In the case of connections exported from the Advance Design the user cannot modify the loads or the support beams.
When the "Export to ADSC" command is launched, the Advance Design exports only the load combinations relevant for the connection verifications.
From the entire list of load combinations, only the load combinations that are producing maximum/minimum efforts in the connection are exported. The relevant efforts for the steel joint calculations are:
⇒ Fz> max/min – the maximum/minimum shear force from the secondary beam
⇒ My max/min – the maximum/minimum bending moment from the secondary beam end
⇒ My/Fx max/min – the maximum/minimum value of the My and Fx report
⇒ Sxx max/min – the maximum/minimum value of the secondary beam section tension
⇒ Sv max – the maximum von Misses tension
⇒ max
When the load combinations are exported, they are renamed. The name is composed from the load combination number from Advance Design (101; 102; 103...) and a part that includes the maximum or minimum effort produced by that load combinations for the corresponding connection.
It is possible that one load combination to produce multiple minimum or maximum effort values for one connection. In this case, the load combination name will contain all the extreme efforts names.
For a more precise explanation of this procedure, we will exemplify a "Flange Haunch" joint, from a steel structure designed in Advance Design. The structure has several loads that will form load combinations.
After the steel structure is analyzed and all the efforts from its structural elements are known, the user can calculate the steel connection. To do this, the steel joint must be exported to Advance Design Steel Connection:
To visualize the list of the forces used in the connection calculation, the user must open the "Joint" parameter window and from "Joint design" select the "Forces" page:
The following schema shows the links between the imported load combinations and the relevant efforts for the joint calculations:
Analyzing this image we can see that:
⇒ the "101" load combination provides the maximum negative "Sxx-" tension and the minimum positive "Sxx+" tension⇒ the "112" load combination provides a maximum value for the "My/Fx" report
⇒ the "113" load combination provides the maximum positive "Sxx+" tension and the minimum negative "Sxx-" tension
⇒ the "119" load combination provides the maximum values for the "Fz"; "My"; "Sv"; "Fx+Fz" and the minimum values for "Fx"
⇒ the "124" load combination provides the maximum values of "Fx" and "My/Nx" and the minimum values for "Fz" and "My"