On April 10, GeoStudio 2007 version 7.1 was released, a significant service pack update. There are numerous bug fixes and some major improvements. Geo-Slope claims that the overall speed of the product is faster when switching between analyses and views, a welcome change. There are some nice changes to the way Sketch Text is handled, which makes it easier to handle annotation of multiple analyses. And something interesting that's new in SLOPE/W that allows you to specify a “Spatial Mohr-Coulomb” model which allows unit weight, cohesion and friction angle to vary across the geometry as a function of x and y. I can’t think of a case where I would have used such a model, but it is very intriguing. More features listed after the break along with links.

Below is a list of some improvements I found useful or interesting or that fix some minor annoyance. Most of my work in GeoStudio has been in SLOPE/W, so my interest reflects that. This is an unofficial list, I took these directly from the GeoStudio 2007 Release History, where you should go for the official version. You can download the file from GEO-SLOPE’s website.

All Products

• The Engineering Books have been updated with discussion on the new features and detailed examples.
• Sketch Text fields have been improved in several ways. You can now choose fields to display various analysis results and other values in CONTOUR. The fields have been reorganized to make them easier to find; only fields that exist in the current analysis are displayed, and they are shown using titles rather than the actual field names. Any fields that cannot be resolved (e.g., due to an incorrect field name or the field not applying to the analysis) are not displayed in the GeoStudio window. Also, the Materials table only includes materials in the current analysis.
• Sketch text now has an option to only be shown for a specific analysis. This allows you to hide irrelevant text when in other analyses.
• GeoStudio can now be run from the command line in order to automatically open, save, and solve many data files.
• When you open a data file and cannot get a valid license, you can now optionally open the file in Viewer mode.

SLOPE/W

• SLOPE/W now includes a new Spatial Mohr Coulomb material model, which allows unit weight, cohesion, and phi to vary spatially across the geometry as a function of x and y. Additionally, the Shear/Normal Fn and S=f(overburden) material models now allow unit weight to be defined as a spatial function.
• Pressure lines are now referred to as “Surcharge Loads”, and line loads are now referred to as “Point Loads”.
• Modeling of steep rock slopes has been improved when using the Block slip surface method. When drawing the blocks, the order that you click the points is now preserved, which allows you to generate steep parallel slip surfaces in conjunction with the “no crossing” option on the block slip surfaces.

Related Items:

• Geo-Slope International Prepares for GeoStudio 2007
• GEO-STUDIO Software Update 7.11
• GeoStudio 2007 Released
• GeoStudio 2007 Service Pack - Major Update
• Transient Stability Analyses with SLOPE/W 2007

• GEO-SLOPE International, Ltd.

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