Limitations
An honest page, because documentation that only lists strengths is a sales page. These are the places where Dlubal CALC is weaker than it looks, and what to do about each.
Short and multilingual messages
Language selection can be uncertain for very short or mixed-language text. State the response language explicitly if Mia uses a different one. A saved language preference does not override a clear language request in your current message.
You are the engineer
Dlubal CALC produces results you sign. It shows the path to every number so you can check it, which is a different promise from being right. The reviewer is you.
The practical version: read the assumptions before the result, and check the governing case yourself when the answer is close to a limit.
What result cards validate
CALC validates the structure of supplied result data and the presence of declared required checks. This does not establish engineering correctness or confirm that every check needed for your system was selected. A completed check can exceed its limit. Review the check scope and utilisations even when both result cards are displayed. A check that lies outside a method's scope, such as lateral-torsional buckling of a steel cantilever in the EN 1993-1-1 hand check, appears as not calculated with its reason. It is open, not fulfilled: verify it separately, for example in RFEM.
For a compression check that states N_Ed and N_cr, CALC adds α_cr = N_cr/N_Ed to the card. When α_cr is below 2, the card also shows the second-order amplification 1/(1 − 1/α_cr): a small unplanned horizontal action, such as an impact or an erection load, grows by that factor. A check can pass with a utilization well below 1 and still have little stiffness reserve.
Standard, edition, and national annex
Mia takes the design standard from your message, your project, the skill in use, or your Settings, in that order. A region default or a setting such as DIN selects a family, not an edition or a national annex, so for a Eurocode check Mia asks which edition and annex apply instead of assuming one. Design checks run only on standards Mia can find in the knowledge base. If the standard, edition, or annex you name cannot be found, Mia tells you and does not run the check. When no knowledge base is available for a message, for example because you set it to Off, the check can still run, but the answer says it could not verify the standard, and clause numbers and annex values are unverified. Confirm that the standard named at the top of the answer is the one you are signing against.
Where answers are weaker
Example: you ask for the partial factors of a national annex that has never been uploaded. The answer says it was not found rather than producing a set that looks right. That sentence is the most valuable line in the answer, and it is easy to read past.
Anything the model was not shown. If a rule is not in the knowledge base and you did not attach it, the answer is reasoning without a source. It will say so, and that sentence is the important part of the answer.
Defaults and dialogs in the software. Mia will not tell you where a checkbox sits or what a setting defaults to unless a source said so. When you get "check it in the program" instead of an answer, that is the rule working, not a gap.
Very long conversations. Context is finite. A chat that has run through several subjects gives worse answers than a fresh chat with a clean description, which is why Chats recommends one chat per task.
Anything time-sensitive without a search. The model's own knowledge has a cutoff. For a recent release or a changed regulation, force a web search or supply the document.
Questions about your account and contracts
Questions about your service contract require the retrieved contract records. A general knowledge article does not establish your individual renewal terms. An enabled automatic-renewal setting alone does not confirm that a contract is currently valid or will renew. Check termination flags and validity dates as well. If a record is marked active but its end date is in the past, current continuation needs confirmation. Different contracts can have different renewal settings; specify the contract ID or product when you need a definite answer. Check whether each cited source supports the specific statement; displaying a source alone does not guarantee that it does.
Your CALC plan and a missing company name in your CALC profile do not establish your Dlubal licenses or administrator rights. Mia should check the available account records and describe missing information as unverified. If your account is confirmed as unlinked, account records remain unavailable. Mia cannot change administrator rights. Use the Dlubal Extranet or contact support for changes.
What it cannot do at all
- Calculate inside an uploaded model file. It reads what the file contains. To calculate a model, connect RFEM: Connecting RFEM.
- See your other chats. Context stops at the conversation.
- Reach your machine on its own. Only through the Dlubal-Connector, and only while it is running and paired.
RFEM permissions and interrupted operations
A connection does not grant every tool. Python tools are disabled by default from MCP 1.0.14. An approved model change may also have partly executed when its response is interrupted. Check the original operation's status and the model before asking for another write. See RFEM troubleshooting.
Reports do not render every script yet
| Script | In a PDF today |
|---|---|
| Latin, including diacritics | Renders |
| Chinese | Renders through an embedded fallback font |
| Japanese | Kana renders through the same font, but Japanese is not wired up as its own case yet |
| Korean, Russian, Ukrainian, Hindi | Not covered, characters come out as empty boxes |
| Arabic | Deferred, the engine cannot shape right-to-left text |
If your language is in the last two rows, read the results in the chat and hold off on the PDF. Reports has the full table.
Automatic completeness checks
The EN 1993-1-1 steel beam form accounts for up to two independently enabled point loads, each with its own magnitude and position. Disabled point loads are excluded from the load model.
For supported beam models, CALC derives required cards and minimum checks from the calculation profile. Steel beam design to EN 1993-1-1 or ANSI/AISC 360 and timber beam design to EN 1995-1-1 each include bending, shear, deflection and lateral-torsional buckling, and each requires both an ultimate and a serviceability load case; concentrated axial forces and torques add their corresponding checks. Missing checks or missing left/right limits at known interior discontinuities prevent a complete result.
Structured values submitted through the EN 1993-1-1 steel beam form remain a separate input basis. The timber form and the ANSI/AISC 360 steel beam form submit no such values, so there the answer's own load model is the only basis, and it must still be declared. Without submitted inputs, CALC can only compare diagrams with the load model supplied by the calculation code. A load omitted from that model is not independently detected. Continue to review the full load inventory. This checks minimum coverage and discontinuities, not the correctness of every internal force, combination or code check. It covers a single member: a structure assembled from several members is not checked for a closed load path, and other materials and calculation profiles need their own policies.
Where to go next
- How Mia works for what happens between question and answer.
- Citations for how much a source reference claims.