Criteria - Camber

Selecting the Criteria > Camber command will cause the Camber Criteria dialog box to appear, displaying the current camber criteria for beam design optimization. Change these criteria by selecting different options and/or entering new values.

Camber can be suppressed by selecting either the Do Not Camber option or the Do Not Camber Beams with span less than option. The beam span in this case refers to the clear span (face-to-face) length.

Note: Selecting either of these options does not necessarily mean that camber would not be desirable, simply that no camber is calculated nor considered in the deflection checks.

The indicated percentage of the total dead load is used. When the camber is calculated, the value is rounded down to the Increment value specified. If the camber required is less than the Minimum Camber value, no camber is specified for that member. If the camber required is greater than the Maximum Camber value, the Maximum Camber value will be used for that member. Note: This does not mean that a larger camber (greater than the Maximum value) would not be appropriate, just that the amount of camber called out and considered in the Net deflection check will be limited to the Maximum. Generally a more appropriate way of limiting the maximum camber is to specify more stringent deflection criteria. The deflection check would then highlight to the user a beam that should be deeper and hence require less camber.

Clicking Cancel will cancel any changes made and return you to RAM Concrete BeamDesign.

Clicking OK will cause a warning message dialog box to appear on the screen stating that proceeding with this command will clear all previously optimized beam designs. You are given the option to continue the deflection criteria change by clicking Yes or canceling the change by clicking No.