SAP2000® Version 19.0.

0
Release Notes
© Copyright Computers and Structures, Inc., 2016

Notice Date: 2016-11-16

This file lists all changes made to SAP2000 since the previous version. Most changes do not affect most users.
Incidents marked with an asterisk (*) in the first column of the tables below are more significant.

Changes from v18.2.0 (Released 2016-08-19)

User Interface
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
13537 A change was made to the terminology for certain steel material properties, changing from
"effective" to "expected" stress values. This is only a change of wording in the user interface and
documentation to be more consistent with current codes and standards.
95060 An enhancement was implemented to enhance several of the edit menu forms to allow them to
remain open for repetitive use with a new apply button.
95728 An enhancement was implemented to improve the speed of the Set 2D View form for large models.
A feature was also added to determine the plane from a single click on the drawing form.
97401 The Edit > Show Duplicates command has been changed to Select Duplicates. Previously, the Show
Duplicates command highlighted objects of the same type that had the same connectivity by
displaying them in a magenta color, but this color would disappear upon moving the mouse. The
new command will highlight the duplicated objects by selecting them instead. This has the added
advantage that they can be shown alone without the rest of the model (command Show Selection
Only), displayed in a table, or otherwise manipulated. Another change was made to the "Merge
Duplicates" command in that it will no longer merge joints in the same location that have different
merge numbers. This is different from the "Select Duplicates" command which will select joints in
the same location irrespective of the merge numbers.

Modeling
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
* 18878 An enhancement has been implemented to expand and enhance the hysteresis models for nonlinear
37418 energy dissipation. This enhancements applies to the nonlinear materials used in fiber hinges and
45772 the layered shell, to single degree-of-freedom (non-interacting) frame hinges, and to the multi-
linear plastic link. These hysteresis models include: (1) Isotropic model, which dissipates the most
energy; this was previously available only for frame hinges. (2) Kinematic model, typically
suitable for metals; this was previously available. (3) Takeda model for simple degradation; this
was previously available. (4) Pivot model, typically for reinforced concrete; this was previously
available for hinges and links but not materials; the reloading behavior has been slightly modified
so as to load from the pivot point to the backbone curve along the secant line, rather than along the
backbone curve as done previously. (5) Concrete model, representing compression and tension
behavior differently; this is new and similar to the model in Perform-3D; it can also be used in
reverse to represent tension-only behavior. (6) Degrading model, capturing energy and stiffness
degradation with kinematic behavior; this is new and similar to the model in Perform-3D. (7) BRB
Hardening model, for representing buckling-restrained braces; this is new and similar to the model

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 1

 * Incident Description
in Perform3D. The behavior of the existing models has been improved for the cyclic behavior
during strength loss.
58601 An enhancement has been implemented to add A500 Grade C steel to the United States material
library.
67569 An enhancement has been made to update the frame hinge definitions to follow ASCE 41-13
guidelines. Older files with automated FEMA hinges will now follow the new guidelines. Also the
performance point calculations for pushover curves have been updated to ASCE 41-13.
* 86202 A new parametric P-M2-M3 frame hinge has been implemented for use with performance-based
design and other types of nonlinear analysis. This hinge can be used for double-symmetric steel and
reinforced-concrete frame sections. The axial capacity can be different in tension and compression.
The P-M2-M3 interaction surface is assumed to be smooth and is represented by a few simple
parameters. Strength loss and energy degradation can be captured. Deformation capacities can be
defined and reported as part of the performance checks. Parametric P-M2-M3 hinge properties can
be user-defined or automatically created from frame sections.

Section Designer
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
94580 An enhancement has been implemented to import sections from DXF files into Section
Designer. A list of importable entity types and the layers they are on in the DXF file is
presented to the user. The user can specify the layers and the entity types from those layers to
be imported and what Section Designer entities they should be mapped onto. As necessary,
based on entity mapping, other parameters such as material, thickness, rebar designation,
spacing, etc. can also be specified.

Loading
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
94048 An enhancement has been implemented to add automated wind load, seismic load, and response-
spectrum function according to the NBCC 2015 code.
95555 An enhancement was implemented to ignore marine growth when calculating buoyancy forces and
also assume buoyancy forces to be zero for flooded objects.

Frame Design
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
31923 An enhancement was implemented for "Eurocode 2-2004" and "Italian NTC 2008" codes
concrete frame design to provide a new overwrite for the value of tan(theta) (theta=angle
between the concrete compression strut and the beam axis perpendicular to the shear force)
which is used in the shear reinforcement calculation.
96435 The automatic calculation of K-factors during frame design now accounts for the effect of
frame property modifiers, whether assigned to frame objects or defined in frame section
properties, or both. The K-factors computed for the frame object being designed can be affected
by the relative stiffness of connected elements, and this is what has changed under this
enhancement. Frame design results may be different in the present release compared to
previous versions due to this change. No other results are affected.
96699 An enhancement was implemented to reinstate the Italian UNI 10011 steel frame design. This
was previously removed in v18.0.0.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 2

Analysis
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
45404 An enhancement has been implemented that provides two alternatives to how frame nonlinear
76493 hinges are represented in the analysis model. Previously the hinge was internal to the frame
element, but now the hinges may be modeled instead as a zero-length link elements connecting
multiple frame elements that represent the full length of the member. The main reason for doing
this is to allow nonlinear modal time-history analysis (Fast Nonlinear Analysis, FNA) to
account for nonlinearities in frame hinges, as well as to provide more damping control for
nonlinear direct-integration time-history analysis. This new feature are available only with the
Ultimate license level. This change has several implications: (1) When performing FNA for
such a model, it is important to use Ritz modal analysis to capture the modes that represent the
link nonlinear deformations. (2) This approach introduces a very small amount of elastic
flexibility at the hinge locations, which may cause slight differences in both linear and
nonlinear behavior compared to a frame member without hinges. For the same reason, slight
differences in results for all load cases may be expected from previous versions of SAP2000 in
models having frame hinges. Isotropic hinges will now be slightly more flexible (previously
they were rigid before yield), fiber and non-isotropic hinges will be slightly less flexible (these
previously had some flexibility before yield). (3) Additional rotational mass degrees of
freedom may be present at the hinge locations. (4) Convergence behavior should generally be
improved for nonlinear static and direct-integration time-history load cases, particularly for
cases where multiple hinges in the same frame object were dropping load at the same time. (5)
For hinges modeled as links, the stiffness-proportional damping used for direct-integration
time-history analyses may now be specified by the user to be proportional to the initial stiffness
of the hinge (the current behavior), the tangent stiffness, or a mixture of the two. Tangent-
stiffness damping is generally more realistic, but may increase computation time. Initial-
stiffness damping generally leads to faster convergence during analysis, but may overestimate
damping and hence be unconservative.
* 95529 The size of the saved analysis results files has been reduced for multi-step nonlinear static and
nonlinear direct-integration time-history load cases. This will reduce the amount of disk space
required for these types of load cases in models using non-isotropic single degree of freedom
frame hinges, fiber P-M-M frame hinges, directional layered shell elements, and/or nonlinear
link elements. Linear elastic shell and solid elements will also exhibit some reduction in disk-
space requirements. This may also result in some speed increase when running the analysis and
displaying results, particularly for load cases with many steps. The amount of data saved will
be reduced for other types of elements in subsequent releases of the product.

Results Display and Output

Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
* 40433 Step-by-step energy plots are now available for nonlinear direct-integration time-history load cases
43668 and for nonlinear static/staged-construction load cases. Previously they were only available for
47298 linear and nonlinear modal time-history cases. In addition, plots of the input ground accelerations
55092 and/or load function are now available for nonlinear direct-integration time-history and nonlinear
static load cases.

Application Programming Interface

Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
97339 An enhancement has been implemented to provide v18 API compatibility in v19. Tools built
against the v18 API should continue to work in v19 without the need to change references or
recompile.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 3

 * Incident Description
97377 An enhancement has been implemented to add API functions for concrete frame design
preferences and overwrites for the Hong Kong 2013 and TS 500-2000 codes.

External Import/Export
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
91404 An enhancement has been implemented to export curved frame members to the EXR file used
by CSiXRevit.

Miscellaneous
Enhancements Implemented
* Incident Description
95226 The version number has been changed to v19.0.0 for a new major update.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 4

User Interface and Display
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
93725 An incident has been resolved in which an abnormal termination could occur when trying to
manipulate data in the table for an advanced extrusion path (command Edit > Extrude >
Extrude {Objects} to {Objects} > Advanced > Define/Modify Path). This was a user interface
error and did not affect analysis or design results.
94548 An incident was resolved in which an abnormal error would occur on the staged construction
load case definition form if a stage was defined with no stage data and the Modify button for
the stage data was clicked. This was a user interface issue only and did not affect results.
95197 An incident was resolved when area or line springs were assigned to the model, and no link
objects were assigned to the model, then when creating the analysis model the visibility of the
link elements that were created to model the line or area springs from the Display Options form
could not be controlled because the appropriate checkbox was not enabled.
95864 An incident was resolved in which the program would terminate if a minimum value was
96680 specified larger than a maximum value, or in certain cases when two windowed selections were
made on the View > Set Limits form. This was a user interface issue only and did not affect
results.
95757 An incident has been resolved in which some of the preference and overwrite items were not
conditionally activated or deactivated when changing other items on the form.

Graphics
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
88656 An incident was resolved for models containing solid objects in which saving the model with
the option to not show the solids in the view and then reopening it would result in an abnormal
termination.
93176 An incident was resolved in which the display of the uniform to frame resultant area loading
was not correct on certain members. This was a display issue only. This was previously fixed in
v18.2.0 but inadvertently excluded from the release notes.
96016 An incident was resolved in which the graphical display of applied lateral loads was not
working. This was a graphical issue only and did not affect results.
96098 An incident was resolved in which the graphical display was not updated to show selected area
objects when using the Select > Select > Labels command. This was a graphical issue only.
96132 An incident was resolved where area surface pressure loads applied to the bottom face of an
area object were not displayed correctly using the Display Load Assigns by Load Pattern – All
Objects form. When surface pressure loads on the bottom face were specified to be displayed
the program showed loads on the top face.

Drafting
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
96895 An incident was resolved in which solid objects would get selected using on-screen selection tools
even when they were set to not be in view. This was inconsistent with how other objects were
working.

Modeling
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
94231 An incident was resolved in which an error was generated when assigning a joint pattern in certain
96686 models.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 5

Section Designer
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
94833 An incident was resolved for Section Designer where the stress units were not converted
correctly in the Steel Model Form such that stress value displayed at the bottom left corner of
the steel stress-strain plot was not correct if the units were changed from the database units.
Database units are those in effect when the model is first created and in effect each time the
model is opened. This was a display issue only for the plot in this form and did not affect
analysis results or any other display.
96094 An incident was resolved for section designer where the section properties and the geometry of
a section designer section containing two or more box shapes could be calculated incorrectly if
two of the box shapes were attached along one edge and aligned on another edge. This was not
common.

Loading
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
87448 An incident was resolved for concrete frame design according to ACI 318-11 in which some of the
automated load combinations that corresponded to dead + live + static earthquake were generated
blank. The combinations were generated properly if the design code was changed to ACI 318-14.
The blank combinations were producing zero forces. The error was inadvertently introduced in
v18.0.0.
94023 An incident was resolved where a combination that included seismic load as well as other lateral
loads (wind or wave) may not get tagged as design type seismic and may not be considered for
special seismic design requirements. This is not a common condition.
96129 An incident was resolved in which the area load to frames was applied in the opposite direction than
96592 expected when specified to be applied in the gravity projected direction.
97248 An incident was resolved for the Peru NTE E.030 2014 response spectrum function where
parameter Ip was also used for parameter R0 in the analysis instead of the specified R0 value in the
function form. The results were overly conservative. A work around was to convert the Peru NTE
E.030 2014 response spectrum function to user defined.

Analysis
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
40905 An incident was resolved where nonlinear static load cases using displacement control would
sometimes fail to run when loads were applied only to solid, plane, or asolid objects. When this
occurred the analysis log file (.LOG) would indicate that the monitored displacement was zero
for that load case, and no results were available for the affected case.
95495 An incident was resolved where the load assignment "Links - All" used for a modal load case
(usually of type Ritz) was generating starting load vectors for all degrees of freedom (DOF) of
link elements of type "Damper - Friction Spring", even when the DOF were linear or not
selected. This had the effect of requiring more modes to achieve adequate static and dynamic
load participation factors for the DOF that were actually nonlinear. Results were consistent with
the modes calculated and the participation factors reported.
96077 An incident was resolved where the reported stresses and element joint forces for plane and
asolid types of area objects excluded the effects of temperature and strain loads when applied in
a nonlinear static or direct-integration time-history load case. The error in the joint forces
affected reactions at joints connected to plane/asolid objects, as well as section cuts through
these types of objects. The effect of temperature and strain loads applied to plane/asolid objects
upon the rest of the structure was correct, including all displacements and forces or stresses in
all other elements. Only the stresses in the loaded plane/asloid objects themselves were

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 6

 * Incident Description
affected, as well as the connected joint reactions and section cuts. Results reported for linear
load cases were not affected, nor were nonlinear modal time-history (FNA) load cases.
* 97759 An incident was resolved where incorrect results could be produced for iterative nonlinear
direct-integration time-history load cases for models where all degrees of freedom were
restrained. No other type of load case was affected. The joint displacements for these load cases
did not necessarily match the applied ground displacements, or were not necessarily zero at
joints without applied displacement load. Forces and stresses were consistent with the incorrect
joint displacements. The incorrect displacement results were random and could vary from one
run to the next. Only models where all degrees of freedom were restrained, whether explicitly
or implicitly, were affected, which is not a common case. When this occurred, the error was
obvious in that the joint displacements did not match the specified values, which could be zero.

Frame Design
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
67836 An incident was resolved where analysis cases with loads that combined load patterns of
different design types were not being tagged as "seismic" if seismic loads were present. They
were being tagged as design type "other". This resulted in combinations including these
analysis cases not being tagged as "seismic" in turn resulting in special seismic conditions in
design not being triggered. This is not a common condition and would normally occur for
nonlinear static cases which included load patterns of multiple design types.
72147 An incident was resolved for concrete frame design according to the Italian NTC 2008 code in
which the minimum flexural tensile steel reinforcement of a beam section was incorrect for
seismic cases.
87481 An incident was resolved where for steel, concrete, aluminum, and cold-formed steel frame
design the framing type may not be reported correctly in the design details under certain
conditions. This was a reporting issue only. The design was unaffected.
89740 An incident was resolved for steel frame design according to AISC 360-10 in which the
automated load combination that included roof live load was not correct. The load combination
that includes dead, live, roof live, and wind should have been 1.2DL+1.6RL+/-0.5WL, but the
program was assigning correct scale factors to DL and RL, and incorrect scale factors of 1.0 to
the WL and 1.2 to the live load.
90063 An incident was resolved for steel frame design according to the Italian NTC 2008 and
Eurocode 3-2005 codes. The following three issues have been corrected: (1) For Italian NTC
2008 code only: The Nb,Rd for the angle sections for buckling about major and minor principle
axes were based on purely K_33*L_33/r_max and K_22*L_22/r_min. They are now based on
Max(K_33*L_33 and K_22*L_22)/r_max and Max(K_33*L_33 and K_22*L_22)/r_min. (2)
For both codes: The reporting of the major and minor directions were reversed for the Double
Angle sections while reporting the basic factors like K and L factors and Nb,Rd forces in the
design details. (3) For Italian NTC 2008 code only: There was an error in the calculation of
Weff. This has been fixed. It affected the calculation of Mc,Rd, Mv,Rd, Mn,Rd, and Mb,Rd for
Class 4 sections.
91360 An incident was resolved where the design overwrites for the shear capacities in AISC 360-10
and AISC 360-05 were not working. The program was always calculating these values.
91929 An incident was resolved for steel frame design according to Eurocode 3-2005 in which the
seismic provision related to the design of joints was incorrectly checked even for DCL
structures. These special checks are needed only for DCH and DCM structures.
94175 An incident has been resolved for steel design based on the Chinese 2010 steel frame code. The
94940 following issues have been corrected/enhanced: (a) The error message "Section is slender"
referred to several sections of the codes (GB50017 4.3.8, 5.4, GB50011 8.3.2, Table 8.4.1) for
different types of structural forms and different types of shapes. Another section number (GB
50011-2010 section 8.4.1.2, Table 8.4.1) has been added to the list. (b) For concentrically
braced frame, the program was reporting the axial force and the bending moments as zeros in

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 7

 * Incident Description
the detailed display even though they were non-zero. The error was limited to display only, and
only for concentric braced frames. (c) The code has a limiting value of 100*(235/Fy) (GB
50017 5.4.5) for D/t. Whereas the program was using the limit as 100*Sqrt(235/Fy). The square
root has been removed.
95512 An incident was resolved for Eurocode 3-2005 and Italian NTC 2008 steel frame design codes
where the reported shear areas were switched between major and minor axes. This was just a
reporting issue and design was not affected.

Results Display and Output

Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
87991 An incident was resolved where the soil pressure on-screen display was incorrect whenever
95918 multiple area springs were assigned to an area object. The display was correct only for the last
spring assigned. All other results accounted for all the springs assigned and were not affected
with this soil pressure display error.
90124 An incident was resolved in which the shell design results did not display if other shell results
were previously displayed with the option to show as arrows. This was a display issue only and
did not affect results. This was previously corrected in v18.2.0 but inadvertently omitted from
the release notes.
91438 An incident was resolved where shell thickness overwrites using joint patterns incorrectly
switched the thickness values assigned to the third and fourth joints of each quadrilateral
element. For shell objects that were meshed into multiple elements, this error affected each
individual element. Thickness overwrites specified directly for each node (joint) of the shell
object were not affected, only those specified by reference to a joint pattern. Triangular
elements were not affected. Other shell assignments using joint patterns were not affected,
including joint offsets, temperature loads, and pressure loads.
91746 An incident was resolved for steel frame design according to Eurocode 3-2005 in which the
Shear Details table "Steel Details 3 - Shear Details - Eurocode 3-2005" always showed the
design shears VsdMajDsgn and VsdMinDesign as equal to one. This was a display problem
only and design calculations were not affected.
95407 An incident was resolved in which the display of shell and solid stresses was not displaying
arrows for SMax and SMin when requested. This was a display issue only and did not affect
results.
95158 An incident was resolved where the multi-value parameters in the Display Shell Stress form
95451 were not correctly enabled for enveloping load combinations. This was a user interface issue
95816 only and did not affect results.
95861 An incident was resolved where errors would occur in the advanced report writer if a table
defined in a saved report was not available or if there was a space at the end of the name of the
saved report.
95918 An incident was resolved where the soil pressure on-screen display was incorrect whenever
multiple area springs were assigned to an area object. The display was correct only for the last
spring assigned. All other results accounted for all the springs assigned and were not affected
with this soil pressure display error.

Database Tables
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
96565 An incident was resolved where printing tables to a text file from the table display form left off the
first row of each table and had incorrect values in the units name row.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 8

Data Files
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
97180 An incident was resolved where the BSShapes2006.PRO file was defined in incorrect units.
Imported sections were in millimeters instead of centimeters.

Application Programming Interface

Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
91975 An incident was resolved in the ExternalAnalysisResults.SetFrameForceMultiple API function in
which an error was returned in certain cases.
95470 An incident was resolved in which the API functions New3DFrame, NewBeam, NewSolidBlock,
and NewWall were not available in the SapModel.File class, although they were documented. The
functions are now available in the API.
97279 An incident was resolved for the Application Programming Interface (API) where the argument
"Duration" for functions GetStageDefinitions_1 and SetStageDefinitions was declared as Integer
instead of Double. Similarly, the argument "Age" for functions GetStageData_1 and
SetStageData_1 was declared as Integer instead of Double. These functions are members of
SapModel.LoadCases.StaticNonlinear. Values that are set or returned by these functions are
rounded to the nearest integer. This has been corrected in the newly provided functions
GetStageDefinitions_2, SetStageDefinitions_1, GetStageData_2, and SetStageData_2 where
arguments "Duration" and "Age" are declared as Double. The old functions are retained for
backward compatibility, but use of the new functions is recommended to correct this issue.
"Duration" and "Age" are specified as days, and the error could be significant for shorter time
periods using non-integral numbers of days. Analysis results using the old functions will agree with
the integer number of days actually set and visible in the load case definitions.

External Import/Export
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
75203 An incident was resolved where exporting a level to SAFE was not working properly. Two issues
have been corrected. (1) Area springs were not being exported and the user had to manually assign
them in SAFE. Now area springs of type "Simple" applied to the top or bottom face of the area in
the normal direction are exported. (2) An error was corrected in the export of loads if both a floor
and a wall area were being exported with the export option "Floor load and Loads from Above" and
the floor was internally meshed.
94372 An incident affecting the import of Revit projects into SAP2000 was resolved. When a Revit project
included curved walls, these walls were not imported. When this occurred, the error was obvious
and the results agreed with the model. Revit curved walls are now imported as a tessellated series of
plane area objects which approximate the original curved wall geometry.
94228 An incident affecting the export of SAP2000 models to Revit was resolved. When a model
containing line or area objects with a material of a symmetry type other than isotropic was exported,
SAP2000 wrote an .exr file which CSiXRevit was unable to read. This affected all versions of
SAP2000 supporting data exchange with Revit. When this occurred, the results were unaffected.
Line and area objects with a material of a symmetry type other than isotopic are now omitted from
the .exr files SAP2000 writes, and warnings notifying the user are included in the .exr log file
SAP2000 also writes.

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 9

Documentation
Incidents Resolved
* Incident Description
94544 The Eurocode 2-2004 concrete frame design manual has been updated to document that the
beam-column joint capacity check is also performed for ductility class medium moment
resisting frames (DCM-MRF).

SAP2000 v19.0.0 2016-11-16 Page 10