General Page 1 of 4

COMPUTERS AND STRUCTURES, INC., BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA DECEMBER 2001

STEEL FRAME DESIGN
Technical Note
Interactive Steel Frame Design
General
Interactive steel frame design allows you to review the design results for any
frame element and to interactively change the design overwrites and immedi-
ately review the results.
Note that a design must have been run for the interactive design mode to be
available. To run a design, click Design menu > Steel Frame Design >
Start Design/Check of Structure command.
Right click on a frame element while the design results are displayed on it to
enter the interactive design mode and interactively design the element. If de-
sign results are not currently displayed (and the design has been run), click
the Design menu > Steel Frame Design > Interactive Steel Frame De-
sign command and then right click a frame element to enter the interactive
design mode for that element and display the Steel Stress Check Information
form.
Steel Stress Check Information Form
Table 1 identifies the features that are included in the Steel Stress Check In-
formation form.
Steel Frame Design Interactive Steel Frame Design
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form Page 2 of 4
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form
FEATURE DESCRIPTION
Story ID This is the story level ID associated with the frame element.
Beam This is the label associated with a frame element that is a
beam.
Column This is the label associated with a frame element that is a col-
umn.
Tip:
The section property displayed for the Current Design/Next Analysis item is
used by the program as the section property for the next analysis run.
Brace This is the label associated with a frame element that is a
brace.
Analysis section This is the section property that was used for this frame ele-
ment in the last analysis. Thus, the design forces are based on
a frame element of this section property. For your final design
iteration, the Current Design/Next Analysis section property
and the Last Analysis section property should be the same.
Design section This is the current design section property. If the frame element
is assigned an auto select list, the section displayed in this form
initially defaults to the optimal section.
If no auto select list has been assigned to the frame element,
the element design is performed for the section property speci-
fied in this edit box.
It is important to note that subsequent analyses use the section
property specified in this list box for the next analysis section
for the frame element. Thus, the forces and moments obtained
in the next analysis will be based on this section.
To change the Current Design/Next Analysis section property,
click the Overwrites button.
Steel Frame Design Interactive Steel Frame Design
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form Page 3 of 4
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form
FEATURE DESCRIPTION
Overwrites Button
Click this button to access and make revisions to the steel
frame overwrites and then immediately see the new design re-
sults. If you modify some overwrites in this mode and exit both
the Steel Frame Design Overwrites form and the Steel Stress
Check Information form by clicking their respective OK buttons,
the changes made to the overwrites are saved permanently.
Exiting the Steel Frame Design Overwrites form by clicking the
OK button temporarily saves changes. Subsequently exiting
the Steel Stress Check Information form by clicking the Cancel
button, cancels the changes made. Permanent saving of the
overwrites does not occur until you click the OK button in the
Steel Stress Check Information form as well as the Steel Frame
Design Overwrites form.
Details Button
Clicking this button displays design details for the frame ele-
ment. Print this information by selecting Print from the File
menu that appears at the top of the window displaying the de-
sign details.
Stress Details Table
The stress details table shows the stress ratios obtained for each design load combina-
tion at each output station along the frame element. Initially the worst stress ratio is high-
lighted. Following are the headings in the table:
Combo ID This is the name of the design load combination considered.
Station location This is the location of the station considered, measured from
the i-end of the frame element.
Steel Frame Design Interactive Steel Frame Design
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form Page 4 of 4
Table 1 Steel Stress Check Information Form
FEATURE DESCRIPTION
Moment Interaction Checks
Ratio This is the total PMM stress ratio for the element. When stress
ratios are reported for this item, they are followed by either (T)
or (C). The (T) item indicates that the axial component of the
stress ratio is tension. The (C) item indicates that the axial
component of the stress ratio is compression. Note that typi-
cally the interaction formulas are different, depending on
whether the axial stress is tension or compression.
Axl This is the axial component of the PMM stress ratio.
B-Maj This is the bending component of the PMM stress ratio for
bending about the major axis.
B-Min This is the bending component of the PMM stress ratio for
bending about the minor axis.
Maj Shr Ratio This is the shear stress ratio for shear acting in the major direc-
tion of the frame element.
Min Shr Ratio This is the shear stress ratio for shear acting in the minor direc-
tion of the frame element.