Staad - Steel Design - Physical Members

Question

What is the latest on designing steel members in staad pro using AISC and physical members? It seems like you can design steel based on physical member properties for some codes, but not AISC, is that correct? 
 Is this video current with the work flow for designing steel members LINK ? This video discusses some short cuts as far as being able to select physical members, but says that it is still not automated. However, they do present a macro for deflection. Is this available? 
 Thanks!

Surojit Ghosh · Accepted Answer

Yes, it is true - it is not possible to design a physical member as per AISC code in STAAD. You can generate a 3D structure with physical member using physical modeler, but those physical members will not be designed as a physical object, rather during member design, each analytical member will be designed separately. Physical member design is only implemented for Australian code. 
 You can use the physical member information for design parameter assignment, as shown in the video. You can use custom macro which can assign the parameters directly to physical members (check https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/m/ram-staad-api-solutions for the macro). If you want to assign the design parameter to a physical member manually, then from the Geometry ribbon, switch on the "Toggle Physical Member Mode". 
 The workflow discussed in the video is one approach, there are multiple other methods which you can follow. Before generating the model, you need to decide whether to use the physical member or physical modeler depending on the structure type.

Staad - Steel Design - Physical Members

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