STAAD.Pro CONNECT Edition 22

Overview

STAAD.Pro is the analysis package a great many structural offices run on, and Update 9 of the CONNECT Edition is the build most of them settled on. It models a structure as nodes, members, plates and solids, applies load cases and combinations to it, solves for the results, and then checks members against a design code and reports what passes and what does not. The interface is a modelling window, a spreadsheet style editor of the same data and a command file that all describe the same model, which is why long time users tend to type rather than click.

This installation includes the analysis engines, the design code libraries, the steel and concrete design modules, the reporting tools and the connection design component. The licensing layer is handled so the software does not look for a licence server, does not run a checkout at start-up and does not need a network connection at any point.

Modelling and load cases

Geometry comes in from a drawing file, from a spreadsheet of coordinates, from a text command file or from the structure wizard for the regular frames and trusses. Members carry a section from the country specific section databases, and the databases here are the full set rather than a trimmed one. Plate and solid elements are meshed with control over the mesh density around openings and supports.

Loading covers the usual dead, live, wind, seismic, snow and temperature cases, with the code based generators for wind and seismic present for the major national codes. Combinations can be generated automatically from the code rules or written explicitly, and the load list can be reviewed as a table before anything is solved. Moving load generation for bridge work is included.

Analysis and design

The solver handles linear static, P-Delta and geometric nonlinear analysis, buckling, response spectrum and time history dynamics, and cable and tension only member behaviour. The advanced solver is the default and makes a real difference on models above a few thousand degrees of freedom. Results come back as diagrams on the model, as tables, and as the deflected shape animation that is usually the fastest way to spot a modelling mistake.

Design checks run against the included code libraries for steel, concrete, timber, aluminium and cold formed sections across the major national and international codes. The steel design will optimise sections against a group and report the utilisation ratio for every member, which is the number the whole exercise exists to produce. Concrete design produces reinforcement schedules per member.

Reporting and what comes out of it

The report builder assembles input data, load summaries, result tables, diagrams and design output into a document with a contents page, and the selection is saved as a template so the next job produces the same report without being rebuilt. Output can be filtered down to failing members only, which is what most reviewers want to see first.

Results can be pushed out to a detailing package or a documentation package, and the model can be exchanged through the neutral structural formats. Nothing about the export path depends on a network service in this build.

What you get

• Linear static, P-Delta, nonlinear, buckling and dynamic analysis in one solver set
• Response spectrum and time history dynamic analysis
• Full country specific section databases rather than a trimmed selection
• Code based wind and seismic load generators for the major national codes
• Steel, concrete, timber, aluminium and cold formed design modules
• Section optimisation with utilisation ratios reported per member
• Cable, tension only and compression only member behaviour
• Report builder with saved templates and failure only filtering
• No licence server lookup and no network requirement at start-up

Inside the archive

• STAAD.Pro CONNECT Edition Update 9, offline installer
• Analysis engine set including the advanced solver
• International design code libraries
• Section database pack for the supported countries
• Connection design component
• Install notes covering the licensing layer

System requirements

Installing it

1. Unpack to a short local path with no spaces.
2. Turn off real time protection for the install.
3. Run setup as administrator and accept the default component selection unless disk space is tight.
4. Do not run the licensing configuration tool. It is not needed and will overwrite the applied state.
5. Launch STAAD.Pro from the shortcut. It opens straight to the start page with no licence prompt.

Mirrors

Release history

Questions about this release

Comments

Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.