Using the Help
The Precast/Prestressed Girder help is intended to help you become familiar with the program and its capabilities. We recommend you first read the General Operation section. Upon completing the tutorials, review the Theory section and the Hand Calculations for Selected Items section.
Module
Volume I of the manual contains the following sections:
| Introduction | This section contains information that is helpful to know before attempting to use Precast/Prestressed Girder, such as program capabilities. It also includes information about using the manual. Reviewing this material prior to running the program will help ensure smooth operation. |
| General Operation | The General Operation section includes information about each of the different input fields and screens in Precast/Prestressed Girder. You can also find this detailed information in the online help. |
| Theory | This section contains details on the assumptions and methods used in Precast/Prestressed Girder. Most in-depth technical questions can be answered by referring to this section. |
| Appendices | This section contains information about advanced topics, nomenclature, detailed printout explanations, and includes a list of references. |
Tutorials
Volume II consists of seven tutorials and hand calculations for selected examples (Tutorial 1, 1A, 4, 5 and 6).
| Tutorials | The best way to become acquainted with the program is by actually using it to solve a few problems. In the Tutorials section, we walk you through a number of actual design projects. We encourage you to run the tutorials on your own computer and compare monitor displays with the illustrations in this manual. By closely following these tutorials, you can quickly become familiar with a number of typical design situations and most of the computer data input/output process. |
We have tried to make Precast/Prestressed Girder as user-friendly as possible; however, there are some features that cannot be made apparent by a headlong approach to using the software. The few extra minutes it takes to go through the tutorials will be compensated for by the knowledge gained.
It is advisable for you to check several previous designs using Precast/Prestressed Girder. This will serve to confirm your knowledge of the operation and assumptions of the program.