General

BS5950-1:2000

ProSteel 5 was released in November 2001 and takes account of the changes in BS5950-1:2000. Earlier versions of ProSteel should no longer be used. Registered users of ProSteel 1-4 can upgrade to the latest version at a special price.

Improve your understanding of BS5950

Thomas Telford, the training division of the Institution of Civil Engineers run an two day course "BS5950: Designing Steel Building Structures". From personal experience this can be unhesitatingly recommended to all ProSteel users.
The current 'Green Book' on Connection Design takes account of the changes in BS5950:2000. The Steel Construction Institute runs a half day course on Simple Connections and the course fee includes a copy of the Green Book (P212) Click here for more information. Other SCI courses

Hollow sections - warning!

ProSteel's hollow section calculations are only applicable to hot-finished sections. On more recent releases we print 'HF' next to the section name to emphasise this. Cold-formed sections have lower capacities and should not be substituted for hot-finished sections without explicitly checking their adequacy.

Corus supply two grades of cold-formed section, Strongbox® 235 and Hybox® 355. The Steel Construction Institute Advisory Desk note AD271 states "... it is strongly recommended that Strongbox 235 sections should not be used in structural applications; in particular where designs must comply with building regulations and/or design codes"

Checking of Hybox 355 sections is included in releases 5.20h and later

What's a PFC?
What's an IPE?
What's an ASB?
What's an SFB?

More recent steel data files include additional section types. PFC stands for Parallel Flange Channel, a channel section in which the inner and outer faces of the flanges are parallel. See SCI Publication 210: Parallel Flange Channels - Section Properties and Member Capacities, 1996. IPE and HE are Euronorm I sections. A SFB (Slimflor Fabricated Beam) former comprises a UC section with a plate projecting 100mm either side welded on to the lower flange. An ASB (Asymmetric Beam) section is a rolled I section with the bottom flange 110mm wider than the top flange.

Column base plate sizing

A query has been raised re base plate sizing. ProSteel 2-5 calculate the base plate thickness using the minimum base plate size, which is a function of the section size and concrete strength. If you make the base larger, the additional area is ignored. This is all in accordance with BS5950, but one user has pointed out that when designing mezzanine floors the base area is often determined by the permissible load on the subgrade below the slab, less an allowance for load dispersal through the slab. In such cases the base plate thickness should be calculated by using the actual size and actual stress under the whole plate which will give a greater plate thickness than ProSteel indicates. In such cases you will need to calculate the base plate thickness manually.

Mezzanine floor column effective lengths

Please note that the effective lengths for columns supporting internal platform (mezzanine) floors are given in Annex D Table D1. The factors rang from 0.70L to 4.00L. The ProSteel design dialog lets you type in your own effective length factor as well as selecting the standard values from the drop-down list. If you are involved in mezzanine floor design we would strongly advise you to obtain a copy of BRE Digest 437 - available from BRE Bookshop

Missing GDIPlus.DLL error message

Eurocode EC3/EC4 web-based training

A series of free self-learning courses on different parts of Eurocodes 3 and 4, the new European design codes for steel and steel-concrete composite structures, have been made available on the internet. More ...

Release 5.32e: 20  June 2008

If your activation key ends in 803 or greater, you can download this release using the Miscellaneous, Check SDA Website for Updates option within the program. How to use the web updates facility

1. If a member fails, this is now noted in the Project Summary
2. Load expressions containing a comma are now handled: previously if such an expression found its way into a project file (it shouldn't have) the file could not be read in.
3. A lower case 'l' in load expressions is now uppercased if it precedes a '/' (e.g. l/2 is turned into L/2) or follows a number (e.g. 0.5l is turned into 0.5L). Before this change 'l' was discarded, possibly leaving an invalid expression.
4. Additional moments on columns can now be entered as expressions.
5. Where the section type is ASB, adding beam openings should not have been allowed. Trying to do so now gives a message to this effect (in practice you would almost never be using a ASB where openings are required)
6. For fin plate connections, the check 10 (ii) punching shear (conservative) is now carried out. For this to be satisfied the yield strength of the supporting member must exceed that of the fin plate. A S275 6mm fin plate requires a minimum support web or hollow section wall thickness of 4.02/3.37mm (S275/S355), an 8mm plate 5.37/4.49mm. If the supporting member thickness is less than this you will need to reduce the fin plate thickness accordingly. In practice this only afects fin plates being welded to thin wall hollow sections.
7. Where the vertical height of the Project Manager and number of items was such that the item list finished with an incompletely displayed row, clicking on the last (part) row displayed the wrong item. Now only whole rows are shown.
8. A basic standard notes file is now installed in the program folder on new installs. If the file shown in Configuration > User Setup is not found, the default file will be copied over to the user's data folder (the file name and location is shown in Configuration > Information and in the notes edit dialog). Obviously the intention is that users will modify the default notes to suit their own needs.
9. A new option on the Help menu takes you straight to our new User forums - please use these where possible for your questions, feedback and suggestions. Our previous website helpdesk is no longer in use.

Release 5.32c: 26  March 2008

5.32d: 3  April 2008

1. A new option on the Steel page of the beam data edit dialog lets you enter a non-default effective length, As elsewhere, use 'L' to denote the span and 'D' for the beam depth.
2. Where you have more than one opening in a beam web, the openings are now sorted into order when you press 'Apply'. If two or more openings are too close (i.e. not separated by the beam depth), a message to this effect is added to the openings calculation sheet. This is not flagged as a fail condition since you may have entered two alternative openings.
3. This release incorporates various changes required to make it work in countries that do not use a period, '.' as the decimal separator
4. Some additional error checking has been added which should make it easier to diagnose startup and shutdown problems.
5. An extra option on the Miscellaneous menu takes you to a page on our website http://www.sda.co.uk/renew which lets you renew your update cover online. From the end of April we will not be taking credit card payments ourselves. This option is greyed out until 45 days before your update cover expires.
6. 5.32d fixes a problem with page heading column widths: on accessing the heading editor the widths were lost and could not be reset.

Release 5.32b: 4  Feb 2008

Pressing 'Apply' afte editing a text page could give a 'List index out of bounds' error - fixed

Release 5.32a: 3  Dec 2007

1. The Masonry Strength Calculator has been updated (a little belatedly!) to BS5628-1:2005. Note that default material strengths have changedTesting is now to BS EN 771-3 which gives a slightly higher measured strength for the same material due to the testing being done ins slightly drier conditions. Article explaining this on Celcon website Thus 2.8 becomes 2.9; 3.5, 3.6; 7.0, 7.3; 10.0, 10.4 etc. Note that several tables contain identical data for the same block strengths, e.g. Table 2b (aerated blocks) is just a subset of Table 3c (aggregate blocks) , likewise 2e and 2d.
   Old brickwork is generally taken as being 7N/mm² bricks in Class iv mortar: under the new code the net bearing stress for this combination will drop by about 10% will a consequent increase in padstone/bearing plate size. Logically, it would now be reasonable to assume a brick strength of 7.3N/mm², but doing so might confuse some checking engineers!
2. Calculated fields (e.g. loads) allow you to incorporate text within expressions to amplify them (e.g. 'avg') which is stripped out when the expression is evaluated. Previously no check was made as to where this text was, so if you inadvertently entered (say) 2N038 instead of 2NO38 the first would be resolved as 2038, the 'N' being stripped out. Now an error is thrown if free text comes within a number. Note that the error handler will identify the first following number as being in error, since at this point only another text character or operator is now acceptable.
3. The startup dialog, which is displayed if automatic reload of last project is turned off, now includes an option to reload the last project.

Release 5.31d: 26  Oct 2007

1. Fixes bug which could give the wrong reaction at R1 for bearings and where this reaction is a B/F load on another member. The value returned would be too high when the member was a beam extended as a cantilever and had one or more live part UDLs whose start position was somewhere along the span (i.e. >0) and whose end position was on the cantilever. Note that for such beams the B/F or reaction figure will not be the same as on the beam calculation as the live loads on the cantilever are ignored when calculating R1 for this purpose.

Release 5.31c: 10  Oct 2007

1. A new startup dialog is now displayed if a previous project is not automatically reloaded. Future display of this dialog can be skipped by checking the box in the dialog.
2. Bug fixed which caused UKPFC (Advance designation) to be printed as UKUKPFC
3. As the licence/disclaimer is not now shown each time the program is run, we have added a new menu option Help > Show Licence.

Release 5.31b: 12  Sept 2007

1. Bug fixed that could set the wrong INI file location on new Vista installs
2. The second page of the User Setup dialog is now titled 'File names and locations' instead of 'Paths and Files'
3. Fixed bug that gave 'Could not create backup: Save cancelled' error messages when 'Create backup on save' not checked in User Setup > Preferences.
4. The disclaimer screen is now shown when (i) the current user initials are not the same as those entered last time the program was run;. (ii) this is the first time a new release has been run; or (iii) this is the 25th, 50th, 75th ... time the program has been run.
5. UNC program settings INI file names (i..e starting with \\) were lost on exiting program - fixed.
6. A new default steel table now includes the 18 new Corus Advance sections: to use it. If you are updating an existing installation and want these sections you will need to change the steel data file name - go to Configuration > User Setup > File Names and Locations, press the 'Open' button at the end of the line and locate and select file name AdvSteel.dta (on XP systems this file should be in folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SDA and on Vista systems, C:\ProgramData\SDA. The Advance sections include three new UB families, 610x178; 533x312 and 533x165 and additional heavier sections in the 533x210, 457x191, 406x178 and 406x140 UB and 203x203 and 152x152 UC series.
7. A new option in Configuration > User Setup > Preferences lets you decide whether to use the traditional UB, UC and PFC designations or the Advance UKB, UKC and UKPFC ones.
8. The beam span can be changed using the cursor [Up], [PgUp], [Down] and [PgDn] keys.
9. For axially loaded columns, the on-screen summary calculation now shows the axial capacity

Release 5.31a: 31  May 2007

1. ProSteel is now compiled with Delphi 2007 (which makes it slightly faster and displays the new style file dialogs on Vista systems), thus the 0.01 increase in the version number
2. We are now using a new PDF generator which does not need an external DLL file: Print Project PDFs include bookmarks which make it easier to navigate through files containing a large number of items.
3. When editing existing beams or columns, the Apply buttons in the beam and column edit dialogs are now enabled as soon as you type anything in the loading grid - previously you had to move to another cell first.
4. Our web site now has a help desk facility: the Help menubow includes additional options which take you to the forum and support form pages.
5. We have made a number of small changes to improve Vista compatibility - ProSteel now runs properly in Vista's non-Administrator mode, as well as various little interface improvements in various places.
6. The Miscellaneous > Catalogue Disk Files option now lists files with clickable links which open the associated project files.
7. The Internet > Check SDA Web Site for Updates option now includes a button which lets you choose an alternative download location. The default location has been changed to be compatible with Windows Vista
8. Holding down the [Ctrl] key while moving the mouse wheel increases or decreases the calculation display font size as on all modern web browsers.

Release 5.30g: 23 Feb/9 March 2007

1. INI (configuration) file names could be incorrectly retrieved from the registry - fixed.
2. UPX file compression is no longer used.
3. 9 March Minor change to improve standard note file location

Release 5.30f: 1 Feb 2007

1. The program file is now code-signed to prevent Windows issuing a potentially unsafe file warning
2. We have made some changes to speed up the program startup and shutdown
3. Help > About now just displays the basic build and licence data instead of the full licence and disclaimer text shown when you first start the program
4. More message boxes have been replaced with the new Vista-style ones showing more information
5. Clicking the bar above the Project Manager buttons hides them - useful if you are just using the PM to select items and reports and have a lot of them.
6. You cannot now delete an beam or column from a project if it is referenced by another item (e.g. BF load).
7. If you were using separate DL+LL load entry and brought forward the load from a true cantilever (span=0), the LL would be shown as zero - fixed
8. The on-screen summary calculation for steel beams now adds the total load deflection
9. When designing a steel beam, the first section in the table (usually a small CHS) would be used if nothing that met the required width and section types was found. A warning box is now displayed when this happens.
10. The 'Add to recent documents' option has been dropped from User Preferences.
11. The '99' button in User Setup, Paths & Files is now labelled 'V' and generates the preferred locations for INI files on Windows 2000/XP/Vista systems.
12. Double clicking on the Page Heading Edit dialog grid header line resets the column widths to their original defaults.
13. The default standard notes file name has been changed to StdNotes.sbps (was StdNotes.xxx where xxx were your initials): this does not affect existing installations.

Release 5.30e: 4 Sept 2006

One small but very important fix: ALL USERS PLEASE NOTE :This affects beams extending as cantilevers only: If you entered a part UDL live load ending at R1 (i.e on the span only) or starting at R2 (i.e. on cantilevered part of the member only) the BM and deflection figures for the part load conditions DL|DL+LL DL+LL|LL were incorrectly calculated. The all loads applied calculation was correct. This release fixes this bug.

Release 5.30d: 6 July 2006

Two small fixes:

1. When you first entered the beam load edit table you could not enter a load type until you had moved to another cell and back - fixed
2. Selecting either of the beam diagram options gave a range check error - fixed

Release 5.30c: 29 May 2006

1. Column load edit table would not allow the entry of more than one character in the load description column if the previously selected field was the load duration - fixed
2. Moving items up and down using the Project Manager 'Move' buttons was s-l-o-w on larger projects - improved
3. B/F on column edit dialog didn't work - fixed: note that you first have to press a load position button 'A', '1'-'4', to enable the B/F button.
4. If the applied loads on a column generated a negative moment and you also entered a positive additional moment the signed values were added (i.e. the moment resulting from the applied loads was subtracted from the additional moment). The moment is now calculated by adding the absolute values of the two moments.
5. Section name now shown on bearing page of beam edit dialog

Release 5.30b: 22 Jan 2006

1. 5.30a load entry dialog dropped autocomplete on load description - reinstated
2. 5.30a B/F dialog would no longer allow calculated load positions (e.g. L/2) to be entered - reinstated
3. On steel page of load edit dialog effective length was not not visible for restraint conditions 6 & 7 - fixed
4. Bearing length correctly calculated but not shown in beam edit dialog - fixed
5. Total load was printed twice - fixed

Release 5.30a: 16 Jan 2006

The key change is to the visual appearance of ProSteel with new look menus and dialogs. The program should also run a bit faster too. The only change affecting calculations is that the total load is now explicitly shown on beam calculation sheets

Release 5.20l: 5 August 2005

• For a beam extended as a cantilever, if you selected 'Fully restrained' for the span any effective length factor entered for the cantilever was ignored and the cantilever was erroneously taken as being fully restrained - fixed
• For beam to beam connections, connecting a small beam to a much larger one may not be possible within the 'Green Book' constraints used in ProSteel - cutting the required notch out of the supported beam would leave insufficient web to affix a plate with the required 0.6D length. Such cases are now explicitly flagged: before an error message stated that the plate was too short, and then when you increased it another message would then say that there was insufficient space to accommodate a plate of this length leaving the user somewhat confused!
• Trying to create a PDF file when a file of that name is already open in a copy of Acrobat now gives a more informative error message.

Release 5.20k: 13 June 2005

• A new option, Project, Add item(s) from another project, has been added. When you select it you are asked to choose the project file from which items are to be copied. Once you've done this, the items in the selected project are listed. Check the one(s) that you wish to add to your current project, then press 'Add'. The item(s) are added to the current project.
• When you use the B/F option to bring forward a beam or column load, the referenced item location/description is now used to form the load name rather than it being initialised as 'React B/F'.You can of course change this default name if desired.
• Bug introduced into 5.20j caused wrong section to be selected from Steel Check dialog until you used User Setup option fixed
• If you entered columns loads in the 'wrong' order, when they were sorted by the program load values could be copied incorrectly - fixed
• When you selected the Print Project option the toolbar Edit button could be erroneously disabled - fixed
• Reordering items in a project containing an OLE page prevented the page contents being printed until you saved and reloaded the project - fixed
• Autosave setting was lost when manually saving a project - fixed

Release 5.20j: 27 April 2005

• Fixes a bug reported by a handful of users that caused a 'List index out of bounds' error message when selecting Steel Check
• Copy Load and Cut Load button placement corrected on column edit dialog

Release 5.20i: 25 April 2005

• We have reinstated the option to choose channels sections in the column edit dialog.
• A bug has been fixed that stopped you saving files where there was a period '.' in the file path

Release 5.20h: 18 April 2005

• The key change is that checking of S355 cold-formed hollow sections (Corus trade name Hybox® 355) has been added. The section properties for cold-formed circular, square and rectangular hollow sections have been added to the AllSteel.dta file. Existing unaltered files will be updated when you install this update. If you have modified your copy of the file it will not be replaced unless you delete/rename it before installing this release.
• This change now means that there are 16 section types available. Many users will never want to use some types (e.g. SFB/ASB or Euronorm sections). The Configuration, User Setup dialog now includes a set of check boxes which let you choose which section types are displayed in the beam and column edit dialogs.
• The beam and edit dialogs will not now let you select ASB or cold-formed hollow sections if you have selected S275 grade steel as these sections are only manufactured from S355 steel. The column edit dialog now omits sections that are not generally considered suitable for use as columns: channel, ASB and SFB sections; cold-formed hollow sections cannot be selected if you have selected S275 grade steel.
• The Steel Check section selection dialog now initially displays the selected section types only. A new 'Show All' button displays all the section types in the current steel file. As before you can list sections in weight or depth order; a new option 'Table order' displays the sections in ascending table order (e.g. showing all the 254x146 UB's or 150x100 RHS sections together).
• Connection designs with one row of bolts only could cause error messages stating that the bolt row spacing could not be accommodated - fixed
• Beam bearing plate calculations now include an extra line showing the calculation of the plate projection.
• Where you add an additional moment to a column you can now give it a descriptive name, e.g. 'wind load'
• An additional preference 'Ask before closing program' has been added to the Configuration, User Setup dialog Preferences page. If the box is checked you get the 'Exit Yes/No' confirmation dialog; if you uncheck the box this is skipped, though you will continue to be asked whether you wish to save any unsaved work.
• The Configuration, Information screen now lists all the names and locations of all the files used by ProSteel

Release 5.20g: 10 January 2005

• This release improves the handling of projects containing large numbers of items. The Project Manager did not always display the selected item if you had scrolled a long list to bring the required one into view - fixed. In addition you can now select how many windows are shown when you press the 'Tile All' button from a new field in the 'User Setup, Preferences' dialog. If the project contains more items than this, pressing the button repeatedly displays the next lot of items - e.g. if you have chosen to tile 20 windows and there are 50 items in the project, pressing the Tile All button repeatedly now displays 1-20, 21-40, 41-50 and then 1-20 again.