orion v15 0 whats new

What’s New in Orion R15.0

March 2008

What’s New in Orion Release 15.0

© CSC (UK) Ltd March 2008

CONTENTS

GENERAL....................................................................................................................................1 NEW BATCH FE CHASEDOWN ....................................................................................................1 NEW ANALYSIS STATUS CLARIFICATION......................................................................................1 COLUMN AND WALL DESIGN AND DETAILING.................................................................................3 BEAM DETAILING.........................................................................................................................6 USER INTERFACE........................................................................................................................8 MODELLING ..............................................................................................................................10 LOAD DECOMPOSITION BY FE....................................................................................................11 BUILDING ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................11 FE ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................12 PUNCHING SHEAR.....................................................................................................................13 MATERIALS EXPORT..................................................................................................................13 NEW DESIGN CODE SUPPORTED ...............................................................................................14 DOCUMENTATION......................................................................................................................14


Page 1 © CSC (UK) Ltd March 2008

General Orion R15.0 is a significant upgrade with a large number of enhancements and many completely new features. A number of the changes introduced in this version are aimed at streamlining the analysis/design process. You will also find managing changes to the model much easier - a ‘traffic light’ system has been introduced for clarifying the current status of both the analysis and the design. CSC and the Orion team are committed to continually provide our users with high quality, market leading solutions for building structures.

NEW Batch FE Chasedown It is now possible to perform the FE analyses of every floor in your building at the click of a single button. All the required parameters can be predefined. No further user intervention is required unless you optionally choose to review the mesh at each level - to ensure it’s adequacy. Batch Chasedown Parameters

The batch FE chasedown can also be used without meshing for beam and slab models, when used in this way it can provide a much faster way of designing transfer beams for worst case loading.

NEW Analysis Status Clarification Orion R15.0 introduces intelligent model status tracking. On completion of the initial analysis and design run, the building design model is considered ‘up to date’. However given the dynamic nature of building projects it’s likely after the initial design there may be changes that need to be made to the model. On initiating changes to the model Orion R15.0 will invalidate appropriate analysis or design statuses and message the user on necessary steps that need to be taken to bring the model back up to date. This may involve re running the building analysis, repeating a F.E. floor load decomposition, or rechecking your beam design. At anytime you can clearly review the current status of the analysis and design.



To achieve this a ‘traffic light’ system has been introduced to highlight those members for which the design result may be out of date. Storey Beam Design

Orion r15’s model status tracking will allow you to easily manage changes and keep on top of your projects. Design Status Window

We hope that this in conjunction with the batch FE chasedown will mean that previous issues which arose when design was attempted based on old analysis results are avoided.

Red Cross = Fail

Green Tick = PassAmber Tick = Pass (based on previous analysis result)



Column and Wall Design and Detailing Wall design has been significantly enhanced with the following reinforcing styles have been added:

• Option to use mesh reinforcement

• Option to consider a single layer of reinforcement



In addition, the following enhancements have also been introduced:

• Tie bars are now automatically omitted if the area of main steel is less than 2%.

• There is a new option to consider plain wall design (where wall is in compression throughout and steel requirement is zero/negligible, a reduced min % of steel is provided)

• The format of the reinforcement quantities table on the application plan is changed and now includes bar marks and member referencing.

• Note that the reinforcement application plan is immediately updated as columns are designed.



• You can shortcut to a details (elevated) view of any column/wall via the right click menu - make sure you have all the detailing options switched on in the column settings dialogue to see this best – as quite a few new options have been added.

Column Steel Details

• New options to print the detailed design when designing interactively and also to see full design detail.

Detailed Column Design Report



Beam Detailing New Beam Detailing options have been introduced:

• New curtailment option to bend back bobs to avoid extending into columns

• New option to set a tension lap factor – Common practice would be to adopt a factor of 1.4 as this would cover the vast majority (if not all) cases. Should you reduce the factor to 1.0 then it is your responsibility to increase the lap where necessary when detailing the beams.

• Anchorage length of end bob bars is reduced in some cases where it was previously

excessive.

Other items which are improved relating to detail presentation:

• Enhanced avoidance of overlapping text.

• Better orientation of all types of dimensions resulting a clearer drawing.



• Enhanced overlap control in the bars shown below the beam.

• Enhanced automatic merging of top and bottom bars with same size.

• Enhanced visualisation of members at back and front of the beam.

• Link zone dimensions added.

• Enhanced beam sections are created.

• Enhanced dividing of all bars when max cut length exceeded.



Creation of detail drawings using the "All Axes to Single Sheet" option has been enhanced to allow separate sheets for each floor if required.

As previously, you can include a table of reinforcement quantities on each sheet created – but in release 15.0 this information can now also be placed in a report, or exported to either Excel or Access. The above two enhancements mean that you can quickly create all the sheets in a single run hence giving you the option to report quantities for the entire building or broken down on a floor by floor basis. You can still create drawing sheet arrangements manually by selecting/arranging beam lines – so in total you can report the quantities broken down in 3 different ways (note that bar marks will be different in each method).

User Interface • Style Options have been added – These can be selected from the Graphical Editor Settings,

General tab – these provide 4 options for toolbar style settings plus an option to have the properties dialog “fade” after specified time delay (set to 0 to avoid fading).

• Re-ordering and re-naming of options in Run menu is clearer.

• Definition of Material Properties has been moved from the Building Parameters dialog to the Building Analysis dialog.

• New easier way to apply/edit column nodal loads

• New option to display column design forces for any/every case/combination in plan view.

• New option to display total added beam loads on each beam in plan view.



Total Added Loads displayed on plan view

New options to print the column and beam design summary status lists. Summary Table Report for Beams



Modelling There are numerous adjustments and enhancements making it easier to construct models.

• New "overwrite" option when generating members from one storey to another.

• Foundation Depth setting is exposed and editable in the "Edit Storey" dialog.

New Slab Insertion by “Pick Points” is introduced.

• When selected you pick axis intersection points to define the perimeter of the slab.

• As soon as you click an intersection where a grid is found that goes back to the start point the slab is inserted. Therefore, for simple boundaries this option requires one less click per slab than the “Pick Axis” option.

Slab insertion by "Beam Region" is enhanced as follows:

• If you click within a region that is not totally enclosed by beams, the program will attempt to detect an “Axis Region” instead - if found, a slab will be inserted within the axis region.

• If you click within a region whilst pressing the CTRL key, “Axis Region” is automatically assumed - you can pick more than one axis region and the slab is inserted when CTRL is released. (i.e. Slab is not inserted to “Beam Region” if CTRL is pressed so this changes the insertion method to “Axis Region” on the fly).

Slab Insertion by “Pick Axis” is changed as follows:

• When "Pick Axis" is first selected the axis list will be cleared so that you can immediately start picking axes. (i.e. it no longer goes into an editing mode).

• At this point you can close the slab insertion dialog and continue with repeating steps below to insert as many slabs as you want.

• You can then start picking axes sequentially (no need to press the control key).

• If/when you click the first axis for a second time a slab panel will immediately be inserted (if valid) and the axis list will again be cleared so that insertion of the next panel can begin.

• (Optionally, if you have kept the slab insertion dialog open you can insert the slab by clicking on "New Slab Panel" rather than re-clicking on the first axis as noted above.)

Enhancements to Beam Insertion Methods:

• Inserting beams that overlap other beams - a new question is asked about whether you want the beams split to become secondary beams.



• New option to insert an offset beam - press the shift key while inserting a beam and a new dialog appears to input the offset distance (a slightly hidden feature).

Load Decomposition by FE • Navigation between floors is now possible from the dialog

• Automatic prompting to apply FE decomposed loads when the feature is used.

• Automatic warning at start of building analysis if FE decomposed loads are to be used but the FE decomposition is not up to date.

Building Analysis • Building analysis can be quite a bit faster for larger models.

• Axial load comparison is enhanced to cope with case where “len-storey 2” columns which finish at the foundation level are used.

• A completely new building Analysis Post Processor including:

o Interface that is standardised with the FE floor post processor.

o New "Find" feature Find Icon (circled)



o New Diaphragm Confirmation feature

FE Analysis • If a column has a del z applied to raise the base level - this is now recognised in the FE

model.

• New options to "copy" graphics to windows clipboard implemented in FE and BA Post-processors. Can then "paste" into other applications.

• FE Post-processor - Option to filter and show contours for specific slab depths.



Punching Shear • Improved routines for determining punching shear perimeters for more complex layouts.

• New way of editing input data for punching shear checks (column editing in table). Column Editing Icon (circled)

Materials Export • Quantity Extraction Reports have been significantly enhanced to allow reporting of

reinforcement for all member types. Quantity tables can be exported to Microsoft Access or Excel.



Extract from Quantity Table for Beams

New Design Code Supported • Design to the the Hong Kong design code: HK-2004 “Structural Use of Concrete (2004)” is

now available.

Documentation • Engineer’s Handbook is updated and includes several new chapters on design methods etc.

• Revised Quick Start Guide to reflect new program version.

orion v15 0 whats new

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