Project Preferences

Title

Statistics

1. In the table :
   
1. Unit : To select preferred unit.
   
2. Format Control : To adjust the format presentation (either F-format or E-format) of the values.
   
1. F-format :- Standard form.
   
2. E-format :- Exponential form.
   For instance, "std: F, Big/Small : E" means when the figure become very large or very small exceeded F-format limit, E-format will be used. 
2. Unit System : 
   
1. SI : International System of Units
2. MKS : Meter-Kilogram-Second System
   
3. IMP : Imperial Units System

1. Beam Label Settings :
   
1. Display Beam Labels in Plan : To show/hide beam label in plan view.
   
2. Display Beam Dimension in Plan : To show beam dimension in plan view.
   
3. Beam Dimensions (BxH/HxB) : To select the arrangement of beam label.
2. Column Label Settings : 
   
1. Use Insertion Axes as Label : To show insertion axes instead of column label.
   
2. Display Column Labels in Plan : To show/hide column label in plan view.
3. Column Size Text Display Options : To show/hide column dimension.
3. Purlin Plan Label Settings : To show/hide purlin label.
4. Slab Label Settings :
   
1. Display Slab Labels in Plan : To show/hide slab label.
2. Arrow Size Ratio : To adjust the arrow size. Only applicable to slab label type with arrow sign.
   
3. Lowered Slab Mark : To have an indication mark/label for drop slab below the slab label. 

Template

This page controls the member labels templates.

Codes

This page controls the Design Code settings in the project.

1. Codes are automatically selected based on the country specific template that must be chosen when new project is created.
2. Although codes can be manually changed, we strongly advised against mixing of code of practice of different country, example using British loading code but choosing to design using EuroCode, to prevent unexpected outcome such as unconservative design. 

Lateral Loading

This page controls the Lateral loading settings in the project such as the notional load. This page will differ depending on which loading code is chosen (example shown below is for EuroCode)

1. If you check the “Apply Notional Loads at Storey Levels” option, then the notional loads will be calculated and applied by the program automatically :
   
1. Lateral Load Factor :  This factor will be multiplied by the mass of each storey to evaluate the notional load at each storey.
   
2. The notional load will be applied as point load at the centre of gravity of each separate diaphragm and / or each free node proportional to their masses at the same storey level.
   
2. Lateral Load Angle : Enter value other than zero if you want to specify a loading direction other than the global X and Y directions.  Angles are measure global horizontal, anti-clockwise as shown below.
   
3. 
4. Number of Contributing Members (Eurocode 2 only)
   
   In Cl 5.2(5) the calculation of the reduction factor αm depends on the number of contributing members, m.
   Valid input for m in directions 1 and 2 is any whole number from 1 to 1000. The default value is 1 which results in αm  = 1.000. If a value of 1000 is entered then am would reduce to 0.707.
5. Live Load Participation Factor (n) : is always used in calculating storey mass in eigenvalue analysis. This option can be chosen to evaluate the various modes of natural frequency (in Building Analysis menu). It does not affect the notional loads at all. 
   
6. No of Modes to be Calculated : If Eigenvalue analysis is chosen, sets the maximum number of mode shapes that will be calculated.  For more details, please refer section "Perform Eigenvalue Analysis" in this article: Analysis.

1. Dir-1/Dir-2 : Direction is based on global direction. Dir-1 indicates x-axis ; Dir-2 indicates y-axis.
   
2. User can manually change the bracing condition for an individual column or wall on the “Slenderness” page located in the Interactive Column Design dialog. 
3. Sway Amplification Factor (Eurocode) : After analysis, if the structure is found to be sway sensitive, the calculated amplification factors are also displayed on this page. A “User-Defined” checkbox is provided to enable you to over-ride the calculated values based on your engineering judgement.