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September 3, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46h is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46h is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a problem with the calculation of the deflection of cracked sections inadvertently introduced in version 4.46g.
• Adjusted the Edit Strand Profile dialog so that you can Modify the ordinate of the ends of the strand.
• Corrected an anomaly in the deflection due to long-term prestress at the end of a cantilever.

August 15, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46g is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF AUGUST 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46g is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Adjusted the stress and cracking calculations to handle a beam that can have net residual tension in service due to very high prestressing. More detailed adjustments will be included in the next major release of Concise Beam (4.47).

June 5, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46f is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JUNE 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46f is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a problem with the flexural text reports that could prevent Concise Beam from warning that a section was understrength in flexure. This only affects over-reinforced beams designed to ACI318-99 (main clauses - not Appendix B).

May 15, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46e is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF MAY 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46e is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Adjusted the calculation of the flexural strength under ACI 318-99 where the maximum concrete strain is reduced to avoid slippage to ensure that the strength isn't reduced unless the maximum concrete strain is close to the limit.
• Corrected a bug in the Beam Definition dialog that could incorrectly convert the beam length when switching metric and Imperial units. This would result in a warning message about the location of the supports.

March 19, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46d is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF MARCH 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46d is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Further corrections to a problem that could prevent text reports from being opened on some machines. This seems to be a moving target due to some security changes made by Microsoft.

March 8, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46c is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF MARCH 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46c is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected the calculation of the flexural strength reduction factor under ACI 318-02 & 05 within the development length of strands for very short beams.
• Adjusted the calculation of the flexural strength reduction factor under ACI 318-02 & 05 where the maximum concrete strain is reduced to avoid slippage to ensure that the section isn't classified as compression controlled unless the maximum concrete strain is close to the limit.
• Corrected a problem that could prevent text reports from being created on some machines.

March 6, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46b is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF MARCH 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46b is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Increased the maximum length of directory path for a local user's temporary file directory (i.e. "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp")

February 26, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46a is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF FEBRUARY 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46a is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a problem in the calculation of the long-term deflection multipliers caused by sections where all strands are debonded.

February 21, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.46 is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF FEBRUARY 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.46 includes the following changes;

• An option has been added to the loading dialog to allow the user to specify that a live load represents a storage occupancy, equipment are or service room when using CSA A23.3-04. This will cause the companion live load factor to be increased from 0.5 to 1.0. The load case summary in the Summary Report now shows any changes to the default load factors due to special situation such as above.
• The cracking calculations have been adjusted to handle crack depths that are equal or less than the depth of the tension steel.
• Up to this point Concise Beam has implemented the recommendations in PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05 for ACI users. For instance Concise Beam has used the higher concrete and steel stress limits at transfer as recommended in TR-7-05. The use of TR-7-05 is now optional and can be turned off in the Calculations Options dialog.
• Adjusted the headings for the "NET DEFLECTION ESTIMATE AT ALL STAGES" report to clarify the difference between the net deflections and the changes in deflection.
• The CSA and ACI codes allow a higher tensile concrete stress limit at transfer of prestressing at the simply supported ends of a beam. Neither code defines the extent of the end of the beam over which this higher limit should apply. Prior versions of Concise Beam arbitrarily took the end zone of the beam to be the end 1/10 of the beam length. I have changed this definition within Concise Beam to be twice the transfer length of the strand. This places the potentially high tensile stress at the transfer point of the strand in the middle of this zone. I believe this more accurately addresses the intent of the higher stress limit which, according to the code's commentary, is intended to excuse the potentially high tensile stress at the transfer point.
• Added the ability to switch units within the concrete parameters dialog for custom codes.
• Adjusted the text labels of the Beam Definition dialog related to the support locations for better clarity.
• The bearing width, if specified, is now shown in any images of the beam.
• In A23.3-04, clause 11.3.6.4, equation 11-13 the area of non-prestressed steel, As, is reduced in proportion with the development length of the bar. There is no mention of similarly reducing the area of the prestressing steel, Ap, in the denominator (resisting strength). With this version of Concise Beam the area of prestressing, Ap, in the denominator is now also reduced in proportion with the strand development length to be consistent with the treatment of the rebar. Note that the term Apfpo in the numerator (decompression force) is reduced in proportion with the transfer length of the strand and fpo is taken as 0.7fpu when fully transferred. This has not changed in this version of Concise Beam.
• The name of the ACI standards have been shortened from ACI318/318M-xx to ACI318-xx. Concise Beam uses the factors in ACI318-xx and hard converts them to metric as required. ACI318M-xx uses soft converted factors from ACI318-xx which can vary by as much as 20% from the hard converted values. For consistency I had decided many years ago to only support ACI318-xx, the dominant form of the standard, to avoid these differences. The name change confirms that the values from ACI318-xx only are being used by Concise Beam. You are, of course, still able to work in either US Customary units, or metric.
• With reference to feet and inches the term US Customary units is now being used in place of English units since most users of this system in Concise Beam are American. The term Imperial units is still used for the same (almost) unit system for our Canadian and Commonwealth users. Units that differ between the US Customary and Imperial unit systems (such as tons) are not used in Concise Beam.

January 27, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.45f is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.45f is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• A recent update to Microsoft's software development tool (compiler) used for Concise Beam has caused a problem with the print preview feature in the last version (v4.45e) of Concise Beam. The program will crash when using print preview on a text report. Until I can get a solution from Microsoft of find a work-around, I have reverted to an older version of their compiler for this version of Concise Beam to avoid the print preview problem. Apart from the change in compiler this version is the same as Concise Beam version 4.45e.

January 9, 2007 - Concise Beam version 4.45e is now available for download

YOUR COMMERCIAL LICENSE MUST BE CURRENT UP TO THE END OF JANUARY 2007 AT THE EARLIEST TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS RELEASE.

Version 4.45e is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Adjusted the calculation of shear depth for beams that are in negative bending.

December 27, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.45d is now available for download

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

Version 4.45d is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a bug in the long. steel shear calculations under A23.3-04 with draped strands (right end of beam).
• When checking the shear/torsion interaction limits Concise Beam used the full shear at the bearing. This has been changed to use the limited applied shear a distance d (or h/2) from the face of the bearing if applicable.

November 16, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.45c is now available for download

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

Version 4.45c is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Corrected a bug in the stress calculations that can through off the deflections of large cantilevers.

November 1, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.45b is now available for download

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

Version 4.45b is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• The PCI Standard Design Practice, TR-7-05, discusses using a higher concrete tensile stress limit at transfer of 7.5 sqrt(f'c) over the full length of the beam. In conjunction with this higher limit they recommend the equivalent of two #4 reinforcing bars at the tensile face where the tensile stress is below this limit. The ACI code gives a limit of 6 sqrt(f'c) at the ends of the beam and 3 sqrt(f'c) elsewhere. Tensile reinforcing is not required where tensile stresses are below this limit. I've adjusted Concise Beam to accommodate both documents. For tensile stresses below the ACI limits no tensile steel will be required. This can be important for hollowcore producers who won't want to add steel if not required. For tensile stresses above the ACI limits the amount of tensile steel required will be the greater of two #4's or that required by ACI based on the tensile force. The tensile limits shown in the text reports and graphs will be the ACI limits.
• Adjusted the flexural calculations to avoid anomalies (spikes, etc) caused by excessive numerical error when a reduced concrete strain is used.
• Corrected a problem in the "Av/s Provided" curve for sections adjacent to portions of the beam that do not have stirrups (CSA code only).

October 18, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.45a is now available for download

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

Version 4.45a is a maintenance release that includes the following changes;

• Adjusted the order of the graph lines and colours for the "Longitudinal Steel for Flexure, Shear and Torsion" graph.
• Corrected the calculation of the tensile strength of the long. steel for flexure and shear (CSA codes) within the development length.

October 17, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.45 is now available for download

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

Version 4.45 includes the following changes;

• Added a new field to the Beam dialog to allow the user to specify a bearing width (along the length of the beam). This width is used in the shear calculations to locate the edge of support. This width is used for both supports.
• Added a new graph for longitudinal steel under shear loading for the CSA codes.
• Altered the longitudinal shear steel table (CSA codes) to show the steel requirements at the top and bottom of the beam instead of the flexural tension and compressive side of the section.
• Corrected the amount of horizontal interface ties shown in the graph.
• Adjusted the calculation of long. steel load and capacity with shear under the CSA codes near the supports.
• Corrected the estimate of steel required for negative bending in the Trial Design facility.
• Corrected a unit conversion problem in the rebar dialog (left offset in the rebar group list).
• Corrected a problem in the Prestressing dialog, when editing a strand profile, that can lead to a crash when viewing the Summary Report.

September 29, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.44 is now available for download

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

Version 4.44 includes the following changes;

• A new command has been added to the Options menu and the toolbar called "Switch to Metric (or Imperial)". This command allows the user to switch unit system without having to enter the Units of Measure dialog. To change the individual units such as inches to feet the user will still need to use the Units of Measure dialog. As per standard Windows behaviour the Switch to Metric(Imperial) command is not available within any dialogs. To avoid this restriction a button has been added to the bottom right corner of most unit dependent dialogs which allows the user to switch unit system. Dialogs associated with the library files do not allow switching of the unit system since the library files are dependent on a single unit system. A new field has also been added to the status bar at the bottom of the main window to indicate the currently selected system of units.
• The metric and Imperial individual units of measure are now independent of each other. Prior to this release if a user selected "mm" in metric then they were also implicitly selecting "in" in Imperial. Similarly for "m" and "ft", "N" and "lbs", "kN" and "kips", etc. A user can now select "mm" in metric and "ft in Imperial from the Units of Measure dialog.
• New keyboard shortcuts have been added to a few of the menu commands; Ctrl+U = Options Menu -> Switch to Metric (or Imperial), Ctrl+A = Options Menu -> AutoSave, Ctrl+R = View Menu -> Image and Graph Reset
• Adjusted the search for resisting tensile reinforcement in the tensile zone of a prestressed beam at transfer. It will ignore any steel near the neutral axis which isn't near the tension face of the beam.
• Made a few adjustments to the Shear graph.
• The minimum concrete component of the shear strength, Vc, for fully prestressed beams under the ACI codes has been increased from 1.7sqrt(f'c)bwd to 2.0sqrt(f'c)bwd in the detailed calculation method in accordance with the PCI Design Handbook. Previous versions of Concise Beam only used the higher limit for the simplified method in accordance with the code.
• Reworked the stress table in the Summary Report to ensure that the most critical section is found. This section isn't always the highest stress point if the stress limit varies along the beam (e.g. tensile limit at transfer).
• Corrected the check of factored shear versus shear strength near the supports. Also corrected the note associated with this check.
• Corrected the concrete shear strength under A23.3-04 at the very end face of the beam where no cantilevers exist.
• Corrected the check of compression side long. steel under A23.3-04 in the shear design tables.
• Corrected the reading of the shear steel specifications of some older files.

September 6, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.43a is now available for download

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

Version 4.43a is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• The calculation of shear width, in the section editor, has been adjusted to improve the results for tapered stem sections such as double tees. The shear width is the average of the stem width for such a section.
• Corrected a problem with the concrete section libraries where sections that didn't lie on the y = 0.0 axis would be found to have incorrect section properties.

August 30, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.43 is now available for download

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

Version 4.43 includes the following changes;

• The user is now able to specify the support locations at transfer in addition to in service. Prior versions of Concise Beam used the same support locations for transfer and service. This was a problem for beams with large cantilevers. Concise Beam now also includes a number of new text reports and graphs that distinguish between the transfer stage and in service.
• The deflection calculations have been rewritten. The program will now more accurately calculate dead load deflections in partially prestressed beams where cracking occurs during addition of the dead loads.
• The long-term deflection multipliers used by Concise Beam can now be changed by the user from the Options menu. Prior versions of Concise Beam allowed the multipliers to be changed by the user within a custom design code. This change no longer requires a user to use a custom design code when using customized multipliers which aren't code dependent.
• The numerical method used for the flexural calculations has been rewritten in order to speed it up, particularly for trial design. The user may see some small differences in the results with previous versions due to changes to the numerical method.
• The calculation of c, the depth in compression under flexure, has been adjusted. The adjustment involves the decision on whether the beta value should be based on the beam or topping concrete in the appropriate circumstances. This may have a small effect on the flexural resistance/strength.
• Clause 18.8.2 of ACI 318-99 has now been implemented. This clause allows the calculation of a reduced flexural strength for over-reinforced prestressed beams. This clause was made obsolete under ACI 318-99 Appendix B and ACI 318-02 & 05. ACI 318-99 and earlier is still used by many jurisdictions so I had to step back in time to patch that hole in the code implementation. The notes/warnings in the text reports have been adjusted to suit.
• Have updated the program to the latest PCI Standard Design Practice document TR-7-05. In Concise Beam the provisions of this document supercede the relevant clauses of each of the ACI codes only. One exception that has not yet been implemented is the use of the Zia-Hsu torsion design method recommended by PCI in place of ACI 318 clause 11.6.
• Have updated the notation used for prestress force for ACI users.
• Have made some adjustments to the decompression force calculations. The decompression force now consistently includes the elastic shortening loss added back in. The decompression force is the force required to counter the prestress in order to achieve a zero concrete stress at the centroid of the prestress total force.
• The value and location of the shear force limit at the supports are now calculated more accurately. The previous version of Concise Beam took the values at the closest station along the beam. The program now linearly interpolates the values from the station on either side of the limit location. This also applies to the calculation of the axial strain under the general shear method of A23.3-04.
• The Shear reports have been adjusted to eliminate columns that are applicable under a specific code or beam type.
• The calculation options have been rearranged into a tabbed dialog to allow more room for additional options.
• A new calculation option has been added to allow a user to use a simplified method alone to calculate the shear strength of concrete, if applicable. When the new option is turned on the program will taken the higher value of the simplified and detailed calculations for the concrete shear strength.
• A new calculation option has been added which controls whether Concise Beam includes the transformed area of prestressed and non-prestressed steel in the uncracked section properties. This option is set to ON by default meaning that the steel is included in the uncracked section properties.
• A new calculation option has been added which controls whether Concise Beam uses the full capacity of the topping when checking horizontal interface shear or the actual force on the topping from the applied loads. This option is set to ON by default meaning that the full topping capacity is taken as the design interface shear force unless the actual force is less than half of the full topping capacity. This exception is to avoid having to design short interface shear lengths at small moments, such as the negative moment at a small cantilever, for the full topping capacity.
• The calculation of the effective depth for shear has been loosed to ignored any tensile steel on the compression half of the section. This helps to prevent top bars, which may be in tension, from raising the centroid of the tensile steel and thus reducing the effective depth. This may increase the shear strength and maximum stirrup spacing somewhat.
• Corrected the ultimate strand stress, fps, for the calculation of the development length of the strand under Canadian codes. The previous versions incorrectly included the material resistance factor in fps.

July 17, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.42d is now available for download

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

Version 4.42d is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• Corrected the tensile stress limits under CAN/CSA-S6-00.

May 4, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.42c is now available for download

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

Version 4.42c is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• Corrected a problem with the flexural calculations that could cause incorrect negative bending strength. The negative bending strengths would appear to be of the wrong sign thought the strength value would also be wrong.

April 12, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.42b is now available for download

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

Version 4.42b is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• Added some notes to the deflections reports clarifying how long-term growth estimates for camber and deflection are calculated. There had been some confusion that the construction schedule defined with the prestress loss parameters were used to calculate long-term growth of camber/deflection. The construction schedule is only used to calculate prestress losses. Long-term camber/deflection growth is estimated with PCI suggested deflection modifiers as published in the PCI Handbook.
• Corrected the calculation of size in the shear calculations under CSAA23.3-04 for beams where minimum stirrups are determined by Concise Beam.
• Corrected a problem with the cracking calculations that could prevent the estimation of crack width in a reinforced topping under negative bending.

March 6, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.42a is now available for download

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

Version 4.42a is a maintenance release which includes the following changes;

• Adjusted the flexural calculations for non-prestressed beams that have equal tension and compression reinforcement so that the concrete theoretically carries no load.
• Increased a limit in the 3D display that used to restrict the number of polygons that could be displayed in each section to 24. The limit is now 128 polygons.

February 24, 2006 - Concise Beam version 4.42 is now available for download

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

Version 4.42 includes the following changes;

• Added the option in the Calculation Options dialog to use Appendix B of ACI318-99 for the flexural design check.
• The Flexural Design Check report has been updated to provide better feedback on the reinforcing limits and whether those limits are exceeded at any section along the beam. The report also updated to accommodate ACI318-99 Appendix B.
• Adjusted the flexure calculations so that you may see an increase for beams with low strength toppings.
• Modified the "Go To Next .." buttons in the Beam and Loss Parameters dialogs so that they would be inactive prior to defining any beam segments.
• Added the word ESTIMATE to the title of all deflection/camber to reports to highlight the fact that the reported deflections should not be considered any more than estimates as per the PCI Design Handbook. This is particularly true for deflections/cambers after long term growth.
• Adjusted the cracking calculations so that they stop complaining when there is no steel found in very shallow cracks (50mm, 2" or less).
• Reversed the "f'c at Limit" fields in the Concrete Parameters dialog of the Custom Design Code dialog to better agree with the order of the Beta and Alpha fields.
• Corrected the units in the Prestress Loss - Forces report.
• Corrected a bug in the PCI and S6 loss methods that could cause the creep losses to be zero.
• Corrected the selection of the a new library file location in the library dialog.

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