This tool allows you to graphically apply force and moment concentrated loads to members. Member loads can be referenced to the global or local axes systems and can be positioned anywhere along the member.
The procedure is as follows.
Select
the members you wish to load, click the right mouse button and then
select "Loads" => "Concentrated Loads" from
the popup menu that appears.
OR
Click the toolbar button or select "Member
Concentrated Loads - Graphical" from the Loads menu, select the
members you wish to load, click the right mouse button and then click
Ok.
In
the load case form that appears, if you are inputting new loads then
you would probably leave the load cases list field blank and specify
the load cases in the datasheet that follows. If you are editing loads
then you may also wish to leave the load cases list field blank unless
there are a large number of load cases and you want to restrict the
datasheet to just some of them.
You should then choose between showing the loads applied to each selected
member individually (ie. one line of data for each member) or applied
as a group to all the selected members (ie. one line of data for all
the members). The advantage of the "group" selection is
that you only have to input one line of data in the datasheet to have
it applied to all the selected members. This can be particularly useful
if you are applying the same load to a number of members. If you are
inputting a different load on each member then you should choose the
"individual" selection. Choosing "individual"
can also be useful if you are simply trying to see what loads are
already applied to the members you have selected.
If you have elected to show the loads applied to each member individually
then you can also choose between showing all the selected members
or just the ones that are loaded. If you are inputting new loads then
you would probably choose to show all the selected members, whereas
if you are editing existing loads or just viewing loads then showing
just the loaded members may be preferable.
A
datasheet then appears with any existing loads shown. You can add,
edit or delete loads and then click the Ok button to save any changes.
The operation of the datasheet is the same as the non-graphical datasheets
(see also Datasheets).
Refer to "Using
datasheets" for information on how to operate the above datasheet.
You can apply more than one concentrated load to the same member within the same load case by specifying a different sub-load number for each different member concentrated load.
See also Member concentrated load data.
See also Load contiguous members.