The RAM Concept manual indicates that when modeling columns, the height of column should be measured from the slab/beam centroid. That being the case and when the program calculates the self weight of the column, does it include the weight of the column's portion that penetrates through the bottom half of the slab or it only consider the net height below the slab soffit?.
There is no discounting of the column self-weight that is intersecting the slab. The column weight is just area * density * length. Bear in mind that the weight of the columns above may be completely ignore, or considered, based on the Criteria - Calc options (and the columns below have no effect on the slab design).
Answer Verified By: TJ Hamad
Thank you, Seth. That what I thought but when I was viewing the "Element Summary Perspective" for a slab with several steps, the column elevations at the bottom were different based on the amount of the slab step and that confused me a bit.
Yes, the columns below are not going to effect the slab design, but i am trying to extract data from the model to help me developing column rundown analysis.