Batch column design may be performed by selecting the Design All command. It can be invoked at the beginning of the Framing process by selecting the option to Perform “Design All” Automatically After Framing, or it can be invoked by selecting the Process > Design All command inside the Column module. Design All will design all unsized columns in the database without requiring any interaction from the User. Note that any program selected design may be overridden by selecting the View/Update command. It is not necessary to perform Design All prior to selecting the View/Update command.

Several commands require that all members are sized before they will execute. If one of these commands is selected, the Column module will automatically size all the columns (if they haven't already been sized) except for columns it "cannot design" and store the design in the database before actually executing the selected command.

A "cannot design" column affects the entire column below in the column line and hence they all are tagged as "cannot design" by the program in the View/Update dialog. One must note that the user may assign a size to the "cannot design" columns to proceed further but the program would not check the columns for design adequacy. The Reports command requiring that all columns be designed include Col Summary, Loads, Load Summary, Takeoff, and Base - Plates Summary. A user may still get these reports if there exists columns tagged "cannot design" in the structure.

In cases where no column sizes were entered in the RAM Modeler for any lateral frame members, the optimum column size based on the gravity design will be selected and the column will be marked as a "User Size". This can be used to preliminarily size the frame columns. Note that once a frame column has been assigned a size, either by the user in the RAM Modeler or automatically by the RAM Steel Column module, it will not be overridden by the program unless the user clears the size. Also note that this design is based on assumptions as for a Gravity column and do not account for the effects of continuity or lateral forces; a more accurate design can be obtained by analyzing and checking Frame columns in RAM Frame.

After the Design All command has been performed the steel columns will be shown in Interaction Colors; that is, they will be painted with a color that represents the degree to which the column is loaded compared to its capacity.