What happens if I don't sign in to Bentley Service through the CONNECTION client?

With most CONNECT Edition or CONNECT Enabled products, the CONNECTION client service is installed automatically and sign in happens at start up. When starting any of the applications, if the user is not signed in the the sign in dialog will appear.

Canceling the dialog using the red x is the same as signing out and the product should perform normally but no Bentley Cloud Services will be available and no project associations can be made. 

What happens if I uninstall the CONNECTION client?

As noted on screen when uninstalling the CONNECTION client, most Bentley CONNECT Edition products require the CONNECTION client in order to function properly. 

We have tested the various structural products behavior when the CONNECTION client is uninstalled and the products all function other than warnings and limitations of the type noted below. Uninstalling the service will result in warnings when starting the software. For example, in RAM Structural System v15, the following message will appear: 

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CONNECTION Desktop Client installation not found.
Please visit www.bentley.com to learn more about the benefits of CONNECT Edition.
---------------------------

Those benefits and other questions about Bentley Cloud Services are addressed on the Bentley CONNECT Overview.

A similar message appear with Ram Concept.

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CONNECTION Client installation not found.

Run the Concept installer to install CONNECTION Client and utilize Bentley Cloud Services.
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I am not planning to use Bentley Cloud Services, how can I access my files without registering a project?

You can always skip the step of assigning any project by canceling the dialog using the Cancel button or the Rec X and still work on your files.

A few users have reported a crash (MFC Application Error) with Ram Manager CONNECT Edition when canceling out of the Assign Project dialog before the list of projects is refreshed. Until we have a solution to this issue we recommend either waiting until the project list is populated and a project can be assigned, or uninstalling the CONNECTION client service as noted above.

I just installed a program, but I'm getting a login error, "User failed to login" 

In case, you have not updated the CONNECTION CLIENT by this date, you will receive the “User failed to login” error. You will need to download the CONNECTION client.

It is available for download from the ‘Software Downloads’ tile at connect.bentley.com. Search for 'CONNECTION'. select CONNECTION Client from the list.

Further documentation about this problem CONNECTION Client: User Failed to Login.

Note: RAM Elements, STAAD users may get the same login failure error, if the CONNECTION client was not updated before February 6th.

I'm getting the message "Unable to connect to the EULA service. Please try again later."

 When attempting to log into the CONNECTION client, the following error may appear:

And, as a result, applications like Ram Structural System (Ram Manager) CONNECT Edition will report that Bentley Cloud Services are unavailable:

This happens when the date/time on your system is out of sync with our IMS identity server. To resolve the problem right click on the date/time indicator int he system tray and select "Adjust date/time". In the subsequent dialog, reset the time to be accurate (it must be accurate to 5 minutes of global time).

I am trying to install CONNECTION Client as part of the Structural Enterprise, I am getting a message to get a newer version of Windows

CONNECTION Client is tested and certified for Windows 8 (64-bit), Windows 7 (64 bit) and Windows Server 2012 (64-bit). 

You must be using an older operating system like Vista; please update your operating system.

See Also

Bentley CONNECT Overview

STAAD(X) is our next generation offering for structural analysis and design. It is not only a product or software application, it is also a platform on top of which many more applications will be developed. It is state-of-the-art software that leverages and combines the legacies of STAAD, RAM and Bentley, utilizing the latest software development and structural engineering technologies.

By having a common platform architecture and being designed from the ground up with focus on interoperability, all the applications built on top of it will have the same look and feel.

Browse related content tagged: RAM Elements, STAAD.Pro, Microstran

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?]]

(Please visit the site to view this file)

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

(Please visit the site to view this file)

Staad Output File.

(Please visit the site to view this file)

(Please visit the site to view this file)

(Please visit the site to view this file)

(Please visit the site to view this file)

Example of a Finite Element Model

(Please visit the site to view this file)

What is the use of RFACE parameter in IS456 code?

During design of a concrete column member using IS456 code, user can specify the face of the column for longitudinal bar arrangement using the RFACE parameter. There are three option available for RFACE parameter as --

The default value is 4 which indicates that program will arrange the longitudinal reinforcement bars equally at four face of the column. 

RFACE 2 and RFACE 3 parameter can be described as --

RFACE 2.0 implies bars placed along the 2 edges parallel to local Z axis

RFACE 3.0 implies bars placed along the 2 edges parallel to local Y axis

Consider the following column member with dimension 250mmX700mm specified as--

1 PRIS YD 0.7 ZD 0.25  

To arrange the reinforcement bars only in the longer face of the column (which is parallel to the local Y axis), RFACE 3 parameter should be assigned to this member.

Now consider the same column with YD and ZD values reversed as--

1 PRIS YD 0.25 ZD 0.7

To arrange the reinforcement bars only in the longer face of the column (which is parallel to the local Z axis), RFACE 2 parameter should be assigned to this member.

For simpler explanation, if you want to place the reinforcement bars along the longer edge of a rectangular column, you should define the following—

If ZD > YD, then specify RFACE 2 parameter.

If YD > ZD, then specify RFACE 3 parameter.

This document is organized in a way that newer revisions appear at the top.
Therefore, section numbers will keep decreasing from top to bottom. Also refer
to the What's New section of the Online Help for Major New Features. This
document outlines fixes and last minute changes.

Copyright (c) 1997-2016 Bentley Solutions Center

What's New in:-

STAAD.Pro V8i SS6,

• Build 20.07.11.70 (22 March 2016)
• Build 20.07.11.50 (03 December 2015)
• Build 20.07.11.45 (30 September 2015)
• Build 20.07.11.33 (23 June 2015)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i SS5,

• Build 20.07.10.66 (14 January 2015)
• Build 20.07.10.65 (29 October 2014)
• Build 20.07.10.64 (22 July 2014)
• Build 20.07.10.41 ( 26 November 2013)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i SS4,

• Build 20.07.09.31 ( 11 March 2013)
• Build 20.07.09.21 ( 20 December 2012)
• Build 20.07.09.311 ( 14 August 2012)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i SS3,

• Build 20.07.08.22 ( 16 May 2012)
• Build 20.07.08.20 ( 16 September 2011)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i SS2,

• Build 20.07.07 QA&R ( 24 February 2011)
• Build 20.07.07 ( 13 October 2010)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i SS1,

• Build 20.07.06 QA&R ( 18 March 2010)
• Build 20.07.06 ( 23 December 2009)

.

STAAD.Pro V8i,

• Build 20.07.05 ( 21 May 2009)
• Build 20.07.04 ( 30 October 2008)

.

STAAD.Pro 2007, Build 03 ( 8 July 2008)

STAAD.Pro 2007, Build 02 (14 September 2007)

STAAD.Pro 2007, Build 01 (29 June 2007)

How is Mpl and Mstrip Calculated?

The design procedure for base plate design in RAM Connection is based on AISC Design Guide 1. The Design Guide includes some design examples that will clarify how these parameters are calculated.

The equations used to calculate the plate bending moment in the "Flexural Yielding (Bearing Interface)" check are discussed in Section 3.3.2 of the Design Guide.

The strip moment in the "Flexural Yielding (Tension Interface)" check is calculated assuming the tensile loads in the anchors generate one-way bending in the base plate about assumed bending lines. The location of the bending lines depends on whether the anchors are placed inside or outside the column flanges. See Figure 3.1.1(b) and Figure 4.5.2 in the Design Guide. The program assumes a 45 degree load distribution from the anchor to the bending line to determine the width of the bending strip.

Why doesn't the program report the Anchor anchor pullout in my file?

The Anchor pullout design for US design codes is limited to LRFD methods. When performing ASD design of a base plate report simply indicates: 

NOTES
Anchors only designed for LRFD code

See Also

Troubleshooting Errors when Assigning Connections

Structural Product TechNotes And FAQs

When I try to design a user defined section using Aluminum Code, I get the following message

*Warning* Member 1 is not a valid Aluminum Section

Can you please explain what is the reason behind the message and how can I get the section designed ?

STAAD.Pro can only carry out Aluminum design on standard sections which are defined in the aluminum database available in STAAD.Pro. Since you are trying to design a non-standard user defined section as per the Aluminum code in STAAD.Pro you can getting the message mentioned above.

The only way to design such nonstandard sections is to add these as a standard section types within the existing Aluminum section database in STAAD.Pro. The details on how to add a section to the existing section database are available at

https://communities.bentley.com/products/structural/structural_analysis___design/w/structural_analysis_and_design__wiki/18558.how-to-add-a-new-section-to-the-staad-section-database

How does STAAD.Pro determine the Critical Load Case/Combination for Steel Design ?

STAAD.Pro does the design on a load case by load case basis. By default, for each load case, the software carries out design at a total of 13 sections ( including start and end ) and finds out the highest utilization ratio amongst all sections for that case. It then moves on to the next case and follows the same procedure. If the highest utilization ratio for the second case is lesser than that obtained for the prior one, the former case is retained as critical case and the software moves on to the next one. If the utilization ratio for the second case being considered is greater than that for the first one, the second case becomes the new critical load case and it moves on to the next one. This way it scans through the entire list of cases/combinations and the case/combination with the highest utilization ratio is reported as the critical load case in the analysis output file along with the details of the forces at the critical section.