To design members as a group, use the following
procedure.
In many situations,
it is preferable to have only a few different member sizes for many members
rather than each member size be different, even if this would result in some
members being underutilized. You can group members in the batch design to
instruct the program to replace the member sizes in the group with the highest
capacity member of the existing sizes in that group. You can also instruct the
program to use a specified section property for the grouping or even group
based on a specific member number, regardless of property specifications.
For example, in a floor bay with 5 beam members the edge members were
selected as W12x14 shapes and the interior members were selected as W14x22
shapes. Grouping these members will immediately instruct the program to use
W14x22 for all members for any subsequent instructions (i.e., analysis, design,
take-off, etc.).
Note: All members within a group must be of the same cross section type.
If one or more of the members has a different cross-setion type, the grouping
is ignored by the program.
-
On the
Steel Design - Whole Structure dialog, click
Commands.
The Design Commands dialog
opens. The tabs (if any) available in this dialog are dependent on the current design
code selection. Not all commands are available for every design code.
-
If you want to retain the member groups for all subsequent
commands, select the
FIXED GROUP tab and then click
Add.
If you do not use the FIXED GROUP option, then the members are
grouped once and then this grouping is ignored for subsequent commands. If you
do add the FIXED GROUP command, then all subsequent member selection commands
will apply to the group again.
-
Select the
GROUP tab.
- Optional:
Select the
Property Specification to use for grouping
shapes.
- Optional:
Check the
Same as Beam # option and then select a member
number from the drop-down list.
-
Click
Add.
-
Click
Close.
-
Assign the group command to all the members you want to group
together.
You can repeat this procedure to create as many design groups as
necessary.
Once you have created a group, you will typically want to perform a
code check or member selection on the members.