Complete

This feature has been implemented in v17.04. 

Thanks for submitting the request, and for the information/discussion that helped guide us in the implementation.

Allow user assigned composite stud quantity

In RAM Modeler and/or RAM Steel Beam provide the ability under Assign to assign composite stud quantity similar to assigning a beam size.

  • If you are specifying stud quantities, I would hope you already have beam sizes chosen in the case of existing framing.  I would envision the program requiring you to specify a beam size along with stud quantities - popping up an error if no size was assigned or the assignment of stud quantities would be part of the "assign beam size" dialog box.  I would expect that RAM SS would then treat that beam as a user-assigned size and tell you if it failed, didn't meet min percent composite action, etc. during analysis in RAM Steel Beam.

    System should warn you if your user assigned beams/std quantities don't work (eg W16x26(26)) just like it would with a user assigned beam now.

    I agree, girders and/or beams with segmented studs would get more complicated.  I think in this instance Bentley either decides to limit the assign stud ability to start and only allow for a fixed number, or you design a more complex system in which RAM SS can confirm the proper segments.  From the user side, I would think that this might be easier to implement on the back end during design then during the front end in RAM Modeler.

    I don't see it being an issue as part of the "Assign Size Command", but others may not be so happy with adding more "complications" to this command vs adding an additional command.

    If you re-optimize beam size, I would think this also deletes your std quantity.  I agree with your thoughts above on how it could be implemented and appreciate you reviewing this concept/feature!

    Hunter

  • Great concept but some issues that may make implementation difficult.

    If you had the ability to assign the quantity of studs, what would you expect the program to do about the beam size? If no size has been assigned, should the program optimize the beam size, while only considering the number of studs assigned by the user? If those studs couldn't be made to work with any size you would get a No Size message. If the studs were assigned to an optimized beam size (after it has been designed), should the program then consider the beam size and the studs to be user-assigned? Should this ability to assign only be allowed for beams that already have a user-assigned size?

    If you had those 100 W16x26's and you assigned studs to them, what should the program do in the design of those beams if the loads changed? Should it treat those W16x26 (26) as user-assigned sizes and warn you if they don't work (which is what happens if you change the studs and update the database in V/U and then change loads)? Or should the program reoptimize those beams? And if it reoptimized the beams what should it do with the number of studs that were assigned, that may have only been pertinent to the W16x26's? You may no longer want the program to use that number, maybe now a different number is preferred based on the new designs resulting from the change in loads.

    For girders and beams with Segmented studs it becomes more complicated. Unless the user is assigning Uniform studs, they will have to know how many stud segments are on the beams to which they are assigning Segmented studs. If they assign the wrong number of segments the program would only detect that when it tried to perform a design, at which time it would have to give an error message.

    Something that makes it more difficult coming up with a clean solution for this is that for the first example you gave (existing structure), it would work best if it was part of the Assign Size command, you would assign the size and the studs at the same time. But for the second case (cleaning up the number of studs) you wouldn't want it part of the Assign Size command, you would want it separate.

    Perhaps it could work this way: Studs can only be assigned to beams that have a size, either an Optimized size after Design All has been performed or a User-assigned size. When studs are assigned to a beam, that beam's size and studs become a User-assigned size, even if the size was originally an Optimized size. Stud assignments are only associated with the current size; if you clear the size the program would re-Optimize both size and studs; that previous Stud assignment wouldn't be 'remembered' by the program. The program would give the ability to assign either Uniform or Segmented studs. The program would have to determine if the number of assigned segments was different than the actual number of segments, and if so it would ignore the assignment, and warn the user that it ignored the assignment.

    Sometimes things that seem simple aren't so simple after all. I can see why you would want this capability in concept, we will need to figure out how to deal with these issues.

    Thoughts on how to handle these various situations?

  • Seth,

    I can think of two use cases - both would be based on assigning an integer value and having the option of assigning single/fence:

    • Analysis of an existing structure where you want to quickly assign the existing stud quantities and verify capacity based on the existing/new building use parameters.
    • Quickly change the quantity of studs for a new project, E.G. you may have a floor with a 100 W16x26s that get assigned 24 studs each and you want them all to have 26 studs.  The only way I know to change that now is to view update each individual beam which is tedious, with a fence assign integer option in RAM Modeler you could reassign the entire floor fairly quickly.
  • That seems pretty straight forward to do. Do you just want to assign an integer value, or some kind of minimum? I ask because the stud criteria already has some options for max spacing and so forth that might work in the meantime.