GRAITEC has continuously strived to provide best-in-class advancements of innovative software solutions for its valued customers. The recent launch of our new and upgraded product range for 2023 is no exception, proving we are still on top of the game in terms of providing high level Construction, AEC and Building Design software solutions worldwide.
The new 2023 version of Advance Design is enhanced based on a lot of user focused functionalities with high-end benefits, it is articulated around few main subjects:
- Performance – a significant reduction of the time required for calculations.
- Construction stages – new mechanism for the definition, management and calculation of structures using stages.
- Advanced non-linear supports – new possibilities for defining nonlinear relationships for supports.
- Masonry structures – possibility to model and verify masonry walls (acc. EN 1996) using a new Masonry Wall design module
- Timber Design based on North American codes – the sections and material libraries are updated, and timber design based on (CSA O86 and NDS 2018) is now possible.
- Wind on free standing walls – possibility to generate wind on free standing walls acc. EN 1991-1-4
- Result tables – fast and easy checking of FEM results using Results Tables
- Localization for Spain and Portugal – adaptation of Advance Design for the Spanish and Portuguese market, including the introduction of new national annexes for the Eurocodes and new interface languages for both countries
- Miscellaneous improvements
We are inviting you to take a look at the selected new features and improvements brought to Advance Design 2023.
Performance
To save the most precious resource – time, the latest version of Advance Design introduced a number of changes that result in a significant reduction of the time required for calculations. Three areas have been improved:
- Improvement of the calculation solver and software architecture
- Changed the way results for combinations are calculated
- Optimization of verification procedures for steel elements
The table shows the values of reduction in required calculation time and the decrease of project file size compared to the previous version of the program. The table contains averaged values for ten different examples.
Construction stages
In conventional structural analysis, all loads are applied at once on the complete final structure without studying their effects in a single step calculation. However, in practice, structures are constructed in stages (story by story) and loads such as self-weight, construction and finishing are present at each stage prior to structure completion.
Neglecting the staged construction effect in the conventional analysis might sometimes yield wrong results. Therefore, in some cases, the correct displacements and internal forces distribution should be calculated by cumulating analysis results from each construction stage.
In the latest version of Advance Design, you can now define and analyze construction stages easily and efficiently. Stages can be defined in many ways, also taking into account changes in sections, materials or supports between stages. It is also possible to include the duration of the stages in the concrete parameters and to easily display the cumulative results for each stage and the final one.
Advanced non linear supports
Advance Design 2023 is a version with a special focus on developing capabilities in more advanced (non-linear) areas. One of the related innovations is a new type of support, called Advanced supports. This new type of support on one hand facilitates the creation of supports with distinctive characteristics in different directions, but also introduces a whole new set of possibilities for defining nonlinear relationships, which is especially important for some types of structures requiring a more complex definition of supports.
Key features and capabilities of the new type of support:
- Defining supports having different behavior in each direction (each degree of freedom)
- Defining gap supports
- Defining supports with hardening
- Supports of any non-linear characteristic
Masonry Structures
Advance Design 2023 is special for masonry modeling and analysis since it introduces the ability to model masonry walls. A brand-new Masonry Wall module for the design calculations of the masonry walls according to the Eurocode 6 (EN 1996) with several national annexes (for France, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, UK) , Italian NTC2018 and Romanian CR6 standard is provided.
Modelling Masonry Walls
Masonry wall modeling now uses a new composite material type that uses information about section geometry, including the number of layers, type of masonry units, and mortar.
Design of Masonry walls
For design verifications both a detailed method based on Part 1 of the standard (EN 1996-1-1) and a simplified method based on Part 3 (EN 1996-3) may be used. The scope of the calculation of masonry walls includes verification of walls subjected to vertical loads, concentrated loads, bending, and shear in plane and out of plane of the wall.
Timber design verification for North American codes
Timber members can now be verified based on the specification from North American codes:
- CSA O86-19 – Canada
- NDS2018 (ASD and LRFD) – United States
Advance Design can perform several checks as below:
- Shear resistance (including notch and holes)
- Bending moment resistance for strong and weak axis
- Compressive resistance parallel to grain
- Compressive resistance perpendicular to grain (bearing resistance)
- Tensile resistance
- Resistance to combined forces
- Deflection verification
Wind on free standing walls (EN 1991-1-4)
Advance Design 2023 is now able to generate wind forces on free-standing walls, according to §7.4 from EN1991-1-4.
According to the Eurocode, walls should be treated as free-standing walls when a building features a significant opening ratio. These types of walls are modeled in AD using load areas, which now contains several additional parameters that allow you to specify the details of the free-standing wall operation. The wind is generated automatically using appropriate zones, considering different parameters such as wind directions, the sheltering effect, or the solidity ratio.
Tables with results
In Advance Design 2023, users can filter and check FEM calculation results even faster. This is all thanks to the new “Results Tables” functionality which allows us to quickly display the results in tabular format directly on the screen.
We have the possibility to generate a table with the results for
- Nodes (displacements)
- Linear elements (displacements, internal forces, stresses)
- Planar elements (displacements, internal forces, stresses, resultant forces)
- Supports (displacements, forces)
Tables could be narrowed by selecting requested load combinations.
The tables also have useful features that make it easier to find detailed results in the already generated table, like sorting values and filtering results. The great news is, we can easily use multiple filters at the same time.
We can also create our own template with specific result columns and settings. Saved table templates will be able to be used in all projects or deleted when no longer needed.
Spain and Portugal localization
Version 2023 of AD is the first version that has been adapted for the Spanish and Portuguese market, so that it can be used by designers from these countries, but also by all those who want to perform verifications based on Spanish and Portuguese standards or want to generate documentation in one of the two newly available languages.
The selection of settings for both countries, including languages and standards is available from the localization configuration window:
In the current version of the program, the interface language and reports are available in both Spanish and Portuguese.
This adaptation covers the implementation of national annexes for the Eurocode and load related generators (combination, wind, snow and seismic) as well as design calculations for steel and timber elements.
Miscellaneous novelties and improvements
Advance Design 2023 also brings numerous improvements and adjustments following the feedback received from thousands of users worldwide. Here is an extract of the hundreds of new features implemented in this new version.
New ‘Load generation settings’ dialog for crane loads: To make force generation easier and more controllable a new option has been added to the list of crane properties, opening a new settings window. The ‘Load generation settings’ dialog now lets the users decide which load groups should be generated and how the longitudinal force (Fx) and the transverse force (Fy) should be oriented.
Parametric Cold-Formed sections: Advance Design 2023 now lets the users define several types of cold-formed sections in a parametric way (by specifying dimensions). It is possible to define profiles from families: Omega, Sigma, L, Z, Zed, Zeta, C and Cee.
Update of peak deflection calculations for France in accordance with FD P18-717: in the list of FEM results available for supports in the Results ribbon, the user can now select also stresses. This change makes it possible to display stress results for both linear and surface supports.
The FD P18-717 standard version from August 2021 now replaces the version from December 2013.
Drawings: Permanent annotations on drawings – In drawings generated by all modules, it is possible to place text descriptions as a new drawing component. These descriptions are treated as independent components of the drawing and therefore retain their content and position during drawing regeneration. Descriptions can be placed anywhere on the sheet and edited or moved as needed. You can add any number of descriptions to the drawing and each description can have independently set parameters, such as color, font, and size.
Tension/Compression only linear releases: Another new feature in Advance Design 2023 is related to the definition of complex (non-linear) relationships between structural elements. Now, advanced releases can be defined on the edges of surface elements. Same as before, linear releases are defined from the surface element properties, but the possibilities are much greater and include:
- Free end side release
- Determining the release separately for each direction
- Tension/compression only side release
Possibility to copy reinforcement data from one wall in a group to another: To facilitate use of the same reinforcement on multiple walls in a group, now it is possible to easily copy reinforcement data from one wall in a group to other walls. This option is especially useful when you want to modify reinforcement in selected walls or impose your own for verification purposes.
Variable-length bar distribution generated as a single system: In the case that the rebar distribution contains elements with variable length, the rebars are now generated not as a set of individual bars but as a group. Thus, in the drawings and schedules the distribution of rebars with variable length is treated as one distribution with the same bar mark.
Preloaded bolts: Starting with 2023 version, the preloaded bolts are available in the Steel Connection module. For this version, preloaded bolts have been added for MEP, Apex and Gable Wall connections.
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