LimitState:GEO - Current Version

Number: 2.0e

Build: 10879

Release date: 23rd February 2010

Enhancements and bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 2.0e

• Fix "unhandled exception" bug that intermittently caused the software to crash [ref 2665]. A workaround for previous versions is to ignore the dialog that appears.
• Fix a problem with academic licensing that could cause the startup dialog to be shown twice, potentially causing any wizard-entered values to be reset [ref 2802]

LimitState:GEO 2.0d [10849]

Release date: 30th November 2009

Enhancements and bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 2.0d

• Export of user-defined materials now allows the export of derived Mohr-Coulomb materials [ref 2751]
• The unit weights of derived Mohr-Coulomb materials would always use the weights at the time the material was created, and subsequent changes to the "Parent" material would not alter the derived material's weight. This is only an issue if deriving from a user-defined material (since the properties of default materials cannot be changed). Also, since the main use for derived Mohr-Coulomb materials is in interface materials, for which unit weight is not generally relevant, this bug is unlikely to impact any existing models. However, if you have models containing derived Mohr-Coulomb materials, you should re-run the simulations with this latest version to verify that the result is unaffected [ref 2755]
• Clarify use of drained/undrained materials in report [ref 2761]
• Display correct units in custom construction line dialog [ref 2754]
• Introduced simpler system for academic licensing [ref 2073]

LimitState:GEO 2.0c [10779]

Release date: 4th September 2009

Enhancements and bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 2.0c

• Seismic loading now available - see manual for details [ref 2711]
• Can now optionally export collapse mechanism to DXF file [ref 2745]
• Clicking the "view water table" button when no water table was present could cause the software to crash [ref 2703]
• Reduced memory footprint of application when solving large problems
• Many improvements to the manual, particularly the modelling section with new worked examples

LimitState:GEO 2.0b [10662]

Release date: 12th June 2009

Highlights of LimitState:GEO 2.0

ENHANCED ANALYSIS CAPABILITY

• The capability of the original 'Soil Nail' material has been significantly extended and now allows modelling of rigid and flexible nails as well as sheet pile walls. To reflect this increased capability the material has been has been renamed 'Engineered Element' [ref 2408]
• Users can now analyse mechanisms involving rotations along the edges of solid objects. This is enabled by default for users of 'Full' licenses [ref 2347, 2612] 
• Functionality to analyse problems involving seismic accellerations has been added (available to 'Beta' license holders only) [ref 2572]

IMPROVED EDITING EXPERIENCE

• Many improvements to the model editing experience, including:
  • Vertex and boundary widths are scaled dynamically on zoom, making it much easier to edit a 'detailed' area of a large model [ref 2135]
  • It is now possible to split existing solid objects by drawing a line directly, rather than having to first add vertex objects [ref 2259]
  • Editing the geometry of problems containing many solid objects is now faster [ref 2391]

UNDO / REDO & AUTO-RECOVERY

• It is now possible to undo / redo any action, facilitating exploration of 'what if' scenarios [ref 2416]
• Auto-recovery files are now created, allowing projects to be recovered following a power outage or crash [ref 885]

BE MORE INFORMED

• Users can now rapidly access relevant information:
  • Hyperlinks to the help file have been placed in various dialogs, in the Property Editor 'Details' pane and in the output pane (e.g. in cases when an adequacy factor cannot be computed, for example when material in the problem has been found to be 'unstable' under self weight alone) [ref 2270, 2372]
  • Information about the number of nodes and inter-node connections involved in the problem is now reported in the outptut pane [ref 2106]
  • Added material drainage behaviour to the Wizards and added explanatory text throughout to explain the implications of running a long term or short term analysis [ref 2233]
  • The user manual has been updated in many places [ref 2032, 2596, 2489, 2617, 2636]

VIEW STRESS DISTRIBUTIONS

• Distributions of shear or normal stresses can now be viewed when a solid block is selected with the mouse after solve. See manual for details [ref 1701]

VISUALIZATION OF FAILURE MECHANISMS

• A 3D view of the failure mechanism is now available (by clicking on the '3D' icon in the 'Show' toolbar) [ref 1146]
• It is now possible to save higher resolution GIF animations of the failure mechanism (max. now 1.4 Megapixels, up from 0.16 Megapixels) [ref 2333]

EXTENDED & IMPROVED REPORT OUTPUT

• Free body diagram equilibrium equations are now provided in tabular format to improve readability and facilitate checking [ref 2402]
• Numerous other improvements to report output, including:
  • Significant increase in the speed of report generation [ref 2402]
  • New 'About' section provides information about LimitState:GEO and the DLO method [ref 2443]
  • New 'Water table' section provides information about the water table and it's geometry [ref 2575]
  • Comprehensive information on nodal spacing is now provided (for both the Project level and for all solid and boundary objects) [ref 2575]
  • Details of advanced properties for Mohr-Coulomb materials arenow provided in the report (i.e. strength increase with depth, if set) [ref 2575]

IMPERIAL UNITS

• The software can now be used in either Metric units (kN, m) or Imperial units (lb, f). To change, go to Tools > Preferences > Units [ref 2583]

VISUAL APPEARANCE

• Added high quality rendering setting which anti-aliases (smoothes) edges (accessed by right clicking on the viewer and selecting 'Render > High Resolution' [ref 2371]
• A modern 'Gradient' theme is used as the default skin [ref 1460]

Other significant changes in LimitState:GEO 2.0

• LimitState:GEO is now distributed with a library of example files, accessible from the start menu, including many 'real world' problems provided by customers [ref 2532]
• Sign convention of displayed stress and force values has changed (now always take compression as +ve, in accordance with usual practice in geotechnical engineering) [ref 2610]
• 'Neutral' Loading Type added (in addition to existing 'Favourable' and 'Unfavourable' Loading Types)" [ref 2319]
• For failure mechanisms involving rotations, the maximum deformation allowed when magnifying deformations using the slider is now more reasonable [ref 2657]
• Checking of the validity of water table points is now carried out [ref 2545]
• LimitState:GEO has been designed to analyze full-scale geotechnical problems. Some users reported unexpected results when analyzing model-scale problems and the software now warns users if the problem has total area < 0.25m² [ref 2281]
• Software now issues *terminated* message if iteration limit reached (i.e. if >100 adaptive 'connection adding' iterations per scenario) [ref 2436]
• The full names of scenarios are now provided in reports [ref 2449]
• When dragging and dropping a material onto a geometry object, the default is now to replace the existing material. Hyperlinks to online help file also added [ref 2263]
• Upgrade Mosek solver to 5.0 build 124 [ref 2431]
• In previous versions of the software, the grid was obscured by drawn solid objects. This is now resolved [ref 2441]
• Now provide more guidance for new users via a 'Quick Tips' dialog [ref 2428]
• Proxy servers are now automatically detected by the software on first installation (for use when auto-updating) [ref 2645]
• Upgraded license software to RLM6.0 [ref 2400]
• Updated icon and startup screeens to use version 2.0 branding [ref 2477]

Changes in behaviour compared with LimitState:GEO 1.0

• User is no longer warned if the adequacy factor is applied to a solid with zero self-weight, provided the adequacy factor is also applied to a finite load or other solid which does have non-zero self weight [ref 2432]
• Nodes are now not placed along boundaries between rigid solids or between a rigid solid and an external boundary, unless that boundary has a material allocated to it [ref 2525]
• Drawing new solid objects no longer erases the properties of existing vertices and boundaries [ref 2385]
• Many default properties in the Wizards have been changed [ref 2636]
• Wizard defaults altered so default geometry collapse mechanisms do intersect problem boundaries. Additional checks and warning messages added to ensure all geometries entered are legal [ref 2397]
• 'Very Stiff Clay' and 'Stiff Clay' materials no longer have '(undrained)' label as they act in a drained/undrained manner [ref 2640]
• In the 'Stem wall Wizard', additional soil zones are now created adjacent to the stem wall inner corners in order to facilitate solution using edge rotations [ref 2679]

Bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 2.0

• Fixed bug in stem wall wizard which generated an illegal geometry if layer B height was set to zero. Also the stem wall wizard now does not generate illegal geometries if either the outer or inner heel width is set to zero [ref 2578, 2641]
• New users would sometimes try to define the water regime using the button for toggling water table visibility, and no feedback was provided about why it didn't behave as expected. A help message is now displayed [ref 2268]
• The "Clear Water Table" option is now correctly enabled when a project is created with the slope wizard, and disabled when a project is locked [ref 2374]
• The message informing the user of a lost connection to a network license server is now only displayed once [ref 2382]
• Fixed a bug which meant that reported slip-line forces could be erroneous in multi-scenario problems in which the adequacy factor was applied to self weight. This also led to missing free-body diagram vertical equilibrium equations in the report [ref 2481]
• If the default path for saving license files is not accessible, the user is now asked select a different path [ref 2171]
• When multiple objects are selected, pressing delete will now delete them all. Previously, depending on the selection, some objects could remain [ref 2258]
• DXF import functionality improved [ref 2403, 2182]
• With files saved in GEO 1.0e, on fixed boundaries subsequently changed to loaded boundaries, the names of the loads could become "Project" rather than "Permanent" etc. The force arrows would also display incorrectly. This problem is now fixed, and all previously affected files will load correctly [ref 2406]
• Fixed problem which meant that the geometry could become corrupted when the last vertex of a solid was merged with the first vertex of the same solid [ref 2410]
• Fixed bug which meant that free body diagram equations were not output if a partial factor was applied to the self weight of the material [ref 2482]
• Displayed list of materials in Materials Explorer did not update immediately following import of a materials .csv file [ref 2513]
• Warning message is now displayed on solve if the water table contains a vertical step (as the definition of the water pressures on the vertical face may not be as expected by the user) [ref 2531]
• Now provides more guidance for new users via a 'Quick Tips' dialog [ref 2528]
• Dragging water table points in "ORTHO" mode is now possible. Previously a "vector out of plane" error would be triggered in this case [ref 2570]
• The materials list in the 'Edit Material(s)' dialog is now given in the same order as in the Materials Explorer [ref 2405]
• Program settings are now stored in the Windows Registry in a more standard manner [ref 2447]
• Default unit weights for structural elements in all wizards apart from Simple Footing Project have been set to a more realistic value of 24 kN/m3 (with Metric units) [ref 2499]
• In version 1.0e, soil nail pullout and lateral resistance factors were switched in an exported .csv file, though imported correctly. They now appear in the correct order in the .csv file. A warning is given to the user if a version 1.0e .csv file is imported with soil nails that have pullout and lateral resistance factors with different values. This issue is only relevant for .csv files that have been manually edited [ref 2514]
• The presolve check did not flag a warning if there were zero strength derived Mohr-Coulomb materials in the problem. The check also falsely issued a warning for an undrained material whose strength varied linearly with depth, which had a zero baseline undrained strength but with a non-zero gradient. The warning is now correctly given for both Mohr-Coulomb and derived Mohr-Coulomb materials and for materials with linear variation of strength with depth [ref 2547]
• Mohr-Coulomb materials that were derived from Mohr-Coulomb materials with a linear strength increase with depth did not apply the 'Multiplier on cu' to the gradient. The datum was also taken as zero always for the derived material. The multiplier is now correctly applied to the baseline cohesion and the gradient and the parent datum is utilised [ref 2549]
• Warning for zero strength materials in problem is now only issued for materials applied to Solids. It is now given if there is at least one zero strength material in the solid and also now includes derived materials and materials with strength varying with depth [ref 2558]
• After dragging and dropping a material onto a solid or boundary object, the colour of the object changes to reflect the change immediately (previously the object was then selected, and therefore lways coloured pink) [ref 2445]
• Fixed bug that caused an error after double-clicking a vertex whilst construction lines were present in the model [ref 2649]
• 'NONE direction' vertex errors (encountered while iterating vertex list) now prevented by checking and fixing invalid vertices on file open [ref 2495]
• Fixed bug in pipeline wizard that allowed diameters of less than twice the wall thickness [ref 2031]
• Fixed memory leak caused when a project is solved then resolved numerous times [ref 2068]
• Information in the DXF import section of the helpfile has been improved [ref 2417]
• In the 'geometry' section of the slope wizard, the slope angle phi was asked for whilst the diagram contained a theta - this has been fixed [ref 2557]
• On very rare occasions, favourable and unfavourable loads were wrongly lagged after solve. This has been fixed [ref 2455]
• Fixed minor display bug which meant that boundary lines would occasionally display with greater than normal thickness [ref 2577]
• Fixed bug that caused an error to be reported after double-clicking a vertex when construction lines were present in the model [ref 2649]
• Dragging objects when the water table is selected but not shown no longer causes the water table to move [ref 2685]
• Fixed a problem with the adaptive solution algorithm which meant that occasionally the most critical slip-line mechanism might not be identified in problems involving a water table. Though this led to an over-estimate in the adequacy factor being computed, the magnitude of the error involved has in all cases encountered been small (typically <2% or 3%) [ref 2682]

LimitState:GEO 1.0e [9663]

Release Date: 20th November 2008

Change for Trial License Users

There's a new Activation Key. If you've previously used LimitState:GEO on your computer, you can now use a new 30 day trial!

Enhancements in LimitState:GEO 1.0e

• Basic soil-nail functionality now available to holders of 'full' licenses [ref 1885]
• Now pre-condition matrix so that instances when a solution cannot be obtained are greatly reduced [ref 2136, 2156, 2175, 2300, 2328]
• Upgrade Mosek solver to 5.0 build 105 [ref 2310]
• Long term / Short term analysis option is now editable via the Property Explorer [ref 2345]
• Displayed slip-line forces now more useful (now include water force and exclude 'tying' forces used to ensure solid objects are correctly spatially positioned in the problem) [ref 2046]
• Drainage behaviour has been added to the "Create Material" dialog, making it more obvious when drained and undrained material properties will be used [ref 2344]
• Drainage behaviour of derived materials is now always the same as that of the parent material [ref 2344]
• When internet product activation fails, LimitState:GEO now give a more detailed explanation of how to access a trial license [ref 2201]. Any licensing queries can always be addressed to support@limitstate.com
• If the grid is enabled when drawing objects, snapping to the grid is now preferred to snapping to existing lines, which makes specifying the required geometry easier [ref 2332]. Note that the Geometry Editor allows specification of precise coordinates.
• Following some geometry changes, detailed information is displayed in the output window. These messages now contain links which highlight the object being described [ref 2359]
• It is now possible to define the water table properties within the slope project wizard [ref 2123]
• Trying to solve a problem that includes materials with zero strength now leads to a warning being issued [ref 1976]
• Users found that the "Finish" polygon option didn't always do what they expected. To avoid confusion, this has now been removed. All polygons should now be closed by clicking again on the first point [ref 2383]
• The software will now warn users before solving in all cases where solid objects are connected only by a single vertex [ref 2355]. Note that in LimitState:GEO genuine contact will only exist between solid objects that are connected by boundaries - point contacts are physically impossible and are ignored by the software
• Network licenses issued from today allow users to reconnect to the license server after a network outage within 2 minutes (was 1 hour) [ref 2292, 2157]
• Can now simultaneously define certain properties (adequacy and nodal spacing) of multiply selected solid objects [ref 2215, 2232]
• Free-body diagram equations displayed for problems involving water [ref 2042]
• Export of problem geometry to postscript (eps) format is greatly improved [ref 2114]
• Trying to solve a problem that contained no solid objects now gives a better warning message [ref 2290]

Bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 1.0e

• Fix bug which meant that water pressures were ignored in weightless materials [ref 2358]
• Fixed a crash that happened when unlocking a project without water table if a project with a water table had previously been used [ref 2204]
• Setting properties of multiple boundaries no longer causes a crash [ref 2214]
• Merging of vertices, which deletes intermediate boundaries, is now more reliable [ref 2230]
• Drawing a boundary line over an existing line is never necessary in LimitState:GEO. Version 1.0e displays a warning if this is attempted, fixing a crash [ref 2253]
• Hatches indicating fixed boundaries would sometimes not be updated when the attached solid object was updated. This problem is now fixed [ref 2277]
• Material creation dialog wrongly transposed the lateral and pullout resistance values for soil nails. The values were correctly displayed elsewhere, and the problem is now fixed [ref 2339]
• Dragging materials from the Material Explorer onto solid objects when the project is locked no longer causes Limitstate:GEO to crash [ref 2235]
• Drawing a solid object with zero area no longer causes a crash [ref 2239]
• Users no longer get "out of range" error while trying to split a boundary [ref 2321]

LimitState:GEO 1.0d

Release Date: 1 October 2008

Bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 1.0d

• A bug which made lines invisible when splitting zones has been fixed [ref 2192]
• A crash that could happen if water table drawing was aborted is fixed [ref 2195]
• Panning the view with the middle mouse button is fixed [ref 2192]

LimitState:GEO 1.0c

Release Date: 18 September 2008

Enhancements in LimitState:GEO 1.0c

• DXF import has been improved so that many more files will be able to be imported. When files contain open lines that do not form closed loops, they are imported as "construction lines", which act as guides to the building of zones. When DXF files contain multiple layers, the user may now choose which layers to import. For more details on DXF import, see the user manual.

Bugfixes in LimitState:GEO 1.0c

• Colours of zones on Windows Vista could change and be incorrect [ref 2122].
• Full licence holders now have access to strength increase with depth feature (previously only available to beta license holders) [ref 1597].
• Tolerance problem affecting problems containing slightly non-convex solid zones has been fixed [ref 2039].
• A problem which sometimes made it difficult to modify the geometry using the mouse after solving has been fixed (this was due to the mouse snapping to the positions of nodes, and sometimes led to solids being merged to points) [ref 1987].
• New activation key format to help users installing multi-user network licenses [ref 2134].
• Now less likely that solver will experience numerical problems when very large loads are specified [ref 2136].
• Installation failed on some computers, causing GEO not to start, with message "application failed to start because the configuration is incorrect" [ref 2075].
• The recent file list could open the wrong file if multiple files with the same name existed [ref 2127].
• Unit conversion happens during DXF import [ref 2104].
• Auto-update will check for updates no more than once per day [ref 2154].
• Moving points orthogonally could result in slight non-orthogonal movement [ref 2145].
• Unlock after solve caused blank lines to appear in output [ref 2128].
• Updates to the FAQ.
• Added an option for specifying the number of significant figures displayed in output [ref 2105].
• Copying information from the Boundary Explorer could cause LimitState:GEO to crash [ref 2099].

LimitState:GEO 1.0b

Release Date: 22 July 2008

Enhancements in LimitState:GEO 1.0b

• Help files have been expanded to offer more guidance and a Frequently Asked Questions section added.
• An auto-update feature has been added, which optionally checks for and installs the latest version of LimitState:GEO when it is released [ref 2048].
• A network license server is optionally automatically installed and run when a network license is activated [ref 2096].
• Presentation of free-body diagram equations in the report has been improved [ref 2021].
• Drawing grid enhanced for empty projects [ref 1998].
• Input validation in project wizards has been improved (some input values were rounded over-zealously, leading to a loss of precision); also some bugs fixed (e.g. the footing material specified using the footing Wizards was not always accepted) [ref 2063, 2067].
• Warnings are now displayed if a solid object in a project has the type of non-convex shape which could cause numerical tolerance problems (this could very occasionally lead to incorrect solutions being obtained) [ref 2088, 2039].
• Re-opening a project saved with user-defined materials could cause LimitState:GEO to crash [ref 2081].
• Generated reports would occassionally display construction lines rather than the critical failure mechanism [ref 2066].
• Project files created with the preview version of LimitState:GEO with multiple scenarios could cause LimitState:GEO to crash [ref 2034].
• Failure mechanism animations are now saved to separate files for each project [ref 1973].
• Changes to the project geometry made in the Geometry Editor window are no longer lost when subsequent geometry changes are made with the mouse [ref 2077].
• When failure occurs solely along a loaded interface, the solid objects in a project no longer erroneously move during an animation [ref 2079].