This section presents some general statements regarding the implementation of the DIN code. The design philosophy and procedural logistics are based on the principles of elastic analysis and allowable stress design. Facilities are available for member selection as well as code checking. Two major failure modes are recognized: failure by overstressing and failure by stability considerations. The following sections describe the salient features of the design approach.

Members are proportioned to resist the design loads without exceeding the allowable stresses or capacities and the most economical section is selected on the basis of the least weight criteria. The code checking part of the program also checks the slenderness requirements and the stability criteria. It is recommended that you use the following steps in performing the steel design:

1. Specify the geometry and loads and perform the analysis.
2. Specify the design parameter values if different from the default values.
3. Specify whether to perform code checking or member selection.