected a few problems reporting the right unit of measure in the text reports. Previous versions had made sure that the height of a strand is the same at each end of the beam (at the bulkheads). This restriction has been removed and it's now up to the user to ensure they accept different heights of the beam ends. All previous versions of Concise Beam have not accounted for a change in section (height of neutral axis) on the internal prestressing forces. This has been corrected. VERSION 4.006a (released November 18, 2002) Added the ability for the program to continue to run without OpenGL support. Corrected the handling of inputting out-of-range numbers in the custom code dialogs. VERSION 4.006 (released November 7, 2002) Adjusted the precision of the deflection reports so that small numbers are more evident. Reviewed the shear design section including the calculation of needed stirrups under shear and torsion. Corrected an occasional problem with Vc under ACI when torsion is acting. Corrected a problem with prestress losses under large negative moments (i.e. long cantilevers). A lot of internal clean-up that shouldn't be evident to the user. VERSION 4.005 (released October 25, 2002) The program now remembers the last selection you made from any particular library files so that you don't have to hunt for it through the folders if you use it often. There is now an option in the Preferences dialog of the View menu to have all open reports and graphs close automatically when they become non-current. The prestressing dialog has changed to allow you to enter the height of the strand in a single field in the main dialog without having to edit the profile (in a separate dialog). If you want to add hold-downs to get a harped profile you'll still need to edit the profile. We're still looking at options to make adding hold-downs easier. Before editing a profile set the height of the tendon (i.e. height at the bulkheads) first. We have started a review of the deflections. As a first step we have rearranged the reporting of span/deflection ratios in the Summary report to make them more useful. Work is on-going. You suggestions are welcome. We want to report the deflections in the span and cantilever, if appropriate, instead of one or the other. We will also add end rotations and longitudinal deformations (i.e. elastic shortening). We also want to make the deflections at various stages clearer. The 3D display no longer shows the topping when the option "Do Not Include Topping" is selected in the Concrete Topping dialog (Define/Topping Definition command). Fixed a bug that caused a crash when creating a new concrete section library. Fixed a bug that caused a crash when Modifying a non-existent beam segment. Will now Add the segment instead of trying to Modify it. Also affects loads. Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the program to hang when displaying analysis reports with all of the sections selected. Made a few adjustments and corrections to the Concrete Section Library dialog and section editor. VERSION 4.004 (released October 7, 2002) Renamed the help file to the Concise Beam manual. It is our intention to make the context-sensitive on-line help file complete enough to act as the program manual. We elected not to have a separate printed manual due to the method of distributing the program, through the Internet, and the regular updating of the program which would have necessitated issuing paper manual addenda. An on-line manual is easier to distribute and, most importantly, easier to keep up-to-date. Manual pages can be printed if needed as required. The first two tutorials are now complete and included in the manual. There are some temporary helpful links in the remaining three tutorials. The second tutorial is the most important in learning the general use of the program. Fixed a few broken hypertext links in the manual. Miscellaneous editing of the manual. A few corrections to the concrete section editor. Adding nodes to polygon edges is now more reliable. There had been instances where you could not add a node to some edges. This should no longer be a problem. Nodes added to diagonal or slanted edges will now lie on the edge and not where you clicked. This allows more precision in adding nodes. Expanded the names of some of the Options menu commands. Made some layout changes to some of the dialogs to make them clearer. Fix a bug that could cause the program to crash when using metric units with the ACI code. The crash would occur the first time you try to look at a graph or text report after an analysis. This is when the program needs to perform the design check calculations. Increased the number of decimal places in the coordinates shown in the status bar when moving the mouse over a graph. A lot of minor changes or corrections. VERSION 4.003 (released September 24, 2002) The license key is now shown hidden in the Problem Title and License dialog. The actual key is shown as a series of asterisks. If you're inputting a new license key you can just over-write the asterisks. When the key is installed you'll just see the asterisk again. This is meant to prevent an unauthorized user from copying the license key. It also fixes a problem a few users have had entering the first segment into a new beam in the Beam dialog. VERSION 4.002 (released September 16, 2002) Corrected a problem with the highlighting of items in some of the lists (i.e. the list of beam segments in the Beam dialog). VERSION 4.001 (released September 3, 2002) Corrected an error that may cause Concise Beam version 3 to stop working, if installed. The error occurs in the version 4.0 which overwrites the customer user name when the user selects "Save Company and Engineer's Names as Default" in the "Problem Title and License" dialog. If that name is different from that used to register version 3, as you should be able to do, then version 3 will trash it's license. Unfortunately version 3 doesn't give you a way to recover from this. If this has happened to you, you will have to reinstall version 3 from the CD provided by CPCI in order to re-input the license information. You can then reinstall the version 3.5a upgrade available from the web site. Please note that the user and company names are tied to the license serial number. You must use the user, company, and serial number sent to you by CPCI (it is case sensitive). VERSION 4.0 (released August 16, 2002) Provided a more meaningful dialog explaining why the current release of Concise Beam can't load files created by Concise Beam version 1 or 2. We hope to add support for those formats soon[cancelled]. Corrected the title on printed graphs. Corrected a problem in the ACI shear calculations where prestressed beams would be assumed to be non-prestressed if the effective prestress was low (i.e. in the transfer length of the strand). This was not consistent with the detailed shear calculations performed by Concise Beam. Corrected a problem where the spacing of interface shear stirrups was given in the wrong units (i.e. in feet instead of inches). Adjusted the scaling of data in the graphs so that maximum values of less than 1.0 fill out the graph more. Changed the selection of analysis graphs by automatically selecting all of the available load cases. [Change in ownership of Concise Beam from CPCI to Black Mint Software, August 2002] ***************************************************************** Changes to each public beta release of version 4.0 (to August 2002) ***************************************************************** VERSION 4 beta release 10 (released July 31, 2002) A new license manager, Armadillo, will be used for the commercial release of Concise Beam. This manager is also keeping track of the time-out of this beta release. This manager will work outside of Concise Beam, therefore you will see that license management has been removed from the Define/Title dialog. Existing users that upgrade to version 4 will receive a new license key. By popular demand, you can now scroll through the available graphs (either design or analysis) in an open graph window using the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys. I've placed a reminder of this in the window title bar for now. Scrolling is disabled if the graph window become "not current". I'll add a graphical control to allow use of the mouse when I can. In the concrete section editor you can now move all of the section's polygons at the same time. I hope to soon add the ability to undo changes made while editing. I've rewritten the shear calculations. Under ACI, Vc will now correctly give higher figures than with Concise Beam v3.5. This was due to a correction in the simplified method and a check against the detailed method (the highest value is used). More detail is provided in the shear reports. Fixed a bug that caused the program to crash under Windows 98 (1st edition) when generating graphs after a print job. Added additional mouse controls to the 3D view of the beam and the concrete section editor. In both views scrolling the mouse up and down with the right mouse button depressed will cause the image to zoom in or out. Scrolling the mouse in any direction with both the left and right mouse buttons depressed will cause the image to pan with the mouse pointer. The ends of each beam segment in the 3D view are now closed. The beam segments had previously been left open. I was surprised no one every commented on this! A few minor memory leaks have been eliminated. VERSION 4 beta release 9 (released May 7, 2002) Fixed a bug that would cause a crash when using metric units with the ACI code. Using Imperial (English) units with the CSA would cause a miscalculation of the cracking moment. We have gotten a few reports of program crashes that we can't reproduce at our office. These reports seem to be limited to users with Windows 98 or ME. A new facility has been added to the program that will hopefully catch these crashes and give the user an opportunity to save their work before the program automatically closes. This facility will also generate a problem report that can be e-mailed to Black Mint along with the problem file. Hopefully this report will give us a chance to solve the problem when it can't reproduced in our office. Some minor fixes. VERSION 4 beta release 8 (released February 7, 2002) The selection of report spacing in the Text Reports has been corrected. Corrections to the rounding of numbers to zero in the Text Reports. The design reports are now shown initially in the Reports dialog if the design check was completed. Otherwise the analysis reports will be shown initially. Deflection for Dead Load After Topping have been corrected where a beam is composite. Section editor now correctly limits node list to 24 nodes per polygon. (The 24 node limit can be a little restrictive but is deeply ingrained in the library files and program. Hopefully it can be increased in the future. For now you must use more that one adjacent polygon to model a section with more than 24 nodes.) The Section Editor has been corrected to allow polygons to touch each other in order to represent a larger polygon. The Apply button in the Section Editor's Current Polygon node list has been reinstated to provide more flexible editing through the node list. Lists now ensure that selected items remain visible in the list. If rebar or prestressing material properties have been entered in the Trial Design dialog then they will be used by default in the Rebar and Prestressing dialogs. Lists of library folders and items are now sorted alphanumerically. Some item names in the standard libraries have changed in order to sort properly. You may find that some of your older problem files complain that the item, under the old name, is no longer available. This won't affect your problem file. Library files can use long file names properly. You can now select all Canadian or American libraries with one click regardless of the selected libraries saved by the user with the new "Select Standard Libraries" in the Library dialog. The program will select Canadian libraries when working in metric and American libraries when working in Imperial. Values of the unit of measure "mm^2/mm" now display three decimal places in the text Reports. I would still recommend using mm^2/m though. Values of the unit of measure "in^2/ft" now display two decimal places in the text Reports. When editing prestressing profiles you are only nagged once to modify the strand group on return to the Prestressing Dialog. Values using the unit of measure "ksi" are now shown to two decimal places in the text reports. Reference to the Ultimate condition for deflections/cambers has been changed to Final to avoid confusion with the ultimate limit state. There have been a number of comments that the design graphs are harder to get to in comparison with version 3.x. Due to limited time we may not be able to address this now. Keep in mind that in version 4 you can access any design graph in two clicks (the second is a double click) using the toolbar icon. In version 3.5 it was one or two clicks depending on the graph you wanted to see. Version 4 gives greater control over how the graphs are shown and compared. The cracking moment has been corrected for negative bending. The modulus of rupture for ACI has reverted to 7.5 * sqrt(f'c) in Imperial. In metric it will be 0.62 * sqrt(f'c) which is a hard conversion from 7.5. The metric edition of ACI gives a value of 0.7 which is a very soft conversion of 7.5. We feel that 0.62 is more in keeping with the intended conversion. ACI is reviewing their use of 0.7 instead of 0.62. I've made the 3D image of the beam a little darker. I hope to add colour palette control in the future. Some minor fixes. VERSION 4 beta release 7 (released December 21, 2001) Concise Beam now remembers how large it was when it was last closed, including whether it was maximized to the full size of the screen. I have elected not to maximize the size of the initial window (the 3D view) with the Concise Beam window. This gives a visual reminder to the user that the program can now show multiple windows (the 3D beam, graphs, reports) which can be arranged, tiled, and cascaded. This is a major change from previous versions of Concise Beam. The dialog for selecting the Library File Directory Path has been changed to make it simpler. You no longer have to select a library file to set the path. Just go to the directory you would like and click select. You can also create a new directory from this dialog. Graphs are now in colour on the screen though still print in black and white. The spacing of the markers on the graph lines changes so that you can still see them when zoomed in. The zero line is now bolder. The legend for the Flexural and Shear Design graphs has been corrected (the two graph lines where labelled the wrong way around). The design graphs are now shown initially in the Graph dialog if the design check was completed. Otherwise the analysis graphs will be shown initially. All of the menus now show up correctly when running under Windows NT 4.0. Crack width calculations have been fine-tuned a bit more. Concise Beam is now less sensitive to how your serial number was originally entered (i.e. "123-456-789" is as good as "123 456 789"). More checks have been added to ensure that strands are properly defined. The text has been removed from the top of the 3D window. When you Reset the 3D beam image it no longer grows to the point where the front right corner of the beam is cut off from view. Numerous minor fixes. VERSION 4 beta release 6 (released November 22, 2001) The context sensitive help files are now complete. You can press the F1 key to get help related to the portion of the program you are in. UPGRADE REVISIONS FROM VERSION 3.5a to 4.0 (February 2001 to November 2001 - up to beta release 5) - System Changes Completely rewritten to use MS Windows 95/NT 4 and later standard interface. Updated to 32 bit Windows (now requires Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000 or XP). Correction of memory /resource leakage requiring frequent reboots in version 3.5. Provision of a list of mostly recently accessed file list to quickly load recently used files. Toolbar tips to identify toolbar buttons. Ability to use extended file names (no 8.3 character name limit). Print preview. The Autosave option now saves the problem after leaving each dialog. Concise Beam will now open to the window to the size it was last open at. - Input Changes Program no longer deletes rebar and strand data when the beam is changed. The adjustments can be crude and need to be checked by the user. Improved library management within one dialog, including ability to specify the location of the library directory for libraries to be shared among different users (i.e. on a networked drive). The offset of rebar from the bottom of the beam has been clarified and corrected to be from the physical bottom of the beam regardless of the Y offset value of the beam segment (i.e. from the bottom form). Prestressing strands are offset from the baseline which is the bottom of the beam when the Y offset is zero (i.e. from the stressing bed). Hooks can now be specified at the ends of the bars to give a development length of zero. Coated rebar can now be specified for correct calculation of development length. A development and transfer length of zero can be specified for prestressing strand to simulate an anchorage. No anchorage set is accounted for. This can be used to simulate post-tensioning, though user defined losses will be required to include anchorage set and friction. Beam can now be embedded in topping. Beam and support dialogs have been combined. A section's properties can be viewed from within the Beam Dialog. Improvements to the Section Editor (added moving and copying of polygons). Polygons can now be immediately adjacent to each other to simulate a more complex polygon. Shear steel is assumed to be 400 MPa (60 ksi) by default. This can be over-ridden in each segment. Reinforcing and prestressing materials entered in the Trial Design dialog are now used as a default in the Reinforcing Steel and Prestressing dialogs. - Calculation Changes Added PCI Loss calculation method. User is no longer required to initiate Design Check. It is completed automatically when appropriate. Calculation of rebar development length corrected to latest CSA and ACI code provisions including account for epoxy coating. Compression development length now considered. Corrected maximum concrete compressive strain for CSA to 0.0035. Program no longer stores maximum rebar yield strain which had been used as the maximum concrete compressive strain anyway. Rewrote the crack calculation code. The Gergely-Lutz equation is used for non-prestressed members. A modified Gergley-Lutz equation is used for partially prestressed beams accounting for the type of rebar and prestressing strand used near the tension face (as per paper by Suri & Dilger, ACI Journal, Sept. 1986). This should solve the problem of erroneously large cracks over the supports and excessive crack widths at mid span. Rewrote shear calculations. Under ACI Vc will now correctly give higher figures than with Concise Beam v3.5. This was do to a correction in the simplified method and a check against the detailed method (the highest value is used). More shear detail is provided in the reports. Corrected display and use of shear depth, dv. Corrected errors in deflection calculations and reports, particularly total deflections at stripping and erection /topping placement for non-prestressed beams. Version 3.5 had also used the composite section properties for all loads for non-prestressed beams. This has now been corrected. Shoring now has an effect for non-prestressed beams. Corrected a problem where the self-weight of a topping was still being imposed on a beam after the topping had been removed. Corrected errors in calculation of section properties. Corrected error in prestress moment calculation where the strands are debonded. Now properly models transfer length. Corrected errors in loss calculations to the General Method. Corrected errors in trial design that prevented an answer with certain combinations of design code and system of units (i.e. CSA & imperial or ACI & metric). - Table Changes (Reports) Now referred to as Reports. Full cut, copy and paste from text reports to and from clipboard. Undo is available for the reports. User may view more than one report at a time. Text reports remain available between runs to perform what-if scenarios (old reports are marked "not current"). Engineering notation for display of large or small numbers instead of scientific notation. This should make it easier to read the output and will be less error-prone. Correction of the report of the Prestress Losses - Individual Values. Stresses and forces now reported. Revised stress summary table with indication of overstress. Stress reports now show stress limit along with total stress. More detail shown in shear design check report. Additional longitudinal steel for torsion is now reported separately at top and bottom of beam to allow reduction in the required steel in the compression zone (CSA). New reports containing details for deflection calculations. Amount of tensile rebar required to resist tensile stresses at release is now reported at each point along the beam. The amount of rebar provided in the tensile zone is also reported so that the user can determine if extra steel is required. - Diagram Changes (Graphs) Now referred to as Graphs. User may view more than one graph at a time. Can scroll between available graphs in a graph window while it is still current. Graphs remain available between runs to perform what-if scenarios (old graphs are marked "not current"). Correction of Prestress Force Graphs. User can select what load cases can be plotted on the same analysis results graph. Improved labelling and printing of graphs. - Miscellaneous Changes Lists of library folders and items are now sorted alpha-numerically. Some item names in the standard libraries have changed in order to sort properly. You may find that some of your older problem files complain that the item, under the old name, is no longer available. This won't affect your problem file. Full user manual now integrated with context sensitive on-line help system. 3D view now includes topping and is easier to zoom rotate and pan. A large series of verification problems based on the CPCI Manual and PCI Handbook, and other standard references, have been made available for distribution with the program. (in progress) Introductory splash screen can be interrupted. The design check results are no longer stored to disk meaning smaller data files. Problem file format has changed. The program is backward compatible but not forward. A file created with a version of the program prior to version 4 can be read in version 4. A file saved by version 4 cannot be read by a previous version of the program. Extensive code changes to improve maintainability and extensibility. VERSION 3.5a (February 2001) (interim maintenance release by Black Mint Software for CPCI) Corrected speed decrease on execution of design solution. VERSION 3.5 (January 2001) (interim maintenance release by Black Mint Software for CPCI) Date shown in output corrected for Y2K. Correction of bug that would crash program during display of shear results in tables or summary. Corrected output of load combinations in the load summary. Eliminated need for library files to have their archive bit set in order to be seen by the program. General code cleanup. [Change of developer from Wintronics to Black Mint Software under contract to CPCI, September 2000] VERSION 3.4 (limited release by Wintronics Inc. for CPCI) Additions for sustained live load. Correction of torsion calculation for ACI code. VERSION 3.3 (released by Wintronics Inc. for CPCI) USA Shear Vc calculation (missing phi factor), also update to ACI 318-99. Torsional validation check correction. Deflections for non-prestress beams for USA Standard. Concrete crack width calculations. VERSION 3.2 (released by Wintronics Inc. for CPCI) USA Shear (ACI Standard) - Spacing for stirrups corrected. USA Torsion (ACI Standard) - Now displays values for Tcr and Al (longitudinal tors. reinf.) Library Setup - default libraries now being saved. Now displays all of the results at the end of the beam. Concrete Strength at Release (f'ci) - new settings : - for concrete strength f'c below 40 MPa (5700 psi) - f'ci = 70% of f'c at 28 days. - for concrete strength f'c above 40 MPa (5700 psi) - f'ci = 65% of f'c at 28 days. VERSION 3.1 (released by Wintronics Inc. for CPCI) Problem with forces in strands and values of stresses - created some "jumps" in values. Crashing of the program when very short strands were used has been corrected. Shear values at the end of segmented beams has been corrected. Crack width calculations for non-prestressed members has been corrected. Values of calculated losses and forces in strands - errors in unit conversion when displayed have been corrected. Torsional cracking resistance for composite section (CSA) and "Torsion dimension check violation" message was always displayed. The calculation of Al for longitudinal steel for prestressed members (ACI) has been corrected.