IES VisualAnalysis User's Guide
Prior Version 17.0
Wow. From the inside-out, we have mostly rewritten this tool using the latest technologies, hindsight, and lots and lots of customer feedback. From the outside-in, we hope that longtime customers are as comfortable in this version as in previous versions. We also hope you'll spend less time getting work done--fewer mouse clicks, blazing performance, easier to understand commands, and more accurate engineering. And "No", you didn't miss anything we jumped the version number dramatically from 12.0 to 17.0, for several reasons, but there was no version 13, 14, 15, or 16.
If you are running an active license for VisualAnalysis 12.0 (not expired) then this version should "just work". With a network license you may need to enter the path to your license-share folder. If your VisualAnalysis license has expired prior to the release-date of version 17.0, you will need to purchase an upgrade in the self-service portal, or by contacting IES Sales.
Legacy projects should open OK, if slowly as they require conversion and 'mapping' from old features to new ones. There have been many changes, for very good reasons. Member shapes may 'rotate' to their principal orientation from a legacy project. Most issues and old bugs are handled automatically. Some old features are no longer supported or will have subtle changes, please inspect the project and results carefully.
We understand that changes can be disconcerting. We have worked hard to balance innovation with respecting our many long-time customers. Our hope is that you will embrace the changes, and adapt to them quickly. We think most will make the program much better moving forward. The rest we'll fix, after you tell us what went wrong.
Gone is the old menu with separate toolbars. The new main menu (ribbon) is easier to use, but a little different. We think you'll grow to love it within a few days.
We now completely automate the creation of the actual FEA model from yours. When it is time to analyze we check your model, and then construct a correct FEA model from it. If there are errors or warnings you will find those in the Result View, or a Model Check.
This means that we will automatically split and connect member elements so you do not generally have to worry or think about member elements vs. girders or multi-story columns. Model the members in a way that works best for you. You can split or merge members, and cross them. The trick to the new system is a member property called which is defined per-member, but the default is Yes. You should generally allow members to connect. The most common exception is for X-braces, where you typically should not connect them. If you are getting strange instability warnings, make sure this option is turned on for your members!
If you created custom shapes or materials in ShapeBuilder 6.0 or directly in VisualAnalysis 12.0 (and prior versions), they will not be available in version 17.0. Those older products used a different database system. You will need to manually recreate those custom databases in the new system. Please see the Shape Database and Material Database topics for details.
If you created Custom Building Code Load Combinations, you will need to re-create those in the new system. Your old "CodeCombo10.txt" file in your Custom Data folder can be used to help you re-enter the data into the new system. This only needs to happen once. You can copy the new database to other machines!
The shape database now contains Virtual Joists and Virtual Joist Girders which are developed by the 
Steel Joist Institute. Their website has information on the basic concept and purpose. You may create models with these shapes, and get steel design-checks as if they were steel beams.
Everything in VisualAnalysis 17 is now based on a space frame structure definition. We removed the academic plane-frame and plane-truss. Why?
VA 12.0 had some issues dating back to the 1970's and 1990's with regard to the way member cross-sections were defined. In VA 11.0 we clarified the major-principal axis orientation, which many engineers discovered when using single-angle shapes.
Still at issue were inconsistencies in the geometric coordinate systems (e.g. x-y in the AISC manual), the principal coordinate system (often labeled as 1-2), and a member element's local coordinate system (in VA this is z-y, because x is always along the length). These three are all related, but not always lined up the way you might expect. It has serious implications for orienting shapes, interpreting member results, and understanding what is meant by "Top" or "Bottom" in concrete beam design!
In VA 17.0 all member shapes are oriented according to their principal axes for analysis. Custom blobs are defined by I1, and I2, not Iz and Iy. The rule for section orientation is now this: The shape's major principal 1 axis is always aligned with the member element's local z axis.
Because of this change, we will not import Concrete Design groups "correctly" in all cases, so we do not try. You will need to think about member orientations, and may need to set the Beta angle to orient the member correctly for Top and Bottom terminology.
Where is the Analyze button? We put your computer to work for you, without slowing you down or degrading the performance of other applications. Trust us! As you build your model we start checking, analyzing, and running unity checks. If you make changes, we start over. The result is this: when you want results, they are generally already available, or you wait a lot less. When results are not available view the expandable Status panel in the Result View will show information or errors.
Once in while, features get lost or removed. We take things out to simplify the software or eliminate problems. If one of the following was really important for you, please tell us through a technical support email what you want to do and why. No guarantees, but we do operate a customer-democracy, not a developer dictatorship!