Morning All,
Let me start by saying we are new to RAM Structural System so I apologise if this has been asked before but I did a quick search and couldn't not find what I am looking for. My manager has raised the question as to whether RAM Frame can create 2-D bending moment/axial force/shear force envelopes for moment frames/braced bays similar to the attached Space Gass output showing bending moment envelope for a braced frame subject to horizontal wind loads/vertical roof dead, imposed and wind loads. We are aware that we can view the results in 3-D within RAM Frame which we tend to use as designers but we hope to be able to generate these view for inclusion into certified documentation so that the results in a format which is familiar to internal/external checking engineers.
On a related note, can anyone here recommend any good resources on how to prepare concise reports from RSS models? I have only got as far as reviewing reports within the program which are detailed to say the least and I prefer this for design as I want to know what the programs is doing but when it comes to certified documents I don't want to bog down checking engineers with all this additional information. I therefore want to condense the output to summary reports as much as feasible (e.g. I don't want to see rebar calculations for all 100+ load cases at each beam section but rather I want it to identify the most severe load case and shows the beam status as Pass/Fail for this load case). Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Anthony McTigue
Structural Design Engineer
FMG Engineering
Level 1/2Domville Avenue,
Hawthorn, VIC 3122
Australia
Yes, you can plot force diagrams in RAM Frame using Process - Results - member forces. They can be plotted in 3D, plan or in an elevation view, whatever you like. You can also control what members have data shown, beams, columns, braces and/or walls and adjust text height to make it all readable.
You can plot these results for load cases, or for load combinations depending which mode you are in. Member Force Envelope results are also available. Any view you have on screen can be printed to paper from the file menu (or saved as a file).
For most things in RAM SS there is a full report (e.g. member code check) or a summary (e.g. member check summary) report, but we do tend to provide a lot of information. Sometimes it is easier to print a graphic than a report. If I was going to review a model it's the graphical output I would be most interested in.
Any report can be saved out as a file (text .csv files can be imported into excel if needed) if that helps. Lots of people have pdf writers installed so that any printable output can just be saved as pdf too (that's not built into the program itself yet).
Seth,
I am working on a building with moment frames. I ran the analysis and I was only able to obtain member forces and force envelopes for each moment frame in load case mode. How can I obtain the member force envelopes for all load combinations? I do not see analyze or any other option and member force and envelope options are turned off?
Thanks,
Use Analysis mode - Load Combinations sub-mode and define the desired custom load combinations there. Then use Process Results - Member Force Envelope or Report the same.
Thanks!