Ram Connection QA/QC

[jonk97]

I was looking into purchasing Ram Connection, but was discouraged that they do not offer any documentation regarding a quality assurance program. Understandably, I realize that software companies have to be careful about certifying a program, but all I would be looking for is something stating that designs conform to AISC, etc and have been checked through beta testing or something along those lines. Does anyone know of any third party testing? Those who are using Bentley products, are the calculation codes visible to check the results?

 

[neffers]

I don't know about third party testing, but I do know that in RAM Connection you can have it display all the connection checks/calculations with references to the appropriate section in the AISC manual.

 

[dozer]

AutoPipe and STAAD.Pro customers can subscribe to Bentley's QA & Reporting (QA&R). Since RAM Connection works inside STAAD maybe it would be included, you'd have to ask them. What is QA&R you ask? Essentially it means customers have to pay to see a list of bugs. I think it's outrageous. Since you haven't purchased yet I would press them on this. As for us folks who already own the software it just tough crap if we want to see a list of known bugs without forking over some more dough.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[SethGuthrie]

QA&R for STAAD.pro and AutoPIPE is a bit more than just access to known bugs, but that's beside the point. We don't have such a thing to RAM Connection.
Quite a bit of internal testing takes place for each release of RAM Connection, but it's never been collected in a format to present to users.
We do publish important bugs, enhancement requests and even problem solving techniques for all of the Bentley product in our Knowledge Base:

http://selectservices.bentley.com/en-US/Support/Support+Tools/KnowledgeBase/

I personally prefer the Be Communities site for general information because the format is a little easier to search:

http://communities.bentley.com/prod...n__wiki/selectsupport-technotes-and-faqs.aspx

As for AISC Conformance, the current release of RAM Connection conforms to AISC 360-05 ASD or LRFD including AISC 341-05 Special Seismic provisions for several connection types. AISC 360-10 and 341-10 are planned but not completed yet.