IES VisualAnalysis User's Guide
Prior Version 17.0
VisualAnalysis has been rewritten from the ground up using the latest technologies, hindsight, and customer feedback. This new version is intended to boost efficiency by requiring fewer mouse clicks and having improved performance with easier to understand commands and more accurate engineering. Note: the version number dramatically from 12.0 to 17.0 (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 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 in the new version which may take some time as they require conversion and mapping from old features to new ones. Note: Member shapes may 'rotate' to their principal orientation from a legacy project. Also, some old features are no longer supported or may have subtle changes. Always inspect the model and results carefully when importing legacy projects.
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.
The old menu with separate toolbars has been removed and replaced with a new main menu (ribbon) that is easier to use.
VisualAnalysis now completely automates the creation and analysis of the actual FEA model. If there are errors or warnings occur, they can be found in the Result View or a Model Check.
The program automatically splits and connects member elements so you do not generally have to 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. There is a new member property called which is defined per-member (the default is set to Yes).
Custom shapes or materials created in ShapeBuilder 6.0 or directly in VisualAnalysis 12.0 (and prior versions) will not be available in version 17.0. Those older products used a different database system and will have to be manually recreated in the new system. See the Shape Database and Material Database topics for details.
Custom Building Code Load Combinations created in previous version of VisualAnalysis will also need to be re-create in the new system. The old CodeCombo10.txt file in your Custom Data folder can be used to help re-enter the data into the new system (this only needs to happen once). The new database can be copied 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 can 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 for several reasons:
VA 12.0 had some issues 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 of the member). While these three are related, they are not always aligned and have 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, this new version will not import Concrete Design groups correctly in all cases and therefore it does not try to do so automatically. As a result, 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.
The Analyze button has been removed. Now as the model is built, VisualAnalysis starts the analysis, design, and check processes in the background. Any changes in the model cause the process to restart. This new system allows the results to be more readily available (when results are not available view the expandable Status panel in the Result View will show information or errors). The program uses a multi-processor analysis, which is done on a separate processor from the UI graphics, mouse, and keyboard. The background analysis should have little to no negative impact on the performance and should not dictate how you work within the User Interface.
At times, features get removed to simplify the software or eliminate problems. If one of the following was particularly useful, please email technical support.