K-Factor/Effective Length

Selecting Criteria > K-Factor/Effective Length opens the K-Factor / Effective Length dialog. Depending on the Steel Code selected, this dialog box will appear slightly differently.

Note: For AISC360-05/10, this option is not available as the effective length factor is always considered to be 1.0.

For more information:

ASD/LRFD (Standard and Seismic Mode)
CAN/CSA-S16-01/S16-09 (Standard Provision Mode)
BS 5950 (Standard Provision Mode)
Eurocode (Standard Provision Mode)
AS 4100 (Standard Provision Mode)
IS 800-07 (Standard Provision Mode)

Clicking OK will save the settings. Modifying this criteria after a code check has been performed will invalidate the results of that code check.

The model will be redrawn on the screen in its original colors (rather than the code check colors) indicating that the code check must be re-run.

Clicking Cancel will return you to the RAM Frame program in Steel mode without saving the settings.

The engineer can also assign the effective length factor on a member-by-member basis, overriding the global criteria. For columns this is done be done by selecting the Assign-Column-K Factor/Effective Length Factor menu item, for beams using the Assign-Beam-K Factor\Effective Length Factor menu item and for braces using the Assign-Brace-K Factor/Effective Length Factor menu item.