Known Issue : STAAD.Pro 2023/2024, creating User Reports with models not hosted on local workstation


Issue:

A limitation has been identified in STAAD.Pro 2023 and 2024 in the utility to create a user defined report in the ‘Reports’ workflow. This issue is encountered when the model data is located on a network folder which is either accessed directly (i.e. Network Drive) or by creating a Mapped Drive.

 

Network Drive: When the model is accessed directly as a network drive, e.g. \\network computer\shared folder..., the user report can be accessed, although the routine used to access the post processing data (other than Steel Design Detail), which was recently updated to improve performance, has been found to fail causing the program to terminate. The following outlines the steps that will trigger the error.

  1. Open a STAAD model that is hosted on a network folder e.g. \\server\staad folder\filename.std and click on the “Reports” workflow.


    fig. 1

  2. Add any report item(s) other than ‘Steel Design Detail’ from the “Post Processing” results category into the Report Builder list: -

    Fig. 2

  3. STAAD.Pro will terminate and display an error dialog thus:

    Fig. 3

  4. It is possible to forward to Bentley the details of the action taken to trigger an application crash as shown in fig 3. Once, that dialog is closed, further details will be displayed as illustrated in fig 4. 


    Fig. 4

Note, this issue only occurs if selecting items from the Post Processing category as shown above. The issue is not triggered by creating a report if only using items from the other report categories.

 

Mapped Drive: A similar effect is encountered if the model is accessed from the server using a mapped drive, e.g. Z:\ (\\network computer\network folder\filename.std),
However, in this situation, a warning is displayed indicating that the user report cannot be created. The following illustrates the effect in this situation: -

  1. Open a STAAD model that is hosted on a mapped folder e.g. Z:\ (\\network computer\network folder\filename.std),

  2. Click on the “Reports” workflow. An error message is displayed that indicates that the User Report workflow cannot be used.

    Fig. 5

 

Workaround:

At this time all analysis and design actions can be performed with the model hosted on the server. If a user report is required, copy the files to a local temporary folder and open this instance of the file to create the report. Once the report has been created, close and delete the local temporary model.