Error Corrections
Some program errors have been corrected for this version. Corrections made to graphics, reports, Modeler functions, program crashes, etc., that were considered minor are not listed here. The noteworthy error corrections are listed here in order to notify you that they have been corrected or to assist you in determining the impact of those errors on previous designs. These errors were generally obscure and uncommon, affecting only a very small percentage of models, or had no impact on the results. The errors, when they occurred, were generally quite obvious. However, if there is any question, it may be advisable to reanalyze previous models to determine the impact, if any. In each case the error only occurred for the precise conditions indicated. Those errors that may have resulted in un-conservative designs are shown with an asterisk. We know these errors are disruptive, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
DXF
CONCRETE BEAM CROSS-SECTION: In the Concrete Beam Schedule, when the cross-section of rectangular beams was drawn, one corner was drawn in the wrong location.
Effect: Distorted drawing of the cross-section.
SHEAR WALL OUTLINE: In some cases, the shear wall outline was drawn incorrectly in the DXF output, with lines drawn to an extraneous point in a radial pattern.
Effect: Incorrect DXF output.
ELEVATION LABEL: The top-most story label was missing from the Elevation DXF.
Effect: Missing label.
FLOOR FRAMING GAP SCALE: In the floor framing DXF the gap between the beam end and the girder, and the gap between the beam end and the column, was not scaled correctly. The program was treating the specified value as if it were a model space dimension rather than a paper space dimension, which was inconsistent with other dimensions.
Effect: No visible gaps were drawn. Note: If you have made a change to your default value to account for this, you may need to change it back, otherwise the gaps will be very large.
Data Extractor
REACTIONS ON STUB CANTILEVERS REVERSED*: When exporting the reactions on stub cantilevers using the Data Extractor, the reactions were reported backwards: the right reaction was reported in the left reaction column and vice versa.
Effect: Incorrect stub cantilever beam reactions were reported.
Manager
SAVE AS ARCHIVE: The Durafuse .dfz file was not being included when archive files were created.
Effect: DuraFuse data was lost when the file was archived with the File – Save as Archive command.
GRAVITY LOADS ON LATERAL MEMBERS REPORT: The Gravity Loads on Lateral Members report lists the gravity loads applied to lateral members. In the case of a Gravity column supported by a transfer girder that was a Frame beam, the applied gravity loads reported for the Frame columns that supported that Frame beam were initially incorrect. However, after the analysis was performed in RAM Frame, the values were corrected and the report listed the correct values.
Effect: The reported column forces may not have been correct for the case of a Gravity column supported by a Frame beam.
Gravity Loads
SLOPING MEMBER LOADS AND REACTIONS*: If a beam framed into a sloping beam and if the option in the Manager to automatically include Beam self-weight in the determination of Dead Loads had been selected, the reaction from the beam supported by the sloping beam was unnecessarily transformed (the reaction had already been transformed and didn’t need to be done again) into the sloping beam’s local axis when the beams were designed during a Design All, resulting in incorrect design Dead Load point loads on the sloping beam.
Effect: The Dead Load from reactions of sloping beams was incorrect, by the cosine of the beam slope angle, on the supporting members, including beams, columns, and foundations. The values were greater than they should have been, so the error was conservative unless the member or footing design was (or should have been) controlled by uplift. The error, when it occurred, was small unless the slope was very large. This error may have impacted gravity beam and column design, Frame analysis and design, foundations, and the reactions and point loads listed in the Data Extractor. Note that for the analysis of the Frames in RAM Frame, the Dead Loads on Frame members were corrected and the error did not occur if a Design All was performed in the Steel Beam module, in which case the analysis results in RAM Frame were correct.
Steel Beam
ABSOLUTE DEFLECTION LIMITS WARNINGS*: Deflection limit failure warnings were not given in View/Update and during Design All if a composite beam failed a user-specified "delta" deflection limit for the precomposite Construction Dead Load deflection case, or if a noncomposite beam failed a user-specified "delta" deflection limit for the Dead Load or Live Load deflection cases.
Effect: Failures to satisfy the "L/d" deflection limits were always correctly reported, and Reports, Design Color display, and View/Update Demand/Capacity Ratio all correctly indicated when the beam failed either the "L/d" or "delta" deflection limits, but on-screen failure warnings were not displayed when the beam failed the "delta" deflection limit for the precomposite Construction Dead Load deflection case for composite beams, or for the Dead Load or Live Load deflection cases for noncomposite beams.
MOMENT CAPACITY OF ASYMMETRIC I-SHAPED MEMBERS: In the calculation of the moment capacity of asymmetric I-shaped members in Section F4 of AISC 360-16, the reported moment capacity was erroneous when Iyc/Iy was greater than 0.23 (the program always used Rpc = 1.0 even when a larger value was permitted).
Effect: The program conservatively used a Rpc = 1.0 in the determination of the moment capacity.
BUILT-UP BOX SHAPES: The reported capacities of built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 Section F7 were incorrect.
Effect: Built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 reported incorrect capacities and consequently an incorrect interaction ratio when the design was governed by the limit states of Flange and Web Local Buckling.
SINGLY SYMMETRIC I-SECTIONS AND CHANNELS: For singly symmetric I-Sections and Channels with unequal flanges designed according to AISC 360-05/10, the reported bending capacity was conservative if Flange Local Buckling governed the design and the smaller of the unequal flanges was the compression flange.
Effect: When Flange Local Buckling of AISC 360-05 /10 governed the design of singly symmetric I-Sections and Channels with unequal flanges, the reported bending capacity of the governing section was conservative.
DEFLECTION LIMIT – SHORED COMPOSITE BEAM: The Dead Load deflection limit for shored composite beams listed in the Gravity Beam Design report was incorrect.
Effect: The design of shored composite beams was correctly performed but the report listed an incorrect Dead Load deflection limit. Report error only.
DEFLECTION LIMIT – NEGATIVE TOTAL DEFLECTION: The Negative Total deflection limit for the cantilever deflection of composite beams listed in the Gravity Beam Design report was incorrect.
Effect: Composite beams with cantilevers were correctly designed but the report listed incorrect limits for the Negative Total Deflection for the cantilevers.
EXPORT TO RAM SBEAM: On some machines, the export to RAM SBeam stopped working, an Error message was given: "This feature requires RAM SBeam Version 4.0 or Higher to be installed".
Effect: While the standalone version of RAM SBeam continued to work, the user could not export from Steel Beam to RAM SBeam.
Note: RAM SBeam v7.0 must be installed to complete this fix.
CAN/CSA S16 WWF SECTIONS: The table of steel shapes for Canada, RAMCAN.TAB, includes welded wide-flange (WWF) shapes. Due to a flawed symmetry test in the program, these WWF sections may have erroneously been determined to be asymmetric sections, and subsequently designed using the moment capacity equations applicable to asymmetric I-shapes.
Effect: The moment capacities of WWF shapes, which are symmetric, may have been erroneously (and conservatively) calculated using the requirements for asymmetric sections.
Steel Column
RAMUK COLUMN TABLE: Some Trial Group headers were missing from the RAMUK.COL table.
Effect: Some sizes were in the wrong trial group, potentially resulting in columns from different groups being designed in the same column stack. For example, the UB305x127 sizes were included with the UB305x102 sizes, and the UB254x146 sizes were included with the UB254x102 sizes. Note that these are Beam sections, so any problem would only occur if the Beam sizes are being used for Columns, and note that the designs were correct, but the size selections may have resulted in adjacent columns in the column stack that didn’t have similar flange widths.
EUROCODE BASEPLATE DESIGN: Some baseplates designed according to Eurocode could not be optimized.
Effect: While optimizing baseplates designed according to Eurocode, some columns baseplates could not be optimized due to an incorrect test of plate bending stresses to capacity. Baseplates that would have otherwise passed designs were listed as failing.
BUILT-UP BOX SHAPES: The reported capacities of built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 Section F7 were incorrect.
Effect: Built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 reported incorrect capacities and consequently an incorrect interaction ratio when the design was governed by the limit states of Flange and Web Local Buckling.
IS800 SLENDER SECTIONS: Messages for slender column sections per IS800 were not correctly displayed in the View/Update dialog box and the detailed Gravity Column Design report.
Effect: Columns were correctly designed but messaging for slender columns encountered during design were not reported and users were unable to determine the nature of design failure. The View Update dialog box and detailed reports should have reported the column as slender.
DOUBLY SYMMETRIC I-SECTION - TENSION ONLY LOADS: For doubly symmetric I-Sections subject only to tension loads and designed according to AISC 360, the interaction section of the design report showed an incorrect value of Cb.
Effect: Report error only. The designs of doubly symmetric I-Sections under tension loading were correctly performed using the correct Cb, but the report listed an incorrect value of Cb.
Concrete Beam
BS 8110 REQUIRED REINFORCEMENT: In View/Update and on the Concrete Beam Design report for BS 8110 the value of AsReq was listed as 0.0 for beam in frozen beam lines.
Effect: AsReq not reported.
Concrete Column
COMBINATION MISSING IN TEXT FILE: The text for the Controlling Load Combination for the Transvers Reinforcement was missing when the Concrete Column Design report was output to a Text File.
Effect: Report error only, Controlling Load Combination text was missing from the text file.
TEXT FILE FORMATTING: When outputting to Text (.csv), the headings on the Concrete Column Design Summary report were missing some commas.
Effect: When the file was read into Excel the headings didn’t align in the columns with the values.
Concrete Wall
MINIMUM HORIZONTAL WALL REINFORCING*: The minimum reinforcement of walls was calculated based on the parameters of vertical section cuts for horizontal reinforcing and of horizontal section cuts for vertical reinforcement, so if there was no horizontal section cut the minimum vertical reinforcement was not checked, or if there was no vertical section cut the minimum horizontal reinforcement was not checked.
Effect: When section cuts were only in a single direction, the program only checked the minimum reinforcement for the direction perpendicular to the section cut, ignoring the reinforcement check in the other direction. Note: An approximate calculation based on the wall height and unit length is now performed when walls have section cuts in only one direction. However, when a wall might have different vertical reinforcement along its length, the user should create at least one horizontal section cut.
ORDINARY STRUCTURAL WALLS: ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.6.5(a) (and analogous clause in ACI 318-11) apply to Special structural walls. However, an incorrect warning "Max Vert Bar Spacing per 18.10.6.5(a) at Reinforcing Zone is exceeded" was given when manual reinforcement was assigned on an Ordinary concrete wall and the c limit is exceeded.
Effect: A message applicable only to Special structural walls may have been given even if the wall was an Ordinary structural wall.
SHEAR WALLS WITHOUT SPECIAL BOUNDARY ELEMENTS*: ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.6.5(a) (and analogous clause in ACI 318-11) requires transverse reinforcement for boundaries not governed by 18.10.6.2 when the longitudinal reinforcement ratio exceeds 400/fy. However, no investigation of this transverse reinforcement requirement was performed, which may have led to the under-design of the boundaries of walls subject to these criteria.
Effect: Potentially insufficient transverse reinforcement when the requirements of ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.6.5(a) were applicable.
BOUNDARY ELEMENTS ASSIGNED AS HINGES: Models with merged load cases could not successfully design boundary elements if the section cut had been assigned to be a Hinge (which invokes the Code requirements pertaining to plastic hinge formation, for example the ACI 318 Chapter 18 special boundary element checks). This message was erroneously given in View/Update: "Boundary element extents have not been evaluated for the selected Section Cut".
Effect: Only when there were merged load cases, no wall design could be obtained.
Frame - Analysis
TORSIONAL IRREGULARITY IN DRIFT REPORT*: If the two drift values used in the calculation of Max/Min or Max/Ave in the Torsional Irregularity section of the Drift report were both negative, the values listed for Max/Min and Max/Ave may not have been correct.
Effect: Incorrect Torsional Irregularity values reported. Note that this is rare, it only occurs if the load case applies the forces in the negative direction.
TORSIONAL IRREGULARITY IN DRIFT REPORT*: If the two drift values used in the calculation of Max/Min or Max/Ave in the Torsional Irregularity section of the Drift report were of opposite sign, the values listed for Max/Min and Max/Ave may not have been correct.
Effect: Incorrect Torsional Irregularity values reported. Note that this is rare, it only occurs if the torsional component of the drift is greater than the translational component.
TORSIONAL IRREGULARITY IN DRIFT REPORT: A value of 0.0 for the minimum drift value used in the calculation of Max/Min or for the average drift value used in the calculation of Max/Ave in the Torsional Irregularity section of the Drift report could have resulted in a divide by zero.
Effect: Likelihood was very small, but there was a potential for program crash or garbage values listed on the report. If those values are very close to 0.0, the program now lists 99.999 for Max/Min or Max/Ave.
YIELD-LINK STIFFNESS*: The AISC Direct Analysis Method requires that a 0.8 factor be applied to all stiffnesses, and a tau_b factor be applied to flexural stiffnesses. These should be applied to the Yield-Link spring, but were not.
Effect: This stiffness reduction does not need to be applied when investigating drift, so the drift values were correct, but it does need to be applied when investigating strength, so the design forces may have been less than they should have been (likely small impact, since the reduction was correctly applied to the beams and columns).
WIND AND SEISMIC LOAD CASES CORRUPTED: If a Story was deleted in the Story Data command, and then that Story was added again with a new set of data, the wind and seismic load case data may have become corrupted, causing the program to crash. The same problem could occur if a diaphragm was deleted and then added again in a layout type.
Effect: Program crash.
MOMENT ON WALL DUE TO ECCENTRIC BEAM REACTION*: If a Wall Eccentricity has been assigned to a wall in the Modeler, and a beam frames into the wall, the program applies to the wall both a vertical reaction and an eccentric moment due to that reaction acting the assigned distance from the centerline of wall. The reaction was applied at the correct location (at the node where the beam framed in), but it erroneously applied the moment to the wall end nodes rather than at the node where the beam framed in.
Effect: Moments due to eccentric beam reactions on walls were applied in the wrong locations.
USER-DEFINED WIND LOADS ON SEMIRIGID DIAPHRAGM*: The program distributes user-defined wind loads along diaphragm edges. During the process of this distribution, to validate the correctness of the procedure used by the program the program verifies that the sum of distributed loads is equal to the total user-defined load, and it verifies that the moments created by the distributed loads is equal to moment due to user-defined load (usually calculated at mid-length of edges). Occasionally for very complicated slab edge configurations the values may vary; if the sum of the distributed loads or moments does not equal those from the user-defined values, the program reports the difference as unbalanced load (or moment). This was all being done correctly, except that when such an unbalanced load or moment was found for a diaphragm, the program failed to apply the calculated loads to that diaphragm.
Effect: Some user-defined wind loads assigned to semirigid diaphragms may not have been applied.
INCORRECT DEFLECTED SHAPE FOR SERVICE OR STRENGTH COMBINATIONS*: In Load Combination mode, if the model included Strength or Service combinations, the program incorrectly displayed the deflected shape of the combination of the analyzed load case results rather than the deflected shape of that analyzed load combination (note that the program directly analyzes Strength and Service combinations).
Effect: Incorrect deflected shape was displayed for Strength and Service combinations.
ABORTED ANALYSIS WITH TILT-UP WALLS: The program erroneously displayed a zero-length element found error message and aborted the analysis if all of the following conditions existed: 1) there was a tilt-up wall with a gap joint, 2) a lateral beam framed into the gap joint, and 3) the option "Include Rigid Link at Fixed Beam-to-Wall Locations" was selected.
Effect: The error was displayed and the analysis aborted.
STORY SHEAR AND WALL GROUP REPORTS ERRORS*: If the model included a tilt-up walls with gaps and the tilt-up wall had an opening at its base next to the gap, the program reported incorrect shear values in the Building Story Shear, Frame Story Shear, and Wall Group Forces reports; the reports missed shear from the tilt-up wall.
Effect: Report error. Incorrect shear values were reported in the reports indicated, for the conditions indicated.
STRESS AND INTERNAL FORCE CONTOUR DISPLAY: If the model was analyzed and then subsequently the mesh criteria was changed and the model remeshed, the display of the Stresses and Internal Forces was incorrect unless RAM Frame was closed and then reopened.
Effect: Incorrect display of stresses and forces.
WALL AND DIAPHRAGM STRESSES AND INTERNAL FORCES: Wall and diaphragm stresses and internal forces displayed on screen or printed in the Stress and Internal Force Summary reports were not correct if the model was in SI or Metrics units.
Effect: Incorrect stress/internal force values were displayed or reported for walls and diaphragms in SI or Metric units.
Frame – Drift
JOINT PARTICIPATION IN DRIFT MODULE: If the model included an assigned panel-zone element at a joint, the effects of shear in the joint were double-counted – by including both that of the assigned panel zoned element and that of the traditional joint – in the reported joint participation value in the Drift module.
Effect: Reported joint displacement participation value was greater than it should have been.
Frame – Shear Wall Forces
WALL SECTION FORCES REPORT: The Wall Section Forces report in the Shear Wall Forces module had two errors: In the CRITERIA section of the report the Scale Factor listed for P-delta was always that associated with the Mass option even if the Use Gravity Loads option had been selected, and the reported diaphragm type was always listed as Rigid even when other diaphragm types were used at various levels.
Effect: Report error only.
Frame – Steel Standard Provisions
AISC 360 COMBINED FLEXURE AND TENSION: The reported equation reference for members designed according to AISC 360 subjected to flexure and tension was incorrect.
Effect: Members subjected to flexure and tension and checked using AISC 360 were correctly designed according to provisions of section H1.2, but the reported controlling design incorrectly referenced H1.3. This was report related only.
HYBRID YIELD-LINK JOINT*: The Standard Provisions Joint View Update dialog crashed if a joint was selected that had a Yield-Link connection on one side and a non Yield-Link connection on the other side.
Effect: All joints assigned Yield-Link connections were correctly designed, but an investigation of joints with a Yield-Link connection on one side and a non Yield-Link connection on the other side resulted in a crash in the Standard Provisions Joint View/Update dialog.
BRBF FY-MAX AND FY-MIN: Design of Buckling Restrained Braces assigned Fy-max and Fy-min using SI Units was incorrect.
Effect: Due to a units conversion error, Buckling Restrained Braces assigned Fy-max and Fy-min using SI Units were not designed correctly.
SINGLY SYMMETRIC I-SECTIONS AND CHANNELS: For singly symmetric I-Sections and Channels with unequal flanges designed according to AISC 360-05/10, the reported bending capacity was conservative if Flange Local Buckling governed the design and the smaller of the unequal flanges was the compression flange.
Effect: When Flange Local Buckling of AISC 360-05 /10 governed the design of singly symmetric I-Sections and Channels with unequal flanges, the reported bending capacity of the governing section was conservative.
MOMENT CAPACITY OF ASYMMETRIC I-SHAPED MEMBERS: In the calculation of the moment capacity of asymmetric I-shaped members in Section F4 of AISC 360-16, the reported moment capacity was erroneous when Iyc/Iy was greater than 0.23 (the program always used Rpc = 1.0 even when a larger value was permitted).
Effect: The program conservatively used a Rpc = 1.0 in the determination of the moment capacity.
BUILT-UP BOX SHAPES: The reported capacities of built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 Section F7 were incorrect.
Effect: Built-up box sections with slender elements designed according to AISC 360-05/10 reported incorrect capacities and consequently an incorrect interaction ratio when the design was governed by the limit states of Flange and Web Local Buckling.
Frame – Steel Seismic Provisions
SCBF AND BRBF COLUMN CAPACITY LOAD DESIGN*: For SCBF frames, columns are required by AISC 341 Sections F2.3(a) and (b) to be designed for loads based on the expected strength of the braces, and for BRBF frames, columns are required by AISC 341 Section F4.3 to be designed for loads based on the adjusted strength of the braces. The program performs this analysis and design. However, in the case of frames in which the columns were oriented with their weak axis in the plane of the frame, those capacity forces from braces that framed down from the level above onto the top right side of the column were not applied.
Effect: For columns rotated as described above, those columns were designed for loads that did not include the capacity load from braces that framed down from the level above to the top right side of the column. Loads from braces that framed down from the level above onto the top left side of the column were correctly applied; loads from braces that framed up to the top of the column from below on either side were correctly applied. This error did not occur if the columns were oriented with their strong axis in the plane of the frame.
STRONG COLUMN – WEAK BEAM EXCEPTION*: AISC 341-16 Section E3.4a requires that SMF columns be stronger than the beams, with an Exception given in Section E3.4a(a) and (b). The program determines if an SMF column is a top story column as specified in Section E3.4a(a)(1) when determining if the Exception is applicable. Erroneously, if the option to Apply all one and two story exceptions was selected in the command in Steel - Seismic Provisions mode, all columns may have been granted the Exception, not just those at the top story. That option was not intended to be applied to this Exception.
Effect: The Strong Column – Weak Beam check may not have been performed if the option to Apply all one and two story exceptions was selected.
WUF-W AND OTHER CONNECTIONS: If the option to Use AISC 358 was selected for Moment Frames in the command and if the beam had not been assigned to be an RBS (i.e., the connection was a WUF-W or some other generic moment connection type), the seismic design moment at the face of the column was erroneously determined using AISC 358 Section 5.8 Eq. (5.8-6) for RBS beams, resulting in the beam failing the test against the moment capacity.
Effect: Beam connections designated as WUF-W or OTHER that would have otherwise passed designs were erroneously failed.
Foundation
BS 8110 AND CP65 SHEAR STRENGTH*: The enhanced shear strength allowed by BS 8110 Section 3.4.5.8 was erroneously applied to the shear strength of spread footings.
Effect: The spread footing may have had inadequate depth if shear controlled.
RAM DataAccess
REACTIONS FROM STUB CANTILEVERS MISSING*: When accessing reactions on columns at a story using the CGravityLoads_DAMan::GetStoryGravityReactOnCol method in RAM DataAccess, reactions from stub cantilevers were not included.
Effect: Incorrect column reaction was exported when the column supported a stub cantilever.