Hello, Please how does RAM concept interpret lateral line loads? I am trying to design a mat foundation with shear wall support above. The shear wall resists lateral loads. In the line loads properties there is a box for elevation, what elevation is this? is it the distance from the top of the wall to the centroid of the slab? or the distance from the midpoint of the load to the centroid of the slab? Looking at the input in the right picture, does the input on the right mean what is drawn? (hand sketch picture)
The line load can be elevated some distance from the slab surface (the 0 elevation). If so, then rigid links connect the elevated line load back to the slab nodes. For more see the program manual, chapter 23 Drawing Loads. That's different from your section sketch.
Okay thank you. So this line load, is it per ft of the wall width or per ft of the wall height? I am still confused about the reference point of the elevation with respect to the load. Is this elevation supposed to be measured from the centroid of the mat foundation to the height of the wall or to the midpoint of the wall? (midpoint of load, it the linear load is per ft height of the wall). I have looked at chapter 23 this is not clear to me. I am assuming the line load that should be entered is per ft width of the wall so that way you have an elevation to input with no ambiguity
No, the wall is irrelevant. A line load can be elevated with or without a wall. The units are in kips/ft where the "ft" is the length of the line load. As noted in the load input, the elevation is relative to the slab surface also knows as the 0 datum, not the centroid.
Thank you. That makes sense
One last question, Please the mat foundation example in chapter 53 of the manual, is it possible to see the drawing (Plan and elevations) used for that example? it is difficult to follow along when you dont know where all the numbers came from