Many of the videos on this page are based on the loads on the foundation either being already available in an existing SFA model, or being created using the following workflow. The foundation is created first, and the loads are then applied on the foundation. Since these loads represent the forces and moments that are acting on the foundation from the columns of the superstructure model, the position of the columns and those forces and moments loads acting through them too have to be specified as part of the model generation process. Thus, the data that the user needs to enter is not just the details of the foundation itself, but also of the columns and the loads transmitted by them.
However, there is another workflow possible that can significantly reduce the amount of data that the engineer needs to enter. In the majority of cases, engineers usually create a superstructure model first, analyze it, and once it is decided that it is more or less final, they then create the foundation model to resist the forces and moments that are transmitted to the foundations by the columns or walls of the lowest level of the superstructure. In the superstructure model, the foundations may have been idealized as fixed or pinned or spring supports. Thus, the loads for which the foundations need to be designed are already available in the form of support reactions of that superstructure model.
Hence, a significant amount of time and effort can be saved if one could import the data pertaining to the lowest-level columns and the reactions at the supports for the various load cases and combinations that the superstructure model has been analyzed for. This workflow has been demonstrated in videos 18 and 19.
So, to the engineer who wants to learn SFA, our suggestion would be this. If you have a superstructure model as described in the second workflow, first watch videos 18 and 19. Then watch the remaining videos (1 thru 17). You may be able to skip a number of steps involving the column geometry and loads on the foundation and focus just on the design aspects.