AD.2006.1.5 Enhancement of Z UP System
Earlier, when geometry created using a CAD software that used Z axis as the vertical axis, had to be imported into STAAD.Pro, the users had to reorient the model to make the Y axis the vertical axis before getting the model into STAAD.Pro. This was necessary because a number of STAAD.Pro load generation commands did not work when the Z axis was defined as the vertical axis. In STAAD.Pro 2006 these limitations has been addressed. All the load generations are going to work with the Z axis up coordinate system.
The default coordinate system for a model can be set by going to . The Configure option is only available when no STAAD model is open. If a STAAD model is open, one has to click on to close the file first.
The Configure Program dialog comes up as shown in the next figure.
The Z up option can then be selected and applied to the model. This would set the Z axis to be the vertical axis instead of the default Y axis. Subsequently all modeling, analysis and postprocessing items would be based on this coordinate system.