When exporting support members to ISM, pairs of matching support members at the same location are merged to create a single ISM support member. Two support members are merged only if all of their properties match (e.g., concrete mix, thickness, etc.), and either they were imported from the same ISM support member, or they are both new in RAM Concept . If a pair of support members at a location cannot be merged, then two ISM support members are exported.

The support member exported by RAM Concept extends only to the ends of the heights modeled in RAM Concept , relative to the center of the slab or beam the support member passes through. Dealing with this geometry approximation requires some care when updating RAM Concept or ISM. When updating RAM Concept from ISM, the RAM Concept model may have shortened support members. In general, the ISM geometry can be accepted to capture changes made to the repository, and RAM Concept will just create a new approximation. There are times when you should reject changes to the RAM Concept support member geometry. For example, when the RAM Concept support member geometry has been adjusted to compensate for a problem in the RAM Concept approximation. In those cases, the Reject setting in the Structural Synchronizer update dialog will prevent the RAM Concept geometry from changing.

It is usually not desirable to update the ISM repository with the approximate RAM Concept support member geometry. For this reason, updating the ISM repository support member is disabled by default. See 16.3.10 for information on enabling updates to support members. If updating support members is enabled, you can decide which properties should be changed. The support member geometry—defined by the Location or Boundary properties—can be updated for simple one or two story support members. Changes to concrete mixes, dimensions or column orientation can also be updated.