SBX — Simple Beam X¶
Version 1.0.1 · Windows 64-bit · Free
Everything SBO does, with one addition: instead of just checking the section you entered, SBX finds the cheapest section that resists the same forces.
What it adds¶
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Section optimisation
Sequential quadratic programming over width and depth, with the code checks inside the objective function.
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Material costs
Concrete and steel prices as input. Setting both to zero makes it minimise material consumption instead of money.
In the interface, the difference is an Optimise Section button and two cost fields. The rest is identical.
Documentation¶
SBX contains SBO in full, and the documentation follows the same logic as the rest of the line: what applies to SBO applies to SBX, and only the difference is documented here.
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The method, the variables, the constraints, the initial guess and — above all — what to do with a continuous result in a world of formwork in multiples of 5 cm.
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Bending, shear, torsion and moment-curvature. Identical — optimisation does not change the calculation, it only searches for the geometry.
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The bibliography, shared by both.
Optimisation does not change the calculation
SBX uses exactly the same design core as SBO. For each trial section, it runs the complete design — bending, shear, torsion and strut interaction — and only considers feasible what passes everything.
What optimisation does is search, not relax.
When it pays for itself¶
SBO does the job when you already have the section defined — by project standardisation, coordination with the architecture, or practice.
SBX becomes worthwhile when the section is free and volume matters: projects with many identical beams, precast elements, or feasibility studies in which a difference of a few centimetres is multiplied by hundreds of members.