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February 16, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41h is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41h is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

February 12, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41g is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41g is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

February 7, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41f is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41f is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• Corrected a bug in the moment resistance calculations that could cause a crash in some rare circumstances.

February 6, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41e is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41e is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

February 1, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41d is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41d is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 30, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41c is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41c is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 26, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41b is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41b is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 24, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41a is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41a is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 23, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.41 is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.41 is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 9, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.40d is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.40d is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

January 6, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.40c is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2006 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.40c is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

December 29, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.40b is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF DECEMBER 2005 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.40b is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

December 20, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.40a is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF DECEMBER 2005 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.40a is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• 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.

December 15, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.40 is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF DECEMBER 2005 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.40 includes the following changes;

• 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 supersede 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.
• 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.

December 5, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39e is now available for download

Version 4.39e is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Updated the license certificates for licenses extending into 2007.

November 7, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39d is now available for download

Version 4.39d is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a bug in the graph for shear stirrups. The value for Av/s Provided includes the torsion stirrups (outside legs) twice.

September 22, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39c is now available for download

Version 4.39c is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• 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.

August 12, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39b is now available for download

Version 4.39b is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a bug in the prestressing dialog that could cause a crash.

August 4, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39a is now available for download

Version 4.39a is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected the maximum stirrup spacing when torsion is required.

August 3, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.39 is now available for download

Version 4.39 is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• 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.

June 8, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.38a is now available for download

Version 4.38a is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• 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.

May 17, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.38 is now available for download

Version 4.38 includes the following changes;

• 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.

April 28, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.37 is now available for download

Version 4.37 includes the following changes;

• 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.

April 27, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.36 is now available for download

Version 4.36 includes the following changes;

• 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.

April 21, 2005 - Concise Beam version 4.35 is now available for download

Version 4.35 includes the following changes;

• The "NET CAMBERS/DEFLECTIONS AT ALL STAGES" report has been upgraded to 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.

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