Middle strip support widths

Middle strip support widths are the same as those of the associated column strip. Should you require to use middle strips with a different support width (say, zero), you need to manually draw span segments for the column and middle strips and use the span boundary tool.

Span segments that have no width

A span segment has zero width if the Span Width Calc is set to "manual" and some of its length does not have any span boundaries defined.

Design strips (span segment strips) with no cross sections

You can specify a design strips’ minimum number of divisions as zero. Combined with a large maximum spacing, the number of cross sections could then be zero.

This could be useful in affecting other span segments’ strip generation, without slowing down the calculations. (The overall number of cross sections has a significant effect on calculation time).

For an example of this application, see steps 13 to 15 in Chapter 48, "Mat Foundation Tutorial".