We've upgraded the Poles Library to improve usability and functionality, including separating poles into tabs based on kind (material). The options are Wood, Concrete, Steel and Generic. Existing poles will appear in the Generic tab and will continue to behave the same as they did in the previous Poles Library. Hence any unmigrated poles will have no functional impact on any engineering calculations if they remain Generic.

Migration is optional and existing projects support unmigrated poles. Despite being optional, migration is recommended as it will improve usability of the project and ensure only data relevant to each pole kind (material) is stored against the pole. Prompts in the library will appear suggesting migration for the generic poles within existing projects to the respective kind.

Poles with kind set to generic retain existing behavior and can contain data relevant to any of the different pole materials (wood, concrete and steel). When migrating the kind of a pole from generic to another material, there will be some changes to the data stored against each pole.

During migration there are four options for how data might be treated:

The following table summarises the pole data fields and how they are treated during migration based on kind

(1) Steel pole length is derived from the steel tubes and is no longer editable

(2) The material of the pole is no longer editable to ensure it is consistent with it's kind

(3) Steel pole mass is derived using the shape and density of the tubes

(4) Secondary Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) is only applicable to concrete poles where the cracked (secondary) MOE is different to the uncracked (primary) MOE. Wood and steel poles have the secondary MOE set to the primary MOE.

(5) The existing option Derive Modulus Of Rupture From Tipload sets if the Breaking Load X / Breaking Tip Load is derived or the Modulus of Rupture is derived using the pole geometry. The tip load, modulus of rupture and geometry are interalled so two of these variables can be set and the third will be derived.

After migration

-Wood poles allow Derive Modulus Of Rupture From Tipload to be set so either the Load X / Breaking Tip Load or the Modulus of Rupture can be the settable data and the other variable is derived.

-Concrete poles have Load X / Breaking Tip Load as the settable data and from this derive the Modulus of Rupture.

-Steel poles have Modulus of Rupture as the settable data and from this derive the Load X / Breaking Tip Load.

(6) Breaking Load Y, Diameter Butt Y, Diameter Ground Y and Diameter Tip Y only apply to rectangular poles so will be removed from anything other than concrete rectangular poles.

(7) Wood poles are set to circular (solid), all steel poles are set to round (hollow ring based on tubes) and all concrete poles are set to either ring or rectangular depending on existing data.

(8) Thickness Butt & Thickness Tip are only retained for a concrete ring pole. Tube thickness for steel poles will default to 5mm.

(9) Diameter Ground X has been retained for the wood poles initially to improve compatibility. concrete rectangular poles also retain this field.

(10) Any Sections data will be removed for wood and concrete poles. Steel poles with section data will have a tube per section created which retain the tip and butt diameter (from the top and bottom sections). If the Structure Shape is circle or rectangular then the tube thickness will be set to 5mm, however if it is Ring then the tube thickness will use the data in the sectioned table (Diam Y/I is the inner diameter for the ring and hence if this is set to 0 then the sectioned pole is solid). Note all other section data such as second moments of area, torsional constant and moment capacity will be removed.

(11) If there is tube data in the Sections this will be carried across to the tubes of the steel pole.

(12) Any Moment Capacity or Shear Force Capacity will be carried across for concrete poles however they will be removed from wood and steel poles.

(13) The Stiffness Multiplier X and Stiffness Multiplier Y are set to 1 for all poles except for concrete rectangular poles which retain any stiffness multiplies.

When opening the Poles Library, the Generic tab will automatically be selected and the first pole on the list will be shown in the Editor tab. A callout will appear at the top of the Editor prompting migration of the pole and suggesting a change based on Material.

There are three options to migrate a pole:

Once a pole has been migrated to a specific kind it will disappear from the Generic tab and appear in the section for the kind selected (e.g. Wood pole, Concrete pole, Steel pole).

In the Editor tab when looking at a Generic pole, either:

In the Generic tab of the poles library select all the poles to be migrated to the same kind, and use the Bulk Action tab to update the kind.

There are 2 options to refine the selection of poles, rather than needing to manually select the appropriate poles:

After collating the appropriate list of poles, use the edit icon () in the kind column and select the appropriate option from the dropdown. This will update the field for all visible rows.