1. Select the surface load property to be assigned by clicking the desired property in the Surface Load Property list box.
2. If assigning the surface load property to the entire floor slab, click the Whole Floor button. The Surface Load Layout Mode dialog box will disappear, the new surface load assignment will be shown as a hatched pattern, and the RAM Modeler will enter Surface Load Add Layout Mode. If the floor has multiple diaphragms, the load will be assigned to all of them.
3. If assigning the surface load property to a single diaphragm, click the Whole Diaphragm button. The target cursor will then appear. Click any beam or wall on the diaphragm perimeter to specify the desired diaphragm.
4. If assigning the surface property to a portion of the floor slab, click the Add button. The Surface Load Layout Mode dialog box will disappear, and the RAM Modeler will enter the Surface Load Add Layout Mode.
5. While in Surface Load Add Layout Mode, you can add a surface load assignment by defining a polygon (or polygons) that define areas for the surface load assignment. This is done by clicking the mouse to define each vertex point and moving the mouse to define each line in the polygon. Polygon lines must be entered consecutively, and must define a proper polygon. To define the first polygon line, point the mouse to the beginning coordinate of the line, click the left mouse button, move the mouse button to the ending coordinate of the line, and click the button again. For each subsequent polygon line move the mouse to the next vertex and click again to define the next polygon line. Repeat until the polygon is closed. Load polygon lines need not fall precisely on beam and wall lines. Beyond the slab edges, the polygon vertices can be placed at any convenient node. As an alternative to clicking on a node, coordinates can be entered directly using the Keyboard Mode Coordinate Entry command. This is convenient when there is no existing node at the location where the surface load polygon vertex is to be placed.

When the polygon definition is complete, the new surface load assignment will be made inside the defined polygon.

When the Whole Floor command is selected, new grid lines are created 5 feet beyond the outermost model entities on each side, and a rectangular surface load polygon is created using these grid lines. If subsequent modeling changes extend the floor framing beyond these grid lines, it will be necessary to assign surface loads to these new areas.

The Whole Floor command does not delete any previously defined surface load polygons. It "covers" them up with a new polygon that takes precedence. Unwanted polygons should first be deleted, not just "covered up", so that processing speed during analysis is not adversely impacted.