The use of cold-formed members in framed structures is increasing year by year, particularly in the area of prefabricated and pre-engineered buildings. Unfortunately the design codes which govern cold-formed design tend to be complex to interpret and use. To address this problem, we have now added our first two cold-formed design codes to Steel Designer. New Multiframe users can choose a cold-formed code when purchasing Steel Designer, existing owners of Steel Designer can purchase an additional code on their licence at a reduced price. Please contact us at info@formsys.com for more information.

This release adds support for the North American AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) code and for the Australian AS4600 code. Both are very modern limit state codes and as such share a common design approach and a shared level of complexity. Engineers in other regions will find that there is also a high degree of commonality with other cold-formed codes, so either code can be used to give useful guidance on member selection in other countries. We expect to support other cold-formed design codes in future releases of the software.

The graphical interface and reporting when using the AS4600 and AISI codes is the same as that used for the other Steel Designer codes. This includes rendering of cold-formed shapes, graphical selection of members to be checked, and a detailed audit trail in the design report. Additional functions are provided for cold-formed specific issues like segment stiffening and lateral restraints.

Multiframe now uses a new improved single installer for the whole Multiframe suite of software. This new installer simplifies installation of all modules, particularly in a network situation. The new installer will automatically migrate your old settings and Sections Library from your previous installation. The new installer also simplifies side-by-side installations of multiple versions of the software.

There is now a comprehensive training package included in the software featuring step-by-step tutorials supported by videos showing the key features. The Learning Multiframe training can be done online via our website or from your computer after installing Learning Multiframe from the installation CD. The installer can also be downloaded from our web site.

In the Multiframe application, the training document can be accessed from the Help menu. The Learning Multiframe command will start the PDF document if Learning Multiframe has been installed on your computer. In case Learning Multiframe has not been installed, the online version will be started in your web browser.

Multiframe now supports the new Windows Vista operating system. Support has also been added for 64-bit operating systems which means Multiframe can now be installed on computers using x64 editions of the Windows XP and Vista operating systems. At this stage the applications are compatible with these systems but not necessarily optimised for them. This means you can expect similar performance to that you would see under Windows XP 32-bit.

In the near future new quad-core processors will be released. We expect future releases of Multiframe to contain optimisations for quad-core processors and also for 64-bit and Vista operating systems.

We do not recommend switching to Windows Vista as yet. The operating system is still immature, particularly in the graphics area. In around a years time, if you are purchasing a new computer, then you should consider Vista. If you are purchasing a new computer before then, you will need to ask your supplier to pre-install Windows XP rather than Vista.

Further work has been done to improve the performance of the software. Areas of the software to benefit from this include: OpenGL rendering, particularly in the Plot Window; drawing of the model in the graphical views; processing of graphical interaction with the model; geometric manipulations of the model such as duplication, subdivision and other transformations of the model.

When working in the graphical views Multiframe allows you to select a range of co-linear members which touch at their ends and group them together into a single Design Member for design purposes. This is commonly used for situations like the chord of a truss, when bracing props the mid-point of a beam and so on. This release of Multiframe adds an option to work either with selections of members or selections of Design Members. When working with members, the selection works as in previous version of the software. However, when working with selections of Design Members, clicking on a member will select an entire Design Member. All commands for setting properties or applying loads will then operate on the Design Members rather than the individual members within them.

The user can change between the two modes of selection via the Design Member Selections command in the Selection menu.

In the Frame Window the use of design members as the selection is most significant in relation to commands manipulating the properties at the ends of members such as member releases and member end springs. When working with selections of design members, these commands will manipulate the properties at the ends of the design members and not the properties at the ends of members.

In the Load Window, the application of loads to Design Members simplifies the application of linearly varying loads across a range of members within the structure. The shape of loads will be applied across the entire design member and not to the individual members that make up the design member. It is important to note that loads applied to design members will still be stored as a number of individual loads applied to the members that make up the design member.

Users can now assign their own colour to members via the Frame | Member Colour command. This colour can then be used in drawing or rendering the model by selecting the User Colour scheme for members from within the Symbols dialog or by Right-Clicking on the Colour legend in the Frame window. This can be used via the many selection methods in the Select menu. For example, you could select members by design efficiency and then set those exceeding a certain value to a defined colour.

Manufacturers of cold-formed sections continue to innovate with the release of new, more efficient shapes. We will continue to add these to the standard libraries as we become aware of them. In this release we have added angled top hat and LSB section shapes. The LSB section is a light steel beam and is a new cold formed profile available within Australia. If you have other section shapes you would like added to the libraries, please contact our support team at support@formsys.com so that we can make them available.

This upgrade to Section Maker includes a powerful new capability to perform a detailed cross-sectional analysis of any section to accurately determine its torsional properties. This function uses a finite element approach to automatically create a mesh of the section shape and solve St Venant’s equation to determine the torsion constant, shear centre and warping constant for the section. These properties are very difficult to calculate using analytical approaches, especially for sections other than the standard shapes.

The automated meshing is adaptive so that it gives more detail in areas of higher change. However the accuracy of the calculated properties will still be dependent on the size of the elements in the finite element mesh. More accurate results may be obtained by refining the mesh size via the Mesh Size command in the Analyse Shape submenu.

Ed Levin is the Owner/Proprietor of Paradigm Builders in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA and has been using Multiframe since 1990. Ed, who can truly be described as a "renaissance man’, has been timber framing since 1970 and designing frames with AutoCAD since 1983.

A 1969 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied philosophy and art history, he is also a cofounder of the Timber Framers Guild. He has participated in the design of many Timber Framers Guild projects including the Habitat Houses, Speed River and Kicking Horse Covered Bridges, Franklin Pierce, Nacogdoches, and Penetang Pavilions, Women’s Centers in Lexington, Virginia and Copenhagen, Denmark, and multiple barn projects. On his own, Ed has been responsible for structural analysis and design of many structures around the US, including covered bridges in Hartland, Vermont, Cornish, New Hampshire and Taylors Falls, Minnesota, and for numerous private and public buildings including the Dartmouth Skiway Base Lodge. He has also lectured widely and published many articles on timber frame design.

Ed is the co-author of TimberCad, a front-end program for AutoCad. TimberCAD offers a range of tools for the automation of the timber frame design process. TCAD is a front-end to AutoCAD written for designers of timber frame buildings, and is available as a free download from the Guild website at www.tfguild.org.