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SHEAR Update

SH4UPDATE   

To install this file: first see if you need it. Start your GEOSYSTEM for Windows program and open a SHEAR test data set (i.e., go to the screen that asks for SHEAR testing data). Select "Help" > "About this module". From the following dialog, click on the "System Info." button. If your program lists a "Date Generated" earlier than the latest "Build" date listed in the revisions section below, proceed with the installation.

Shut down your GEOSYSTEM for Windows package. If GEOSYTEM for Windows is installed onto a network drive, make sure that everyone has shut down their package. Click on the SH4UPDATE link above, save the file to your hard disk (it doesn't matter where) then run it (SH4UPDATE.EXE).

SHEAR Version 4 Revision History

Build 4.0.0.87 (Nov.20.2009)

  • Correct the appearance of check box and radio button controls when displayed on Windows XP/Vista/7 when running in Windows' "themed" modes.

Build 4.0.0.86 (Nov.18.2009)

  • Corrected the COE report format to report the ultimate strain percentage for UU tests.
  • Addition of XP theme support.
  • Correct the PQ and direct shear normal vs. ultimate stress chart scales so they are isotropic. For example, a 30 degree PQ tangent line will now measure 30 degrees on the printed reports. This change also affects the Mohr's circles chart and will produce correct chart scales even with added disclaimers in the report's left-hand border, as well as with left and right margin changes.
  • Addition of post-test values (final height, area, density, etc.) to exported XML files.
  • Added internal support for read-only file access. This will not be available to users until LOGDRAFT 5 and GDM 3 are released late December.
  • Changed the program's font from the old Windows 3.1-style MS Sans Serif to Tahoma.
  • Corrected the failure stress line legend on the left side of the direct shear chart to be dashed.
  • Added the calculated failure point to the exported XML file.
  • Changed "Wet Density" to "Wet density" on the summary report.
  • Corrected a problem with direct shear reports that would cause an error previewing the chart report if the user turns off *both* the "Points on Chart" and "Best-fit lines on Chart" options.

Build 4.0.0.85 (26.Aug.2009)

  • Removed use of the TRACE entity in DXF files and added the missing file that caused "File or path unknown" errors when outputting to DXF.
  • Added support for Humboldt's licensed Shear test module's data files.
  • Changed the reports slightly so that they show licensee city/state information for some cases that did not do so in the past.

Build 4.0.0.84 (17.Nov.2008)

  • Modified the triaxial report so that failure rates in inches/min., etc. are not printed in a smaller font if they require more than 5 characters to print.
  • The program now has an official technical support page that is shown when selecting "Help" > "Web Support Documents".
  • Modified the COE and Direct Shear reports so that they do not make the project number show in a smaller font unless it's more than 16 characters long.
  • Modified the triaxial Alternate report form so that it does not make the project number show in a smaller font if it's more than 11 characters long.

Build 4.0.0.83 (7.Apr.2008)

  • Addition of selection list support to the sample info. window. (Right-click on a data field and select "Make a Selection List".)
  • Correction of a problem that could cause a program error when plotting any data summary or chart report. The problem was found during a code review and appears to have never caused a crash during program use.

Build 4.0.0.82 (3.Oct.2007)

  • Change the section titles on summary reports to show white on gray instead of black on gray. The change was made to make the reports more readable when faxed. Also corrected several font inconsistencies with the section titles.
  • Addition of support for color logos. THIS WILL NOT affect existing clients; only new clients submitting a logo that is in color can take advantage of this modification.
  • Modification to work around a Windows Vista bug that causes an error dialog to appear when displaying help screens.
  • Addition of support for a plugin that can arbitrary redirect the useage of data items retrieved from SHEAR's project database. Plugins can be written to, e.g., cause data from one data entry field to appear in place of a different data entry field on chart and summary reports. This modification will not affect existing clients.
  • Correction of a problem that would cause tests entered into the "(no source)" folder to loose information entered onto the Sample Info. window.
  • Addition of Windows Vista as a supported operating system; removal of Windows98 and WindowsME. The software should still run under Windows98 and WindowsME, but an "unsupported" warning will be shown to the user.
  • Modification to the data acquisition import procedure so that it no longer overwrites existing Sample Info. data after a file import.

Build 4.0.0.80 (26.Mar.2007)

  • More internal changes.

Build 4.0.0.79 (25.Mar.2007)

  • More internal changes.

Build 4.0.0.78 (20.Mar.2007)

  • More internal changes related to custom data acquisition file import support.

Build 4.0.0.77 (18.Mar.2007)

  • Internal changes to support custom data acquisition devices.
  • Modification to change the selected report page (i.e., the one currently being displayed) when the user tries to modify the page's figure number.

Build 4.0.0.76 (15.Jan.2007)

  • Incorporates a fix for a program crash that would happen when a) running on a slow computer and b) rapidly switching between the "Charts" and "Report" navigation tab.
  • Workaround for a nasty Microsoft XP update mess that stops the operating system from opening any help files stored on network drives. The result of the idiotic Microsoft modification is that programs stored on network drives cannot open their own help files.
  • Correct a situation that, under certain special circumstances (which have never been reported to us), could cause fields for the project name and number to not appear in the Data Manager's Project Data screen.

Build 4.0.0.75 (6.Nov.2006)

  • Version 4.0.0.74, released 2.August, inconsistently displayed effective stress paths and Mohr's circles (the dashed lines would appear more or less as solid lines). This release corrects the problem.

Build 4.0.0.74 (2.Aug.2006)

  • Version 4.0.0.74 merely incorporates some internal changes required by us to produce a customized test report for a single client. There are no bug fixes or feature additions from version 4.0.0.73.

Build 4.0.0.73 (26.Jun.2006)

  • Modification in the number of decimals used to print load values.
  • Modify the caption on the stress vs. displacement chart from "Horiz. Displ." to "Horiz. Displacement".
  • Rename report field from "Date" to "Date Sampled".

Build 4.0.0.72 (24.Jan.2006)

  • Changed "Date:" to "Date Sampled:" on all chart reports.
  • Added "%" sign after "Water Content" and "Saturation" on the COE report.
  • Changed the COE report to report cell and back pressure in the selected fluid pressure output units instead of the stress units.
  • Prevented the user from turning off both the "show Mohr's circles" and "show tangent lines" options on TX charts so that *something* is shown on TX charts.
  • Selected a better font size for the on-screen chart display when viewed at low resolutions such as 800x600.
  • Fixed a problem that would cause "AbstractCurve: x array must be sorted" error messages to be shown when previewing or printing a TX report with bad deformation data.
  • Correction of a problem that would cause "Paste Data" to fail to paste sample info. with symbols inserted using the "Insert a Type Symbol" dialog.

Build 4.0.0.71 (26.Aug.2005)

  • Modification to correct the direct shear negative vertical dial readings selection.
  • The COE report form incorrectly listed the dimension units used to enter data, not the dimension units actually used on the report
  • The unconfined compression report omitted a percent sign at the end of the "Failure strain," label.
  • Shrunk the margin between "Sample Number" and "Depth" on the chart reports to fit more data. Also abbreviated labels such as "Sample Number" as "Sample No." if necessary to fit more data.
  • Symbols inserted into any of the fields on the Sample Info. window using the program's (undocumented) F9 symbol insert dialog could not be copied with the "Edit" > "Copy Data" and "Edit" > "Paste Data" menu selections.
  • Fix of a problem pasting data into the Sample Info. window fields: before the fix the cursor would not be placed at the end of the pasted data.
  • Adjust the size of the fonts used on the chart reports to take into account the smaller page width left after a disclaimer is added to the report left border. Corrects problems such as the "Project No." label overprinting the actual project number.

Build 4.0.0.70 (25.Feb.2005)

  • On the "Alternate" report format, the strain label under the failure & ultimate headings used to read "Strain,": changed it to "Strain, %".
  • The "Alternate" report format would ignore the user's selection for whether or not the Mohr's circles were to be displayed; the only way to turn off the circles was to turn off the tangent as well. (Actually, turning off the tangents *always* turned off the circles.)
  • Changed the "Alternate" and "Corps of Engineers" formats to support up to 3 lines of material description if no Atterberg data were entered (previously the line that held Atterberg data just remained blank -- now the description can use that line).
  • Modified the triax. test data entry screen to warn about negative strains -- avoids "abstract curve x array must be sorted" errors when trying to display the chart report.
  • Material descriptions entered into the "no source" folder would not reliably import into SHEAR.

Build 4.0.0.69 (29.Dec.2004)

  • Modification to clear user-selected tangent lines if no points were entered.
  • Addition of an Insert Specimen menu selection.
  • Correction of a bug that would cause the Insert Data Row selection to crash with a "List index out of bounds" error message.
  • The results box on the direct shear chart will now use the failure and ultimate stress labels selected by the user through the Direct Shear tab on the SHEAR settings dialog.
  • Changed the direct shear chart report to not show LL=, PL= and PI= if no Atterberg data were entered.
  • Change to the PQ chart so that if the user turned off the "Show Total" or "Show Effective" buttons on the chart preview screen, the PQ chart would not plot the corresponding data.
  • Fix of a bug that would cause an occasional error message when printing a data summary report for some triaxial tests.
  • Improved the positioning of text on reports exported to PDF files.
  • Spelling error correction on the triaxial Alternate report format: "Colomb" changed to "Coulomb".

Build 4.0.0.68 (13.Aug.2004)

  • Addition of Project No. to summary report.
  • Removal of all calculated tangent information from chart reports if the user turns off the Tangent on Chart button on the chart preview screen.
  • Fix of a problem that would cause the program to continue to use consolidated water volume/height decrease data if the user enters these readings *then* swaps to a specimen calculation method that doesn't require such data.
  • Addition of failure strain reporting option in order to maintain compatibility with the DOS SHEAR program.
  • Modification to chart reports to better fit the sample number on reports that also show a long sample source name.
  • Fix to staged test calculations: the option to reset the stress to 0 at the start of each stage while accumulating strains did not work; the stress values continued to accumulate over each stage.
  • Modification to data acquisition import process -- ASTM D 2850 tests may have been getting spurious water volume decrease data even though the test method doesn't require this information.

Build 4.0.0.67 (10.May.2004)

  • Corrected support for staged UU tests: prior to this, clicking on the Stage #2 tab would cause a Division by zero error message.

Build 4.0.0.66 (3.May.2004)

  • Turning off both the Show Effective Mohr's circles chart option and the Show Total option would cause printed/previewed test reports to be incomplete.
  • Tangent lines drawn through the Mohr's circles results box would extend through the top of the chart.
  • Possible correction for a problem that would prevent summaries/test reports from being previewed by right-clicking on the SHEAR link on a GDM data entry card and selecting "Report Preview" or "Summary Preview".
  • Fix to avoid problems previewing direct shear test reports that include a vertical deformation chart when no vertical deformation readings are entered.

Build 4.0.0.65 (16.Apr.2004)

  • SHEAR would not calculate results for stages 2-4 of ASTM Method A staged tests
  • Modification of the strain-adjusted direct shear area calculation so that staged DS tests use the total cumulative strain instead of just the staged strain
  • Correction of direct shear staged test plotting/reporting when cumulative strains are to be reported.

Build 4.0.0.64 (25.Mar.2004)

  • Corrected the display of logos on reports so that the original aspect of the logo (width to height ratio) is preserved.

Build 4.0.0.63 (11.Mar.2004)

  • Corrected a problem that could cause a direct shear vertical deformation curve to run off the top of the chart.
  • Correction of the size of markers shown on graphs in .PDF-saved chart reports
  • Correction of the direct shear peak/ultimate vs. normal stress chart so that both chart axis are scaled with the same number of units per grid mark.
  • Eliminate the possibility of selecting the staged test option with unconfined compression tests
  • Addition of support for eliminating the effective stress curve from the p-q chart on the triaxial 2nd chart report page
  

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