Problem Description

When I try to open STAAD Foundation Advanced from STAAD.Pro, I get the message "Could not Open STAAD Foundation Adv application".

Steps to Resolve

Reinstall STAAD Foundation Advance; if you think this was installed before, it must have been removed/uninstalled or the folder has been renamed.

Software Download Instructions

P.S. This applied for STAAD.foundation too.

See Also

Structural Analysis Wiki

Important Announcement:

At Bentley, we believe that quality has a much higher importance than keeping a release date for a new product. For existing products, our release dates are paramount, but when dealing with a brand new and complex engineering software product like STAAD(X) solid is better than fast.

That is why after careful consideration and the desire to add incremental value to STAAD.Pro, we are making a strategic adjustment in our STAAD(X) roadmap and release date. We will take advantage of the powerful new modeling capabilities already available in the STAAD(X) development to deliver a new optional front-end to STAAD.Pro. This will be a powerful and friendly physical modeler (or SPPM), which we can bring to market in late Q3 of this year. This modeler will allow for more efficient modeling of geometry and loading, as well as having full structural mesh capability to help minimize issues in STAAD.Pro related to mesh compatibility. The SPPM will also offer state of the art visualization and much improved interoperability (including surfaces) through the physical model. This integration will have some constraints and limitations to ensure round tripping fidelity to STAAD.Pro files, but users will have control to decide on the use of physical or analytical modeling (including the Text Editor).

The current state of STAAD(X) allows us to immediately begin an official Technology Preview release to a limited audience. This will allow testing and feedback of its modeling capabilities as well as imports from STAAD.Pro, RAM Elements and Multiframe models.

Please stay tuned to the updates on this website about the SPPM and STAAD(X) in general.

1. When will STAAD(X) be released?

A:         The intended release date is Q1 2017

2. Can I continue to use older products?

A:         Yes of course. During the transition phase (likely to be one year), you’ll be able to use your existing STAAD.Pro, RAM Elements, Multiframe, Microstran or QSE along with STAAD(X) interchangeably with the same license.

3. Will older products still be supported?

A:         When we launch STAAD(X) in Q1 2017, we will stop development on the aforementioned products (except STAAD.Pro, read below). However, we will continue to provide tech support for them.

4. What will happen to STAAD.Pro?

A:         STAAD.Pro will continue to coexist with STAAD(X) for many years and will continue to be developed, enhanced and supported until all its functionality is completely ported to STAAD(X).

How does STAAD.Pro check for convergence in a Pdelta Analysis ?

The convergence is checked by comparing the displacements along each dof between successive analysis iterations. If the change in the displacements are lesser than a certain tolerance value, the solution is considered as converged. In general the default tolerance used should be good enough. If one ever needs to change the tolerance value, there is a SET PDELTA TOLERANCE xx command that can be inserted before the JOINT COORDINATES where xx denotes the tolerance in current units of length. The default value for this tolerance is 0.01 inch.

There is also an alternative type of tolerance check which computes the change in Euclidean norm of displacements between two consecutive iterations and compares that to a preset tolerance value. This tolerance can be set using the SET DISPLACEMENT xx command which again has to be placed before the JOINT COORDINATES command. The default value for this tolerance is maximum structure dimension divided by 120. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to set an appropriate value for that sort of a tolerance and so it is more convenient to go with the first option.

More details on these set commands can be found at section 5.5of the technical reference titled Set Command Specification. In addition, the section 5.37.2of the technical reference manual titled P-Delta Analysis Optionscontains more details on the convergence methods discussed above.

Can I model, analyze and design retaining walls in STAAD.Pro ?

One can model retaining walls in STAAD.Pro using solids elements or plate elements. If the objective of the analysis is to get the support reactions, joint displacements, concrete stress etc. then modeling with solid elements can be pursued. However one should keep in mind that although modeling with solid elements can create very accurate models but the meshing options available within STAAD.Pro when it comes to solid modeling is little limited which makes modeling with solids a little more involved compared to modeling with plates. Apart from the difficulty with respect to modeling, using solid elements has another disadvantage which is that you cannot get moments from the analysis as solids do not have rotational dofs at the nodes.

So if the objective of the analysis is to get the moments and to design reinforcements, in addition to the other output mentioned in the paragraph above, modeling with plate elements would be the way to go. In general if the cross section of the wall is tapered, modeling of it can be simplified if one uses an average uniform thickness rather than a varying thickness to simulate the trapezoidal cross section. One can specify plates of varying thickness too but only the modeling would be more involved as in that case, at every increment along the height of the wall, one would need to specify the thickness. The toe, heel and counterforts could be modeled with plate elements as well. Loads can be applied using the hydrostatic option or the pressure load on full plates option available within Plate Loads. Although STAAD.Pro does not have a specific design for retaining walls but based on the moments calculated from the FE Analysis, it can calculate reinforcement requirement as per various concrete design codes like the ACI 318, IS 456, CAN/CSA A23.3 etc.

I have defined a number of design parameters in my file but STAAD.Pro does not consider these for design. What could be the reason ?

For the design parameters to be honored in the design process, these parameters should be located ahead of the design command in the input command file. The best way to check that would be to go to the input editor ( Edit > Edit Input Command File ) and check the order in which the commands are written. The following examples show the correct and incorrect locations for the design parameters

Correct location for design parameters ahead of the design command ( CHECK CODE )

…

PARAMETER 1

CODE AISC UNIFIED 2010

METHOD ASD

LY 5 MEMB 1 TO 10

LZ 15 MEMB 1 TO 10

UNT 5 MEMB 1 TO 10

CHECK CODE ALL

FINISH

Incorrect location for design parameters after the design command ( CHECK CODE ) – design will not honor these

…

PARAMETER 1

CODE AISC UNIFIED 2010

METHOD ASD

CHECK CODE ALL

LY 5 MEMB 1 TO 10

LZ 15 MEMB 1 TO 10

UNT 5 MEMB 1 TO 10

FINISH

Although the above example relates to steel design and the US design code but the same is true for Concrete Design as well as ALL international design codes.

Problem Description

When trying to access Connection design within STAAD.pro SELECT Series 5 or 6, you may be stopped with an error, No license for Ram Connection is available. Only simple Beam-Column connections available for usage."

Solution

From inside the start-up page of STAAD.Pro, click on the Configuration option as shown next 

 Go to the Misc. Options tab, check the box for "Use Ram Connection Product License".

If the option is already checked, try un-checking it, clicking Apply, then re-checking it and clicking Apply again followed by Accept.

If the problem persists, make sure that at least one RAM Connection license is available in the License Management Tool.

P.S. There have been few cases, where un-checking / re-checking and clicking Apply followed by Accept has not saved the information and it has remained checked ; in that case, uninstall STAAD.Pro and reinstall it with full administrative privileges (right-click on the installation file and select the option "Run as administrator", though you are logged in as the administrator). Now go to the configuration, uncheck the box, click on apply and then re-check it , click on apply, followed by accept. Now RAM Connection should work fine.

See Also

Tips for Using RAM Connection within STAAD.Pro [TN].

[[How do I prevent access to the RAM Connection tab within STAAD.Pro?]]

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Generally, we do not model floor slabs in STAAD.Pro. Floor slabs can effectively be modelled using plate elements. But, having plates in the models induces a lot of other problems. Discretization of larger elements into the smaller parts are also required in this process the adjoining beams are also divided. The analysis time gets increased as you have higher numbers of elements present in the model. The interpretation of analysis and design results for the broken beams becomes difficult. It can be understood that if we don’t model slab using plates we are simply ignoring the stiffness of the slabs. There is another thing that we need to consider if modelling. There are two distinct load path in a structure- vertical load path and lateral load path. The following picture explains this.

There is no major problem in applying Floor loads in the model. It gets transferred to floor beams and then, it is transferred to the columns. Columns transfer that to the footings. It can be seen that the vertical load path is being maintained. In case of lateral load path, the slabs play the role of diaphragm and gets displaced against the lateral loads. Slab- moment resisting frame connections gets the forces from the diaphragm. We can somehow maintain the vertical load path but lateral load path gets hampered if we don’t model any diaphragm in the model. Generally, the internal force i.e, the seismic loads are applied at the center of mass and if there is any difference in between the center of mass and center of rigidity, the floor will experience torsional forces which simply effects the corner columns. 

Go to the Edit menu, and choose Edit Input Command File.

1) Locate the line which says SET Z UP. Remove that line, or, put an asterisk in the first column of that line.

2) After all the member incidences have been defined, add the following command,

PERFORM ROTATION X -90

3) For the JOINT LOADS, all loads that are applied along FZ should be changed so they are along FY.

4) For the JOINT LOADS, all loads that are applied along FY should be changed so they are along negative FZ.

5) For MEMBER and ELEMENT LOADS, all loads which are applied along GZ should be changed so they are along GY.

6) For MEMBER and ELEMENT LOADS, all loads which are applied along GY should be changed so they are along negative GZ.

Similar switching has to be made wherever parameters for steel and timber design have been specified, such as KY, KZ, LY and LZ.

Save and exit the STAAD editor.

The orientation of the structure should now look proper on the screen.

Click the link below to launch the Staad model

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Staad Output File.

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Example of a Finite Element Model

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Problem Description

A COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working error occurs during a process, like opening an existing file or designing concrete columns.

Reason

Virus scan software is preventing one of the program EXE files from executing the command.

Solution

Exclude the RAM Structural System EXEs from virus protection. These file are saved in the Prog folder of the root RAM Structural System program files directory (C:\Program Files\Bentley\Engineering\RAM Structural System\Prog. In the case of concrete column design, other files are saved in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Bentley\Engineering\BiaxialInteraction

Limcon is productivity-geared steel connection design software. Connection types include beam to column, brace end, member splices, anchorage to concrete, and complicated multi-member joints. By using a library of standard connection types, designers can arrive at results in a remarkably short time.

Vist the Limcon Product Page for additional information on this product.

• Comprehensive limit state design to a number of international standards.

• Shear and moment connections, member splices, brace end connections, base plates, and hollow section connections.

• Connections may be automatically designed by the program or you can specifically design them.

• Concise calculation summary, reporting results for all relevant limit states.

• Output to CAD format directly from design.

Download a full list [PDF] of the specific connection types available in Limcon's template library.

Videos

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I am doing a Pdelta Analysis using STAAD.Pro. When I double click on a member to see the shear/bending results, I get different answers compared to what is being reported in the Postprocessing tables for the same member. Why is that and which one should I use ?

The member query dialog box uses it’s own algorithm to calculate the bending/shear forces at the beam intermediate section locations and these values are not fetched from the analysis engine. This algorithm cannot fully account for the second order effects and hence when analysis like PDELTA, PDLETA KG, DIRECT ANALYSIS etc. are carried out, the values reported by the member query dialog box may be different than what is reported by the postprocessing tables or Beam > Graphs page in the postprocessing mode. The postprocessing table and beam graphs page values are directly fetched from the analysis engine and hence these are accurate for any analysis including second order.

So to summarize, one can use the results from the member query for a first order analysis ( PERFORM ANALYSIS ). For a second order analysis like PDELTA, PDLETA KG, or DIRECT ANALYSIS one should always use the postprocessing tables or the Beam > Graphs page.

test

Problem Description

A bug was discovered in RAM Concept 6.0.1 that, while very rare, causes a surface load to be ignored in the analysis. The condition in which this happens is with surface load polygons shaped like the one below.

If points 1 and 2 are located as shown in the sketch below, the entire load polygon will be excluded from the analysis.

The magnitude of the dimension Very Small Distance is on the order of 0.01" (0.25 mm) or less. The defect manifests only if both point 1 and point 2 are within Very Small Distance of the adjacent segment.

The program does give a coincidental indication that something is wrong. The hatching within the surface load polygon is only shown within a portion of the polygon.

Where can I find the STAAD.Pro verification documents related to the AISC 360 code implementation ?

As far as analysis is concerned, the STAAD.Pro analysis has been validated against the benchmark problems published by AISC as part of the AISC 360 specification. The details are available at

http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural/structural_analysis___design/w/structural_analysis_and_design__wiki/20435.benchmark-problems

In addition, AISC has published a set of design verification examples for the 360 specifications which can be downloaded from the AISC website for free.

http://www.aisc.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=29596

The design in STAAD.Pro has been validated against many of these examples. The Chapter 9 in the Verification Manual for STAAD.Pro contains the AISC 360-10 verification examples and can be downloaded from

http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural/structural_analysis___design/m/structural_analysis_and_design_gallery/269424

The STAAD.Pro help documentation also contains these verification examples as shown in the following post

http://communities.bentley.com/products/structural/structural_analysis___design/f/5932/t/99794

The .std files for these models are provided as part of the software installation folder ( default location C:\SProV8i SS6\STAAD\Examp\US\AISC 360-10 )

There are few things that we must keep in mind while working with IS:1893 (part-I) Response Spectrum:

1. It is a generalised Response Spectrum corresponds to MCE

2. It is an elastic Response Spectrum.

3. PGA of the Response spectrum in 1.0(g)

4. It is not dependent on the building category.

    

While designing a structure, we need to convert the elastic Response Spectrum which corresponds to MCE level to DBE inelastic Response Spectrum. The code has stipulated two methods for seismic analysis:

1. Design Lateral Force Method

2. Response Spectrum method

Time History method has to be adopted depending on the requirement on the designer.

Design Lateral Force Method : In this method, the code has specified a factor Ah (caluse-6.4.2) which is termed as design horizontal seismic co-efficient. It is (Z/2)*(I/R)*(sa/g). A user who is using this code must have a clear understanding why these factors are considered. The (Sa/g) values obtained from the elastic Response Spectrum depending on the time period obtained from empirical equations. This values has to be scaled down to DBE by taking the average of the values obtained from MCE. That is how the ½ factor comes into picture. The spectrum that is provided by the code is elastic one. One needs to consider ductility off the steel into consideration. By ductility we understand, the ability of structure to undergo inelastic deformation without losing it strength. That is the reason why R comes into the equation. It is called as Response Reduction factor. It is dependent on the following factors.

1. Over-strength

2. Ductility

3. Redundancy

While designing a member in LSD method, we take into consideration- partial safety factor on material (specifically on steel) and loading. So, we are always overestimating the force. We are not considering ductility of the material- it allows the structure to dissipate the energy imparted on a structure by allowing the members to undergo inelastic deformation but ensuring that the members will not collapse. In such case, the failure mechanism is governed by formation of Plastic Hinges- the concept even is accepted but it is very difficult to achieve the same in case of a concrete member. More redundant is the structure, more plastic hinge formation is required to come to the failure condition. Thus, the factor R is such a factor with which the MCE level Response Spectrum has to be scaled- it will come in the denominator.

The generalised response spectrum has a values of 1.0(g) as PGA which indicates a catastrophe in real life structure. It has to be scaled with the site condition that is why the Z- zone factor comes into play. We can consider the highest seismic zone- zone V. Here the zone factor is 0.36. It invariably indicates PGA of that zone is 0.36(g). Thus, zone factor is such a factor with which the Response Spectrum has to be multiplied with.

While designing a structure, the designer wants to be in safer sider. Depending on how important the structure is, the designer would like to design the building with higher force. Thus, there comes another factor known as I- importance factor. It has either a value of 1 or 1.5 for IS:1893 Part I.

Response Spectrum method: In this method, the code has specified a factor Ak (caluse-7.8.4.5-c) which is termed as Design Horizontal  Acceleration Spectrum- it is the same as Ah. The philosophy of bringing the elastic Response Spectrum which corresponds to MCE level to DBE inelastic Response Spectrum remains the same.

Now, coming to STAAD.Pro- the program calculates time period for different mode and (sa/g) value is found out. It has to be scaled down to DBE inelastic spectrum. For this reason- the direction factor should be equal to (Z/2)*(I/R).