Selecting the Assign > Braces > Unbraced Length command causes the Assign Brace Unbraced Length dialog to be displayed. From this dialog the engineer can assign, on a member by member basis, the value of unbraced length to be used in the design of the member. If the Global Criteria option is specified, the program will use the length between joint nodes.

After the appropriate values are specified the engineer can assign the criteria to a single brace (Single), to multiple braces (Fence) or to all braces ( All).

• If Single is selected, the dialog will close and a target cursor will appear. Click on each brace to which the criteria is to be applied.
• If Fence is selected, the dialog will close and a fence cursor will appear. Click and drag a rectangle around all braces to which the values are to be assigned.
• If All is selected, the dialog will close and the values will be assigned to all braces, even those that are not in the current view.

When assigning these values, care must be taken to select the correct brace.

Note that the values are only assigned to steel frame braces.

To return to the dialog to assign different effective length values, click on the right mouse button.

To view which member axes are using the global criteria and which have been overridden, select the Unbraced Length option from the View-Members command.