> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.openbrim.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.openbrim.org/release-notes/library-release-notes/library-release-notes-limited-distribution.md).

# Early Access Releases (After December 2025)

1. Gusset Plate Code Check : The Bolted Gusset Plate Code Check now lets you choose whether a gusset is designed as a truss gusset (6.14.2.8, with the Ω=0.88 shear-reduction factor) or as a general connection element (6.13.5, without Ω) — default behavior is unchanged. **(Steel I Gİrder Workflow / Steel Tub Girder Workflow)**
2. Cross Frame X Type : New optional FEA setting for the X-type cross frame — enabling "Offsets Expand Thermally" allows rigid end offsets to expand under thermal loading, preventing a uniform temperature load from generating spurious locked-in member forces. The default setting is Off, ensuring that existing models remain unchanged. **(Steel I Gİrder Workflow / Steel Tub Girder Workflow / Precast I Girder Workflow / Concrete U Girder Workflow)**
3. Static Pushover Graph : Update Static Pushover Graph report details. It now displays every hinge's status in the report per pushover analysis case. **(All Workflow)**
4. Cross Frames : Cross frames spanning two girders with different horizontal geometry no longer crash the model and now build correctly. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
5. Static Pushover Graph : Pushover summary status colors (Elastic/Yield/Capacity) updated to the standard conditional-formatting palette for better readability. **(All Workflow)**
6. Concrete Box Girder : Improvements to Concrete Box Girder Finite Element Model generation to cover certain edge cases. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
7. Concrete Girder Code Check : The optional span-to-depth check for concrete girders now compares against the overall composite depth including the deck, instead of the girder depth alone. **(Precast I Girder Workflow)**
8. Integral Bent : Static pushover analysis can now target integral bents and the Element Load menu is expanded. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
9. Concrete box girder code check no longer reports NaN or false failures for checks that do not apply — shear friction, crack control, span-to-depth, and fibre stresses now report correctly, and PT time-dependent losses use the construction-stage humidity on post-tensioned-only girders. **(Concrete Box Girder Workfow)**
10. Pile Capacity Check : Pile Capacity Check now reports the correct governing limit state — a pile governed by Strength V was being labelled Service III. **(All Workflow)**
11. California Permit Vehicles have been added to the database. **(All Workflow)**
12. Integral Bent Cap Code Check : Integral bent cap code-check follow-ups — section-driven side-face reinforcement with override, ported reinforcement validations, and CALTRANS state-table fixes. (The 3D rebar overhang-inset attempt is reverted for now; bent-cap reinforcement 3D display is off.) **(Concrete Box Girder Workfow)**
13. Concrete Box Girder : Concrete box girders now support in-span hinge joints. A new Hinge Joint25. input group on the box girder lets you place a joint on any support line and control its orientation, hinge length, gap, depth, and PT blockout length, with either a Full-Depth or Half-Depth joint option. With Half-Depth, the shell model splits into a seat block and a suspended dap block separated by a real gap, so load transfers only through the hinge bearings — matching how the joint behaves in the field. Hinge depth and gap are set directly as inputs, giving you full control over the joint geometry. Bearings placed at a hinge are marked on the insertion point (Reference Object = Hinge Joint ) and are now drawn at the joint elevation rather than the girder soffit, so the 3D model reflects the real seat location. All other bearing types are unaffected. Also in this release : New Deck Material and Soffit Material inputs; the girder solid and section are now split into deck and soffit parts, New PSC-nCELL v3 database group with deck / soffit / 3D-only shape variants for every cell count.Improved Tekla export hints for bent cap and diaphragm sections. **(Concrete Box Girder Workfow)**
14. Vertical clearance now has a home in the workflow tree — a new Geometric Criteria group holds Clearance Zone and Vertical Clearance Check, the Digital Terrain Model moves under External References › Imported Data, and the retired 2D Map item is gone now that the background map is a view setting. **(All Workflow)**
15. Concrete Box Girder : A new Hinge Joint Material input has been added. It applies to every hinge-joint piece (zone webs, PT blockout fans, seat/dap block meshes, block-face panels, blockout diaphragms) as well as the length of girder passing through the joint. When left empty, it falls back to the Soffit Material, so existing models are unaffected. Note that the deck strip inside the joint follows the soffit material rather than the deck material, since the joint is cast as a single pour. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
16. Concrete Box Girder : Girder shells within an integral bent now take that bent's own Material instead of the girder's deck/soffit concrete, since that length of box is cast with the cap. Existing models with integral bents whose material differs will see their FE results change on recompile. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
17. Concrete Box Girder : A new Apply To \[3D Only / 3D + FEA] input has been added to the Half-Depth hinge joint; the default, 3D + FEA, preserves the previous behavior. When set to 3D Only, the joint becomes a 3D-graphics-only feature: the box still opens and refills, while the analysis model remains a plain continuous girder with no mesh split, no hinge stations and no sliver element band at the joint. Bearings on the hinge support line are still placed in 3D but are not included in the analysis. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
18. Concrete Box Girder : The 3D hinge fill now builds its own block-face station list instead of using the FE mesh station grid. The fill blocks now land exactly on the PT blockout boundaries rather than snapping to the nearest mesh station. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
19. Approach Slab : Approach slabs can now be meshed as finite elements that follow the bridge alignment (curve and skew) and transfer forces to the bent through a spring/rigid-line connection at the seam. **(All Workflow)**
20. Temporary Supports : Concrete box girders now carry temporary supports — placed by Girder, Station and Transverse Offset across the soffit, taking their top elevation from the soffit surface, connecting directly to the bottom-slab shell in the analysis model, and staged through the existing Temporary Support Construction / Deconstruction items. **(Concrete Box Girder Workflow)**
21. Floor Beam : Floor beam overhang lengths accept negative values again. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
22. Steel I Girder Bent Cap : A steel bent can now be connected integrally to the girders (top and/or bottom flange) with per-girder moment release, instead of only through bearings. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
23. WS AASHTO : Wind Load on Structure AASHTO now supports the AASHTO Guide Specifications for Wind Loads on Bridges During Construction — a construction-duration wind-speed reduction (R²) and a per-girder shielding factor, both applied to Strength III and both off by default. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
24. Barrier Section : The Single Slope Barrier section has been incorporated into the NYSDOT section. **(All Workflow)**
25. Integral Abutment : The backwall can now be supported by passive soil springs — compression-only or linear — driven by a user-defined soil profile, with optional 3D display of the springs and layer labels. **(All Workflow)**
26. Integral Abutment : FEM meshing is now user-controlled — mesh algorithm selection, wing wall thickness overrides, and direct references to girders, cross frames and the deck. Construction joint inputs and quantity outputs are also available. **(All Workflow)**
27. Cantilever Abutment : Construction joints can now be defined independently for the seat, back wall and wing wall, each with its own elevation data, with related reference elevations shown read-only for checking. **(All Workflow)**
28. Construction Abutment : A staged pour can now be modeled with a new Portion setting — Full, Below Joint or Above Joint — and a self-weight factor controlling how much dead load the stage carries. **(All Workflow)**
29. Added buckling analysis for the erection stage on steel I-girder and tub-girder bridges: an eigenvalue screening pass to flag potential instabilities, plus a more detailed nonlinear analysis (accounting for geometric imperfections) that reports the actual critical buckling load rather than an approximate one. A new Geometric Nonlinearity setting (Linear / P-Delta / Large Displacement) is also available on construction stages for finer control over how these analyses run. **(Steel I Gİrder Workflow / Steel Tub Girder Workflow)**
30. Integral Abutment : Fixed an issue on integral abutments where passive soil springs behind the backwall could resist in the wrong direction under certain load cases (e.g. thermal expansion vs. contraction), producing incorrect reaction forces. Soil spring behavior is now applied correctly in both directions. No input changes required — existing and new models pick up the fix automatically. **(All Workflow)**
31. Pier Cap : Fixes rigid links disappearing at exterior girders after changing Pier Cap Top Elevation on cross-sloped bridges that use Slope Option = Input. **(All Workflow)**
32. Lateral Bracing : Bottom-flange lateral bracing now connects at the correct elevation on haunched girders. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
33. FEA Bearing : Bearing rotation can now be automatically calculated by simply picking the bearing it should face. **(All Worflow)**
34. Cross Frames : Cross frames spanning girders of different web depths can now keep the bottom chord level — the vertical offset is set separately for the left and right girder. **(Steel I Girder Workflow)**
35. Barrier Load : Barrier Load added to Element Loads in all ten bridge workflows — select a barrier and apply six force components at a chosen construction stage. **(All Workflow)**
36. Concrete Box Girder Code Check: Relative stations on multi-span box girders now report within their own span. **(Concrete Box Girder)**
37. Segmental Girder Code Check: Relative stations on multi-span box girders now report within their own span. **(Segmental Girder Workflow)**
38. Construction Moving Load : Now reports Construction DL and Construction LL separately so construction load combinations can factor them per the code, with the combined envelope unchanged for existing models. **(All Workflow)**
39. Abutment Surface Load (new) : Applies a distributed pressure to the top of an abutment. Pick the abutment, enter the force and moment components, and the load is applied across the abutment and both wing wall top surfaces. Top elevation, top area and total vertical force are shown as read-only values. The load is construction-stage aware, so a load entered before the second pour lands on the construction joint. **(All Workflow)**
40. Point Load : A new Abutment Top option has been added to the Element list, so a point load can be placed directly on an abutment top. The elevation it lands on is resolved automatically from the construction stage and shown as a read-only value. **(All Workflow)**
41. Cantilever / Integral / Semi-Integral Abutment : A new Match Top Elevation With Deck input pulls the wall top up to the deck mid-surface. The abutment now also exports its top profile and top nodes, which the loads above are applied to. **(All Workflow)**
42. Backfill Soil : Backfill behind an abutment can now be modeled as soil objects. Each Backfill Soil carries its own profile and is placed in one piece. **(All Workflow)**
43. Backfill Soil Construction : Places a backfill soil in a construction stage, so the fill behind the abutment can be built up stage by stage and its stiffness only acts from that stage onward. **(All Workflow)**
44. Backfill Soil Deconstruction : Removes a backfill soil in a later stage, for cases where the fill is excavated or replaced during construction. **(All Workflow)**
45. Truss Load Rating / Floor Beam Load Rating / Girder Load Rating : Load rating reports are clearer and safer to read - a broken Lateral-Torsional Buckling section is fixed, missing section properties show as "-" rather than 0, unused rating columns are hidden, LFD truss ratings gained tonnage columns, and the rating combination tables now reject a min dead-load factor above its max. **(Truss Bridge Workflow)**
46. Construction Moving Load : Construction loads are now split into Construction Dead Load (CDL, factored like DC — e.g. 1.25/1.25 at Strength I Construction) and Construction Live Load (CLL, 1.5/1.5), selectable on analysis cases and construction stages and carried through every AASHTO load-combination database and report. **(All Workflow)**
47. Link Slab : Link slab ties pair correctly across skewed joints and between spans with different numbers of girders. **(Precast I Girder / Steel I Girder Workflow)**
48. OBPCantileverAbutment : New Bottom Connection input (Substructure / Stiffness Matrix) plus a 6x6 Stiffness Matrix table. With Stiffness Matrix selected, the pile connection is switched off and the wall is carried by one grounded 6x6 support node at the bottom-edge midpoint, reached by rigid links. **(All Workflow)**
49. OBPIntegralAbutment : Same Bottom Connection + 6x6 Stiffness Matrix inputs and stiffness-matrix support path. **(All Workflow)**
50. Bearing Forces : Bearing Forces synced to another unit now carry the same Fz sign as the Extracted Forces panel for spring bearings. **(All Workflow)**
51. Barrier : Barriers can now start or end at a link slab and reach across the joint onto the next deck. **(All Workflow)**
52. Construction Moving Load : Now separates construction dead and live loads per load type (CDL or CLL), supports wheel loads for the finishing machine, takes several static surface loads as a table, each with its own load case, and can include the overhang torques from the moving surface load and the wet deck overhang. **(Steel I Girder Workflow / Steel Tub Girder Workflow / Precast I Girder Workflow / Concrete U Girder Workflow)**


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