TR.0 STAAD Commands and Input Instructions

This section of the manual describes in detail various commands and related instructions for STAAD.Pro. The user utilizes a command language format to communicate instructions to the program. Each of these commands either supplies some data to the program or instructs it to perform some calculations using the data already specified. The command language format and conventions are described in TR.1 Command Language Conventions. This is followed by a description of the available commands.

Although the STAAD.Pro input can be created through the Analytical Modeling workflow, it is important to understand the command language. With the knowledge of this language, it is easy to understand the problem and add or comment data as necessary. The general sequence in which the commands should appear in an input file should ideally follow the same sequence in which they are presented in this section. The commands are executed in the sequence entered. Obviously then the data needed for proper execution of a command must precede the command (e.g., Print results after Perform Analysis). Otherwise, the commands can be provided in any order with the following exceptions.

All design related data can be provided only after the analysis command.
All load cases and load combinations must be provided together, except in a case where the CHANGE command is used (see TR.38 Change Specification). Additional load cases can be provided in the latter part of input.

All input data provided is stored by the program. Data can be added, deleted or modified within an existing data file.

In-Core Versus Out-of-Core

The engine can operate in two modes: in-core and out-of-core. In most situations, the in-core mode will provide the quickest solution. However, when there is insufficient memory available, then the engine will use the out-of-core mode. The engine will automatically use the out-of-core mode when the model size exceeds either of the following limits:

Number of nodes >30,000
Number of nodes times the number of active primary load cases > 1,600,000

Though selection of the mode is automatically chosen by the analysis, it can be overridden using the SET STAR command:

SET STAR 3 – default
SET STAR 4 – use out-of-core solver regardless of size