Leading on from yesterday’s continuous beam functions, today’s download covers four frame analysis spreadsheets, with increasing levels of complexity. For those interested in the workings of the program I recommend working through each spreadsheet, but for practical applications the final two versions (Frame4.xlsb and 3DFrame.xlsb) provides the best functionality.
The spreadsheets may be downloaded from:
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/Frame1.zip
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/Frame2.zip
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/Frame3.zip
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/Frame4.zip
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/3DFrame.zip
For instructions on linking to the compiled solver routines (provided with Frame4 and 3DFrame) see:
If you are using 64 bit Windows first see:
https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/installing-dlls-on-64-bit-windows/
For 32 bit Windows go straight to:
https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/using-regasm-exe/
The last blog posts on Frame4.xlsb are: Extending Frame4 with on sheet formulas, and Using Frame4 for truss analysis.
The latest on 3DFrame.xlsb are: 3DFrame – 3D Frame analysis for Excel and 3DFrame v1.01
Beam results from Beam4.xls
Deflected shape plot
Bending moment results for selected beams
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 
Dear Sir,
I have downloaded Fram4.zip.
It does not work, or better I cannot make it work as, I honestly admit, I do not know what to do or where to copy the 2 dll and the 1 tlb files.
I understand that those files are necessary to make it work, but I am not very clever in VBA or MACRO and therefore I kindly ask you how to solve my problem.
Thanks (and congratulations for your work with excel),
Achille
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Achille – the program should work without installing the dll and tlb files. Those files provide a compiled solver, which is much faster than the VBA, but if they are not installed the VBA code uses an internal solver, which is OK for small to medium sized models. If it does not work at all, make sure that macros are enabled when you start up. If it gives an error, please provide details.
For installing the compiled solver:
If you are using a 64 bit version of Windows, first see:
https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/installing-dlls-on-64-bit-windows/
If you are using 32 bit Windows see:
https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/using-regasm-exe/
Thanks for letting me know the problem; I will add these links to the “daily download” page.
Please let me know how you go.
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Dear Sir,
I was hoping if you could help me out with my problem. Do you have any reference regarding partial end releases for beams that i can use for my thesis please. For instance. node1 of a beam will be released by 10% in the mx or 90% release in the dz displacement? I believe, that the beam releases on the frame spreadsheets given above are 100%. which means that the released ends are transferred to another extra node.
Thanks in advance
Napster.
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napster – sorry for the delay in replying.
The latest version of ConBeamu has a function (REA) that will return either end actions or the stiffness matrix for a 1D beam with spring restraints at the supports (both rotational and translation). I am currently working on incorporating this in the frame analysis spreadsheets. See:
https://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/conbeamu-update-update/
for the latest ConBeamu version.
For background information the best resource I know is:
http://people.duke.edu/~hpgavin/cee421/
and in particular:
Click to access frame-element.pdf
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I really appreciate your help sir. I wish I could be able to share my work soon.
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thank you for all this work, helps me understand more about FEA as well as vba programming.
but in my analysis case, the vba solver has different results with frame3dd. i wrote a program for 2d frames, its results match frame3dd, but not with this excel program.
you construct your stiffness martix starting with km(3,3), but in many textbooks, they start with km(1,1), can you please explain? is there something that i’m missing?
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A 2D frame should give the same results from the 2D or 3D frame spreadsheets. If you can send a copy of your example to my g-mail account (dougaj4) I will have a look.
Regarding the stiffness matrix, see:
Please let me know if that isn’t clear.
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thank you Sir, for your time.
for folks like me here: the main mistake i made was “For the distributed loads the dimension b is the distance from the end of the load to the end of the beam”.
with the corrected inputs, the outputs of the spreadsheet matches Frame3dd results perfectly.
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Hello! I’m really interested on havng a look at the 2d frame and 3d, but the download links does not seems to work. Can ou help? I’ll appreciate it a lot, as im trying to learn how to programm a solver in java, and for sure your work will help me!
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Forget it!! I’ve downloaded it on edge and worked like a charm. Thanks!
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Chrome now has a problem with links starting http, rather than https. I have updated the download links on this page, and they should now work with Chrome as well.
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