Release Notes

What's New:

Connection Design

• Connections can be forced for cold-formed channel vertical braces.

• Added yield line bending checks for vertical brace gusset connections to a wide flange column web without an opposite gusset connection in a beam-column-vertical brace connection.
  
  For beam-to-column connections that check yield line analysis of the supporting web without an opposite member and with the connection specification item Check supporting member for axial load set to Never or For supporting beam, the yield line limit state will now appear in the Information only limit state table on connection design reports.

• Load calculation 335, which performs the punching shear check for shear tabs framing to hollow columns, now compares the thickness of the connection to the maximum thickness to prevent punching shear for all CISC editions, ASD 9th, AISC 13th, AISC 14th, AS 4100, and IS 800.

• Added the punching shear check for AISC 15th and 16th edition conventional configuration shear tabs framing to a tube or pipe column. Made the punching shear check for other design methods into a load calculation that is printed in the limit state summary table of a design report.

• The default clip angle connection specifications for Eurocode design methods are bolted configurations on both the web leg and the outstanding leg.

• Clip angle connections with a welded attachment of the web leg(s) and/or outstanding leg(s) can be forced when using Eurocode design methods.

Project Settings

• The default Ry and Rt values for a few grades on the Plate Grades screen in AISC 16th edition jobs have been updated to match the values in AISC 341-22.

• When rearranging the order of grades in Project Settings, a warning validation informs users that these changes will also affect the selected grades in other settings screens.

• The Detail Erection View Defaults for Site Planning setting screen is no longer read-only in Basic Edition, allowing more flexibility for users in this version of SDS2 software.

IFC Export

• Additional weld properties are included in IFC2x3 and IFC4 model exports.

• Added a new option to the IFC2x3 and IFC4 properties screen: Include all weld properties.

API

• The Python and .NET API for connection cube report generation now accepts an optional parameter of type Destination, which can be used to specify the directory to write the connection cube report files to. The specified directory must exist prior to calling GenerateReport().

• Added IsConnectionForced flag to MemberEndBrief in the .Net API.

• Connection cube reports generated via the Python API will include expanded calculations for all members in the connection cube.

• Exposed new Python API call for IFCExport that includes the export_all_weld_properties boolean option. This option is wrapped inside an IFCParameters object (with most other boolean options for IFCExport) to circumvent Boost::Python limitations.

• Added IFCOptions class for easier use of IFCExport in .Net API.

What's Fixed:

Modeling

• The Beam Stiffeners component creates a cope when the stiffener depth option is set to Bottom Flange User Depth.

• Added the flange copes that were missing from some tube beams with bent plate connections.

• Weld solids update with the size change when you edit a manually added weld and change its size.

• The color of shop welds now follows the setting in Project Settings > Job > Modeling > Member, Material, Bolt, and Weld Colors.

• Fixed an issue causing incorrect bolt staggering when calculating driving clearance for bolt diameters smaller than 1 inch.

• Fix column splice flange plate widths that may have been improperly converted when using metric units.

• Fixed specific dropdown menus on custom member screens where the menus would scroll infinitely when the scroll button is clicked.

• Fixed the bolt type for clip angle connections on horizontal brace gusset plates. Connection design used the correct bolt type, but the bolt type created in solids was incorrect if it was not the default bolt type.

• Fixed the material grade in the material edit window for beam web doubler plates and column web doubler plates created for vertical brace connections. Connection design used the correct plate grade from setup, but a different material grade was displayed in the material edit window.

• The Pour Stop member and component now correctly fills out the material description in the material's General Information window.

Drawing Editor

• Standard round hole symbols now preserve the metric diameter value when the job units are metric and a metric value is exactly equal to a whole number imperial value.

• Sheets are now properly marked for plotting when sheet revisions are incremented.

• System callout labels for flat bar material now follow the prefix set in Member and Material Piecemarking settings.

Connection Design

• Clip angle connections with bolts larger than 1 inch in diameter did not use the minimum edge distance from Clip Angle Settings. These connections will now have an edge distance equal to the maximum of the value from Clip Angle Settings and the required edge distance from the manual.

• Cleaned up the punching shear load calculations for AISC 15th and 16th edition jobs. Removed unnecessary checks for wide flange webs, corrected some references, and fixed the supporting member depth used in some situations.

• The "Net sec. plate rupture" limit state has been removed from beam splice plate design reports, as it was already accounted for in the "Flexure of Web Plates" check, making it redundant.

• Updated the size of an oversize hole for a 1/2 inch bolt to 5/8 inch (16 mm) for all Canadian design methods.

• Fixed an issue with the calculation of the "Tying resistance-angles and bolts" check for Eurocode design, load calculation 373. The bolt gage, p3, used in the calculation was calculated incorrectly.

• Corrected the hole type and bolt type used in the design calculations for brace gusset to supporting member clip angle connections. Previously, the calculation of the allowable bolt shear or bearing capacity for the clip angle bolts was always based on standard round holes, regardless of the hole type.

• Corrected the Fy and Fu values used to design HSS column reinforcement plates. The default column web doubler grade was being used rather than the HSS column reinforcement plate grade.

• Added a punching shear check for shear tab and gusset connections to pipe supports in AISC 15th and 16th edition jobs.

• Added a punching shear check for shear tab and gusset connections to welded box section supporting members in AISC 15th and 16th edition jobs.

• Added punching shear check for the supporting member of 2-point and 3-point gussets in AISC 15th and 16th edition jobs, fixing unit warnings from load calculation #466.

• Punching shear is no longer considered an applicable limit state for shear tabs with stabilizers or extended to both flanges of a supporting beam, except in AISC 15th and 16th editions.

• Updated the design routine for sloped shear moment connections to prioritize increasing bolt diameter over web plate thickness for failing bolt bearing limit states.

• Fixed an issue with doubler thickness changing upon multiple reprocesses of a beam-to-column flange connection when affected by adjacent beam-to-column web connection loads.

• The yield line capacity of a supporting HSS member is now reduced by 50% when the connection is near the end of the member for AISC 15th and 16th edition jobs.

• For 2-point vertical or horizontal braces using welded clip angle connections, load calc #300 now uses the correct number of bolt rows when checking "Gusset net shear".

• A shear tab failing due to punching shear now displays the message "Supporting HSS face fails due to punching shear rupture" instead of "Slender col wall - not valid for a shear tab conn".

• Fixed an issue where the punching shear check for axially loaded shear tabs framing to tube column flanges incorrectly used tube depth in calculations.

• Fixed an issue where the weld size limitation from CISC 10th edition was incorrectly applied to CISC 12th edition jobs.

• Locked values for "Horizontal to 1st hole" are now considered when calculating web splice plate width in beam splice connections.

• Changed the connection width for shear tabs and gusset plates in the punching shear capacity calculation (load calculation 466) from the plate thickness plus 2 times the weld size to just the plate thickness.

• Fixed an issue where a beam-to-beam flange plate moment connection wouldn't produce the applicable failure message when the bottom flange plate was interfering with a welded extended tee.

• Fixed an issue in the web bolt bearing calculation for axially loaded double clip angle connections on web horizontal beams (calculation number 110). The bolt shear capacity that was used to limit the bearing/tearout capacity was incorrectly doubled from the value shown in the corresponding bolt shear check (calculation number 1).

• Fixed the bolt multiplier in the calculation of beam net web tension area for single L-shaped block shear failure patterns to be (bolt rows - 0.5) in calculation number 56. Previously it was calculated as (bolt rows - 1).

• Fixed an issue in the bolt bearing check for the supporting beam webs of a wide flange horizontal brace connection to two beams. In some cases, eccentricity was unnecessarily considered.

• Corrected the weld length used to calculate the tying resistance of the flange weld for an extended end plate connection in Eurocode jobs when the end plate is narrower than the beam flange.

• Corrected the web weld length used in evaluating sloped moment end plate connections. The web weld length now takes into account the web cut.

• Fixed the insufficient row edge distance on flange plates for sloped bent moment connections.

• The bolt bearing checks for 1 and 2 point gussets that are either directly bolted to a single supporting member or bolted clip angle attached to a single supporting member were improved to include bolt tearout and are now limited by the bolt shear strength (load calculations 272 and 303).

• The bolt shear strength of a bolt in bearing that is used to limit the slip-critical bolt slip resistance capacity now uses the correct omega/phi factor for AISC 14th, 15th, and 16th edition jobs.

• Fixed the phi factor used for some eccentric weld checks (load calculations 30 and 112) in CISC 11th and 12th edition jobs. There is a special factor of 0.58 shown in Part 3 of these manuals.

• Changed the "Shear of support" calculation (load calculation 36) to be over the depth of the shear tab when there is a tube column reinforcement plate. The calculation was previously over the depth of the reinforcement plate.

• Weak axis moment was added to the shear tab gross and net interaction checks for non-composite beams for AISC 14th, 15th, and 16th editions.

• The bolt bearing and tearout load calculation for the web leg of a clip angle connection with a web extension plate (load calculation 214) now limits the bolt capacity using the tearout capacity and bolt shear capacity. Previously, only bolt bearing was being considered.

• Added structural integrity checks for the supporting member for beam connections for Eurocode design.

Project Settings

• Removed blank lines in the Steel Grade dropdown menu for Base/Cap Plate Schedule, Standard Shear Plates, and Standard End Plates screens for Eurocode and India projects.

• The Merge option was missing from the dropdown menu for the Mult. Cutting # user routing on the Bill of Material Layout screen.

• The selected option for Bolt designations shown on details and Bolt designations shown on reports on the Bolt Detailing Settings screen now displays the stored settings accurately.

• The Description on the Backup Bar Schedule now automatically updates when changing the Material type option from Flat Bars to Plates on Project Settings > Job > Design > Moment Plate Design Settings > Back-up Bars on Welded Connections.

• Corrected an issue with material bolt prefixes and descriptions not getting saved in the Prefixes page of the Member and Material Piecemarking settings screen.

• Corrected an issue with the Stitch Plates' auto check boxes being shown backwards to what is saved in the setup files on the Member Detailing Settings screen.

• Corrected an issue on the Gusset Plate Settings screen where Clip end-operation on Channel gusset plate and Wtee gusset plate were not set and stored correctly in the screen.

• Corrected the maximum thickness values on the Turnbuckle/Clevis/Pin Grades screen for Indian jobs.

Export

• CNC DSTV output for HSS material now reports the outside radius instead of the inside radius in headers.

• Slots on the bottom face of a flat bar are now output to DSTV with correct rotations, ensuring compatibility with fabrication processes that rely on these outputs.

• CNC DXF output will now allow piecemark scribes on bent plate material.

• Fixed a bug where fonts such as Tahoma were drawn as bitmaps in PDF exports. This resulted in text which is not selectable or searchable, and resulted in larger PDF file sizes.

• Fixed an exception error that occurred when running Export Model with CIS2 selected as the Export file format.

Reports

• Corrected the display of three values on Eurocode connection design reports. The design load on shear tab design reports as well as the member Fu and Fy values on angle brace connections were displayed incorrectly.

• Added calculation number 112 to the Expanded Calculation report to show that the shear tab to supporting member weld develops the full strength of the plate for shear tab moment connections and shear tabs for supported HSS beams. Previously, if the weld developed the strength of the plate, the calculation verifying this was not shown and only a note in the "Notes and conclusion" section stated this. For CJP welds, updated the note in calculation number 112 to read "CJP weld develops the full strength of plate.

• The Expanded Calculation report for 2-point wide flange horizontal braces now includes formulas for load calculation number 304, which checks "Bolt bearing on angle OSL" and "Bolt bearing on beam web".

• Fixed report writer items MemberMaterial.Material.MaterialColor*. These reported bogus RGB values but now function correctly with accurate color reporting.

• Connection Cube reports now generate a report when specifying a path, improving workflow efficiency for users who rely on this feature for structural node analysis and reporting.

• An error that could occur when outputting a connection cube report has been fixed.

• Corrected "Bolt bearing on beam web" to "Bolt bearing on supporting member" on the connection design report for a vertical brace connection with gusset clip angles bolted to the supporting member flange.

• Corrected a heading in the printout of load calculation 205 ("eccentric bolt bearing with axial load") to read "compression" instead of "tension".

• Load calculation 69 ("Bolt bearing on beam flange" or "Bolt bearing on flange plate") is now properly marked with an asterisk in the limit state table in the connection design report when there is a moment and an axial load on the connection.

Shapes Properties

• The EuroArcelorMittal_V2016_Metric and EuroAll material file gage values for L150x150x15 have been corrected from 5mm to 57mm. Also corrected missing values for PFC430x100x64 k distance and flange gage.

• Correct gage 2 values for CISC11 and CISC12 material files.

• CISC 12th Edition Channel (C) flange bevel has been corrected to 9.4623 in The CISC 12th Edition, can_mtrl, and all_mtrl material files.

• When copying and creating a new line in Shapes Properties, the new line is correctly selected, and its name is automatically adjusted to avoid confusion between copied lines and existing ones in the table.

• Fixed incorrect angle area when the section size is imported from Allplan Profile Catalog.

User Interface

• Selection lists will again allow you to use the up, left, down, right arrow keys to move the selection around, as it worked in 2024 and earlier versions.

• Tabbing through mixed "spin-box" widgets will leave the values of the widget mixed, ensuring smoother navigation through input fields.

• Utility Functions selection lists are now compatible with the Classic selection lists (pre-version 7.0) option in User and Site Options.

• Reordered the Design Method combobox to be before the job's Units combobox, when creating new jobs, since the available units depend on the design method selected.

• The selection list provided with the Change Edition button on the licensing tab has been corrected to include all valid entitlements.

• The Add Grid Line icon has been corrected on the Modeling Ribbon Editor window.

API

• Fixed a memory leak in connection cube report generation via the Python and .NET API.

• Fixed a bug in the Python 'member' module specific to joist fields on the left and right end of the joist, where fields like .left.show_depth would incorrectly throw attribute errors.

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.

• 2024 Release Notes
• 2024 Enhancements
• 2023 Release Notes
• 2023 Enhancements
• 2022 Release Notes
• 2022 Enhancements
• 2021 Release Notes
• 2021 Enhancements
• 2020 Release Notes
• 2020 Enhancements