New in Advance Steel 2020

Learn about new features and enhancements in this release of the software.

For more detailed information about using Advance Steel, please visit the product help.

GENERAL APPLICATION

• Improved High DPI support for the Advance Steel User Interface: This version of Advance Steel includes a set of user interface fixes to the overall experience when using a high DPI setting, with a high-resolution monitor (2K, 4K, etc.). The improvements include automatic scaling for dialogs to correctly show text and buttons.
• Fixed an issue with the ANZ Bridging dialog that could not be properly used when setting a high display DPI .
• Fixed a crash that could occur when using the numbering command and editing xrefs.
• Fixed an issue with the quick connection - Base Plate settings dialog that would not correctly show the Anchor length field.
• Corrected an issue that caused various standard steel connections to have, by default, an empty Design module field in Joint Design, in the connection properties dialog.
• Corrected the behavior of the "Delete row" option from Table Editor in Management Tools so that the row is deleted from the respective table as soon as the option is used.
• Corrected the way the Table Editor in Management Tools shows the content of the Color drop-down from the ApprovalStatus table in the AstorCurrentAddin database.
• Fixed an inconsistent display for the material inside the element properties dialog when switching between different profiles configured with a default assigned material , directly from the content definition database.
• Fixed an issue with the migration tool that was not properly identifying changes in some out of the box profiles like Kingspan Insulated Roof Systems, Sadef Pfette, Sadef WR, Sadef Z, and VLB hot-rolled.
• Fixed the "Create list field" command for creating a new BoM on drawing template cell.
• Restored the preview picture in the Connection Vault for the Bolt Cage connection.
• Updated the SADEF profiles geometrical properties according to producer catalog.
• Updated sectional values for Lindab profiles.

CREATE AND MANAGE DRAWINGS

• New Customization Options for the Cut Symbol Template: The cut symbol template has several new features to help with customization, including new tokens, support for user text, text formatting using the template text style, and text color control from the template file. See Customize the Cut Symbol Text.
• New Cut Symbol Alignment Command: A new command is available in the ribbon. The command aligns all cut symbols from one side, using a reference symbol. This will ease the cut symbol arrangement, and ensure that the cut symbols will no longer move during drawing update. See Align Cut Symbols on Drawings.
• Dedicated defaults for configuring the cut symbol template: The existing two defaults that allow the setup of cut symbol template for up and down symbols were split to allow specific customization on each different type of detail drawings that can contain cut symbols. See Setup the Cut Symbol Resource File.
• Insert Cut Symbols in General Arrangement Drawings: The process of inserting cut symbols on general arrangement drawings when creating manual cuts was changed. Advance Steel now uses the points used to define the cut view size as insertion points for the symbols. The two points were already used to define the cut view size box, but the cut symbols were inserted using the "Assembly drawing" rules. The previous process would often cause Advance Steel to insert the points in the middle of the drawing.
• Cut view titles on general arrangement views no longer reset during update: Now, you can manually modify the cut view title for manual cuts created on general arrangement views (Plan view, Anchor plan, Elevation, etc.). All the changes will be retained during drawing update.
• The cut view title contains two new tokens: These tokens can display more information when needed. The Scale token shows the current cut view scale, while the View number (A) shows the cut view number using a single letter. You can configure the two tokens using the cut view configuration page in the Drawing Style Manager, or when editing the cut view title properties on existing sheets.
• Manually moved cut view symbols on assembly drawings no longer reset their position during drawing update: This inconsistent behavior was part of specific cut view symbols that were requested by elements controlled by connections and created as part of automatic cut views. Now, updating connections in the model will no longer force the automatic cut views to reset during drawing update, allowing Advance Steel to preserve any manual modifications made to their annotations.
• Cut view symbols can be individually deleted from drawings: Advance Steel will no longer force the cut view symbols to reappear during drawing update. You cannot restore manually removed cut view symbols. So, if the cut view symbols are accidentally removed, you need to recreate the cut view to restore the cut view symbols.
• Align and Arrange Labels Commands: Starting with this version of Advance Steel, two new commands are available for aligning and arranging labels on demand, on detail drawings. They use an existing reference label and a set of predefined rules, specific to each command. See Align and Arrange Labels on Drawings.
• Cut view scale changes will no longer force the reset of any manual changes made to the cut view title, including position changes, text content and text formatting.
• Manual dimensions on any hole inside a hole pattern: In previous versions, only certain cases were supported. In the rest of the cases the dimension points would be removed during drawing update. This feature improvement is available, by default, to all manual dimension lines.
• Two modes for the leader line behavior when labeling holes: Automatic hole detection and manual hole selection. See Leader Line Behavior when Labeling Holes.
• Added a new cut symbol for GA details to the US installation.
• Improved the way areas containing arcs from features intersecting the curved beam edges are drawn on detail drawings.
• Improved the mechanism that arranges plates on drawings and sets their length and width values, by allowing Advance Steel to choose the minimum area rectangle that fits the plate more often, optimizing their arrangement.
• Improved the way arcs generated by filleted finishes done by cope features are detailed and dimensioned.
• The fixed extension line option from the Dimension Style Manager is now considered by Advance Steel dimensions.
• The "Create cut view" and "Create call-out view" commands now support the option to override the view request key through a parameter part of the command text. In addition to the existing "Settings" override dialog, the commands will now accept a "Key" parameter which will allow the manual input of the view request key.
• Advance Steel manual smart dimensions now support profile mid-points for section side-views and cut-views.
• Added nuts and washers in the Symbols folder for the imperial system.
• The fixed extension line option from the Dimension Style Manager is now taken into account by Advance Steel dimensions.
• Added new processes suites for the US installation.
• Created detailing processes that are using variable page sizes for the US installation.

• Fixed an issue that prevented cut views from keeping their position, format and title content after connection updates.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Renumber cut view command to temporarily reset modified cut view titles to their default format.
• Improved insertion workflow and stability of section cut symbols when creating manual section cuts on general arrangement drawings.
• Fixed an issue where curved surfaces of a plate were not taken into consideration by the mechanism that arranges the plate for detailing and naming purposes.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the preferred for manual dimensions snap graphic preview to appear.
• Fixed an issue where specific skewed polygonal contour features would not correctly cut complex folded plates, resulting in incorrect detailing and CNC outputs.
• Fixed an issue that caused cut symbols to move to the other side after the undo move operation.
• Added measures to avoid the oversized green frame when setting the call-out viewport to the invalid depth size of 0 units.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Drawing Style Manager Compact with Purge to not work for duplicate model objects.
• Fixed an issue causing the Document Manager to stop working ("System exception without special treatment has occurred"). The crash occurred when working with models and details containing a compass, after opening and updating a detail and closing and reopening the model.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Callout in Callout viewport to change its position after resizing the main callout.
• Fixed an issue that caused the annotation symbols from callout views to move on each update after resizing the callout viewport.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the %DrawingNumber token to be evaluated when used inside cut symbols definitions.
• Fixed an issue that caused the detail green frame to resize after a grid was removed from the detail drawing, but not from the model.
• Corrected the cut view symbol stability after callout viewport resizing.
• Fixed an issue that caused manual cuts created on assembly drawings based on dummy main parts to incorrectly consider the Y viewport size, creating an almost empty view. Now the mechanism to determine the depth of view will correctly consider the dummy assembly extends size.
• Fixed an issue that caused the cuts made by weld preparations on folded plates to not appear on development drawings.
• Fixed a Label Content Manager issue that would cause label tokens to not be correctly evaluated in the case of curved beams displayed in detail drawings.
• Fixed an issue that caused new automatic cut views to be inserted very far from the main view, if the existing automatic cut views were moved before the update.
• Manual dimensions on pipes and circular hollow profiles detailed from the side will no longer have a point appear on the profile geometry during drawing update.
• Fixed an issue that caused manual dimensions to move during drawing update. The situation was isolated to some specific scenarios and related only to manual dimensions that were moved after the initial insertion position.
• Fixed an issue that caused manual arc dimensions to change the reference arc, leading to an incorrect arc dimension, during update, for cases where the dimensioned curved beams were created with common system line end points.
• Fixed a drawing style palette issue in the Italian installation where the category indexes of two camera drawing styles were reversed.
• Fixed an issue that caused the approval status to not be saved when setting a custom approval status with a high number key value for documents in the Document Manager.
• Fixed an issue that caused manual arc dimensions created on imperial unit drawings to not be kept during drawing update.
• The properties of curved concrete beams are now displayed when called from a detail drawing.
• Fixed an issue related to renaming and changing the number of detail drawings that caused revision clouds not to show up in revision details.
• Fixed an issue that triggered the incorrect positioning of hole symbols in detail drawings, for holes coming from an Xref model, if the Xref model was moved inside the main model.
• Adjusted the EN ISO 4017 bolts length rules calculation according to the manufacture specification.
• Adjusted sorting criteria for the Polish BOM template "Material list summary" to use "Single part mark" as primary sorting attribute.
• Changed the way the circle camera symbol determines its radius, by using the entire viewport area instead of only one of its edges, making the symbol show what the camera sees more accurately.
• Corrected the way column orientation symbols are displayed in details after changing the Assembly detail direction.
• Fixed an issue causing "Compact" and "Compact with Purge" not to work for "Clipping strategy" and for "View direction and model box"
• Fixed an issue causing camera details in the Document Manager to enter the "Update Required" state due to unchecking "Used for collision check" for objects in the view.
• Fixed an issue causing the %PosNum token to be replaced with the %Position token in the Drawing Style Manager, for the French installation.
• Fixed an issue that caused a detail drawing using the %Sequence Number token in the drawing name, to disappear from the Document Manager on update.
• Fixed an issue that caused detail titles to lose information about the detailed object after changing the object material and updating the detail.
• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect unwrapping results on details for mirrored beams detailed with their beam end orientation set to "Higher XYZ on the right" or "Start point on the left side".
• Fixed an issue that prevented cut views from keeping their position, format and title content after connection updates.
• Fixed an issue that caused the "Copy all project documents during 'save as' " default to have no effect on specific projects.
• Fixed issues with manual dimensions not working on bending axes of beams/plates and shear studs.
• Fixed the page header attributes for the out of the box UK content prototype "UK-ALB-A4.dwg".
• Fixed the direction of detailed grating bearing bars in shop drawings when using the option to detail plates or gratings using the direction provided by their internal coordinate system at the time of creation.
• Improved the consistency of camera detail content and the correct display of level symbols when these details are created using a detail process.
• The Model Browser displays the correct drawing number where a part is detailed, if the part detail is moved from one drawing to another using the copy, cut, and paste commands.
• Solved an issue that prevented the "Process import" functionality in the Drawing Process Manager from working, after opening and closing the Drawing Style Manager.
• Solved an issue where the BoM on drawing template list was empty when switching to the old BoM on drawing templates using the external BoM editor lists.
• The camera symbol hatch that appears when using the Rectangle camera presentation was removed, and the rectangle camera symbol will draw only the box that defines the camera view.
• Updated all language installations with BOM template that displays drawings approval status.

3D MODELING

• Propagate a Connection: The propagation tool recreates a connection in all the identical situations within the model. This is not a copy tool, but a tool that gathers the conditions in which a selected connection was created, identifies all the cases that meet all these conditions in the current project and creates connections in all the respective cases, matching the origin connection type and set of parameters. See Propagate a Connection.

• Fixed an issue where the miter connection would not work between two plates in specific situations.
• Fixed an issue where the model role "None" did not appear in the preferred sizes for English versions.
• Fixed an issue with the calculation of the exact weight of folded plates with weld preparation.
• Fixes an issue that prevented the display of preferred sizes for anchors and studs.
• Cuts, copes and holes created only on the exact beam presentation are correctly kept when using the Split Beam command.
• Fixed an issue that caused UCS shortenings to be incorrectly recreated after reopening the model or undoing a deletion of objects with shortenings.
• Improved the scribing mechanism to work on plates positioned skewed at a very small angle against the main element, under the accepted tolerance.
• Fixed an issue that caused the stretch command to move hole, bolt and anchor patterns by an incorrect offset on imperial models.
• Set the correct sectional properties for the VLB Warm hollow profiles.
• Fixed an issue that caused a parameter value modification in the Model Browser to take a long time.
• Fixed an issue that caused objects not used for numbering to receive a prefix on second numbering.
• Fixed an issue with the Bolt Cage connection that was not properly translated to non-English languages.
• Added records for the Bolt Cages joint for the US installation.
• Using a poly-line as reference for the contour notch feature will now produce the correct result on mirrored plates.
• Fixed a bug related to the incorrect creation of the Wallrail joint, created on a 3D polyline having a vertical segment.
• Bolts created by the Turnbuckle Bracing connection will no longer invert when switching the tab plate to use "End" location.
• Bolts, anchors, and shear stud patterns will now correctly split when using the "Split beam" command on the element to which they belong.
• Corrected a situation where a bolt pattern created by the Platform Plate connection, had a different orientation than the rest of the bolt patterns.
• Corrected a situation where the Base Plate connection was no longer updating its geometry when changing the parameters in the connection properties dialog.
• Corrected a situation where the Gusset Plate in Center connection would incorrectly cut the entire body of the input brace element.
• Corrected an issue where the Bolt Diameter value was not updating inside the connection properties dialog, for "Bracing I splice plates simple" and "Bracing I splice plates additional object" connections.
• Corrected the Alpha b calculation for the Shear Plate connection when the Bottom cope is set to "Cut and flush".
• Corrected the annotation in the joint design for Hole Tolerance and Bolt Tensile Stressed Area on the German installation.
• Enabled multi-edit capabilities for the camera view-port settings.
• Fixed a crash that could appear when closing the model project.
• Fixed an issue for the Railing - Handrails macro that caused the entire beam to be cut by the shorten when changing the distance between posts from "Post layout" tab, in case of poly beams.
• Fixed an issue for the Single Brace Tube connection that caused the "Cut back" value to not be in accordance to the dialog, when brace T was made from plates and the brace was not perpendicular to the main element.
• Fixed an issue for the Turnbuckle Direct Bolted connection that occurred when the flat profile was used as input.
• Fixed an issue that caused the impossibility to edit the material for the seat plate created by the Embed Beam Seat connection.
• Fixed an issue that shows the bolts created by the Clip Angle connections as Shop Drill in the bolt properties dialog while the setting from the connection was In Site.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing the "Cut plate at another plate" to provide the correct cut contour when the plate to be cut was mirrored.
• Fixed an issue that caused the "Free remark" attribute on special parts to not update when controlling it from a steel connection.
• Fixed an issue with the Bolt Cage connection that was not properly translated to non-English languages.
• Fixed the Omega profile geometrical definitions in the default delivered content.
• Fixed the incorrect placement of the "Running Dimension" symbol on drawings of beams with multiple cuts on the same end.
• Fixed the result of explode to 3D solids for twisted poly beams created by the railing macro.
• Fixed the result of exploding folded plates to 3D solids by addressing the situation where the folded plate relation creates a corner not connected to the main folded plate element.
• Improved the Model Browser to correctly show information about assemblies that were created using a numbering method that dictates a number in front of the prefix.
• Improved the "Tube connection with sandwich plates" in order to be able to assign independent thicknesses to the stiffener and gusset plate.
• Improved the numbering consistency when using the Special Part Template option.
• Solved a database error on the Australian installation which would restrict the use of customized Quick Connection rules.
• Solved an issue for the Spiral Stair macro that blocked the calculation of the Hole in Tread when using a flat section post.
• Solved an issue that caused the explode to solid of a shear stud to explode to lines when the head height was 0.
• Solved an issue that manifested by the impossibility of reading loads from the node for the connections where the main input beams were continuous.

COLLABORATION

• Improved .sfr export to export the first 3 User Attribute fields from Advance Steel to populate user_defined fields from Assembly_Parts_List.sfr.
• Fixed the way the thickness is displayed in the NC file name for folded plates with thickness values lower than 10mm.
• Fixed an issue where skewed polygonal cuts with the "Straight cut" option turned on would generate incorrect NC/DXF results on folded plates.
• Corrected an issue where the Profile Name was no longer displayed in the Advance Steel Properties dialog after the profile was modified by the synchronizing changes coming from Revit.
• Corrected the IFC functionality in Advance Steel in order to import wall elements from the IFC file.
• Corrected the IFC import functionality in Advance Steel so that opening features present on walls would cut through entire wall thickness.
• Corrected the SDNF functionality to correctly import the beams that have a Y or Z offset value.
• Fixed an issue for the KISS export which manifested by losing the drawing number after renaming the drawing number to contain letters.
• Fixed an issue where the grid labels were lost when transferring the model from Revit using the smlx format.
• Fixed an issue that occurred when the elements exported to IFC contained German special characters.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the customized line type settings from being applied in DXF files according to the NC settings.
• Improved the IFC export so it can transfer when the comma separator is used.
• Improved the IFC Export function to be able to export tapered and compound beams by selection.
• Improved the IFC export and import functionality to support the apostrophe in grid labeling.
• Improved the translation for the CIS/2 export dialog to be consistent with all the export dialog formats.
• Material is mapped and correctly assigned to the cold rolled element in Advance Steel, after importing a SMLX file from Revit.
• The Synchronization dialog no longer displays a Plate Position difference when a plate with a justification value is synchronized in Advance Steel.

API

• Fixed an issue that caused the AtomicElement.MainPartUsedForBOM AS .NET API method to not work as expected.
• Advance Steel 2020 .NET and COM API Changes.
• Enhanced API method IUI.SelectObject to use pre-selected connection input objects if available, when parameter "single-click" is set to true.