Hello,
I was curious if anyone has encountered this error. I'm working on a steel structure to support pipes and electrical cable trays. The structure is located in a suburb of Phoenix, AZ (Eloy). The zip code is 85131.
What I discovered was when I input the zip code and other seismic parameters into the code (see below), I get an error that says zip code not found!
DEFINE IBC 2012ZIP 85131 I 1 RX 3.25 RZ 3.25 SCLASS 4 TL 6 FA 1.6 FV 2.4REFERENCE LOAD YR1 1.0 R2 0.5 R3 0.5
What I found was that there are at least 6 other zip codes surrounding that one that produce the same error. I was finally able to find one that worked (zip code 85249), but it baffles me that somehow STAAD doesn't know what a certain zip code exists!
In place of zip code you can try with Latitude & Longitude of the location or directly input SS & S1 to generate seismic loading on the structure.
Answer Verified By: Ed Major
This is a good workaround, but I'm still curious why the problem exists. Somehow, STAAD doesn't recognize certain zip codes in the southern Arizona area. That's the problem I want to know how to fix.
STAAD fetches the ZIP codes from a database that was procured from some agency some 15-20 years ago. So, when you enter a zip code for which you want the SS and S1 to be determined, the program first reads the latitude and longitude for that zip code from that database file, and then uses those values to find the SS and S1 from yet another tool that is supplied by the USGS.
It turns out that the ZIP codes you mention (85100 to 85200) are not present in the ZIP code database. Looks like we need to update that database.
Until then, the method suggested by Suvadeep is the only alternative, namely, enter the latitude and longitude manually. The STAAD development group has been notified of this matter.