Suite · manual

1. Getting started

How the work is organised: from a project to a report, in six steps.

RailTools brings together the tools for overhead lines; the start page shows them as tiles, and the top bar links them:

• BEAM checks single masts: you describe a mast with its parts, BEAM calculates it and writes a report with a number that anyone can verify. This article follows BEAM's work.
• WIRE describes how a conductor behaves over temperature and wind - the wire loads BEAM and OCL use - and evaluates the sag of a span (WIRE - wires and sag).
• OCL, for structures with several masts, portal frames and truss masts, follows.

The steps of the work

Open a project and one of its iterations. Under the logo you see the project, the iteration and the mast you are working on, with your unsaved changes and the check-out state. The row below is the toolbar: on the left new project, open project, save and save as new iteration, then the steps, in the order of the work:

1. Project data - the project data: line, km, owner, structure type, wind reduction.
2. Masts - the masts of the iteration: name, length, material, up to 8 masts.
3. Site plan - the site plan, where you draw the wires and take their spans and angles.
4. Parts - the parts on each mast: as a table, or on the mast photo (Table / Photo).
5. Results - the calculation and its results.
6. Report - the report of one or more masts.

The steps for a single mast (site plan, parts, results) apply to the mast shown in the top line: its name opens a list of all masts, the arrows beside it go to the previous and the next one, and you stay on the same step. The list shows each mast's usage and its state: Ready to calculate, Inputs missing or no parts yet.

The getting-started checklist

A new account starts with a sample project and the checklist Getting started on the projects page: open the sample, look at a mast on its picture, calculate it, open the 3D view. Each step is ticked when you really do it, and a line at the top of every page shows the next one. Hide tips ends the tips.

Check out, then edit

Anyone with access can look at a project. To change it, check it out first with Check out: then nobody else can save it until you check it in again with Check in. You hold one project at a time; logging in or out releases your check-outs.

Saving

The two save buttons in the toolbar save the page you are on: Save overwrites the iteration you are working on; Save as new iteration keeps it and stores your changes as a new iteration of the same project. The mast photo counts its unsaved changes and warns you before you leave it.

The top bar

At the top left, RailTools brings you to the start page, and BEAM and WIRE open the tools. At the top right you choose the language and the colour scheme (like the system, light, dark), open My account and licence with your name, and log out. The ? opens the help for the page you are on; Back there brings you back to that page. Everything happens in one tab: a page with unsaved changes asks before you leave it.

The footer

At the bottom of every page: Imprint, Privacy, Terms of use, Support - how to reach us and what to tell us - and What's new, the changes of each version. If the tool shows an unexpected error, the page gives a short reference: quote it when you contact support.

Asking support

Ask support (on Support and on every error page) opens a form: choose the topic and describe the problem. RailTools adds where you were - the iteration, the mast, the page, an error reference and the version - so you need not copy them. You receive a confirmation by mail; the answer comes by mail and is also shown on the same page under Your requests.

• With priority support (depending on your plan): a request before 14:00 is answered the same working day by 17:00, a later one the next working day by 12:00.
• Without: within 2 working days, by 17:00.

Working days are Monday to Friday, Swiss time; public holidays do not count as working days.

2. Logging in and registering

Your account, the demo account, and a forgotten password.

Logging in

Enter your email and password and choose Log in. After several failed attempts, logging in is paused for a few minutes - wait and try again.

Forgotten your password? Choose Forgot your password? on the login page and enter your e-mail address: you receive a link to set a new one. The link works once and for one hour. Once logged in, you change your password yourself under My account and licence.

Registering

Register creates a demo account: fill in the form and choose Create account. A demo account works on the demo line, for a limited number of days and projects, and creates no reports. To work on real lines and write reports, request a licence - see Projects.

The password needs at least 8 characters.

3. Projects

Finding, opening and sharing projects; requesting a licence.

The projects page lists your company's projects and those other companies have shared with you.

Finding a project

The list on the left can be searched (Search…) and filtered with Show: all projects, real lines only, or the test projects on line 10. A lock icon marks a project that is checked out - green by you, amber by someone else.

Choose a project to see its details, its iterations, its mast images and its site plan.

Opening an iteration

Open opens an iteration and checks the project out for you, so you can edit it. Copy latest as new saves the newest iteration as a new iteration and opens that one - a quick way to start a variant.

To start a project from scratch, use the first button at the top left, New project - see New project. The button beside it, Open project, brings you back to this list from any page.

Sharing a project with another company

The company that created a project can share it under Assignments: choose the company and Locked or Unlocked, then Assign / change.

• Locked: the company can add new iterations, and replace only the ones it saved itself.
• Unlocked: the company can also replace any iteration.

Demo account: requesting a licence

With a demo account the projects page shows Request full licence. It sends a request to vdp Software Tools; you are told when it is approved.

Comparing iterations

If your plan includes it (Licence plans) and the project has at least two iterations, Compare, the tab above the list of iterations, shows what changed between two of them. Choose Before and After; at first they are the one before the newest and the newest. Swap exchanges them.

• Results per mast: for every mast its last calculated result in both iterations and the change of the utilisation - worse in red, better in green. Nothing is calculated here. Outdated means the inputs changed since that calculation; Calculate opens the calculation of a mast that has none.
• Per mast: its data and its parts - changed (only the values that differ), new or removed. A part in one iteration is the same part in the other if it has the same load case and the same catalogue part; several of them on one mast are paired from the lowest up.
• Project: the project data that differ.

At first only the differences are shown; Show everything shows everything.

4. New project

Choosing the owner, the line and the km, and the project's basic settings.

1. Choose the owner. You see only the owners your licence covers.
2. Find the line: type part of its number, name or owner into Search line: number, name or owner and pick it from the list.
3. Enter the km. Below the field BEAM shows where the km lies - on the open track, at a station entry or exit - and the EK there. A km outside the line is refused.
4. Choose Structure type and Wind reduction, fill in the other fields and choose Create project.

Rule set: the rules all masts of the project are calculated to - today R RTE 27200. It is chosen once and kept for the whole project; the project page, the results and the report name it with its version.

The project opens with its first iteration. Continue with Masts.

A demo account always uses the demo line; the line cannot be changed.

5. Project data

The data of an iteration that every mast shares: line, km, EK, structure type, wind reduction.

The first step of an iteration holds what applies to all its masts: the project name and description, customer and contact, drawing number and date, the line and km, EK, Structure type, Wind reduction, and the Parts set and Wires set the parts are chosen from.

Things to know

• EK must be 1, 2 or 3 - a mast can't be calculated otherwise.
• The engineer of an iteration is always the account that saves it.
• The characters ; | § // can't be used in any input.
• Masts and parts are edited on their own pages; saving here leaves them unchanged.

Save with Save or Save as new iteration - see Getting started.

6. Masts

Adding masts to an iteration and entering their data.

An iteration holds up to 8 masts. Add mast adds one; each row is one mast.

The fields

Each mast has its Mast name - how it is called on every page and in the report - its Length and Material, and the site data Track radius, Reference span, Height 'hum', Slope and Gap height. Two fields set how the mast is checked:

• design objective (max. utilization) - the highest utilisation you accept for this mast.
• Height for section forces - the section forces are also evaluated at this height. 0 or empty means no such check.

A red field is invalid, a yellow one is still required. Save the masts, then continue with the parts of each one: Parts table or Mast image.

The list is the overview of the iteration: each mast's state and the usage of its last calculation. Calculate all calculates every saved mast again with the profile and orientation of its last result; a mast that is incomplete or was never calculated is named and left out.

Deleting a mast removes it with all its parts - once you save.

7. Site plan

Drawing the wires on a plan to take their spans and angles.

On the site plan you draw each wire at the mast and let BEAM measure its spans and its angle, instead of entering them by hand.

The picture

Choose a JPEG or PNG, a page of a PDF (pick the page, then drag a rectangle over the area you need), or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V. A picture larger than 1 MB is reduced; choose a smaller area if it still doesn't fit.

Scale

Choose Calibrate, click two points whose distance you know, and enter it as Reference length. The distances are then in metres.

Wires

1. Choose Place wire.
2. Click the start point, then the vertex at the mast, then the end point.
3. BEAM shows the two spans, their sum and the angle. Drag a point to move it.
4. Assign the wire to a parts group under Parts group.

When you save, the span and the angle go into every part of that group: span weight and span wind both become the span. Green wires are assigned, red ones not yet.

The wires are listed left of the plan, with the Properties of the chosen wire below them; the plan takes the rest of the window.

8. Parts table

The parts on a mast as a table: type, height, levers, spans.

Every row is one part on the mast - a cantilever, a wire, an anchor, a signal and so on. The same parts can be edited on the mast photo: see Mast image.

Entering a part

Add part adds a row. Choose its Type first: the type decides which fields the part uses. Then fill in the fields that are not grey.

• Height - where the part attaches.
• Lever dy [m] and Lever dx [m] - its distance from the mast axis.
• Span weight and Span wind - the spans of a wire, for its weight and its wind load. The site plan can fill them in: Site plan.
• Group ID - rows that belong together (for example the two wires of a catenary) share it.
• Acting through - the part the load acts through.

Colours

• yellow - required and still empty. You can save anyway and complete it later.
• grey - not used by this type of part.
• red - invalid. The mouse pointer over the field tells you why. Parts with red fields are not saved.

Update checks the table again after your changes - nothing is saved by it. Changes are only kept after saving.

9. Mast image

Placing and moving parts on a picture of the mast, and seeing the results on it.

The mast photo shows each part as a marker at its height and lever. Moving a marker changes the part; placing a new marker adds one. It is the same data as the parts table (Parts table), seen on the mast.

Picture and scale

Upload a photo or drawing of the mast the same way as on the site plan: a JPEG, PNG, a page of a PDF, or a screenshot pasted with Ctrl+V.

Then choose Calibrate: click the mast foot, then the mast top. Reference height is the real height between the two - the mast length unless you change it. Heights are now measured in metres.

Tools

• Select (V) - click a marker or a row in the list to edit that part; drag a marker to move it.
• Place part (P) - click where the new part attaches.
• Calibrate (C), Fit (F), + and - to zoom, Del to delete, Esc to cancel.

Marker colours: green = complete, red = incomplete, black = anchor, white = hum height, blue = calibration. In the dark colour scheme drawings are shown inverted; Original colours shows a photograph as it is.

Results on the photo

Choose a profile and orientation and Calculate. BEAM calculates the mast as it is on the photo now - unsaved changes included - and draws the results along the mast:

• Forces, Moments, Stresses, Deflections - their course along the mast;
• Acting loads - the loads acting on the mast, as arrows at each point.

Choose the Combination and the Value; Envelope - a symbol in the toolbar - adds the range of all combinations of the same family. Move the pointer over the photo to read the height and the values there.

The box below says what the combination consists of: its load cases with their factors - only those that carry load on this mast; a grey note names the others.

Acting loads

Fx acts along the lever, Fz along the mast. Fy acts across the track, into or out of the picture: ⊗ = into it, ⊙ = out of it. Parts attached at the same point are added up. The mast's own wind and self weight are shown per metre, and Σ gives the total at the mast foot.

Results that no longer match the inputs are marked Outdated - recalculate. All results of this mast opens the calculation page: Calculation and results.

Left of the picture are the parts: a short how-to, the list, and below it the Properties of the chosen part. The tools sit in the picture's own header, beside the tabs Photo and Table. The results open on the right of the picture once you calculate. The boxes fold - click a box's heading; the page remembers which are open. Choosing a part or calculating opens its box again.

The tabs at the top left of the picture switch between the mast image (2D), the 3D model and the parts table. The 3D tab shows the model right here, beside the parts and the results - the same calculation as a 3D model (3D view), also before you have calculated: it then calculates the mast as it is on the picture first, with the profile and orientation chosen in the toolbar. The toolbar's symbols change with the tab: in 3D the views, the values on the diagrams and what the model shows.

10. Catalogue

Add and change your company's parts, profiles, foundations, wires and catenaries - for accounts that edit the catalogue.

The catalogue holds what the calculation uses: the parts with their weights and wind loads, the mast profiles and the foundations - one set per company. Accounts that edit the catalogue open it from the mast image: Edit parts - the book symbol at the end of the toolbar (Mast image) shows the parts of the project's set; Back returns to the mast image. Save your work on the mast image first - the page asks if something is unsaved. vdp Software Tools makes an account a catalogue editor, and the licence plan must include the own catalogue (Licence plans).

The tables

Choose the table at the top and your set under Set. The list shows every entry with its values and in how many places it is used. Materials are shared by every company; only vdp Software Tools changes them.

Wires and catenaries

Wires, catenaries and wire loads belong to WIRE and to the railways: they are changed by the catalogue editors of a licence with Own wires and wire loads (the plan WIRE Railway), in the railway's own set - one of the account's WIRE sets. Everyone else uses the standard entries and those of their sets, without changing them. The railways open these tables from the WIRE page with Edit your wires.

Wires and catenaries are yours to define, every kind: single conductors, messengers, contact wires, and catenaries built from them. The list also shows the standard entries, marked Standard: they are shared by every company and kept up to date by vdp Software Tools. You can look at a standard entry but not change it - Copy into my set puts a copy into your set, which you then change as you need.

• A wire is entered in the units shown beside each field: the weight per metre in N/m (kg/m × 9.80665), the real cross-section in m², the diameter in mm, the elastic modulus in N/m² and the thermal expansion in 1/K. A contact wire needs no elastic modulus or thermal expansion: its tension is held constant by the weights, so they enter no formula - write two hyphens.
• A catenary is built, not typed: choose its messenger and its contact wire, enter the weight of the droppers and clamps (SBB: 0.706 N/m) and the remaining section of the worn contact wire (0.7 = 30 % worn). Its weights are calculated from the two wires every time - change a wire, and every catenary built from it follows. The typical tensions are optional; they will fill the sag calculator.

Derived values, checks and the preview

Beside the fields the page shows what follows from the values:

• the derived values - for a wire its mass, density and section against the circle of its diameter; for a catenary its weight with the new and with the worn contact wire, each with the numbers that make it;
• the plausibility checks - the density for the material, the section against the diameter, the elastic modulus and the thermal expansion. They only warn: a special conductor may be unusual on purpose;
• a preview calculated by the sag engine for a level 50 m span: the N-FL tension table from -20 to 80 °C with its chart, the R-FL sag and vertical force (new, worn, with ice), or a single conductor's tensions. Where an entry has no typical tensions, the preview uses reference values and says so.

Check values recalculates all of this from the values in the fields without saving - try a value before you keep it.

Adding and changing

New entry adds an entry; the edit button of a row changes it. Required fields are marked; numbers may be written with a decimal comma. An entry of the same name and type cannot exist twice in a set.

Entries that are in use

A project keeps a part by its number, and a material, profile, foundation or wire by its name; a catenary keeps its wires by their number. Changing the name of a part is safe; the name of a material, profile, foundation or wire that a project uses stays as it is. Changing its values changes the results of every iteration that uses it, the next time it is calculated: the page says how many and which, and you confirm with I understand that the results of these iterations change. Delete removes an entry that nothing uses - a wire that a catenary is built from stays.

Every change applies at once - also in the other tools - and is recorded with the values before and after.

11. OCL - masts with their parts

One cross-section of the overhead line - masts, the parts on them and their wires - calculated with the reference solver, the results in 3D.

OCL in the top bar opens OCL, when your licence plan includes it (Licence plans). OCL calculates one cross-section of the overhead line: one or more masts, the parts mounted on them - cantilevers, conductor holds, anchors - and the wires they carry. The loads come in by themselves: the self weight, the wires' tensions at the design temperatures, ice, snow and wind. The calculation runs on the server with the reference solver (The reference solver).

The list

The first page lists your company's cross-sections. New mast with a name starts a new one, a click on a name opens it, Delete removes one after asking.

The page

It is laid out like the other tools and fits the window; each column scrolls in its own box.

• Left - Input: the tree of the masts and their parts, Add mast, and below it the properties of what is picked.
• Middle - the window: two symbol tabs in its header, the model (to build it) and the results (once calculated); after them the toolbar with the views, fit, the settings of the results view and Calculate.
• Right - Results: after a calculation.

Building the model

• A mast: pick it in the tree or in the view. Its properties are the profile, the length, the position x and y, the foot level and Orientation: Strong axis across the track, Strong axis along the track or By angle in degrees. The profile and its faces turn together; a part's side stays in the track's terms.
• Add mast places another mast beside the last one.
• A part: click the mast in the view where it goes and choose the part - or choose it first and then click where it goes (Place). The face you click gives its side, the point its height.
• A part's properties: its height and side, its own inputs (from its part template) and each of its wires - Continuous with the spans before and after and the deviation, or Terminated. A cantilever's console is a part of its own: pick it to set its inputs; its length is always the offset it bridges.
• The delete symbol in the header of the properties removes the picked part or mast, after asking.

After a change the results say Outdated - recalculate: calculate again.

The results view

Calculate calculates every load case and combination and switches to the results tab. The upper left corner of the view says what it shows: the combination, the quantity and the value with its unit, and below each mast's profile and orientation.

• In the results panel, buttons choose the quantity - acting loads, forces, moments, stresses, deflections - and below them Combination and Value. Under these the panel lists what the combination consists of: its load cases with their factors, and those left out because they carry no load here.
• In the toolbar: the views (3D, front, side, top) and fit; On the deflected shape and 3D model with profiles as symbols, pressed while on; the Values on the diagrams (none, min / max, all) and, for deflections, the Direction.
• Click a support or an anchor to read its reactions in the combination shown. The deflected members are drawn curved, as they bend.
• The model tab brings back the building view; the results tab returns to the quantity you looked at last.

Moving the view is as in the 3D view (3D view): drag turns it about what you point at, shift+drag moves it, the wheel zooms.

The results panel

Warnings come first, then Foundations - the largest and smallest forces and moments at each foundation, each with its combination -, Anchors with the anchor's axial force, Members, Load totals per case and Notes.

Save keeps the cross-section together with its last result.

12. WIRE - wires and sag

Sag, tension and support forces of one span - single conductor, N-FL or R-FL - with the drawing and every formula.

WIRE in the top bar opens the calculator, when your licence plan includes it (Licence plans). It calculates one span between two supports A and B, with the method of the SBB tool Dh_Hf v250526, and shows how each number is found.

The three systems

• Single conductor: a wire with fixed ends - a feeder or return conductor. Its tension changes with the temperature and with ice.
• N-FL: a catenary whose messenger is fixed at the ends and whose contact wire is tensioned by weights. The messenger's tension changes with the temperature; the table gives it from -20 to 80 °C.
• R-FL: messenger and contact wire both tensioned by weights. The tensions stay constant; only ice and a worn contact wire change the sag.

Choose the system at the top. The conductors and catenaries come from the catalogue: the standard ones and those of your company (Catalogue).

The inputs

Every field says its unit and what it means. The span c is the horizontal distance from A to B; Δh is how much lower B is than A. Ice or snow (7 or 15 N/m) counts only at -5 °C, as SBB rule 0161.1013.0004 says.

• Single conductor: the tension is known at one temperature - or, if it is not, from three points of the curve: A, B and a measured point below the chord.
• N-FL: the installation tension of the unloaded messenger (before the contact wire is hung) at its temperature - or, with Known from, the loaded messenger tension at a table temperature, as the wire loads give it (Basis 10 kN at -20 °C): the page then finds the installation tension - and the contact wire tension. With the span model c_m the tension table is calculated for the ideal span of the tensioning section, the sag for this span.
• R-FL: the messenger's and the contact wire's tension.

If a catenary has no typical tensions in the catalogue, reference values are filled in and the page says so - enter your own.

Every change recalculates at once. Calculate does the same without script. The page's address holds the whole calculation: keep it as a bookmark or send it, and it opens with the same values.

The page on one screen

The page is laid out like a CAD program and fits the window. At the top the bar names the calculation (system and wire or catenary) and holds the Standard toolbar: New calculation, Open the wire catalogue for its editors, and save - it saves the wire load, or a new wire into the catalogue. Beside it the three systems are tabs.

• Left - the inputs, as a list of properties in groups: click a group's title to open or close it; a closed group shows its values in one line, and the page remembers which groups you keep open. A field's explanation appears while you type in it and when you point at it.
• Middle - the window: its tabs Drawing, Charts, Tension table, Contact wire heights and Calculation, after them, in the same header, the toolbar with PDF and Print view; below, the view itself. The open tab is part of the address, so a bookmark opens it again.
• Right - the results: the main values, the support forces, the sag at the points you entered; the second tab holds Wire load.

Each column scrolls in its own box, never the page; the status bar at the bottom names the units and the sag engine. On a small screen the columns stand one below the other.

Printing

PDF gives the calculation as a PDF file. Print view shows the same document as A4 pages, with Back to the calculation, PDF and Print at the top. The pages have the margins of the BEAM report, and page 1 says where the calculation opens again.

The results

• the headline values: the tension, the messenger's and the contact wire's sag, the virtual span;
• the drawing of the span: the supports, the messenger, the contact wire with the droppers, the chord (dotted) and the sag of the state shown, beside other states for comparison (10 °C, -20 °C, 80 °C, ice). Heights are drawn × k - sags are centimetres over tens of metres - and the drawing says by how much; choose k yourself under Vertical exaggeration;
• the support forces at A and B: the vertical force F_V, which loads the mast, and the pull F_Z;
• the sag at any points you enter - each drawn on the span, numbered like the table;
• for a single conductor and N-FL the charts of tension and sag against the temperature, and the tension table.

Show the calculation

Show the calculation lists, for every step, the formula, the numbers put in and the result, with the section of the method. This is what a checking engineer reads. The main formulas:

• the state-change equation - how the tension follows the temperature from the length of the wire: the elastic and thermal stretch equals the change of length from the sag;
• the catenary's sag: the contact wire is level at 10 °C; after that it follows the change of the messenger's shape, so the messenger hangs like one wire with the tension messenger + contact wire under an effective load;
• the sag of an inclined span from the virtual span a (the parabola's vertex);
• the support forces from the catenary.

The method, with every formula: Method and formulas.

Reading values on the pictures

Point at the span drawing or a chart: a line follows the pointer, and a box shows every curve's value at that position with its unit - on the drawing the distance from A, each state's sag below the chord and the contact wire's own sag in mm; on a chart the temperature and each curve's tension or sag. With the keyboard, move to the picture (Tab) and use the arrow keys; Shift moves in larger steps, Home and End go to the ends.

Choices that don't apply

Where only certain values make sense, the field is a list. A choice that would make the calculation impossible is greyed out, and it becomes available as soon as it applies: ice or snow only at -5 °C, the covered part of the span only with ice case P1.2, P1.2 not together with P1.1 / P1.3. Fields that belong to another choice are hidden until that choice is made.

Defining wires for the mast calculation

The page also makes the wires the mast calculation uses. The railways save them: catalogue editors whose licence includes Own wires and wire loads save into their WIRE set (Catalogue). Everyone else calculates with a typed wire and sees the values, without saving.

1. A new wire: choose New wire ... at the end of the conductor list and type its data sheet values - weight per metre, cross-section, modulus of elasticity, thermal expansion, diameter. Without a wind load the page takes 0.675 kN/m² × diameter, as the standard wires. The results use the new wire at once, with the catalogue's plausibility checks. Save the wire in the catalogue puts it into the catalogue and chooses it.
2. Its tensions: under the known state, give the tension at its temperature - usually at -20 °C. The page shows the bare wire's tension at -20, -5 and +5 °C for this span, and the weight and wind per metre. Save as wire load saves them as a wire load with names in four languages - type condA for a conductor along the track, condT for a feeder across the track from a switching post -, which you can change before saving.
3. A catenary gives two wire loads, saved together with Save both as wire loads: the messenger (condSN / condSR) and the contact wire (condCN / condCR), each with its own weight and wind. On N-FL the messenger's tensions come from the tension table, the contact wire's is Z_f; on R-FL both are tensioned by weights, so their values are the same at every temperature.

For a bundle of single conductors, set Conductors side by side (single conductors only - a catenary is always one): every value of the wire load is multiplied, and the name starts with 2x, 3x, ... - the sag stays that of one conductor. A fixed wire's tensions depend on the span, so the name says it, and every wire load keeps the address of its calculation: it opens again with the same values.

Design contact wire heights

For N-FL and R-FL the page also gives hf_min and hf_max after AB-EBV 2024 Art. 5.2.1 and 5.2.2. Enter the track under Contact wire heights (AB-EBV 2024): the structure gauge, the voltage, ballast, the speed, a level crossing, the allowances f and H, and for N-FL the conductor temperatures (the warmest for hf_min, the coldest for hf_max) - the contact wire's sag comes from the tension table. For R-FL the ice case decides the contact wire's sag with ice.

The ladder shows how each height is made: hf_min built up from the structure gauge, one block per allowance; hf_max built down from the absolute maximum. Between them lies the band a design height may use - green when it exists, red when hf_min lies above hf_max. Enter a design height under Planned design height and the page says whether it lies inside the band. The two tables list every allowance in mm.

The SBB tables for the contact wire heights hold only certain spans (60 to 26 m, and 24, 20, 16, 12, 8 m); for another span the page says so and shows the sag without the heights.

Where the calculator differs from the SBB tool

It reproduces the SBB tool - checked against twelve of its calculations. In two places the tool is inconsistent, and the calculator is not: with ice on an R-FL, the tool leaves the ice out of the vertical support force (the page shows the tool's value in a note); and the tool's single conductor table uses the height difference of the previous calculation.

13. Method and formulas

How the sag calculator calculates: the catenary, the state-change equation, the catenary's shared load, the heights.

The calculator (WIRE - wires and sag) uses the method of the SBB tool Dh_Hf v250526; every formula below is the one that tool uses. The full method statement, with each derivation, is the document SAG_THEORY that comes with the tool; vdp Software Tools sends it on request.

Symbols: c span, h how much lower B is than A, x distance from A, y sag below A, g weight per metre, H horizontal tension, E elastic modulus, A section, α thermal expansion, ϑ conductor temperature. Index 0 is the known state, x the state calculated.

One wire

A wire carrying its own weight hangs as a catenary; its lowest point lies at a/2, where a is the horizontal span of the symmetric curve that contains the real one:

For the small sags of contact lines the parabola is enough - and its mid-span sag f is the familiar one:

The support forces follow from the catenary: the vertical force F_V loads the mast, the pull F_Z is the wire's resultant:

How the tension follows the temperature

The wire's length from its sag must equal its unstressed length stretched by the tension and by the heat:

This gives a cubic in the new tension - it has exactly one positive root, the physical tension:

The catenary: the load shared by messenger and contact wire

At 10 °C the contact wire is level and the messenger carries the whole weight g_K. In any other state the contact wire follows the change of the messenger's shape, and its tension H_F carries part of the load. Adding the equilibrium of both wires gives one equation - the messenger hangs like one wire with the tension messenger + contact wire under an effective load:

So the sags of messenger and contact wire are:

and the messenger's tension of an N-FL follows from the state-change equation of the VEM handbook (1975, p. 445), solved for H_tx:

The N-FL table chains six states: the messenger alone, the contact wire hung (H_10, rounded to 10 N), the regulated catenary with the new and with the worn wire, and ice of 7 and 15 N/m at -5 °C.

The sag of a span

An inclined span is calculated from its virtual span L_T1, the span of the parabola whose vertex is the lowest point:

For an R-FL both tensions are constant; only the load beyond the reference - ice ZL and the wear ZL_1, a negative load - is shared by both tensions:

Design contact wire heights

After AB-EBV 2024 Art. 5.2.1 and 5.2.2, the heights are sums of allowances in mm:

Numbers and rounding

The equations are solved exactly (bisection to 10⁻⁹ N); the N-FL table is rounded as the SBB tool does - the reference at 10 °C to 10 N, the table to 5 N, halves away from zero. The calculator was checked against twelve calculations of the SBB tool: every value is reproduced. Where the SBB tool is inconsistent, the calculator is not, and says so on the page.

References

• Handbuch Energieversorgung elektrischer Bahnen, VEM Verlag Technik, Berlin 1975, p. 445 and formulas 7.14c, 7.20, 7.53, 7.66, 7.67, 7.75, 7.82.
• Kiessling, Puschmann, Schmieder: Fahrleitungen elektrischer Bahnen, Siemens 1998.
• AB-EBV 2024, Art. 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.9.2; SBB regulations 0161.1010.0011, 0161.1010.0012, 0161.1010.0201, 0161.1013.0004, 0161.1013.0005.1.

14. Calculation and results

Calculating a mast in one or more profiles and reading the results.

Calculating

1. Open Mast profiles at the top and tick one or more.
2. Start the calculation: Across the track or Along the track for one orientation, or Calculate both orientations.

Each profile and orientation is one variant. If something is missing - mast data, parts, the EK - the page says what and where to fix it.

Reading the results

The tiles below show the Summary, the total utilization first. Results per variant shows every check of each variant; a closed section still shows its highest utilization per variant, so you see at once which check governs. Over-utilised checks are marked. The table scrolls inside its box, its head and first column stay in place.

The diagrams show forces, moments, stresses and deflections along the mast, with anchor or without anchor. Move the pointer over a diagram to read height and values. At a part's height and at the anchor a diagram steps level: it shows the value just below and the value just above that height. Torsion Mz follows the right-hand rule: looking up the mast (into +z), a clockwise torsion is positive.

The axes are global and right-handed: x to the right, y into the picture, z up along the mast. The folded note on the page maps them onto AxisVM's names.

What the calculation leaves out

BEAM combines the self weight, the added weight of the parts, the permanent wire tension at -20 °C and at +5 °C, wind in both directions and the exceptional load of a wire break (A400). It does NOT calculate with:

• the permanent wire tension at -5 °C,
• snow and ice on wires and parts,
• construction loads.

The catalogue may hold values for the first two - they are there for other RailTools tools - but they do not enter a BEAM result. If one of these loads matters for a mast, check it separately.

Masts without a report

You can keep up to 10 calculated masts without a report at a time. Recalculating a mast already counted is always possible. A report frees the places of its masts; entries also expire after 90 days.

The latest result stays with the mast and is marked as outdated when its inputs change.

The model in 3D

Below the results, 3D view opens each variant as a 3D model, with its loads, diagrams, deflected shape and support loads: 3D view. To look at the model in AxisVM: Opening the model in AxisVM.

15. 3D view

The calculated mast as a 3D model: loads, diagrams, deflected shape, profile and support loads.

The 3D view shows the model the mast is calculated with: the mast, its cross-arms and rigid links, the anchor and the supports. Open it after a calculation with 3D view on the calculation page (one per variant, see Calculation and results), or use the 3D tab of the mast image (Mast image). If several variants were calculated, Variant switches between them.

Moving around

• Drag to turn the model, shift+drag to move it, the wheel to zoom, a double-click to fit it.
• View: Front x-z, Side y-z, Top x-y or 3D; Fit fits the model into the window.

The axes are those of the calculation: x to the right, y into the picture, z up along the mast.

What is drawn

Choose the Combination and what to show on the structure:

• Acting loads - an arrow at each point where parts act; the mast's own wind as a row of small arrows along it, self weight included.
• Forces, Moments, Stresses - diagrams along the mast; Value picks the component. Each diagram is drawn in the plane it acts in; the legend says which - for the y-z plane, turn the view to see it.
• Deflected shape - the deflected mast, shown exaggerated; Exaggerate more and Exaggerate less change the factor. The cross-arms turn with the mast's twist. Direction chooses what is shown: x, y, or Combined - the length of the displacement. The values are given in mm on the drawing; the legend gives the largest one in the chosen direction, and the twist. z is greyed out: the mast is calculated for horizontal deflections and its twist only.

Diagrams are coloured with the same scale as on the mast image: blue for the smallest values, red for the largest. Point at the model to read the values at that place.

Section forces are calculated along the mast; cross-arms and rigid links show none, and the anchor shows its axial force when you click it (see below). For a mast with an anchor, the legend says whether the combination counts with or without it. The box beside the drawing says what the combination consists of, as on the mast image.

Values on the drawing

Values: None, Min / max, or All (where they fit). With All (where they fit), values that would overlap are left out, so zooming in shows more of them; the smallest and the largest are always shown. This holds for the diagrams and for the deflections: for one direction, the largest value on each side is shown. Units shows or hides the units.

Profile and mast image

• Mast profile draws the cross-section along the mast, oriented as calculated: in the normal orientation the strong side is across the track and the web runs along x. It is drawn to scale; zoom in to see it better - the top view shows the orientation best.
• On the deflected shape draws forces, moments and stresses on the deflected model, along the bent members; the undeflected model stays faint behind it.
• Mast image lays the mast image into the x-z plane, where its calibration puts it - only for a mast with a calibrated image.

Support loads

The supports are the squares at the mast foot and, with an anchor, at the anchor foundation. Click one to see its loads in the chosen combination: the forces Fx, Fy, Fz and the moments Mx, My, Mz, as the foundation checks use them, with arrows on the drawing. For the anchor foundation the anchor's axial force N is given too; in a combination that counts without the anchor it carries no load. Click the support again to close it.

The anchor's force

Click the anchor to see its axial force N in the chosen combination: Tension, with an arrow at each end pointing away from the anchor (blue), or Compression, with arrows pushing into it (red). The value is written beside the anchor and in the box next to the drawing. In a combination that counts without the anchor, the box says so. Click the anchor again to close it.

Back to the mast image

Mast image returns to the mast image with the same results shown - nothing is calculated again. A calculation is kept for a while; once it has expired, the page says so: calculate the mast again.

16. Opening the model in AxisVM

The 3D model of a calculation in AxisVM, with the BEAM AxisVM helper.

After a calculation on the mast photo, Open in AxisVM (model file) downloads the mast's 3D model: nodes, beams, the anchor, and every load case. The BEAM AxisVM helper builds it in AxisVM on your PC. The anchor is a pinned rod: it carries force only along its own axis, as BEAM calculates it. A model downloaded before RailTools 1.57.0 still has the old anchor (stiff sideways too) - download it again.

Once: install the helper

You need AxisVM on your PC and the BEAM AxisVM helper (BeamAxisVM.exe) from vdp Software Tools. Start it once with --install: from then on a double-click on a model file opens it with the helper. The helper is signed: Windows shows vdp Software Tools GmbH as its publisher.

Each time

1. Calculate the mast on the photo, then choose Open in AxisVM (model file).
2. Open the downloaded file. The helper starts AxisVM, builds the model and saves it next to the file.

The helper never closes an AxisVM you are working in without asking.

The helper's version

The first line of the helper's log names its version. Version 1.2 builds a section that AxisVM's catalogue lacks from its dimensions and lists it in the log, and places every profile turned exactly as it is designed; replace an older copy of BeamAxisVM.exe with it.

How the server's own solver works and how it compares with AxisVM: The reference solver.

17. The reference solver

What the finite-element solver computes, how, where its limits are, and how it was verified against 100 AxisVM models.

The finite-element solver the RailTools tools (OCL first) calculate with. It runs on the server and needs no licence; AxisVM stays available as an independent check of the very same model. This page describes what it computes, how, where its limits are, and how it has been verified - including against the AxisVM models of 100 real projects.

1. Where it sits

1. components: masts, yokes, parts, anchors ...
2. the physical model: joints, members and the joins between components
3. load definitions -> loads per load case (the project's rule set gives the cases and combinations)
4. the analysis model: nodes, beams, rigid elements, links
5. solve: load cases, combinations, procedures (tension-only members)
6. results, envelopes, foundations, report

The analysis model is the hand-over point: the reference solver and AxisVM both take it, and both answer in the same form, so everything after the solve works with either.

2. What it models

Nodes: six degrees of freedom each, in global axes - ux, uy, uz, rx, ry, rz. Axes of a cross-section (OCL): x across the track, y along it (km increasing), z up.

Beams: straight 3D frame elements between two nodes.

• Stiffness: axial EA/L, torsion GIt/L, bending about the local y and z axes. Shear deformation (Timoshenko beam) is included where the section has shear areas: the shear parameter phi = 12 E I / (G Av L^2) per bending plane; phi = 0 gives the Euler-Bernoulli beam exactly. It is on by default.
• Local axes: x from the start to the end node, z as authored (a vector, or AxisVM's rotation angle beta: z in the vertical plane through x pointing up, a vertical member's z along global X, then turned by beta about x).
• Sections with a product of inertia (angles) bend about their principal axes: the element is built in the principal axes (turned by theta = 1/2 atan(-2 Iyz / (Iy - Iz)) about x) and its forces are turned back into the member's own y / z, so results stay in the axes the user knows.
• End releases (hinges) per DOF, by static condensation of the element - no ‘soft spring’ approximations; the forces at a released DOF are exactly zero.
• Uniform distributed loads (global or local) as consistent (work-equivalent) nodal loads; member forces are recovered as k d - f_eq, so the fixed-end part of the load is in the forces.

Rigid zones: nodes joined by rigid elements form one rigid body with six DOFs (master-slave elimination, exact - no penalty stiffness). Chains and groups of any size.

Links (connectors): six independent springs (fixed, free or a stiffness in kN/m, kNm/rad) in the link's axes (along the link, global, or a given frame). The spring acts at its first node; the second node reaches it through a rigid arm - so a link with length and a lateral spring is in moment equilibrium. A link may be tension-only: it is switched off in every combination where it would be pushed (iterated per combination).

Supports: per DOF fixed, free or a spring. A fixed DOF on a node of its own is eliminated exactly.

3. How it solves

1. Assembly: every element's stiffness, transformed to global and through the rigid bodies' master DOFs, into a sparse matrix (rows as dictionaries). Beams and supports are assembled once per model and cached; procedures that change only links (tension-only, softening) re-use them.
2. Ordering: the free DOFs, node by node, in reverse Cuthill-McKee order - this keeps the matrix banded.
3. Factorisation: a skyline (profile) L D L^T. A pivot at round-off level of its row is a free direction (a mechanism): it is decoupled and decided per load case - if the case loads that motion, the solve stops with a message naming the node and direction; if not, the direction is held at zero (the classic ‘singular but unloaded’, e.g. a group spinning about a chain's axis).
4. Load cases and combinations: one factorisation, every case (back substitution only). Combinations are solved directly with their factored loads (exactly the superposition in a linear model; needed where a procedure changes the model per combination).
5. Results: node displacements; member end forces at every station; support reactions (the support's force on the structure); link forces; then envelopes per member and per foundation.

Sign conventions: member forces are the forces the part of the member after s exerts on the part before s, in the member's axes; N > 0 is tension. Reactions are the support's force on the structure. Moments turn by the right-hand rule: looking into the positive direction of an axis, a clockwise moment is positive (torsion Mz = x · Fy - y · Fx).

Speed: a full OCL cross-section (454 nodes, 46 combinations with a tension-only anchor) in about 4 s; a lattice yoke of 1000 nodes in under a second per load case set.

4. Sections

From the tool's profile table, else the standard tables:

• rolled sections with their fillets: I / H (EN 10365), UPN (DIN 1026), equal angles (EN 10056-1, with the rounded toes) - HEB 220: A, Iy, Iz within 0.1 % of the catalogue, It within 0.4 %;
• torsion constants: rolled I with the fillet junctions; open, closed (Bredt) and solid sections by their formulas;
• shear areas: rolled I / U as EN 1993-1-1 6.2.6, rectangles and flats 5/6 A, round bars 0.9 A, tubes 2A/pi, hollow sections A h / (b + h), angles 5/6 of each leg;
• known approximation: UPN outlines have parallel flanges (the real ones are tapered) - Iz about 16 % high.

5. Limits

• Linear, first order: no second-order (P-Delta) effects, no buckling analysis, no warping torsion, no plates or shells. The design checks of the members and any second-order check come on top.
• Curved members: as straight elements between nodes (AxisVM does the same after meshing an arc - section 6).
• Near-mechanisms (a known difference to AxisVM, deliberately left as it is): where a part of the model is held only by very soft springs (the 1 kN/m ‘wire holds’ of the parts) or by free link rotations, the reference solver detects the practically force-free direction and holds it at zero, while AxisVM lets such a part drift slightly. Only the displacements of those parts differ; the forces agree within 0.11 % (models 39 and 40 in the table). Should the drift matter, those parts need a real stiffness in the model, not a solver setting.

6. Verification

6.1 Textbook cases (the test suite)

Cantilever tip deflections and moments (P L^3 / 3 E I, w L^4 / 8 E I, with and without shear deformation P L / G Av), portal frames, end releases, rigid bodies and chains, links with lever arms, tension-only bracing, the principal-axis bending of an angle, equilibrium of every case of every test model, the skyline factorisation equal to a dense LU to 1e-14, the cached assembly equal to a fresh one. More than 530 tests run on every change.

6.2 Calibration runs in AxisVM

Small models solved by both, element by element: cantilevers in six directions (sign conventions of forces, supports, links), flats standing and lying (AxisVM's catalogue stands a flat upright), angles about their principal axes, links with length. Identical to the last printed digit.

6.3 Models from the BEAM tool

Five model files as BEAM hands them to AxisVM (profile masts with cantilevers and an anchor, a lattice yoke of 804 nodes, a lattice mast of 506 nodes), solved by both on the same input: masts identical (0.04 %), the yoke and the lattice mast within 0.1 % on displacements and forces (both without shear deformation).

6.4 100 AxisVM models of real projects

The AxisVM models of 100 real projects (anonymous here) were opened in AxisVM, read element by element, analysed there, rebuilt for the reference solver from AxisVM's own data - its section and material values - and compared in every load case and every combination: node displacements, support forces, member forces at the member ends (as N, the shear and bending resultants and |T|, which no axis convention changes) and link forces. The figures are the largest difference over all cases and combinations, relative to the largest value of that kind in the model.

The six models outside 0.1 % are three projects, each in two versions: a near-mechanism whose forces agree within 0.11 % while a soft part drifts (39, 40); link axes stored by an older AxisVM version at a lattice girder end (50, 51 - the two models outside 5 %; section 6.4); and moments differing by 0.15 % at a rigid-body corner.

What reading AxisVM's models taught (all built into the comparison):

• AxisVM's interface gives the rotation angle beta in radians;
• line results run from the line's start node even when its local x runs the other way;
• an angle is computed about its principal axes, its section mirrored on a line whose local x runs end to start;
• a link's spring may sit part-way along it (a node there, tied rigidly to the start);
• a distributed load given twice on the same element, case and range is applied once;
• a link that holds only some rotations in its own axes needs those axes given: models 50 and 51 (one project in two versions) differed at one lattice girder end - up to 17.7 % of the largest axial force, although support forces and displacements agreed - because four short skew links there carry axes that an older AxisVM version worked out and stored with the model, turned by about 11 degrees against the usual ones. With those stored axes the reference solver's forces equal AxisVM's. Today's AxisVM no longer accepts such a link without its axes; RailTools gives every one of them explicitly, so both solvers use the same axes (checked on 22 links in all directions);
• the analysis meshes a curved line into short arc pieces and computes each as one straight element;
• AxisVM's linear analysis runs without shear deformation - the comparison does the same (the reference solver includes it by default).

18. Correx - stamps on the drawing

Put the stamps of the calculation and your comments on the client's drawing; the final drawing comes with the report.

Correx puts the results of a mast on the client's drawing as stamps - the profile and foundation, the utilisation, the anchor, the wires - together with your comments. It is the step Correx, between the results and the report, one mast at a time.

The drawing

Check the project out, open Correx and choose the mast. Upload the client's drawing as a PDF with Upload drawing. If the PDF has several pages, choose the right one under Page. The drawing belongs to this iteration; a new iteration needs it again.

Calculate the mast first (Calculation and results) - the stamps take their values from the calculation.

The stamps from the calculation

Under From the calculation, BEAM makes the stamps itself and places them on the drawing:

• the drawing and who checked it - drawing number, EK, engineer and date, and later the report number;
• the mast - profile and length, orientation, the foundation and the slope; choose the foundation among the permissible ones;
• the utilisation - green up to 100 %, red above;
• the anchor - only for a mast with an anchor; choose its foundation;
• the wires - every conductor with its attachment, height, spans and angle.

Switch a stamp off with its tick box, and give it another colour with the colour squares. If your plan includes the logo and your company has one (My account and licence), Company logo is a stamp too: drag it where it belongs and size it with its corner.

Comments

Under Add a comment, choose a category and click a colour next to a text: the stamp appears where you are looking. Replace *** in its text with your value. Add cross-out box adds a box with a diagonal - it marks a part of the drawing as void. Edit texts opens your company's texts - see below.

Arranging the stamps

• Drag a stamp to move it. Shift + click selects several; they move together.
• With several selected, the toolbar aligns them - to the left, right, top or bottom edge of the outermost one, or centred.
• The small square at the corner of a selected stamp changes its size. Auto size gives it the size its content needs again.
• The text inside a stamp: left, centred or right, and top, middle or bottom.
• Stamp size makes all stamps larger or smaller.
• Zoom with - and +, or with ctrl + mouse wheel; the percentage fits the drawing to the width again.
• Arrow keys move the selected stamps by 1 pt (shift: 10 pt); Delete removes a selected comment.

Every change is saved at once.

The finished drawing

Save page (PDF) saves the stamped page as a PDF, named like the report - to check it or to send it ahead. It is a draft: its stamp says there is no report yet.

The final drawing comes with the report (Report): for every mast with a Correx drawing, BEAM makes the stamped page from the report's own calculation, with the report number and its QR code in the stamp, and appends it to the report PDF behind a page that lists them.

Your company's stamp texts

The comment texts belong to your company and are the same in all tools. If your company has none of its own yet, it uses the default texts: Copy the default texts makes them your company's, and from then on you add, change and delete them - the category, the text, the size and the colours it is offered in. Accounts with a licence edit their company's texts; a demo account reads the default texts.

19. Report

Choosing the masts, and creating the report to print or save as PDF.

A report covers one or more masts of an iteration, each in the profile and orientation you choose.

1. Tick In report for each mast, and choose its Profile and Strong side.
2. Calculate overview calculates them all and shows the results.
3. Choose the Report language. If your company has several licences, choose the one the report belongs to.
4. Create report writes the report. It opens as printable pages: Print / save as PDF.

Every page carries the report's number and a QR code; anyone can check the report with them - see Verifying a report.

The PDF

Download PDF at the top of the report saves it as a PDF file, named after the drawing and the report number. Under Reports of this iteration, the report page lists every report of the iteration - download any of them again there.

Masts with a Correx drawing get their stamped page in the PDF, appended behind a page that lists them - see Correx - stamps on the drawing.

When a mast can't be reported

• A mast with incomplete inputs.
• A mast with a portal frame.
• With a demo account, no reports can be created.

How much of your plan is used is shown under My account and licence.

20. Verifying a report

Checking that a report is genuine, with its number or QR code.

Every report is registered with its number. On the verification page, enter the number printed at the bottom of every page and choose Check - or scan the page's QR code, which opens the same check.

A registered report shows its project, masts, profiles and utilisations, the date, the author and the version. Compare them with the document: any difference means it was changed after it was written.

A number that isn't registered was not produced by RailTools BEAM. The page needs no login.

21. My account and licence

Changing your password, and how much of your plan is used.

Choose your name at the top right.

Password

Enter your current password and the new one twice, then Change password. You stay logged in here; other devices are logged out.

My licence

My licence shows your plan, its current period, how many users it allows and how much of it is used. From 80 % a hint appears; at 100 % you can keep creating reports, the excess is billed separately. Extend my plan lets you contact vdp Software Tools.

If your company's licence allows a fixed number of users and all are in use, a new user can't be added - contact vdp Software Tools.

Team

If your plan includes team management (Licence plans), the licence holder - and every team admin the holder appoints - sees Team on this page. It shows how many users the licence has of how many the plan allows, and every member.

• Invite a colleague: enter name and e-mail and choose Send invitation. The colleague gets a link by mail, valid for 7 days: it sets a password and works on your licence at once - no demo, no approval. If the mail does not arrive, the page shows the link once to pass on yourself. An open invitation holds a seat; Withdraw frees it, Send again sends a new link.
• An address that has an account already joins after confirming with that account's password.
• Per member: Make team admin (the licence holder only), the catalogue right (if your plan includes the own catalogue), Password link - mailed to the member, you do not see it - and Remove. Removing deactivates the account: it can no longer log in; its projects and reports stay with the company. The licence holder and your own account cannot be removed here.

Company logo

If your plan includes the logo (Licence plans), Company logo keeps your company's logo - PNG, JPEG or SVG. It appears at the top right of every page of the reports you create from then on, and on the Correx drawing as a stamp (Correx - stamps on the drawing). Upload logo replaces it; Remove logo removes it - reports already created keep theirs.

Background: with Transparent, all white of the logo is removed when you upload it - white inside the logo too - and the logo stands directly on the report's blue header band. With White field with blue border, the logo sits on white that fills the header band's full height at its right end, the logo plus a margin wide, with a blue border along the band's edge - the choice for a logo that needs its white. On the Correx drawing, the logo then has the same white with the blue border. You can switch between the two at any time with Apply background; the preview shows the logo on the band as it will print.

22. Licence plans

What each licence plan includes, and what happens when a function is not in yours.

Every licence belongs to a plan. The plan sets how much you can report in a year, how many users your company can have, and which functions are included. The page Licence plans - linked at the bottom of every page as Licence plans - shows the plans side by side; if you are logged in, your plan is marked Your plan.

What the page shows

• the number of masts a year, as a guide - a report counts by the size of its masts; and the number of users;
• every function, grouped - reports and documents, results, working together, service - ticked when the plan includes it;
• functions marked Coming soon are promised already and follow in a later version.

A function your plan leaves out

The function tells you so, names itself and links to the plans. Nothing is lost: your projects and reports stay as they are. To change your plan, contact us - see the support page.

Plans per tool

Each tool - BEAM, WIRE and later OCL - has its own plans, and Licence plans compares them tool by tool. A licence has one main plan and can add one plan of each other tool, for example BEAM Professional with WIRE. A tool your licence doesn't include is marked Not in your plan on the start page, and its pages say so and link to the plans.

How much of your plan you have used is shown under My account and licence.