About load importation

RAM Concept imports applied loads and analyzed member forces from the selected member group.

Certain components of member loads are ignored when importing. The components that are ignored depend on the slab type and whether the member forces are from gravity and lateral loads.

The following table summarizes the force components that are imported onto a mat foundation and an elevated slab.

Table 1. Relationship between the slab type, member loading type, and imported force components for a slab.
Slab Type	Loading Type	Forces Imported
Mat	Transfer Gravity	Fz, Mx, My
Mat	Transfer Lateral	Fx, Fy, Fz, Mx, My
Elevated	Transfer Gravity	Fz
Elevated	Transfer Lateral	Fz, Mx, My

Wall forces are resolved into a statically equivalent linearly varying force applied along the length of the wall.

The following loads can be imported

Direct gravity loads

Point, line and area gravity loads applied directly to the imported slabs.

The following table shows how RSS load cases are mapped to RAM Concept loading layers.

Table 2. Mapping of RSS load cases
RSS Load Case	RAM Concept Loading Layer
Dead	Dead Load
Live	Ignored (imported as 4 individual live loadings)
Live Reducible	Live Reducible
Live Unreducible	Live Unreducible
Live Storage	Live Storage
Live Roof	Live Load Roof
Partition	Partition (imported as "Live Unreducible" type)
Construction Dead	Construction Dead Load
Construction Live	Ignored
Mass Dead	Ignored

Transfer gravity loads
- RAM Concept imports transferred gravity loads from RSS members above the import slabs. The loads include member self-weight with the transferred gravity loads. The loads are imported as point loads and line loads into separate RAM Concept loading layers.
- A new RAM Concept transfer gravity loading layer is created for each RSS Load Case, as in Table 14-3, but with the string "(transfer)" appended to the name. For example, transfer loads from the RSS Dead load case are imported into the Concept "Dead Load (transfer)" loading layer. The Concept "(transfer)" loading layers are not created if the Transfer Gravity Loads are not imported.
Lateral Member Loads
- Lateral member forces (such as wind and seismic) from members above and below the imported slab are imported as point loads. The member loads are imported into a new loading layer for each analyzed load case in RSS. RAM Concept creates the name for the new loading layer from the user's label and the RSS load type.
- For example, the name could be "mySeismic(EQ_UBC97_X_+E_F)".

Note: Mat foundation loads imported from the RAM Structural System will always be reduced during the import. For this reason you should always choose the live load reduction code of "None" in these files.