Beam Steel Table
You may create and modify files of beam shapes to be used by the RAM Steel Beam module. This table controls what sections the Beam Design considers when optimizing a member. The order in which the beams are listed is critical to the design optimization results. The Beam table includes a flag with each section to determine how the section is considered during optimization. The flags are used as follows:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Common | (* in table): Indicates that the size is considered a "common" size. When selecting the optimum beam size, the program investigates only the common sizes when designing simple composite beams or when designing any beam when the criteria Check Unbraced Length is not selected, unless there is a beam depth restriction. This speeds up the design of beams significantly because it allows the program to ignore unusual sizes when designing for simple conditions. Thus, when the table is to be used to design such members, at least some of the sections must have an asterisk (be considered common). In the RAMAISC.BMS table supplied with the program, the asterisked sizes are those shown in bold in the "Allowable Stress Design Selection Table - Sx"" and "Load Factor Design Selection Table - Zx". |
| Optimization | (+ in table): Indicates that the size is to be considered in optimization except as explained for Common sections. When there is a depth restriction or an unbraced length consideration, the program investigates sizes flagged by either a plus sign (Optimization) or an asterisk (common) until an acceptable size is found. The optimization flag should be used for any sizes (e.g., small sizes) that you do not want designed as composite beams. |
| Ignore | (/ in table): Indicates the size is to be ignored. It has the same affect as deleting the member from the table. |