Modeling Frames, Trusses, Grids, Beams, Tanks... Beam or Truss Members, Plate/Shell Elements Elastic Spring Supports Auto-meshed Areas (for easy wall or slab modeling)** Tension-only/Compression-only members or spring-supports Cartesian, Polar, Cylindrical or Spherical Coordinates No built-in size limit (20,000+ nodes are practical) Typical Manufactured Shapes: Steel, Wood, Aluminum, Cold-formed Parametric, Custom or Shapes imported from ShapeBuilder Just about any Material, Libraries included, Customizable! CAD-style selection box Generate linear copies Simple, Rigid, Semi-Rigid** Connections Catenary Cable Elements** Many Ways to Construct Models: Sketch models graphically Copy & Paste existing objects Import/Export .DXF files Import from Spreadsheet/Clipboard Legacy or Interchange .STD files (basic model & loading) Customizable parametric generation Loading Automatic Load Cases & Load Combinations Updated! Built-in Support for IBC 2012, IBC 2010, ASCE7-10, etc. Combinations Customizable Load Combinations. Semi-Automatic ASCE 7 Wind Loads (Method 2) Ice + Wind pressure on Members (e.g. open towers) AASHTO Load Sources (optional) Copy Multiple Loads from Member to Member Import Loads from a Spreadsheet/Clipboard Static Loads: Concentrated, Distributed, Pressure, Thermal, etc. Area Loads (keeps model and loads separated so changes are easy!) Area Edge Loads (in or out of plane) Dynamic Response Spectra, IBC & Customizable Dynamic Forcing Function, Time HIstory analysis** Moving Loads** (limited, e.g. crane beams, single load-line) Automatic live-load pattern load combinations** Import Load Combinations** Analysis & Results Static Analysis (1st order, P-Delta, Iterated) AISC Direct Analysis (notional loads, stiffness reduction)** Dynamic Analysis (Sparse Lanzcos, Newmark) Superposition Results and Envelopes** Member Internal Forces, Displacements, Diagrams Plate Forces, Stress, Contour Diagrams, Edge Results Automatic Mesh Refinement with Auto-Meshed Areas** Nodal Reactions, Displacements Graphical Results Viewing Sophisticated, Customizable Text Reports Spreadsheet report, and save directly Excel XLS** Design Checks & Building Codes* Smart and flexible setup: bracing, deflection checks, size constraints Updated! Steel 360-10 Design for frame and truss members (AISC, CISC)* Updated! Concrete ACI 318-11 Design of Beams, Columns, Flat Slabs (ACI)* Updated! Wood NDS 2012 Design for frame and truss members (NDS)* Updated! Aluminum ADM 2010 Design for frame and truss members (ADM)* Updated! Cold-Formed NAS 2012 Design for frame and truss members (NAS)* RSG Software's CFS is used internally to perform these checks Visual bracing locations Steel seismic compactness checks Stress & Deflection Checks (code agnostic, any material)** Integrated Steel Connection Design** via VAConnect Steel warping torsion checks** Override intermediate values or parameters (e.g. Cb, Fy, wood C factors...)** Moving Loads and Dynamic results are now checked** System Requirements Windows XP, Vista, 7.0, or 8.0. Both 32-bit and 64-bit. (VA is a 32-bit program) Any modern CPU: faster is better. 1 GB RAM, minimum 1024x768 minimum recommended display resolution Recommended: A high-quality graphics card, 128+ MB RAM, OpenGL 2.1+ support, with an updated driver! Update and then set your video card to 'Highest Quality' mode. Wheel-mouse. (3-buttons) ~50 MB disk space for programs, program data, utilities and libraries Typical project files range from 1K to 1MB Internet connection required for documentation Not supported: Windows 98, ME, 2000, NT, Virtual PC (limited graphics) Not supported: Linux, Unix, Apple iOS. (Emulators may work, but we don't support)