Notional load cases are treated differently than other load cases with respect to whether the load case in the combination has been analyzed or not. If the combination includes a notional load, but no notional loads of that type have been analyzed, the load combination will be generated without the notional load term. On the other hand, if a combination includes some other type of load that has not been analyzed (e.g., the combination includes a Wind load term but no Wind load cases have been analyzed), the entire combination will be dropped, it will not be generated at all.

Sets of notional loads share a common direction. Notional loads acting in different directions will not be included in the same combination (e.g., an X-direction notional dead load will not be included in the same combination as a Y-direction notional live load).

If more than one group of notional loads are created (e.g., one group of British notional loads and one group of user defined notional loads), these groups remain independent of each other. Notional loads from one group will not be combined with notional loads from another group.