Foundation Design Settings

Foundation Design Settings

Foundation design setting is the base setting for foundation of each project which can be set prior modelling and designing. 
If the model were created, by adjusting parameters in foundation setting will not affect the elements that has already created (unless the foundation elements has been redesigned in its properties settings). After the parameter is adjusted in general setting, new member modelled will follows the new parameters.
To access the Foundation Design Setting, user can go to "Building Setout" tab > "Settings Center" > "Foundation".

General

This tab controls the general foundation settings.


  1. General :
    1. Soil Unit Weight : To insert the the unit weight of the fill material. The surcharge will be calculated based on multiplication of "Soil Unit Weight" and fill height.
    2. Allowable Soil Stress Ultimate Strength Factor : To preset the ultimate strength factor of allowable soil stress. If service loads (G+Q) is used in soil stress calculation then this factor must be 1.
    3. Allowable Stress Soil : To input the allowable stresses. Ultimate Strength Factor will be multiplied with this value to compute allowable bearing capacity of soil. 
    4. Soil Vertical Subgrade Coefficient : To enter or select Soil Subgrade Coefficient from the given list based on different type of soil. This coefficient will be used in running FE raft foundation analysis.
    5. Horizontal Subgrade Coefficient : To enter horizontal soil subgrade coefficient. It is useful when have stepped foundations under vertical and lateral loads. It is defined as a percentage of vertical springs. 
      6. It is recommended to use the "Merged Foundation Model" in Building Analysis when consider horizontal springs in the foundation. 
    6. Lean Concrete Thickness : To preset lean concrete thickness. This parameter will be showed in elevation drawing.
    7. Lean Concrete Extension : To preset the extension length of lean concrete from footing/pile cap edge.  
    8. Strip Footing Cantilever Length : To modify the default strip footing cantilever length when new footing is created.
    9. Default Pad Footing Form : To select the default shape (i.e. rectangular or square) of pad footing form when new footing is created.
  2. Design :  
    1. Custom Pad Base Min. Steel Ratio : To set the minimum steel bar ratio for pad footing design.
    2. Strip Footing Min. Steel Ratio : To set the minimum steel bar ratio for strip footing design.
    3. Raft Foundation Min. Steel Ratio : To set the minimum steel bar ratio for foundation design. 
    4. Piled Raft Foundation Min. Steel Ratio : To set the minimum steel bar ratio for piled raft foundation design. 
    5. Min. Footing Width : To set the minimum width for pad footing design.
    6. Min. Pad Base Depth : To set the minimum depth of pad footing. 
    7. Max. Steel Bar Spacing : To set the maximum allowable rebar spacing for all foundation design.
    8. Size Increment Step : To determine the number of increment (step) when changing the size of foundation in the properties with using the up down button .
    9. Depth Increment Step : To determine the number of increment (step) when changing the depth of foundation in the properties with using the up down button.
    10. Pad Bases - Concrete Cover : To determine the concrete cover for pad footing.
  3. Steel Bar Selection : 
    1. Footing Reinforcements : To allow/disallow Bending of Bars (BOB) for the pad footing rebar detailing.
    2. Min. Steel Bar Size : To set the minimum steel main bar size for all foundation design.
    3. Max. Steel Bar Size : To set the maximum steel main bar size for all foundation design.
    4. Distribution Bar Size : To set the minimum steel distribution/link bar size for all foundation design.
    5. Use Top Bars : To apply top reinforcement bars in foundation by default.
  4. Min. Moment Coefficients : 
    1. Span 1/_ : To set the minimum moment coefficient to calculate distribution of moment at span. Default value is specified as (1/16).
    2. Support 1/_ : To set the minimum moment coefficient to calculate distribution of moment at support. Default value is specified as (1/12).
Beam span & support moment calculated by Winkler Method, will be compared with the product of q*L^2 and the coefficient specified here. Smaller values will not be used in the design. “q” represents the soil pressure under the column and “L” is the beam span length .
  1. View (affects in ProtaDetails only) : 
    1. Show Plan Bars as Top View : To show the rebar as straight line instead of showing rebar with curtailment details.
    2. Show Top Bars inside Plan View : To show top bars inside plan view.
    3. Show Grouped/Typical Column Labels : To show grouped or typical column labels.
    4. Display Lean Concrete Ends as Straight : To present the lean concrete ends as straight in elevation drawing.

Pile Caps

This tab controls the pile caps settings.

  1. Pile : 
    1. Shaft Type : To set default pile type.
    2. Penetration : To set length of pile that embeds in pile cap.
    3. Pile Size : To set the default pile dimeter / width of pile.
    4. Ultimate Compression/Tension Capacity : To set the ultimate compression/tension capacity of the pile (Factored pile working load) .
    5. Default Pile Length :  To set total length of the single pile.
  2. Unit Cost : the software will automatically compute the total cost value for the pile designed in "Optimization" tab in Pile Caps properties.
    1. Rebar Unit Cost : unit cost of rebar (by per ton).
    2. Concrete Unit Cost : unit cost of concrete (by per m3).
    3. Pile Unit Cost : unit cost of each pile (by per unit).
  3. General : 
    1. Spacing Multiplication Factor Between Piles (Short/Long Dir) : To set spacing multiplication factor between the pile in terms of number of diameter of pile. For example, if this is set to 2.5 and the pile diameter is 1000 mm, the spacing between the piles will be 2.5 * 1000 = 2500 mm 
    2. Distance to Face (Short/Long Dir) : To set the minimum distance from the pile face to the cap edge for short and long direction.
    3. Pile Cap Depth (Min./Max.) : To set the minimum/maximum pile cap depth for the pile cap auto design. 
    4. No. of Pile (Min./Max.) : To set minimum and maximum number of piles can be provided in the pile cap. For example, if maximum is set to 100, the pile cap design will stop the design, if the 100 number of pile cap is still inadequate. The minimum number of pile cannot less than 2.
    5. Footing Dimensions Rounding : To set the rounding step value to rounding up the pile cap size. 
    6. Max. # Of Optimization Candidates : To allow number of design options in "Optimization" tab in Pile Caps properties for price comparison.
    7. Top Concrete Cover : To allow user to enter top concrete cover value.
    8. Bottom Concrete Cover : To allow user to enter bottom concrete cover value.
    9. Side Concrete Cover : To allow user to enter side concrete cover value.
    10. Show Original Pile Location : To have a indicative mark (green cross) on the original pile location after the pile has been offset.
  4. Report : By Checking the given options, the corresponding information table will be added into the "Pad Base & Pile Cap Design" report.
  5. Design : 
    1. Include Effect of Column Dimensions : To include column dimension to take consideration in pile cap design.
    2. Include Effect of Column Dimensions On Shear Span : To include column dimensions to take consideration in shear span design.
    3. Include Bending Ratio (Affects Enhanced Shear Capacity) : To include Bending Ratio for pile cap design.

Pile

This tab controls the pile settings.

  1. Pile Lateral Analysis Settings : General parameter only for "Pile Design" in ProtaDetails can be set here. The parameter can be override in "Pile Design dialogue"
    1. Maximum Steel Area Ratio
    2. Minimum Steel Area Ratio
    3. Steel Area Step
    4. Tolerance
    5. Maximum Iteration Number
    6. Initial Soil Stiffness for Iteration
    7. Loading Cycle No
  2. Pile Rebar Settings : This field allow user to set the design parameter:
    1. Maximum Spacing for Longitudinal Rebars
    2. Minimum Spacing for Longitudinal Rebars
    3. Maximum Spacing for Links
    4. Minimum Spacing for Links
    5. Spacing Step

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