New Member

• Click on New Member. 

• Click on origin joint.

• Click on terminal joint.

• Member Property panel becomes visible.

• Select width 'b' of the member.

• Select depth 'D' of the member.

• 'l' is the length of the member

• origin is the origin joint you selected.

• Terminal is the terminal joint you selected.

• 'alfa' is the rotation of the member about its x-axis i.e. longitudinal axis. For a beam In building frames you would keep it as zero. The alfa is measured in radians. You can change it to change the orientation of columns. The local co-ordinate system of a vertical member with alfa equal to zero is shown below. Shown below is a roof truss purlin with rotated x-axis. Left Click / Right Click on 'a' to assign values equal to 0 / 1.570796

• x,o is the rotational degree of freedom about x-axis at the origin joint. x,t is the rotational degree of freedom about x-axis at the terminal joint.

• y,o is the rotational degree of freedom about y-axis at the origin joint. y,t is the rotational degree of freedom about y-axis at the terminal joint.

• z,o is the rotational degree of freedom about z-axis at the origin joint. z,t is the rotational degree of freedom about z-axis at the terminal joint.

• This Member Property panel shows typical selection of degrees of freedom for a simply supported beam.

• If you want the member not to resist torsional moment then you must release only one of the x,o and x,t. If both ends of a member are allowed to rotate about x-axis then it will become unstable member.

• Following figures show rotation due to loads in y-axis and z-axis direction.

• In building frames the beams will normally not have load in the local z-axis direction so you do not have to release y,o and y,t.

• If you want a beam not to resist moment about z-axis which is due to load in y-axis you release z,o and/or z,t.

• Please go through example projects for member connectivity. 

• Following figures show loads in local y-axis co-ordinate direction and global y-axis co-ordinate direction.

• 'w' is the self weight or initial uniformly distributed load UDL

• 'a' and 'b' are distances from origin joint as shown below.

• The application places a=0 and b=l which means that the load is on the entire length of the member.

• If the default value for self weight is set then it is placed in front of 'w' by the application.

• Click 'Extend' if you want the next member's origin joint as the terminal joint of this member and then the terminal joint of the next member.

• Click 'Ok' to finalize this member

End restraints