RE: 5.32.4.2 Regarding Floor load application

Abhisek M — Tue, 08 May 2018 16:43:52 GMT

Dear user,

For floor load generation you need closed loop of members. At least members on 3 sides of a panel will generate floor loadings on the supported beam. Here a complete member doesn't represent a member from column to column. Every single beam element is member. If you just hover the mouse around a member it will show green and blue color at its ends to identify its start and end position. So, if you make a floor plan consisting of primary and secondary members with closed loops the floor load will work without any error. Just give it a try and if you found any problem please feel free to write us.

Regarding your second question, the answer is "it depends". If you want to model the plates just to consider the self weight of slabs for quick foundation calculations or just want to include the stiffness of slabs in the model, modelling with one plate will be not a problem. But if you want to check different stresses, design those plates or consider the monolithic action of slab and beams it is always recommended to create meshed plated structure as for finite element analysis, the finer the mesh size the more accurate results we get. In a nut shell, it is always a good practice to create plate mesh in structure.

You can find some more details in the attached wiki.

https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/w/structural_analysis_and_design__wiki/30710/should-i-use-a-single-plate-or-a-mesh-of-plates-for-modeling-slabs-in-staad-pro

https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/f/ram-staad-forum/118590/plate-mesh-query-in-staad-modelling