Because the design and detailing of concrete beams can be complicated, it is often desired to use an identical bar layout for typical beams. In this example, many of the beams can be detailed the same. To apply identical design of one beam to another:

• Select Process > Copy Design.
  
• In the Items to Copy box,
  • Check Reinforcing
  • Check Beam Section Assignments
• Under Tolerance Settings, select Perform copy only if beam lines are geometrically identical.
• Click [Single-to-Single].

• Click on the infill beam behind the beam previously designed between Grids 3 and 4 The beam will highlight in white to show it has been selected as the "copy from" beam.
  

• Click on the infill beam behind it.
  

When a design is copied to a beam, the new design is checked for code compliance. If the design is acceptable, the color of that beam will change to Blue indicating the design is frozen.

If the design is insufficient in the applied beam, then it will be painted red to show that the new design has failed.

The new design can be cleared from the beam by using the Process – Clear Beam Design command as before. The beam will then be colored Yellow to indicate it is no longer frozen and it is ready to be designed. The optimum design will be restored during the next Design-All or View/Update.

While the Tolerance Setting is set to "Perform copy only if beam lines are geometrically identical" copying the design from one beam to another will only occur if the geometry is identical. For example, you could not copy the beam reinforcing from a beam that spans between two columns to one of the infill beams because the support conditions are different. This makes the Single-to-Fence and Single-to-All copy options quite useful because you don't have to worry about copying rebar that won't fit in the various beams.

When the Tolerance Setting is set to "Perform copy if clear length of each corresponding spans is with ___%", a greater number of beams can receive the copied design.

• Select Process > Copy Design > Single to All.
• This time click on the same beam that was designed during the View/Update portion of the tutorial (running between Grids 3 and 4).

  Because we selected to only allow copying between beams with identical geometry, the only beam that is affected by this copy is the other beam on gridline 1. The rest of the beams maintain their design.