AlfaCAD news

10-04-2024
  1. Correction of the "equation" of tapered flange C-channels (aka U-profiles)
  2. Some corrections to the hatching and filling with color or pattern procedure, to improve the filling of shapes composed of arcs tangent to straight lines (which is common with steel profiles); a bit less than perfect, but some progress has been made.
06-04-2024
  1. In the steel specification for alternative series of profiles in different standards, the name of the manufacturer (if specified) has been added. This distinction results from the fact that for some profiles the geometric parameters of the cross-sections of different manufacturers may differ.
03-04-2024
  1. Steel sections being in the production program in People's Republic of China (PRC) have been added to the steel sections database.
31-03-2024
  1. Steel sections being in the production program in Canada and Australia have been added to the steel sections database.
  2. Elements being in the production program in Canada have been added to the timber sections database.
28-03-2024 AlfaCAD 2.7 Supplement 4. The World of the Steel equations.
  1. In the EU, USA and UK alone, nearly 30 thousand steel profiles of various shapes and sizes are produced and used in industry. AlfaCAD has a database of all the profiles currently in the production program in these countries, containing details of both the shape and geometric properties of their cross-sections.
AlfaCAD allows you to draw cross-sections of any profile at any scale, using only 22 “equations”.

15-03-2024 AlfaCAD 2.7 Supplement 3. The stirrup. An essence of simplicity.
  1. AlfaCAD supports the design of transverse reinforcement by estimating the reinforcement ratio as a percentage of the cross-section area of the transverse reinforcement bars in the total area of the concrete cross-section in each diagonal cross-section of the element, inclined at an angle of 45 degrees to the axis of the element and including the effective height of the arm of forces.
Plugin “Stirrup” allows you to quickly draw a single or double-cut stirrup of virtually any shape (quadrilateral such as a rectangle or trapezoid, triangular or polygonal) or a multi-cut stirrup, which is rarely used due to fabrication difficulties, and multi-cut stirrup is usually replaced by a set of two or more double-cut stirrups.

13-02-2024 AlfaCAD 2.7 Supplement 2. A bit of concrete
  1. Reinforced concrete in static and dynamic analysis of structures.
  2. Presentation of cross-sectional forces.
27-11-2024
  1. The user interface (GUI) has been extended with a new style for menus and listboxes (as part of combo boxes). In contrast to the previously used "frame" style, this style has been named the "pointer" style and has been set as the default. It basically corresponds to the menu styles commonly used in other programs in both Windows and Linux, and is based on pointing at a menu field with the pointer tip, where the pointed field is highlighted. In the case of a larger number of menu fields than the size of the menu window that can be displayed on the AlfaCAD desktop (e.g. when selecting a font type or hatching pattern), a slider is used on the right side of the menu or list.
In both menu styles ("frame" and "pointer"), the down and up arrow keys, the paging keys (PgDn, PgUp) and the Home (start of the menu or list) and End (end of the menu or list) keys also apply.
According to the author, the "frame" style is faster to select, because the frame limits movement within the menu window, but it does not necessarily have to be as intuitive and convenient as the "pointer" style, hence the option to select a style in the "Menu style" function in the "Options" menu. The selection is remembered and restored in subsequent program sessions, until it is changed.

16-11-2024
  1. A new element has been added to the user interface, which has not been present in AlfaCAD so far. It is a slider (also known as a "track bar"), horizontal or vertical, with a submerged slot with a scalable thumb.
The slider has been used in the layers dialog and is used to quickly scroll through them when the number of existing layers significantly exceeds the number of layers that can be displayed simultaneously in the dialog, which depends on the given size of the AlfaCAD desktop window and the selected interface font size.

  1. Fixed a bug in the procedure for checking for program updates or its resources in the cloud. In the absence of a network connection or cloud problems, when it comes time to check if an update exists, a 5-second time limit is applied, after which attempts to connect to the cloud are abandoned.
  1. The URL and credentials for the cloud are no longer hard-coded, they are editable in the included CLOUD.INI file. This will allow you to change the data in the future in an easy way, without having to interfere with the program.

11-11-2024

  1. Improved editing of numeric value edit fields and text fields in dialog windows.

Currently, these fields already have interaction with the pointing device (mouse), for now in a very limited scope, only to indicate a point in the text for placing the cursor.

In the next iteration of the program, functions for selecting text for cutting or changing will be included.

In the case of numeric value fields (coordinates, line parameters, length, angle, distance, number of vertices or other value specific to the drawn or edited object), the cursor is automatically placed in the value edit field at the end of the text.

This makes it easier to edit the value if such interaction is needed.


18-09-2024 AlfaCAD v. 2.7. Supplement. Dynamic analysis


08-08-2024 AlfaCAD v. 2.7. Static analysis, (almost) complete solution

  1. One of the most important extensions in version 2.7 is the automation of calculations of internal forces, displacements and stresses resulting from the action of load combinations, in accordance with the guidelines of the European Eurocode standards as well as the American ASCE 7-10 and ICC.
  2. AlfaCAD in version 2.7 has been equipped with tools that allow for automatic loading of resources from the server where AlfaCAD installation packages are deposited, including loading of alternative home pages containing nice photos obtained under the "Public domain" license and displayed while the program loads the necessary resources into memory. 
  3. Since the tools that allow for automatic loading of resources from the server where AlfaCAD installation packages are deposited are already active, immediately after the program is started, but also at intervals of no less than 7 days from the last check, the program checks whether a newer version of the program has appeared on the server, and this is only an update package, not a full installation package, which is deposited on the server when many of its elements have undergone real changes, about which the program will also inform.

06-07-2024 AlfaCAD v. 2.6 Suplement 2. Nodes size. Layers.

  1. Next step is done, and from now program accepts finite size of nodes, declared as radius of the node. It means that optionally, nodes may be modeled as "rigid" within a sphere (or rather circle, due to 2D nature of AlfaCAD) of radius r.
    The effects of finite node sizes are modeled approximately in the calculation of the frame element stiffness through the use of an effective beam length, which is the node-to-node length of the frame element less the rigid radii on single or each end. 
  2. Layers dialog box has been enlarged so that it is possible to operate simultaneously on as many layers as fit on the screen, depending on the size of the selected font, but no more than 32.

17-06-2024 AlfaCAD v. 2.6 Supplement. Properties

  1. In the supplement to version 2.6, a system was developed to automate the generation of texts for element properties and material properties, based on the selection of menu options from several groups of parameters.

03-06-2024 AlfaCAD v. 2.6. Back to the origin

  1. The new feature called "Applications" has been implemented, with the first item on the list being the "Static and Dynamic Analysis" feature.