Information for existing users
Release 4.40.3 : 24 October 2005
InnoSetup installer substituted for Wise Setup
Release 4.40.2 : 10 February 2005
Fixes two small bugs, one preventing display of OLE Pages, the other
ignoring mouse clicks on the first item in the Project Manager Item List
Release 4.40.1 : 28 December 2004
User Interface
- SuperBeam 4 USA is now compiled using Borland Delphi 7 which has enabled us
to make some enhancements to the user interface. If
you are running Windows 95 or Windows NT4 you must install (if you have not
already done so) a copy of Internet Explorer 5 or 6. Doing this updates certain
parts of Windows to current standards. All Windows 98/ME/2000/XP systems
incorporate the required components.
- If you are running the program under Windows XP you will now see XP style
buttons (with rounded corners and which shimmer if you hold the mouse over
them) and other refinements. As part of this change you can no longer change
the program desktop colour.
- When visible, the Project Manager is now always docked at the left of the
program main window: i.e. the option to display it as a floating window has
been removed.
- The Project Manager 'Expand' button status (up/down) is saved when you exit
and restored on startup (when it is down and you click on an item in the
Project Manager its window is displayed in expanded form)
- The toolbar now displays captions under the toolbar buttons. The toolbar
and Project Manager fonts can now be changed using the Configuration, Screen
and Printer fonts option
- You can now change the calculation screen font size without using the
Configuration Menu option: use the Alt+Plus and Alt+Minus (numeric keypad '+'
and '-') keys to enlarge or reduce the font size
- If you run the program in a maximised window this setting is now remembered
and used next time you run it
- The screen and printer font dialogs have been combined into one dialog with
two tabbed pages. You can now select the line spacing and blank line size (as
percentages of the font default line spacing) so you can choose whether to go
for a tighter spacing to fit more on screen or an a page, or a more open
spacing for clarity.
- The beam, column and post load entry tables now show alternate rows in two
different colours. These can be changed from within the Configuration, Colours
dialog.
- When you select a beam, column or post load entry table a prompt panel
appears which shows the input required in the currently selected cell.
Projects - General
- The Project Details dialog now contains an extra field containing the
project start information (which is printed at the top of the Project Summary):
previously this data was automatically generated by the program when you first
started a project and could not be changed, and was retained if you copied an
old project file as the basis for a new one.
- When you start a new project you are asked for the project details and a
file name. A new message box is then displayed telling you that you add beams
and other items to the project using the toolbar buttons: check the checkbox to
stop this being displayed in the future (it is there to assist new users of the
program)
- The Print Project dialog is now resizeable and shows the items not selected
and selected for printing in two list boxes. You can now drag items from one
list to the other and also select multiple items with [Ctrl]+mouse click before
pressing the appropriate button
- PDF files produced by the program can now be merged with other
non-protected PDF files if you have a copy of Adobe Acrobat (the full version,
not just the free reader)
- A Project Summary button has been added to the toolbar
- The Project Summary now says 'or' when you have steel and timber
alternatives
- If you are using dead+live load entry, the dead and live reaction
components are now shown on screen as well as on the printouts
- The Project Manager 'Move up' and 'Move down' buttons now do not do
anything if the result would be to move an item above one whose data it
accesses
Beams
- If you select total load entry the loading duration column (used to enter
D/L with dead/live load entry) is now hidden
- The maximum fields lengths for beams have been increased: load name from 20
to 24, loads 14 to 20, start and end positions 11 to 14.
- Notes fields containing semi-colons were not read in correctly - fixed
- You can now have up to 20 standard load descriptions (previously 10)
- On a beam extended as a cantilever, shear was not checked at the root of
the cantilever - fixed
- The calculation of beam deflections has been altered very slightly to give
better results with highly irregular loads
- The beam analysis now omits the deflection coefficient. The actual total
deflection is shown as before, and if you are using separate dead+live load
entry the actual dead and live load deflections
Steel beams
- The Steel Check dialog has been redesigned and now contains two list boxes,
the first for the section type, the second for the sections of this type. B
& D dimensions are shown. If you position this dialog to one side of the
calculation window you can see the calculation when you select an alternative
section.
- With steel beams, where no section could be found that was suitable within
the section type and width limits entered, the section displayed was the
lighest/shallowest in the section list. Now you will see the last section
checked that met these limits with the usual warning message telling why it was
not suitable.
- For steel beams you can now add multi-line notes to each bearing -
previously you were restricted to one 80-character line. Standard notes can be
used as elsewhere. If you've selected the 'Show notes in summary' option these
notes are now also shown in the Project Summary: to avoid confusion in the
summary the main notes are printed before the bearings details
Wood beams
- The nominal-actual size conversion has been corrected for members that are
6x6 or larger - in each case 0.5" is now subtracted from the nominal
dimension; previously 0.75" was subtracted from dimensions of 8" or
more.
Steel Columns
- Load entry has been completely revised. You now enter loads in a table,
much as for beams, and can give loads descriptive names, The position where the
load acts is denoted by 'A' if axial, or '1' - '4' if acting so as to produce a
moment. In the latter cases you have to enter the distance from the center of
the member to the position where the load is assumed to act. If you load in a
file produced by an earlier version of SuperBeam the data will be converted to
the new format: you will need to substitute your own load descriptions for the
default ones.
- Following present day usage, references to 'Stanchion' have been changed to
'Column'
- Increment/decrement spinners have been added to the column length field
- The steel column baseplate edit dialog now shows the actual minimum
required dimensions in brackets after the specified dimensions - the latter are
never changed by the program if they exceed the required minima.
- As before, if the length, width or thickness of a baseplate entered exceeds
the required minimum value it will not be changed when you press 'Apply'.
Otherwise a rounded up value will be substituted
Wood posts
- Load entry has been completely revised. You now enter loads in a table,
much as for beams, and can give loads descriptive names, The position where the
load acts is denoted by 'A' if axial, or '1' or '2' if acting so as to produce
a moment. In the latter cases you have to enter the distance from the face of
the member to the position where the load is assumed to act - i.e. '0' if the
load is considered to act at the edge of the post or stud. If you load in a
file produced by an earlier version of SuperBeam the data will be converted to
the new format: you will need to substitute your own load descriptions for the
default ones.
- Increment/decrement spinners have been added to the post length field
- A check is now made to ensure that the slenderness ratio of timber posts
and studs does not exceed 180: a warning message is printed if it does
Configuration
- The User Setup dialog, Preferences page now includes an additional field
that lets you enter your preferred way of describing multiple section beams,
e.g. 2No or 2 of. If
a leading space is needed before your choice you must enter it in the field.
- The User Setup dialog, Preferences page now includes an additional field in
which you enter the maximum number of windows, x, to be displayed when
you select the 'Tile All' option. If the number of items in the project is
greater than this, pressing the toolbar 'Tile All' button repeatedly displays
the next x windows and so on.
- The User Setup dialog now has an additional button which lets you delete
the currently selected heading template: please note that this operation is NOT
reversible.
- The User Setup dialog now lets you define the name and location of the INI
file(s) that store the program settings: both entries default to SDA_APPS.INI.
Where no path is specified (as is the case by default) this file will be stored
in the system Windows directory (C:\Windows or C:\WINNT depending on OS) and
this could not be changed on earlier releases. This can cause problems on XP
systems where 'ordinary' users do not have write access to this directory: in
such cases you will need to relocate these files. Pressing the '99' button
generates suitable defaults. For a more detailed discussion of this see our web
site page www.sda.co.uk/inifiles.htm
- If you change the name of the steel or timber data file or standard notes
file in the User Setup dialog and the new file does not exist, the old file is
copied over to the new location/name. Previously an error message was
displayed.
- A new 'Information' option has been added to the Configuration menu. This
displays information about the program including licence details and file names
and locations. This information may be printed out if desired.
- The maximum length of text that can be entered in any heading cell has been
increased from 80 to 240 characters (in practice of course you would never use
anything like this).
- The heading template edit dialog now shows which font has been used for the
currently selected cell and also shows the names given to the %1-%4 project
fields. You can now drag these prompts and drop them onto table cells
Other
- A 'Change Description' option has been added to OLE pages which (as the
name implies) lets you substitute your own description (e.g. 'Connection
detail') for the default 'OLE Object: Word Document' etc.
- An alternative way of numbering pages has been added: the Print dialog now
offers you two options: Sequential numbering (1,2,3...) as before, with the
first number selectable by the user; or 'Number by content'. If you choose the
latter, pages are given the same number as the item, with a second number for
subpages, e.g. if a beam is item 12 in the Project Manager and on the Project
Summary, the printouts will be numbered 12.1 and (if more than one sheet) 12.2
- By design calculated field entries ignore extraneous text which may clarify
an expression - e.g 'avg' or 'est'. To save risks of errors being introduced,
any instances of upper case 'O' are now flagged as an error, before 2O would be
interpreted as 2, not 20.
- Until now including one or more blank lines in calculation notes forced a
new line. Now one blank line forces a new line and two blank lines includes a
blank line between paragraphs
- The calculator now includes keys to recall the last expression ('#') and to
calculate Sales Tax/VAT (default 17.5%) on the last result or current entry. To
change the rate to (say) 18.5% type ++0.185 on the calculator
input line and press 'Enter'
- The help file system now uses the Microsoft HTML Help Engine. The new help
file is called sbwusa.chm and is displayed with an index down the left hand
side. The old file (sbwusa.hlp) can be deleted once the new version is
installed and you have confirmed that the online help works correctly
- An Uninstall option is now added to the Start menu
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