The analyzed load cases on gravity members may not be the same as the analyzed load cases on lateral members. Because foundation design can only consider one set of load cases, steps must be taken to synchronize load cases before a design is performed.

When RAM Foundation is first launched, an inspection of the load cases is performed. If the gravity and lateral load cases do not match, a merged superset of the two is created. The result of this is that a dummy load case now exists for a particular member type that did not initially exist. In order for this to not affect the design of foundations adversely, null member forces are added corresponding to the dummy load cases. For instance, if the gravity system has positive live roof load but the lateral system has not analyzed that load case, the superset of load cases will include the positive live roof load case. Whenever this load case is used in conjunction with lateral members, zeros will be used as the member force.