Release Notes

  • 2025 Release Notes
  • Previous Releases

What's New:

Installation and Licensing:

  • Users can now change their SDS2 Edition from the licensing tab on the home screen.

  • Licensing error messages have been updated to provide better descriptions and suggested action.

  • Concrete Pad Footing will no longer require a concrete license.

  • Python is now embedded with SDS2 instead of installed independently on the same computer.

  • Help has been removed from the SDS2 installer. A separate help installer will be built for those who need offline help.

User Interface and User Experience:

  • Bolt Specifications; increased rows to 50, and removed the character limits on Bolt and material fields.

  • Screens that have saved forms will automatically show the named form in the load forms drop down list for quicker selection.

  • Re-organized Bill of material layout screen, in Project settings, for better clarity.

  • Re-organized the Detail Erection View Defaults screen to support copy/paste/save/load forms.

  • Re-arranged Bolt settings screen to reduce perceived complexity.

  • Progress Bars will no longer show a time remaining estimate.

  • Enhancements to the login screen for SDS2 include user feedback improvements.

  • Simplified processes in Utilities. These include renaming external fabricator, renaming shape properties, deleting shape files, deleting status configurations, deleting toolbars, deleting role configurations, deleting keyboard shortcuts, and deleting context menus. Furthermore, the processes for copying jobs, renaming jobs, and deleting jobs have also been streamlined.

  • View Event Logs, View Error Logs, and Project Items List will no longer be available from the Utilities tab.

  • Connection Cube Attachment Manager was removed from the Utilities tab, but can still be accessed directly in modeling from the connection cube edit windows.

  • Added drag and drop re-organizing to tables in Project Settings screens which care about the order of the rows, like Grade tables.

  • The Project settings screen for Auto Standard connections now supports filtering and Multi-Editing of connections.

  • Project Settings screen for Standard Shear plates now supports multi-editing and includes hole types for User slots #1 & #2.

  • Project Settings Screens for Preferred Angle sizes and Flat bar sizes now extends the table length as needed.

  • The list of materials in the Material View Defaults screen has been alphabetized.

  • Added a filter to Shapes Properties to easily and quickly find any validation issues with material shapes added to the Shapes Properties files.

  • We have introduced a fallback help page when online help is inaccessible and local help is not installed.

  • Access Control Block was removed from utilities. It is now only accessible from the Windows start menu shortcut or resources folder shortcut.

Connection Design

  • Connection cube tools have been made available in the modeling edition of SDS2.

  • Added the ability to force connections for Channel and Cold Formed Channel horizontal braces.

  • Added support for a vertical brace to a cruciform beam connection.

  • The old cover sheet that can be printed with Design Calculations or Expanded Calculations reports has been renamed to "Design procedure and notes".

  • Corrected the embed information that is printed in the "Connecting nodes" section of Design Calculations and Expanded Calculations reports.

  • Disable the Connection specification option "Embed plate location" without a valid "Embed plate schedule entry" in Member Edit.

  • Corrected an effective length calculation for the bolts above the beam top flange in an extended moment end plate. This value is used in the moment capacity calculation for a Eurocode moment end plate.

  • Put in failure for moment end plates in Indian jobs until design work has been completed.

Drawing Editor

  • The speed of template detailing has been improved.

  • A new setup option to never add weld cranks is now available.

API Updates:

Python

  • Added a new function in the Plugins module. Plugins.EncryptPlugin(False|True for whether or not to tie the result to this SDS2 version, "a full path to plugin source", "a full path to an empty directory to copy the encrypted source to").

  • Python has been updated to version 3.12.2 with corresponding upgrades to necessary modules.

  • Add named connection cubes.

  • Delete connection cubes.

  • Fabricator module has been updated to have add_weld_cranks return values "As required", "Always" or "Never".

  • Added optional parameter "renaming_method" to Drawing.SheetAutoload.

.Net

  • IsAutoTensionLoad has been added to VerticalBraceEnd and HorizontalBraceEnd.

  • .NET version installed with SDS2 has been updated from 6.0.27 to 8.0.8.

3rd Party Libraries

  • libarchive has been updated to version 3.7.2.

  • OpenCascade has been updated to version 7.7.0 for SDS2 version 2025.

  • The libexpat library has been updated to version 2.6.0.

  • The Open Design Alliance library which SDS2 uses for imports and exports of both drawings and modeling has been upgraded.

What's Fixed:

Misc.

  • Custom Members and Components will use correct material grade in India and Euro regions.

  • Resolved a problem where having a space in the destination file path would cause issues when packing a project.

Connection Design

  • Fixed the calculation of minus dimension for shear tab connections with the shear tab attached to "Supported".

  • Fixed the label of the net shear rupture check (load calc 173) on the report of a Eurocode end plate.

  • Fixed a problem editing shear tab autostandard connections in Euro code.

  • Fixed a problem that could occur in a Eurocode job if the flat plate grades did not match plate grades in the job.

  • Fixed the calculation of moment and extended end plate width and column edge distance.

  • Added note "Calculations shown are for the brace tension load. The calculations for brace compression loads are similar." to the "Gusset uniform force method calculations" section of the Expanded Calculations report when a compression load is present.

  • Fixed the block shear check of a clip angle or tee connection between a vertical brace gusset and a supporting column

  • Fixed the "Design Summary" section of expanded calculations reports.

  • Corrected the row spacing of the first bolt-row in the calculation of effective length of a bolt-row combination used for the Eurocode moment end plate capacity check.

  • Updated Eurocode design checks for outstanding leg bolt bearing resistance.

  • Corrected an issue that was causing the load calculations for a gusset to supporting member clip angle to use an angle thickness that was smaller than the actual angle thickness.

  • Fixed the "Min. OSL bolt diameter to preclude bolt fracture" in the "Connection ductility check" section of the design report for failed connections.

  • Fixed an error that occurred when editing a connection cube with no members in a view.

  • Fixed an issue where dropdowns on the handrail edit screen did not show red to indicate that they are invalid.

Settings

  • Resolved a problem where the 'Beam end reaction allowable load' option was incorrectly displayed on the Design Settings screen within Project settings.

  • Resolved a problem in Shapes Properties where the Structural Properties values for 'Not Available' on any new HSS/TS and PIPE were checked on by default.

  • Fixed a bug where adding a new rolled section material would actually add a round bar. This would only happen in cases where the job's shapes file (or material file) was edited in a particular way to cause the first entry to be a round bar.

  • Resolved a problem in Shapes Properties where the computed Structural Properties values for any new Angle, HSS/TS, and PIPE were not accurate.

  • Updated the bend radius for plates that are of a custom grade for ASD/LRFD jobs.

  • Fixed an error when creating a new job and copying fabricator information from an existing fabricator.

  • Joist 2.5K1 values have been corrected in the can_mtrl file.

  • Updated missing filler thickness values on 2.5K and 2.5VS metric Vulcraft joists.

Import/Export

  • Strumis Bimreview will export correct material grades in India and Euro regions.

  • Fixed Import/Export 4d ribbon Synchro import error.

  • The CNC option to add holes in all radii or in copes now works correctly with DSTV CNC output.

Job Creation/Converts

  • Fixed an error when creating a new job with the copy from fabricator option checked on.

  • Fixed a PANIC error when creating a new job and copying fabricator information from an existing fabricator.

  • Fixed an issue with SDS2 converts affecting jobs older than 2021 where some data was improperly converted on columns that had python based components.