Thank you to everyone who helped make 2005 a great year for MPanel.  The past year saw many new improvements to the software, some really interesting designs from our clients, and the number of MPanel users nearly double!  We are expecting 2006 to be even better and wish you all much success as well. Happy New Year!

How to design a deep catenary mesh using MPanel

Deep catenaries can be used for entrance arches, shade tents, sculptural effects, etc. This tutorial drawing illustrates how to develop deep catenaries without running into meshing problems that might make it difficult to panel.

Square sail droop control

Mesh shape control on a square hypar structure has always been difficult to resolve correctly. We had previously published a method to manage the shape, but recently a better way to obtain good shape control was discovered. This drawing shows the method used successfully by one of our MPanel customers.

Advanced Compensation Issues

Ordinary compensation or pre-shrink methods work for most situations, but MPanel's compensation can be custom-tailored to fit special circumstances. This drawing illustrates methods for variable compensation, partial de-compensation, and changing compensation across the panel.

Skype Us. It’s free from anywhere!

With our MPanel user base increasing to include designers from all parts of the world, we are finding that Skype is helping us to meet the demand for easier Support Team contact.  Skype is a free voice over IP (Internet Protocol) system that operates through your computer and Internet connection.  All you need to use it is speakers and a microphone, although the best results come from an inexpensive multimedia headset. We can even use  Skype as the audio portion of our web conferencing facility, so that really helps out our customers who, in the past, had to phone in from distant places.

To contact us via Skype just sign-in at www.skype.com , click Search and type in “MPanel Support”.  You can choose either our US (CAD Effects), UK (Meliar Design), or AUS (Structureflex) team and be directly connected.

Remember our Web Conference facility

If you would like to set up an interactive web conference to discuss MPanel and let us show you how it’s done, then we would be pleased to arrange a convenient time for you and your staff to sit in on a live demonstration session that can be tailored to  your own individual projects. Contact us at support@mpanel.com with your requested date and time, as well as any specific questions that you might have about MPanel.  We will set everything up and send you an email with all of the connection details.

Timothy Akes

CAD Effects, LLC

10805 Sunset Office Drive,  Ste 300

St. Louis, Missouri  63127 USA

(314) 631-6300 voice

(314) 754-9388 fax

takes@cadeffects.com

Alan Stewart

Structureflex

280 Bay Road

Cheltenham, 3192 Victoria, AU

(03)9581 6150 voice

(03) 9581 6177 fax

alan@structureflex.com.au