In general, the criteria items in the Criteria menu that are applicable to Steel beam design are also applicable to C-Beam™ design.

Using the Criteria > Steel Design Codes command, AISC 360-16 ASD, AISC 360-16 LRFD, AISC 360-10 ASD, AISC 360-10 LRFD, AISC 360-05 ASD, AISC 360-05 LRFD, AISC ASD 9th (with an option to conform to the requirements of Supplement No. 1) or AISC LRFD 3rd can be selected. The design code used for C-Beam design can be specified independently of that used for steel beam design.

The criteria items found in Criteria > Deflection Criteria, Criteria > Camber, and Criteria > Stud Criteria apply to C-Beam design the same as for steel design, except that in Criteria > Design Defaults, the Stud Distribution options do not apply to C-Beam design as a uniform distribution of studs is always used on C-Beam.

The increment of the values of dt, e, Do, and S that the program considers can be specified with the Criteria > C-Beam command. Smaller values give the manufacturer greater flexibility in the final design and detailing of the C-Beam, while larger values speed up the computation of the design. The values should generally be 0.125 in. or 0.25 in.

The type of connections intended for the C-Beam-to-Beam (including C-Beam-to-C-Beam, C-Beam-to-Column, and C-Beam-to-Wall connections may also be specified with the Criteria > C-Beam command. The options are Web and Bearing. These selections impact the determination of the location of the holes used in the calculation of the critical design conditions.