Is it possible in RAM Structural System/RAM Steel for it to design/analyze beams based on the length from column face to column face instead of center to center of column supports? I am back engineering a building that appears to have been designed to very precise limits of the members and the total beam length reduction is a factor.
If not, is this possible in other RAM software such as RAM Elements?
RAM Steel always designs steel beams center to center of supports, unless you assign the beams to have offsets in the Modeler (Layout -> Beams -> Offsets). I usually use offsets to offset a beam laterally from a support, but you could also use offsets to shorten a beam. In Ram Elements (or STAAD.pro) you can also assign rigid end zones and offsets to get a reduced beam finite element length and member unbraced length, but there are some consequences to that (no composite design is possible most importantly and instabilities could occur secondarily).
Answer Verified By: Mike Barr
Sir
I am updating member sized of my model so to decrease the deflection but I noticed that deflection value never change even after enlarging the beam size
please would you advise me what to do?
If you are in Ram Steel and checking beam deflections, then changing the beam size and re-analyzing should have an immediate effect on the results. See our wiki on deflection and camber for details: https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/w/structural_analysis_and_design__wiki/14515/ram-ss-steel-beam-deflection-and-camber