CSiBridge™ Version 15.2.

0
Release Notes
© Copyright Computers and Structures, Inc., 2012

Release Date: 2012-01-04

This file lists all changes made to CSiBridge since its release. Most changes do not affect most users. Incidents
marked with an asterisk (*) in the first column of the tables below are more significant and are included in the ReadMe
file.

Changes from V15.1.1 (Released 2011-08-29)

User Interface
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
38260 In the following forms of the graphical user interface, multiple items may now be selected for
deletion using standard Windows operations with the Ctrl and/or Shift keys: "Frame Properties",
"Assign Prestress Tendons" for the Bridge Object, and "Define Load Combinations".

Modeling
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
36282 Concrete materials are now available having properties consistent with the Spanish code "EHE -
Instrucción de Hormigón Estructural". Grades range from HA-20 to HS-100.
38247 New Chinese materials are now available to define concrete, steel, rebar, and tendon properties
according to JTG, TB, and GB standards.
38338 Steel frame section properties for the AISC Shapes Database Version 14.0 are now available in the
section-property database files AISC14.PRO (U.S. Customary units) and AISC14M.PRO (SI units)
provided in the SAP2000 installation folder.
* 38690 The definition of material properties has been enhanced as follows:
(1) Code-specified and other pre-defined material properties are now defined in the installed files
"CSiMaterialPropertyLibrary*.xml" located in subfolder "Property Libraries" under the CSiBridge
installation folder. Additional material property libraries that use the
"CSiMaterialPropertyLibrary.xsd" schema may also be added by the user to this subfolder and/or to
subfolder "Property Libraries" under the user settings folder where the "CSiBridgev15.ini" file is
located. These files are first read in alphabetical order from the installation subfolder, then from the
user settings subfolder. Any duplicated properties will use the values in the definition read last.
(2) Within each file, properties are grouped under user-defined Regions (e.g., China, Europe, or
USA). Within regions, properties are grouped under user-defined Standards (e.g., ASTM A572).
Within Standards, individual materials are defined to be of a certain type (concrete, steel, aluminum,
cold-formed, rebar, tendon, or other) and identified by a user-defined label called Grade. The set
(Region, Standard, type, Grade) uniquely identifies a material and determines whether or not it is
duplicated within a file or in multiple files.
(3) When adding a new material to a model in the graphical user interface (GUI), pre-defined
materials may be chosen by Region, type, Standard, and Grade. Once the new material is defined,
its properties may be modified by the user.
(4) A built-in Region, Standard, and Grade called "User" are also available for each material type.
The corresponding properties can be directly edited by the user and do not make use of the pre-
defined materials in the property libraries. The name "User" is reserved and should not be used in
the material property library files.
(5) When switching to the Advanced Property Display in the GUI when defining or modifying a

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 * Incident Description
material, changes made to the properties before switching the display are now saved. Previously
they were reset to defaults.
(6) A new Open API function SapObject.SapModel.PropMaterial.AddFromLibrary has been added
to make use of the Region, Standard, and Grade selectors for adding pre-defined materials. The
names used in the OAPI function must match the values given in one or more of the available
material property libraries or the function returns an error code.
(7) The previous OAPI function SapObject.SapModel.PropMaterial.AddQuick has been deprecated
but has been retained for compatibility. This function makes use of built-in properties that cannot be
changed.
41067 Italian material definitions have been added for: (1) Concrete according to standard UNI EN 206-
1:2006 and UNI 11104:2004, (2) Steel and rebar according to standard NTC2008.

Loading
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
* 35833 Vehicle loads have been added bridge design according to EN 1991-2:2003, Eurocode 1: Actions on
structures - Part 2: Traffic loads on bridges.
40138 Standardized vehicles are now categorized by Region and Standard, making it easier to add and
modify new vehicle loads.
40226 A vehicle class is now automatically created for each vehicle so that the user only needs to create
vehicle classes when multiple vehicles are to be enveloped. These automatic vehicle classes cannot
be modified. They contain only a single vehicle, scaled by unity, and have the same name as the
vehicle. When opening models from previous versions, the vehicle classes may be renamed to be
consistent with this this new feature. However, analysis and design results will not be affected by
this change.

Bridge Design and Rating

Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
30926 For the optimization of steel-girder bridge design, the "As Designed" location of web stiffeners last
used for recalculating the resistance is now saved if the model is unlocked or saved as a new model
when closing the optimization form. Next time during optimization, the previous stiffener locations
can be recalled. If the bridge geometry is changed between optimizations, including the location of
diaphragms (cross frames), the recalled stiffener locations will be adjusted as best as possible, but
further review and modification may be required by the user.
* 35831 Load combinations and design load types have been added for bridge design according to the code
EN 1991-2:2003, Eurocode 1: Actions on structures - Part 2: Traffic loads on bridges.
* 35834 Design checking has been implemented for concrete superstructure sections according to the
"Eurocode EN 1992-2" code (EN 1992-2:2005, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures - Part 2:
Concrete bridges - design and detailing rules). Superstructure types supported include prestressed
concrete box girders and composite sections with precast I-girders and U-girders. Separate design
checks are provided for stress, flexural strength, and shear strength using MCFT (modified
compression field theory). The effect of mild reinforcing is included as well as the prestress
tendons. Live-load distribution factors can be automatically calculated using code formulae,
specified by the user, or determined from detailed 3-D live-load analysis. Design results are
displayed graphically for the entire box section, or on a girder-by-girder basis for multi-celled box
girders and composite sections. Detailed tables showing all results and intermediate values are
available for display, printing, and export to Excel or Access.

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User Interface
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
40096 An incident was resolved where an exception (runtime error) could be generated when an invalid
span distance value was entered by the user when defining bridge groups of type Section, Top Slab,
Web, Beam, Bottom Slab, Diaph/Crossframe, or Combo. Now this data is checked for validity and a
message is provided to the user when the data needs to be corrected. No results were affected.
40503 An incident was resolved in which an exception (runtime error) was generated when trying to add a
new bridge object from the Define Bridge Objects form before layout lines and bridge deck sections
were defined. This has been corrected by disabling the Add button until layout lines and deck
sections have been defined. This action was already disabled from the ribbon. No results were
affected.

Drafting
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
41099 An incident was resolved where the property selected to be used when drawing objects was not
effective when using the localized langauge for an installation where language translation files have
been provided for the graphical user interface. The objects were assigned the default property when
drawn, rather than the selected property. Results were consistent with the model as created. This did
not affect drawing when using the English language.

Section Designer
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
38266 An incident was resolved in Section Designer in which, when displaying the PMM interaction
diagram, the rebar strength limit used for certain design codes was incorrectly applied to all non-
concrete materials instead of being applied to the rebar material only. This affected concrete
sections containing tendons. This was a display issue only, and had no effect on analysis or design.
39059 An incident was resolved for Section Designer (SD) in which the fiber model for an SD frame
section was sometimes created incorrectly, having fibers representing duplicated areas. This tended
to occur where the regions represented by the fiber had boundaries that partially overlapped the
section boundaries. When this error occured, it was obvious by looking at the fiber discretization
and the comparison between the area represented by the fibers and the exact shape. This error
affected the moment-curvature curve and PMM interaction surface shown in Section Designer for
the fiber model, and also affected fiber hinges generated for the section. It also affected Caltrans
hinges generated using the fiber model. It did not affect Caltrans hinges generated using the exact
model. This error only affected analysis results when fiber hinges or fiber-based Caltrans hinges
were used, and even then only for nonlinear analysis. It had no effect on the PMM surface used for
design.
39924 An incident has been resolved where the material property for a Section Designer stress point was
sometimes exported as blank. Importing such a model could cause an exception (run-time error)
when displaying frame forces or stresses for members using that property. No results were affected,
or they could not be displayed.
40283 An incident was resolved for Section Designer in which, when defining a Caltrans Section, the
confinement bar number (Conf. Bar No.) could not be set to any value other than W20 if the
confinement type (Conf. Type) was set to wire "Wire". In addition, it was not possible to change the
bar number (wire size) in the database tables when the confinement type was set to "Wire".

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Bridge Modeler
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
37272 An incident was resolved for bridge modeler where bridge group definitions were not being
updated simultaneously when the bridge object definition was modified. This sometimes caused the
software to become unresponsive after the bridge object was modified, such as by deleting spans
that were being used in a bridge group.
37773 An incident was resolved for Bridge Modeler in which, when there was no section cut in the
37887 superstructure between two single-bearing bents, the bearings at the first bent were connecting to
the superstructure above the second bent. This is an uncommon situation where two single-bearing
bents are placed very close together for atypical modeling reasons. Results were consistent with the
model as generated.
37886 An incident was resolved where Bridge Groups of type "Tendon" were not able to be imported
from database tables, including the .$2K text file. Analysis and design results were consistent with
the model as imported. In most cases, only staged construction load cases would be affected,
usually in an obvious way.
* 37899 An Incident was resolved where the generation of a linked bridge model was sometimes very slow
39522 when there were many tendons present in the bridge object. This was an inconvenience, but the
39704 generated model was correct and no results were affected. This problem only affected version
40104 15.1.1.
38532 An incident was resolved for the bridge modeler in which staggered diaphragms (cross-frames)
defined for a steel I-girder bridge were not properly updated in the linked bridge model in the
following specific case: (1) The staggered diaphragm orientation was different from the default
orientation for section cuts at the location of the start of the diaphragm (note that the default
orientation is parallel to the skew near supports), and (2) The linked bridge model had previously
been updated and the frame elements representing members of the cross-frame did not change
location with the new update. In this case, the following could occur: (1) Vertical offsets (brace
work-point location) specified for the top and/or bottom chords were set to zero, and (2) The frame
section property specified for any of the members did not change, even if new sections were
specified in the definition of the diaphragm property. Results were consistent with the linked bridge
model as updated. Bridge objects updated as spine models were not affected.
* 39794 An incident was resolved for the bridge modeler in which spine models generated for curved
39952 bridges with the deck horizontally offset from the layout line sometimes had connectivity problems
40669 near the upstation ends of curved spans. The frame elements representing the superstructure spine
could be missing or improperly connected to joints far from the bridge structure. When this
occurred the problem was obvious, and the results were consistent with the generated model.
39913 An incident has been resolved for the bridge modeler where a duplicate diaphragm (cross frame)
was being created near the end of a span when the bridge object was updated as a linked model in
the following case: (1) The superstructure used a steel I-girder bridge section, and (2) The last
diaphragm in the span was a staggered diaphragm (not full width) and was located at a distance
from the end support slightly greater than the maximum segment length for deck spans specified
when updating the linked model, and (3) There were no section cuts at or after the staggered
diaphragm, and (4) A diaphragm was specified at the support at the end of the span. The diaphragm
at the support was being duplicated between the support and the staggered diaphragm. Results were
consistent with the model as generated by the bridge modeler.
39941 An incident has been resolved for the bridge modeler in which the moment end releases specified at
the top of the columns for a bridge bent property were not being applied to the generated model if
end releases were already present in the generated column objects for a previous version of the
linked model. Results were consistent with the generated model.
40165 An incident has been resolved where bridge forces and stresses could not be displayed for a bridge
object having parametric variations applied to a concrete box girder bridge section such that the
section depth became less than or equal to the sum of the cut-line distances specified for the top and
bottom slabs of the section. Attempting to display the bridge forces and stresses for such a bridge
object could generate an exception (run-time error). The affected results could not be displayed, but

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 * Incident Description
no incorrect results were produced. Now a warning message is produced when this case occurs both
when updating the linked bridge model and when attempting to display the results.
* 40060 An incident has been resolved for the bridge modeler where the thickness of the slab elements
41285 generated for the linked model of steel-girder bridges updated as areas was sometimes zero on the
upstation side of staggered diaphragms. This could occur where the staggered diaphragm
intersected a girder at a location that was not a superstructure section cut, which causes the slab to
be meshed locally at the girder rather than across the full width of the deck. In addition, at such
locations, parametric variations in slab thickness were not properly interpolated for the slab
elements generated on the downstation side of the staggered diaphragm. Analysis and design results
were consistent with the linked model as generated. When opening such models in the new version,
the affected bridge objects updated to clear the linked model, then saved, then updated again to
generate a new linked model.
40830 An incident has been resolved for the bridge modeler in which bearings specified at the end of a
discontinuous span segment (a span length with no bent or abutment specified at its end) were not
being generated when the bridge object was updated as a spine model. This did not affect models
updated as areas or solids, nor did it affect continuous span segments or spans with supports at the
end. For affected models, the results agreed with the model as generated.
40975 An Incident was resolved for the bridge modeler in which restrainers and bearings were not being
included in bridge groups for the following cases: (1) Restrainers at in-span hinges and at the ends
of span segments having no bent and a discontinuous superstructure condition were being omitted
from bridge groups of the Restrainer type, and (2) Bearings at the ends of span segments having no
bent and a discontinuous superstructure condition were being omitted from bridge groups of the
Bearing type. This did not affect results unless the groups were used for staged construction, in
which case the results were consistent with the groups as generated. Versions 15.1.0 (case 1 only)
and 15.1.1 (cases 1 and 2) were affected.
40976 An incident was resolved for the bridge modeler in which the elevations of bearings and restrainers
generated at the end of a span segment having no bent and a discontinuous superstructure condition
were incorrect if there was non-zero super-elevation at that location. Results were consistent with
the model as generated. This affected Version 15.1.1 only.
41050 An incident was resolved where deleting a bridge object did not delete any design, seismic, or
rating requests that reference that bridge object, sometimes generating errors when exporting or
importing the model. Similarly, converting a bridge object to an unlinked model did not clear the
bridge object flags from line springs assigned to frame objects representing abutment grade beams,
sometimes generating errors when exporting or importing the model. No results were affected by
either of these issues.

Analysis
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
37807 An incident has been resolved in which CSiLoadOptimizer failed to run if it was started right after
creating a model (i.e. before the model is given a name & saved for the first time). No results were
affected.
* 37850 An incident was resolved where cable forces were not being correctly reported for moving-load
analyses based on influence lines and surfaces. The influence value was being taken as zero at all
but the last load point. In most cases this resulted in zero or a very small response. Step-by-step
moving-load analysis was not affected. No other response (displacement, force, or stress) was
affected. Only versions 15.1.0 and 15.1.1 were affected.

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Bridge Design and Rating
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
* 37826 An incident has been resolved for Bridge Seismic Design in which the program-generated gravity
load case used as the initial condition for the pushover analyses of the bents was not including the
weight of the superstructure at single-bearing bents in the case where these were located at either
end of the bridge object instead of an abutment. This could affect the pushover (capacity) results for
those bents only, i.e., single-bearing bents located at an abutment, and only for seismic design
category D where pushover analysis was used to compute the capacity. Interior single-bearing bents
were not affected. Double-bearing bents were not affected whether they were interior or at the ends
of the bridge object. Seismic categories A, B, and C were not affected. Demands were not affected.
Cracked properties were not affected. The error was over-conservative for concrete columns when it
occurred.
38254 An incident was resolved where the tendon object name given in the database table "Bridge Super
Design 19 - JTG-D62-2004 - CBoxTendonStress" was incorrectly giving the name of the
corresponding tendon section property instead. No results were affected.
38665 An incident has been resolved for Bridge Seismic Design in which the fixed link elements that
connect the bearings to the superstructure were not being included in the model generated for
gravity load analysis of any seismic design request when the "Gravity Load-Case Option" was set to
"Auto: This Bridge Object". This caused the gravity load case to not converge due to lack of
support, preventing the design request from completing. No results were available for such seismic
design requests. Seismic categories A, B, C, and D were all affected.
39268 An Incident was resolved for steel girder bridge design that addresses the following two issues: (1)
In the bridge steel girder optimization form, the plot of the MuShortTerm moment diagram for both
positive and negative flexure sometimes exhibited extraneous values of the opposite sign (negative
moment values for the positive moment plot and vice versa) in regions where the D over C ratio was
zero. These values had no meaning and are now plotted as zero. (2) The descriptions for the field
"MuPos" in database table "Bridge Super Design 30 - AASHTOLRFD07 - SteelICompStrgth-
FlxPs" and the field "MuNeg" in database table "Bridge Super Design - AASHTOLRFD07 -
SteelICompStrgth-FlxNg" have been expanded to clarify when these values could be zero.
41051 An incident was resolved where the steel bridge optimization would generate an error message and
fail to produce design results when the Recalculate Resistance command was executed for a bridge
object that contained spans violating the AASHTO code limits for live-load distribution factors.
Design results were not produced in this case. Now the Recalculate Resistance executes correctly,
and the design results tables will report those locations for which live-load distribution factors could
not be calculated. This only affected design requests where the live-load distribution factors were
specified to be computed from the AASHTO code.
40570 An incident was resolved for flexural design and rating requests of precast composite bridge
sections in which the iterative calculation of the positive flexural resistance was sometimes unable
to converge for sections with a high amount of PT (prestressing force) and with various beam and
composite-slab concrete strengths. When this occurred, the results for that location were indicated
with the message "Flexure Check Unable to determine position of neutral axis for positive moment"
in the database tables, and numerical results were unavailable. This affected the AASHTO and
Canadian codes.
41428 An incident was resolved for bridge superstructure design where the longitudinal rebar calculated
for the top slab and the bottom slab or precast girder could be slightly unconservative for the
following design checks: (1) AASHTO LRFD 2007 Multicell ConcBox Shear and Precast Comp
Shear (I- and U-girder); (2) CAN/CSA-S6-06 Conc Box Shear, Multicell ConcBox Shear, and
Precast Comp Shear (I- and U-girder). The error was generally small and was only significant in the
case where the minimum and maximum axial force in the controlling load combination were large
and significantly different from each other, which is not common.

CSiBridge v15.2.0 2012-01-04 Page 6

Results Display and Output
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
39380 An incident was resolved in which the legend text on the right side of the right-click form
displaying frame forces, moments, and stresses was not correctly updated for certain rare models.
Clicking in the form to move the cursor correctly updated the text. The error was obvious because
the text would overwrite itself and clearly disagreed with the plotted values. The plotted results
were correct.

Database Tables
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
39099 An incident was resolved where the material list reported in the database tables was incorrect for
any frame members having nonprismatic sections where the section definition contained a fixed-
length portion. This was only an error in the material list. No other results were affected as the
actual weight used for analysis was being correctly calculated.
39559 An incident is resolved where the steel-frame design preference values "Ignore Seismic Code?",
"Ignore Special Seismic Load?", and "Is Doubler Plate Plug-Welded?" values were being set
incorrectly when imported from database tables or the .$BR file. For "Ignore Seismic Code?" and
"Ignore Special Seismic Load?", values specified as "Yes" were being set to "No" and vice-versa.
For "Is Doubler Plate Plug-Welded?", the default value of "Yes" was always being set. This error
affected codes "AASHTO LRFD 2007", "AISC360-05/IBC2006", "CAN/CSA-S16-01", and "CSA-
S16-09". Design results were consistent with the model as imported.
40093 An incident has been resolved where an exception (runtime error) was generated when importing
the database table "Preferences - Concrete Design - AASHTO Concrete 07". Results were not
affected.
40598 An incident was resolved for the database table "Bridge Object Definitions 11 - Prestress 1 -
General" where the column "Stress" was using force units rather than stress units
(force/length/length). This caused the stress values in this column to be incorrectly converted for
units when importing, exporting, displaying, or editing the table in the case where both (1) The
tendon load type was Stress (not Force), and (2) The length units used in the table were different
from the database units of the model. Changing only the force units had no effect.

Documentation
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
37707 An incident was resolved in which the description for the "DirCos" field in the database table
"Bridge Section Cuts 01 - General" contained obvious typographical errors. No results were
affected.

Miscellaneous
* Incident Description
37978 The version number has been changed to v15.2.0 for a new intermediate release

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