Selecting the Assign-Sidesway command causes the Sidesway dialog box to be displayed. From this dialog the engineer can override on a member-by-member basis the global sidesway criteria specified under Criteria-Sidesway. The sidesway criteria is currently used by the steel design codes and is therefore only applicable to the steel members. Select the appropriate sidesway criteria for each local axis of the member (or specify that the global criteria are to be used for that axis).

After the appropriate values are specified the engineer can assign the criteria to a single member (click on Single), to multiple members (click on Fence) or to all members (click on All). If Single is clicked the dialog will close and a target cursor will be made available. Click on each section to apply the criteria to. If Fence is clicked the dialog will close and a fence cursor will be made available. Click and drag a rectangle around all the sections to apply the criteria to. Note that the criteria are only assigned to steel members. To return to the dialog to select a different effective length criteria click on the right mouse button.

To view which member axes are using the global criteria and which have been overridden select the appropriate option from the View-Members Dialog.

This command is neither applicable to, nor available for, AISC 360.