Frequently Asked Questions

(Q) I've heard from one of Fitzroy's competitors that Scale is a DOS program, and that it will soon be obsolete?

(A) No, on both counts. Sand and Scale have been Windows based for the last 10 years, and all programs within the Sand and Scale packages are now 32-bit Windows "win32" executables. The complete system is fully tested and supported for Windows 98, 98SE, ME, NT4 SP6a, 2000 Professional SP4, XP Home SP1/SP2/SP3, XP Professional SP1/SP2/SP3, XP Professional x64 Edition and all versions of Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit RTM/SP1/SP2 and all versions of Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. Please see screenshots of SCALE on 64-bit Windows 7.

Scale proformas have always been based on a text based question and answer session, as this is the most efficient way for the user to enter the data required.

(Q) Which programs are included with SCALE and which with SAND?

(A) Everything shown on this website is included in the SCALE system.
SAND inclues everything on this website with the addition of non-linear analysis.

(Q) When will you update the proformas to the new Eurocodes?

(A) Fitzroy's methodology has been to implement the Eurocodes is to initially have the proformas show all workings to the British Standards and have a Eurocode summary at the end, the design to the Eurocodes is completed in parallel but the workings are not displayed in the calculations file.

We are developing a separate set of proformas which show all working to the Eurocodes. We aim to complete the bulk of proformas for steelwork, concrete, timber, masonry and geotechnices by April 2010. These will be available for download from the update website.

Information regarding the introduction of Eurocodes may be obtained from the Institution of Structural Engineers and the British Standards Institution.

In his introduction to the BSI Structural Eurocodes Companion (modified 02/03/09), Professor David Nethercot OBE FREng, Chairman IStructE Standing Committee on the Implementation of Eurocodes makes the following points

(Q) If I buy a new computer with 64-bit Windows 7, will Scale run?

(A) As all programs within the Sand and Scale packages are 32-bit executables, they will run happily on the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems, see screenshots of SCALE on 64-bit Windows 7..

(Q) If I buy a new computer with a dual-core, quad-core, octo-core processor etc., will Scale run?

(A) All programs within the Sand and Scale packages are "thread-safe" and will run without problems regardless of the number of processors present. The newer the machine, the faster the software will run. The processor intensive program NL-STRESS is still a single-threaded application and will not currently take advantage of any extra processors/cores present, thus on a dual-core machine the operating system will report that only 50% of the processing power is being used. As Intel add further developments to their Fortran compiler to facilitate parallel processing, and multiple-core machines become more prevalent, Fitroy will review the situation.

(Q) A salesman from . . . just gave me a long spiel about why I should not buy from Fitzroy, is he telling the truth?

(A) Fitzroy has neither sales nor marketing personnel. We take the view that if our software is good enough, the software will sell itself. All Fitzroy software is written in Britain, and compiled in-house direct from the source code - unlike some of our competitors, we do not resell, repackage or rely on any third party software.

Fitzroy was awarded the highest rating of "STRONG" in the latest Plimsoll Analysis of Computer Software (pdf 77 KB).

The Structural Engineer, 1 February 2000, 'Computer toolkit for small consultancies' Table 2, put Fitzroy top for fitting the Informal Study Group's wishlist of desirable attributes. Since that time, one of our competitors has been conducting a dirty tricks campaign against Fitzroy. From 1998 to 2000 they told our customers that we wouldn't be supporting BS5950:2000, we did; that SCALE was a DOS program, it isn't, and whereas many of our competitors only support XP, we support SAND/SCALE on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 to Windows Vista 64 bit. The latest dirty trick is telling our customers that we can't edit in a Window's environment, we can, either in the middle of a calculation or at the end, click Display and Edit and alter whatever you want, there is always plenty of 'whitespace' available for you to personalise the calculations.

(Q) When I print to Adobe Acrobat PDF Printer, I get pages of gobbledegook appearing.

(A) Sometimes Acrobat will be set to substitute the fonts for the Scale document with its own, and this can lead to gobbledegook. This setting is straightforward to reset manually, please follow the examples below for Acrobat 9 on Windows 7, and Acrobat 6 on Windows XP, other versions of Acrobat and Windows are similar. (It is not possible for Scale to reset this programmatically or via the registry as Adobe store this setting in the private portion of the DEVMODE structure)

In Windows 7, click on the Start button, then click on "Devices and Printers". In the "Devices and Printers" window, right click on the "Adobe PDF" printer icon, then click on "Printing Preferences"

In WIndows XP, click on the Start Button, then click on "Control Panel". In "Control Panel", double click on "Printers and Faxes". In the "Printers and Faxes" window, right click on the "Adobe PDF" printer, then click on "Printing Preferences..."

For Acrobat 9, in the "Adobe PDF Printing Preferences" window, go to the "Adobe PDF Settings" tab, then untick the box for "Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts"

For Acrobat 6, in the "Adobe PDF Printing Preferences" window, go to the "Adobe PDF Settings" tab, then untick the box for "Do not send fonts to "Adobe PDF""

Finally, click on "OK" to close the open dialog windows.