Product Information
SuperBeam 6 is aimed at architects, surveyors, engineers and other construction professionals who need to design or check steel and wood beams and columns typically used in smaller scale building works. With SuperBeam you can calculate required member sizes quickly and easily and print out clear and easy-to-understand calculation sheets.
Key features
- Steel beam and column design and checking to AISC Allowable Stress Design code, 13th edition
- Timber beam and column design and checking to NDS 2001 edition
SuperBeam 6 looks much the same as many other Windows applications, with a menu at the top, toolbar under, status line at the bottom and Project Manager to the left. It runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 systems.
You can choose the font(s) used to display and print calculations. A larger font is easier to read; a smaller font shows more information without scrolling - the choice is yours!
A SuperBeam project is made up of one or more 'items', each of which can be one of the following:
- A simply supported steel, wood or flitch beam, optionally extended beyond the second reaction point as a cantilever.
- A steel column
- A wood post or stud, axially loaded or axially loaded and subject to a moment about the major axis.
- A page containing text relating to the current project ('Project text')
- A page containing text from an external text file ('User text page')
- An OLE page - contents supplied and edited using another application on your system (e.g. a Microsoft Word page)
New project options
The Project details dialog lets you enter key data in four fields. You can choose whether to enter total loads or enter separate dead and live components of loads (the option selected applies to the whole project, not individual items). Most people will probably find that total load entry is simpler; dead/live load entry allows steel beam deflection to be checked against live load deflection only, and automatically calculates the required factor for steel bearing padstones and bearing plates.
Beam design
Beam dialog: load entry page
In SuperBeam 6 one 4-page modeless dialog is used to enter loads and beam design criteria. Pressing the 'Apply' button commits any changes that you make without closing the dialog, and you see the updated calculations in the corresponding window. 'Undo' restores the data to what it was before you started editing or last pressed 'Apply'.
So to work out a typical beam you enter the loads (each beam can now have up to 30 loads), click on 'Apply', click on the Steel tab (the steel design parameters page shown below is then displayed) and make any changes, then 'Apply' again. The required size on the button immediately under 'Consider' (see below) - you can click on the button to manually choose an alternative section, if you don't want the one that the program has selected. Then click on the 'Bearings' tab and change the bearing details as necessary. Click once more on 'Apply' then close the dialog and you're done. Similarly for a wood beam enter the loads, click on the 'Wood' tab and (the wood beam design parameters page shown below is then displayed) and make any changes, then 'Apply' again.
You can display and print beam loading and bending moment and shear force diagrams for each beam
Beam dialog: steel beam design parameters page
Beam dialog: steel beam bearing page
Beam dialog: wood beam design parameters page
Steel column design and checking
Column dialog: load entry page
SuperBeam's column design dialog has three pages, one each for loads, steel design parameters and base plate sizing. You can enter an axial load, an axial load applied via a cap connection (i.e. assumed to act at one edge of the member, moment calculated automatically), applied reactions with their offsets from the member center line (do.) or enter your own moments.
Wood posts and studs
Wood post and stud edit dialog
This dialog shows lets you enter the loading and design criteria for timber posts and studs. These can be axially loaded only or axially loaded and subject to bending to about the major axis.
Text pages
SuperBeam 6 includes a basic text editor that will allow straightforward pages to be created. Extra tags within the text handle fonts, tabs, underlining and special characters. You can also add OLE object pages to your project: these contain data supplied and maintained by another application on your system, for example a page of spec notes produced using Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro.
Printing (overprinted with watermark on demo version)
When you want to print out your calculations the dialog above is displayed. You can choose which sheets to print and which copies - the copy recipient names can be printed on each sheet and are user definable. Each page number can be given a prefix (e.g. A.22) or suffix (e.g. 22a). There is also a Print Project option which lets you print out all the selected sheets from your project in one go, and a Project Summary which gives brief details of each item in the current project. You can also 'print' your calculations to a PDF file which can be read by anyone who has a copy of the free Adobe Acrobat reader: useful if you need to email a set of calculations to someone.
What are you waiting for?
Download the demo version, try it for up to 30 days, then purchase an activation key to allow full functionality.
Limited time offer: A single user license costs just $99 Buy now!.
Existing users please email Tony Bryer to receive upgrading details
