The previous version of 3DFrame allowed for spring releases at beam ends, but if the release stiffness was entered as zero it was treated as a rigid connection for that freedom. Effectively zero stiffness releases could be modelled by entering a very low stiffness value, but this sometimes caused arithmetic problems, resulting in enormous deflections being reported for the released freedoms. To avoid this problem the code has been modified so that any freedom entered as zero stiffness is treated as fully released. The new version (Rev. 2.08) may be downloaded from:
The solver links to two dll files that need to be installed as described here:
Installing C# dll files, reminder
The download zip file also includes a VBA only version, that should work without any further installation, other than extracting from the zip file.
Typical input showing both spring and zero stiffness releases is shown in the screen shot below:
Further details of the program 3Daxis system and the related stiffness matrices can be found at:
For some reason, all 3 Excel files crash Excel 2007 & Win7 at opening. The Excel files along with the DLLs of the new distribution were expanded in their own folder.
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Thanks for letting me know.
Did the previous version work OK for you?
If you have not tried it you can download from:
http://interactiveds.com.au/software/3DFrame2_07.zip
Try the VBA version first, and if that works try the other version which calls the dll files.
Do you get any error messages, or does it just crash at start-up, or when you click the solve button?
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I just found that the “VBA only” version was trying to call the dll files at startup. I have copied a corrected version to the download zip file.
For the version calling the dll files, you need to install the dlls as described here:
https://newtonexcelbach.com/2016/11/04/installing-c-dll-files-reminder/
I will add that link to the article.
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