Welcome to the Interactive LEARN Session!

One typical area where our office runs into issues is determining the lateral load distribution through diaphragms. We need this piece for diagram design, attachment, etc. If it is a one story structure with only braced frames, we can take the horizontal component in each brace and work with that. But when it is a multi-story building with braced frames, moment frames, frames with horizontal or vertical offsets, shear walls, etc. it is difficult to determine what load is going into each frame/wall. How do you recommend we handle this situation? Please note that when two frames abutt in orthogonal directions, naming the frames independently is impossible due to the shared column.

I've wondered about the shared column issue too, and would also be interested in any best practice for those situations.

In the RAM Structural System the Frame Story Shears report is the key to getting this information, along with the Building Story Shear report (to see what the total shear is that is coming in at each story). Most notably, the Change in shear indicates how much shear has transferred out of the diaphragm into the frame at the given level. That is the amount for which the diaphragm connection needs to be designed. It may require some effort to determine how shear is coming in from each side, I find it useful to print out a Floor Map and write down the Change in shear in each frame, and based on rough tributary areas determine how much of the Change in the total building shear at that level is coming in from which side.
For the case of two frames sharing a common column, it may require assigning the Frame Numbers, getting the report, and then reassigning the Frame Numbers and getting the report again. It is perfectly acceptable to modify the Frame Numbers as needed.

We often tend to think of the model as static (we don't want to keep changing it to get different results), and that the Frame Numbers are part of that static model. However, our intent for the Frame Numbering command was to allow the user to assign them on the fly so they could tailor any output to get precisely what they need to see, and not be overwhelmed with all of the other data for the other members. Note that the Assign Frame Number command is in every module in RAM Frame to enable this. We expected that engineers would use this liberally to get info from individual frames or even parts of individual frames. For example, if you wanted to compare or investigate braces you could assign all of the braces to be a particular frame number and then get a report that would then list the results for only the braces.
In the case of the corner column the best thing to do is to assign them as part of one of the frames, get the output, and then reassign as part of the other frame and get the output again.
We have considered somehow allowing the user to specify that a member is part of multiple Frame Numbers, but we haven't pursued that one, haven't really figured out how best to do that.

Personally, I give a frame a number and want it to always maintain that number. When multiple people are using the model or looking at output, it is necessary that Frame 5 always be Frame 5. The piles of output become harder to sift through 3-6 months down the road if members keep changing labels. Periodically I will relabel something for a specific output, but then reassign it to its original frame. I understand the intent, but wish determining the load into each frame at each level was more readily available.