CONTROL2 and CONTROL5

Purpose

Controls 2 and 5 are identical. This section will use Control 2 as an example but descriptions and instructions apply to both commands.

Note: If only one of these controls is used, then it must be Control 2. Control 5 cannot be used alone.

Control 2 is a drop-down combo box that gives options for how one particular variable is to behave. Based on the option selected, a value will be assigned to a variable which will then be applied as a load factor or a load factor modifier as indicated in the Load Combinations.

Use Control 2 if there are several discrete values that can be assigned to one variable. The engineer using the template will not be able to enter a value but rather will choose an option that will determine a value.

In some cases, it is desirable to associate more than one value with a given option. This would be the case when selection of a given option impacts the factors in different load combination in different ways. To accomplish this, up to 5 additional variables can be defined for each combo box selection. When using multiple variables with Control 2, it is imperative that each option have the same number of variables (i.e., V20, V21, etc.) associated with it.

Format

with one variable per combo box selection:

CONTROL2: T/F , LoadCaseSymbol1 , LoadCaseSymbol2 , Text
OPTION 1: V20 = Value1 , Option1Text
OPTION 2: V20 = Value2 , Option2Text
.
.
.
OPTION n : V20 = Value n , Option n Text
DEFAULT: OptionNumber

with multiple variables per combo box selection:

CONTROL2: T/F , LoadCaseSymbol1 , LoadCaseSymbol2 , Text
OPTION 1: V20 = Value1 , Option1Text
V21 = Value2
V22 = Value3
OPTION 2: V20 = Value1 , Option2Text
V21 = Value2
V22 = Value3
.
.
.
OPTION n : V20 = Value 1 , Option n Text
V21 = Value 2
V22 = Value 3
DEFAULT: OptionNumber

The Control 2 line begins with CONTROL2: followed by either T or F . An F (False) indicates that the control is not used, and no additional information is necessary. In this case the Control 2 list will not appear in the Load Combination dialog box.

A T (True) indicates that the control is to be used. The rest of the line contains the additional information

LoadCaseSymbol1 , LoadCaseSymbol2(optional) ,and Text.

LoadCaseSymbol1and LoadCaseSymbol2 are Load Case symbols as given in Table 1 and Table 2 in Chapter 2.1. These are called dependent load cases. That is, load cases of both types must have been Analyzed in order for this control to be visible. If the visibility of the control is based on just one load case, either enter the same load case symbol twice or leave the second load case symbol blank.

Text is the text that will appear above the option list. Notice the location of the commas separating items. If the second load case symbol is not used, the commas must still be present to preserve the empty space.

Subsequent lines for control 2 contain the information for each combo box option. Each option is defined on a separate line and must be formatted as follows:

Each Option line begins with the word "OPTION" followed by a number and then a colon.
After the colon is the variable name V20= followed by the value that will be assigned to V20 when that option is selected. The value must be followed by a comma.
Next is the text string that will appear in the combo box for this option. It may contain blanks and may have up to 99 characters

If additional variables are defined with each option, the definition of the additional variables follows each option line. Indentation is not necessary but makes the template more readable. Formatting for the additional variable lines is:

Variable name V21= followed by the value that will be assigned to V21 when that option is selected. Up to 5 additional variables (V21 - V25) can be added.

A special value, Ignore, can be specified for V20 or any of the variables. If the option line lists V20 = Ignore, the program will ignore every load combination that contains both of the dependent Load Case symbols. For example, this can be used to provide an option to ignore all load combinations that contain both Snow and Seismic load cases.

Note: Be aware that Ignore and the value 0 (zero) are not the same. Ignore can result in an entire load combination being eliminated. A value of zero can potentially result in a term with a zero factor which will result in that term being dropped from the load combination (but the rest of the combination will still be created).

The lines listing the options are followed by a line that says DEFAULT: followed by OptionNumber where OptionNumber is an integer indicating which of the options is to be initially selected by default.

Important: This section must be followed by a blank line.

An example of Control 2:

CONTROL2: T, S, E, Snow Factor
OPTION 1: V20 = 1.0, Use Full Factor (1.0) on Snow in Combinations with Seismic
OPTION 2: V20 = 0.25, Use Reduced Factor (0.25) on Snow in Combinations with Seismic
OPTION 3: V20 = Ignore, Do Not Include Snow in Combinations with Seismic
DEFAULT:1