Software modification after  01/03/2005

 PanelsPlus

SLABS 3.5

04/03/2005, Improve software unload from memory on exit.

17/03/2005, Improved equivalent stiffness evaluation form soil layers properties.

18/03/2005, Fixed error when meshing data file locate don a network drive.

18/03/2005, New tool to delete any element outside slab panels. (at meshing)

18/03/2005, Put a node at any point load.

30/03/2005, Find node number [Ctrl+F].  (new feature)

05/04/2005, Check mesh overlapping elements, IntelliMesh only.

06/04/2005, Fix error in deleting line loads outside slab panels. (18/03/2005)

13/04/2005, Word Pad could not open the results report on XP computers.  Now it is fixed.

28/04/2005, Fine tuning of IntelliMESH., and report elements with aspect ration larger then 10.

29/04/2005, Fixed error with DXF column import.

04/05/2005,  Improved saving of default material properties and load factors.

05/05/2005,  Fixed error in the last point of Wide Beam results.

06/05/2005, Improved IntelliMesh accuracy.

13/05/2005,  Improved Beam Shear design.   Minor modification.

24/05/2005, IntelliMesh, improved accuracy.

27/05/2005, Check -ve coordinates at DXF import.

16/06/2005, Better rotation of Mx and My results.   Now, Mxy is icluded.

06/07/2005, Prevent M relaxation on the secondary direction in one-way slabs panels.

08/07/2005, Fix crashing when Meshing was halted by user.

11/07/2005, Estimate theoretical steel rates.

15/07/2005, Improved one-way action, especially when one-way panels are coupled with band beams.

03/08/2005,  Introduced user selectable switch for 0.8 factor for -ve M in beam shear design.

16/08/2005, New feature to re-import the same bitmap, which will scale automatically to match the old bitmap.  If from some reason the bitmap disappears form the data file, it can be re-imported again, and it will scale automatically to match the old one.

25/08/2005,  Slab panels stiffness factors were not always shown correctly on the results screen.  Now this is fixed.

25/08/2005,  Improved shear force evaluation in Wide Beams, especially at the supports.

31/08/2005, Improved minor grid display.

11/11/2005, Fixed an error in the Structure Summary Report for beams with negative depth.

14/12/2005, The analysis will not stop at "Over Reinforced Beam" error.

13/01/2006,  Fix snapping columns to the Custom Grid.

20/02/2006, Fix auto screen size to show (x,y) co-ordinates at the bottom of the screen

22/02/2006, Fix small problems related to dsiplay of the Bitmap background.

22/02/2006, Check double slab panels at meshing.

23/02/2006, Use the last directory to open data files.

09/03/2006,  Fix small problem with min steel in BS8110 design.

13/03/2006, Improved rendering in nepGL 3D view.

17/03/2006,  Auto delete walls with Zero length.

28/06/2006,  Improved beam shear design.

14/11/2007,  SLABS 3.5 will not be developed any further.  It is replaced by SLABS4.

01/04/2007,  SLABS 3.5 is replaced with SLABS4, and it will not be developed and supported any further.

R/C BUILDING

01/03/2005, Export in-plane wall moments to SLABS as point loads along the wall length.

01/03/2005, Display slab moment results above or below a set value.

01/03/2005, Fix error related to exporting point loads to PT3D.

08/03/2005, New check to identify elements above or below the model.

16/03/2005, Fixed error related to deleting BMP images when meshing.

17/03/2005, Fixed error related to lateral load accumulation in Stages Analysis.

18/03/2005, Fixed error when meshing data file locate don a network drive.

18/03/2005, Display contour lines in black and different thickness.

18/03/2005, Re-combine the results when load factors changed.  No need to analyse again.

23/03/2005, Minor wall design error fixed.

24/03/2005, Increase limit of "free" walls (used in meshing).

24/03/2005, Automatically group walls in the same line and design as one, AS 3600 only.

30/03/2005, Change snapping mode with right-click of the mouse.

01/04/2005, Display columns and walls internal forces results.   Used for DXF export.

04/04/2005, Show floor centroids.

05/04/2005, Check mesh overlapping elements, IntelliMesh only.

06/04/2005, Display horizontal movement in each nodal point.

08/04/2005, Introduced point load, included in export import SLABS, PT3D. (new feature)

12/04/2005, IntelliMesh check.  This new feature will identify and fix finite elements crossing a wall or beam line.

12/04/2005, Editing of -ve point loads was not allowed.  Now, +ve and -ve point loads can be edited.

13/04/2005, Minor wall design error fixed.  The error was introduced on 23/03/2005

15/04/2005,  A new feature is included to allow the users to evaluate shear force in pinned walls.  Before when the wall was pinned on both ends the shear force was zero.  Now, there is a switch to include the shear force in pinned walls.

15/04/2005, A new feature which can be used to group several wall, such as lift core walls, in order to group the internal forces.

18/04/2005,  New reporting feature to display all internal forces, section properties and stresses in all wall and columns and wall groups.

28/04/2005,  Fine tuning of IntelliMESH., and report elements with aspect ration larger then 10.

03/05/2005, New feature: search for wall by number.

03/05/2005, New feature: design one wall.

10/05/2005, Improve IntelliMesh: increase master node number from 2,000 to 20,000.

10/05/2005, When exporting to SLABS use all default values for material properties and load factors as saved in SLABS.  Also, the default values can be displayed before exporting from R/C BUILDING.

10/05/2005, Set limits automatically when exporting from R/C BUILDING to SLABS

10/05/2005, Error trapping for earthquake load with no load factors for mass.

11/05/2005, Eliminate meshing nodes for double walls.

12/05/2005, Color wall and columns for fixity and wall thickness.

12/05/2005, Display minor grid dots, and major grid lines.

16/05/2005, Punching shear check improves.

18/05/2005, Shift model vertically, now includes Point Loads and Reference Lines.

19/05/2005, Display cross-hair (snap to the closes grid point) when [Space Bar] is pressed.  This is used to check alignment of different structural elements

25/05/2005, Introduced a new wall design strategy.   Now, the user can limit the min vertical bar spacing.  If the design procedure requires a smaller bar spacing, then the software will try a larger bar size in order to satisfy the min spacing set by the user.

01/06/2005,  Net tool to identify gaps in the model between slab pales edges and slab panels corners.

03/06/2005,  Fixed small bug in the Check Results Integrity tool.

08/06/2005,  New Slab Ortho-Mode for fast modelling.  It can be switched On and Off by holding Shift button down, and pressing the Slabs tool.  When Ortho mode is On, a rectangular slab panel can be created by clicking on three points, the first two will create one of the edges and the third one is anywhere on the oposite edge.  This will make a rectangular panel.  This is useful when reference lines are used.

21/06/2005, Report an error if the point load is not at the nodal point.

04/07/2005, Improved Wall design.  The software could not design walls in some special cases.

11/07/2005, Improved Wall design.  Now the user can select min horizontal reinforcement for shrinkage.

01/08/2005,  There is a major improvement of the module evaluating the reactions by Contributory Area. (see note 17/08/2005)

03/08/2005,  Improvement of export to SLABS.  Now, then exporting one floor to slabs all default  material properties, and load factors will be used.   Since, R/C BUILDING and SLABS do not have identical set of design parameters, when exporting from R/C BUILDING to SLABS the default material properties, as defined in SLABS will be used.  At export only he geometry and loading will be "sent" to SLABS.

10/08/2005, New editing feature to move a wall with the mouse.  When a wall is selected, press the [Shift] key on the keyboard, and then grab and drag wall ends.

11/08/2005, New editing feature, to highlight slab co-ordinates of a selected slab panel.

17/08/2005,  Improvement of the Reaction by Area Method - Advanced.  This feature was introduced 01/08/2005. (more...)

24/08/2005, Improved self weight calculations in the Advanced Area Method.

09/09/2005,  New feature was introduced for column and wall design.  Now the user can choose to include reduced  strength factors for 0.8*Mud/Muo.  This is useful for heavily loaded column with very larger cover.

18/09/2005,  Improved evaluation of buckling load for walls.

10/11/2005,  New feature, which can be used to copied all selected elements.   Before only walls and columns were copied.

10/11/2005,  New user selectable switch, which can be used to "force" out-of-plane  minimum moment in pinned walls.  Before, the software would have assumes zero moment for mined walls.

22/11/2005,  Include a new feature to consider column with "fix top - pin btm" on footing.  Before this option was not available.

25/11/2005,  New feature which can be used to refine the finite element mesh on selected slab panels.

25/11/2005, New tool to integrate bending moment result sin slabs.

19/12/2005,  New structural element:  Steel Cross Bracing.  The new element can be defined by holding the "Shift" button, and pressing the "Wall" tool.  Then the Cross Bracings can be define.  The Bracings can span one, two or three floors.  The bracing can be used to restrain the lateral movement.  The bracings do not take ant gravity load, since it is assumed that they will be installed after the main structure is constructed, to take only the later load.   The Cross Bracing must be defined between two columns.

16/01/2006,  New feature which can be used to model construction joint was introduced.  A slip-joint or shear-dowels joint can be modelled by making a small gap between the spab panels (200mm) and introducing a number of short beams conecting the slab panels.  Then in the Settings input panel the properties of the short beams will can be define to simulate certain type of constuction joint.  When a  slip-joint is used, the bending moment along the joint will be zero, but there will be a full trasfer of the shear force. 

19/01/2006,  New tool to copy all point load to another floor was introduced.

25/01/2005, An envelope of all Load Combinations can be used for the axial loads used in 2nd order analysis.  Before only one Load Combinations could have been used.

27/01/2006,  Automatic release of lateral movement in columns segments below ground level it the columns are "free", not attached to a slabs panels.   Before all nodes of all columns below the ground had restrained lateral   movement, which was not correct for "free" column.

27/01/2006,  Automatic identification of max M in column design for columns made of several segments, spaning over several columns.  Before only the current floor was considered.

10/02/2006, Two levels of increased axial stiffness factor for walls and columns:   100 and 10,000.

13/02/2006,  Improved shear design of columns.

13/02/2006,  Now R/C BUILDING software can accept pinned beams.  Before only fixed beams were accepted.

20/02/2006, New structural element is introduced:  inclined column.

27/02/2006, Increase the maximum number of reference lines layers form 5 to 10.

28/02/2006, Improve wall design, horizontal bars.

03/03/2006, Increase the maximum number of reference lines form 5,000 to 10,000.

13/03/2006,  Fix editing wall location with mouse in combination with "Shift" button.

03/04/2006, Improve Check Model Results Integrity option.

04/04/2006,  Show ground level in 3D view.

18/04/2006,  New tool to apply pressure on all slab panels selected by type.

18/04/2006,  DXF import allows "net" select of of several items.

20/04/2006,  New tool to select walls by thickness.

27/06/2006,  Do not delete prescribed footing settlement when a column or a wall is deleted.

05/07/2006,  Copy point loads to a different load case.

19/09/2006,  Improvement of wall horizontal bars design module.

15/11/2006,  A major improvement of the internal node numbering related to "free" walls.  This will fix automatically -ve pivot error

24/11/2006,  Earthquake Loadings by Spectral Method, new feature. (more...)

20/02/2007,  Improvement of circular column design.

30/03/2007,  New feature, display of stresses at detailed points in a lift-core (Wall-Group).  These stresses may be used to design the lift core as a complex section on combined actions: N, Mx, My.

02/04/2007,  New feature, friction piles.  Now, R/C BUILDING can accept floating piles in addition to the soil-structure-interaction.  The Piles tool is opened by pressing Shift and clicking twice on the Column tool.

17/05/2007, Out-of-core solver for larger model.

16/08/2007, Major new feature, analysis sand design of Wall / Deep Beams (more...)

12/09/2007, New feature to print shear force along joints.  This feature can be used to evaluate shear force in dowels or corbels connecting floor areas divided by movement joints.

19/09/2007,  New feature to align column vertically. 

02/10/2007, Improvement of Wall / Deep Beams design module.

22/10/2007, New switch to exclude the overlapped concrete area between the beams and the slab.  This feature can be used for a more precise evaluation of the self weight of the structure.

15/05/2008 3D Frequency Analysis. R/C BUILDING software can perform a complete 3D frequency analysis and  evaluate translation and rotational model shapes and associated frequencies. (more...).

PT3D

03/03/2005, Improved point load distribution on the finite element mesh.

03/03/2005, Fixed error related to punching shear hear preliminary design.

08/03/2005, Slab-on-ground, soil-structure-interaction.

09/03/2005, User defined slab panels stiffness factor.

18/03/2005, Fixed error when meshing data file locate don a network drive.

18/03/2005, Put a node at any point load.

05/04/2005, Check mesh overlapping elements, IntelliMesh only.

05/05/2005, Eliminate meshing nodes at point loads in load cases for tendon uplift.

08/04/2005, Wide beams shear design.

13/04/2005, PT3D did not export point loads to SLABS.  Now, the point loads are included in SLABS export.

28/04/2005,  Fine tuning of IntelliMESH., and report elements with aspect ration larger then 10.

03/05/2005, Improve P/A in prelim punching shear design.

20/05/2005, A minor error in Punching Shear check is fixed.

26/05/2005, Delete elements outside slab panels.   This will simplify the import of one floor from R/C BUILDING.

27/05/2005, New feature to display tendon profile (underside of duck) at 1m, ready for drafting.  If the concrete outlay is imported form CAD, then the tendon layout will be exact, and then the tendon profile generated by the software will be exact, and they can be exported to AutoCAD, and used in the final drawings.

30/05/2005, New feature to display slab steps, on the sofit and on the top of the slab.

06/06/2005,  Multiple import form CAD files.   Now, the software can import all slab panels and al columns in one go.

07/06/2005,  Improved P/A calculations.

08/06/2005,  New Slab Ortho-Mode for fast modelling.  It can be switched On and Off by holding Shift button down, and pressing the Slabs tool.  When Ortho mode is On, a rectangular slab panel can be created by clicking on three points, the first two will create one of the edges and the third one is anywhere on the oposite edge.  This will make a rectangular panel.  This is useful when reference lines are used.

08/06/2005, Check punching shear foe the column above.   Before it was only column below.

10/06/2005, Improved "Find tendon Clashing Points".  Now, the software will report very preciselly if there is an overlap of two crossing tendons.  This is important for construction.

15/06/2005, Show tendon laying order.  At each tendon crossing the software will show which tendon has to be place first.

16/06/2005, Ignore Support Lines crossing a tendons on angle lass than 30 degrees.   Easier modelling.

17/06/2005, Improved rotation of the bending moment, used in design of the ordinary steel along the tendons.

23/06/2005, Major improvement of the meshing module.   Now, many close node error s will be automatically eliminated.

24/06/2005, Improved punching shear check.  Now, the average D effective will be calculated more precisely, considering all tendons within the punching shear perimeter.

27/06/2005, Improved Wide Beam results extraction, Now, Mxy is included for better consistency.

05/07/2005, Introduced line beam elements, up to 300mm wide.

06/07/2005,  Improved auto tendon profile.

06/07/2005,  IntelliMesh, auto-fix apect ratio error.

18/07/2005, Better Ast design procedure.  Now, most of the sections will be designed.  Before in some case the software could not design ordinary steel.

19/07/2005, A completely new manual.  A PDF printable version of the manual is available for download.

03/08/2005, For curved tendons include horizontal angle in the friction losses, and force due to the curvature.  This force will influence P/A.

10/08/2005, New editing feature to move a wall with the mouse.  When a wall is selected, press the [Shift] key on the keyboard, and then grab and drag wall ends.

11/08/2005,  Steel rates estimate.  New feature.

25/08/2005,  Fix small error with related to shifting of reference lines.

24/02/2006, New feature duct cover check report, with auto detect of all concrete steps.

09/03/2006, New column property: Auto High Points: Yes/No.  Normally, the software will introduce a tendon high point et each wall and column support.  Now, the user can instruct the software to ignore some support.  This is helpful in better control of the tendon profile (more...)

10/03/2006,  New option to display top and bottom duct cover on the Tendon Profile Editor, with auto detect of all concrete steps.

06/06/2006,  Improved tendon underside of duct report, (chair heights).  This feature allows the user to produce final tendon shop drawings, assuming the tendon geometry was entered accurately.

06/06/2006,  A new feature which is used as an advance preliminary deigns based on P/A, and the uplift is evaluated automatically.

15/06/2006,  Improved snapping to the point loads.

06/06/2006,  Major improvement of wide beams shear design.

02/11/2007,  New feature to exclude some slab panels for the tendon influence zone.  This feature can be used for better control of the additional reinforcement desig.

02/11/2007, New check to identify tendon high points which are not supported.  This feature can be used to identify errors in the tendon layout.

02/11/2007, Switch to prevent slab bending moment soothing.

07/11/2008, Improved cracked sections rotation in the finite element.   Tis will result in more reliable evaluation of the deflections