The design of a structural steel building is iterative in nature. The engineer is responsible for meeting the requirements of several specifications. It is customary for the engineer to initially proportion and design members to adequately resist the applied gravity and lateral loads. Within the context of the RAM Structural System this is performed in the standard provision mode. The engineer can then check the structure in the seismic provision mode for compliance with the requirements of the appropriate special seismic provision code.

Initially member sizes are assigned to frame members in RAM Modeler, or for steel beams and columns, by performing a Design All in the RAM Steel Beam and RAM Steel Column modules.

Load cases are defined and an initial analysis is run in Analysis mode. The engineer switches to Steel-Standard Provision mode, selects a steel design code and performs a member and/or joint code check.

The engineer can then use the tools available in the Steel - Standard Provision mode to adequately size the steel beams, columns and braces of the structure, to resist the applied gravity and lateral loads.

Once adequate member sizes are assigned the engineer can switch to the Steel - Seismic Provision mode to check the selected members against the requirements of the selected Seismic specification.

On initially entering Steel – Seismic Provision Mode the engineer is required to select a special seismic provision code. The choice of codes available to the engineer is based on the steel design code specified in the standard provision mode. Strength seismic provision codes ( UBC 1997 - LRFD, AISC 1997, AISC 341-02, AISC341-05, AISC341-10, AISC341-16 LRFD) will be available if LRFD is the steel design code selected in standard provision mode . Similarly AISC341-16, AISC341-10, AISC341-05 ASD or UBC 1997 - ASD will be available if ASD is the steel design code selected in standard provision mode. Depending on the seismic code selected different options will be made available to the engineer on this dialog. Refer to Codes for a description of all the options available.

When the code dialog is closed the load combination dialog will automatically appear. This dialog is used to generate the special seismic provision load combinations. These combinations only apply to those checks that explicitly specify their use (refer to Load Combinations).

Note that for many of the seismic checks the standard provision load combinations are used. For those checks RAM Frame uses the valid (selected and available) generated and custom combinations from the Standard Provision Mode.

Before performing a code check on the structure the engineer is responsible for specifying the frame type of each structural steel member. Each frame member is assigned a frame type by selecting the command Assign > Frame Type, choosing the appropriate frame type from the available types, and assigning the type to the appropriate members. The engineer should refer to the appropriate building code for details on classification of frames. All the members that comprise a single frame should be assigned the same frame type. That is, the columns, beams and braces of a braced frame should all be assigned the same frame type. The same is true for a moment frame structure. The model will now be available to perform special seismic provision checks.

For the member and joint code check the color-coding identifies the status of the member or joint for all the seismic checks performed. The members and joints can then be investigated on an individual basis, and resized using the View/Update command until a suitable design is found. The new size is then saved to the database using the Update Database command in View/Update. Sizes can also be assigned to members using the assign size commands (from the Assign-Beam/Column/Brace-Size command) in this mode.

Once the status of all the members are acceptable to the engineer the structure should be reanalyzed in Analysis Mode. This is to obtain a valid analysis (member forces) based on any new sizes. Once reanalyzed the Standard Provision member and joint code check should be performed again before returning to the Special Provision Mode. In Seismic Provision mode the members and joints should be rechecked (Process > Member Code Check, Process > Joint Code Check). It is possible that the status of some members or joints will now be unacceptable. This is because of the redistribution of forces caused by the new sizes. If so, they can be modified once again with the View/Update command, and the process repeated.

This process of analyzing, standard and seismic code checking and modifying is repeated until all members are within the limits acceptable to the engineer.