M. To assign a prismatic section

To define and assign a prismatic section, use the following procedure.

Prismatic sections such as circle, rectangle, tee, and trapezoidal can be used for concrete members used in design.

Circle prismatic sections can also be used to represent steel rods for analysis.

Tip: If you need to perform design for a steel rod, you can closely approximate a solid steel rod by creating a circular hollow section with a very small inside diameter. Alternately, you can select a steel library section from a catalog that contains solid rods or create your own.

Either:
- select the Legacy tool in the Beam Profiles group on the Specifications ribbon tab
- select the Properties page and then click Legacy on the Properties - Whole Structure dialog
Tip: Selecting the country from the Database tool drop-down list first results in a faster dialog load time.

The Legacy Profile Databases dialog opens.
Either:
- select the Properties page and then click Define on the Properties - Whole Structure dialog
- on the Specifications ribbon tab, select the Prismatic tool in the Beam Profiles group
The Property dialog opens.
Select the tab corresponding to the profile shape you want to use.
Notes:
- The geometric shapes circle, rectangle, tee, trapezoidal, and general are typically used for concrete members.
- Tapered I and tapered tube are typically used for steel members.
- The Assign Profile tab is used to assign a profile shape for steel design for later member selection.
Type the profile dimensions for the selected shape.
Optional: Select an associated Material.
This feature allows you to use material definitions for steel, stainless steel, concrete, aluminum, or any previously specified, custom material definitions.

Either:

To…	Do the following…
add the section to the model for later assignment	click Add.
add the section to the model and assign to the current member selection	click Asign.

Click Close.