RAM Structural System CONNECT Edition Version 17.04.02 SES Release Notes

Release Date: October 4, 2022

This document contains important information regarding changes to the RAM Structural System. It is important that all users are aware of these changes. Please distribute these Release Notes and make them available to all users of the RAM Structural System.

This is a minor release, correcting some issues that affected some users of v17.04. The Release Notes for that version contain important information not included here in these abbreviated Release Notes. They can be found at:

https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0116031

Installation Instructions:

If you have enabled the CONNECTION Client you will automatically be notified of the newest version and will be able to update through that service by simply selecting the update command. Otherwise, this version can be found on the Bentley Software Fulfilment web page by logging into CONNECT Center and selecting the Software Downloads icon. Search for “RAM Structural System” and select the latest version.

Important Notices:  

Models created in this version are compatible with models created in v17.04; no conversion is necessary. This version automatically converts databases created in previous versions to the new database format. Note that a backup file is created automatically when a database is converted; the name of the database is the same, with “Orig” and the version number appended to the name. The file has an extension of “.zip” and is located in the same directory as the original database. 

The previous steel tables and load combination templates supplied with the program will be replaced with new tables and templates of the same name. If you have customized any Master or Design tables or load combination templates supplied with the program without changing the file names, those file names should be renamed from the original RAM table names prior to installation to prevent your changes from being lost.

No changes were made to the Manuals for this version. 

Security Risk Advisory:

Not applicable to this release. Every effort is made to ensure that there are no security risks in the software. There are no known security issues, no issues were addressed in this version.

Error Corrections:

This version corrects two significant error, described below. We know errors are disruptive, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. 

RAM Manager 

WALL DATA CORRUPTION WHEN OPENING MODEL IN V17.03.01, V17.04, OR V17.04.01: In rare cases, models with walls created in v17.03.01, v17.04, or v17.04.01 or converted up to one of those versions from a previous version would sometimes become corrupted when opened in v17.03.01, v17.04, or v17.04.01. The corruption was rare but obvious when it occurred: after a corruption, the model appeared overly zoomed out in the Modeler such that the entire model was displayed as a dot or short lines in the lower left corner. 

Effect: Model could not be used. 

NOTE: In most cases these corrupted models can be corrected merely by opening the model with v17.04.02. Verify the wall data if this corruption and correction occurred. 

Frame – Analysis 

CRASH FOR MODELS WITH MANY LOAD POLYGONS: When a model had several load polygons the program would often crash when entering Frame Analysis. 

Effect: Program crash.