At certain points during the design process, it may be desirable to "freeze" the design of some or all of the column lines. Doing so allows the user to archive completed designs or to perform what-if type investigations without having the reinforcement re-optimized and potentially modified.

To freeze the design of a single column line, select Process > Freeze > Single . The cursor will change from the arrow cursor to a target cursor. Click on a column to freeze the design of the entire column line. If the column line has not been designed, a warning will be issued with an option to design the column line now.

To freeze the design of multiple column lines, select Process > Freeze > Fence . The cursor will change from the arrow cursor to the fence cursor. Fence a region to freeze multiple column lines. Only column lines located entirely within a fenced region will be frozen.

To freeze the design of all column lines, select Process > Freeze > All . The freeze command will be performed on all column lines.

Freezing a design on a column line is equivalent to the Update Database command within View/Update. It marks the column line as User Defined and saves the current reinforcement for the column line. A frozen column line will not be re-optimized until the design is cleared. Columns will be updated on screen to reflect their current status. See Concrete Column Color-Coding for more information.