Steel member design groups
Why use steel design groups?
Steel members are not automatically placed into design groups. They are however, automatically put into groups, primarily for editing purposes. In this way, individual groups can be selected and displayed graphically so that their properties can be changed as a group in the properties window.
If required, grouping can also (optionally) be utilized in order to design steel member types according to their groups.
In order to use grouping for this second purpose, you should first ensure that your groups are configured so that each group only contains those members that you intend to eventually have the same section size applied.
What happens in the group design process?
When the option to design a specific steel member type using groups is checked, for that member type:
- In each design group the first member to be designed is selected arbitrarily. A full design is carried out on this member and the section size so obtained is copied to all other members in the group.
- These other members are then checked one by one to verify that the section size is adequate for each and if this proves not to be the case, it is increased as necessary and the revised section size is copied to all members in the group.
- This process continues until all members in the group have been satisfactorily checked.
- A final check design is then carried out on each group member. During this process peak and individual utilizations are established.
Steel design group requirements
Steel member design groups are formed according to the following rules:
Member type | Design group rules |
---|---|
Steel beam |
|
Steel column |
|
Group management
Automatic Grouping
Steel members are grouped automatically according to the above group requirements.
Manual/Interactive Grouping
To manually reassign a member to a different group, locate it in the Project Workspace,Groups tab and drag it to a different group
Regroup ALL Model Members
If you have made changes in Design Options that affect grouping, you can update the groups accordingly from the Groups tab of the Project Workspace by clicking Re-group ALL Model Members.