RAM Concept CONNECT Edition
- Faster resolution of design problems
- More economical shear strength calculations
- Better control of licensing
- Access to Bentley Cloud Services
A new release of RAM Concept is coming in the first week of October. This release will be part of the new Bentley product generation called CONNECT Edition, which will succeed the V8i generation that has been in place for the past several years. While not all Bentley products will move to CONNECT Edition this year, the RAM products are part of the first wave of applications moving to this exciting new release. In addition to a new name, the product icon will have a new look as shown below. Aside from this, the software will look and feel the same way it always has.
As the name suggests, the theme of the CONNECT Edition is a set of new features and services that will better connect project team members within and across organizations and enable easier access to resources such as learning materials. This collective set of services is called Bentley Cloud Services. The portal to this will be accessed from the Bentley Cloud Services menu in the RAM Concept CONNECT Edition interface. The set of cloud-based services available in the first CONNECT Edition releases will represent just a fraction of what will become available over the coming months and years. More details on Bentley Cloud Services are given later in this article.
In addition to enhancements supporting the CONNECT Edition theme, this RAM Concept release offers key features requested by our client base.
Easier Resolution of Design Errors and Warnings
This release features a new set of graphical tools dedicated to identifying, locating, and resolving errors and warnings produced during the meshing, analysis, and design processes. In previous versions of RAM Concept, errors and warnings were stored in the analysis log, which was simply text. Querying details on a specific error or warning could only be done by word searches within the analysis log. Now users will be able to review, sort, and navigate to errors quickly, potentially saving hours of design time per project.
Improved Shear Strength Calculations
There are situations in both post-tensioned and reinforced concrete slabs and beams where the commonly accepted method of determining the effective depth of reinforcement results in an overly conservative shear strength. Specifically, this can happen when calculating the effective depth as the centroid of all steel in tension within a section. To overcome this limitation, RAM Concept now permits the user to choose between two methods of calculating the effective depth: the method just described, and a new method which maximizes the effective depth using a set of logical assumptions.
More Control of Post-Tension Licensing
RAM Concept now has a means of disabling all post-tension features within the program. This ensures that use of only a RAM Concept license, and not use of a RAM Concept Post Tension Module license, is logged.
What will Structural Engineers Gain from the CONNECT Edition Releases and Bentley Cloud Services?
At the time of the release of RAM Concept CONNECT Edition, Bentley Cloud Services will offer a basic set of services that will facilitate file sharing and access to materials on Bentley LEARN. This includes access to a personal sharing space on the cloud on which files can be shared with others. The capabilities will grow rapidly over the coming months and in time Bentley Cloud Services will host a portfolio of services aimed specifically at structural designers.
Of particular importance to structural engineers will be ProjectWise Scenario Services (PWSS). PWSS provides access to high performance cloud computing to speed up comparison of design alternatives. This will allow users to create families of design alternatives, run them side-by-side, and visually compare their performance – all inside a web browser. These services will be available initially for STAAD and SACS, with more products, including RAM Concept, utilizing PWSS in the coming year.
Below are links to more detailed information on Bentley Cloud Services.
A guide to your personal portal on Bentley Cloud Services:
A guide to your personal sharing space:
http://communities.bentley.com/communities/other_communities/sign-in_assistance_and_web_services/w/wiki/23737.personal-share
A guide to the project portal on Bentley Cloud Services:
http://communities.bentley.com/communities/other_communities/sign-in_assistance_and_web_services/w/wiki/23735.project-portal
More information on ProjectWise Scenario Services, including access to a technology preview, is available at the following site:
https://connect-scenariomanager.bentley.com