1. How do I display the deflection diagram and the displacement values on that diagram?
2. Changing Units from inch to cm
3. Print Truss w/ Output Forces
4. Beam Annotation - Change Font and Turn Off Unit Display
5. Annotations for Maximum Bending Moment or Shear Values not Visible
6. If I have a moment vector along the local positive Z axis does it have a twisting action going to the right along the positive direction of the axis?
7. What are the sign conventions for moments in a 3-D structure?
8. After performing the analysis, I enter the post-processing mode to view the member end force values. I click on the Beam page on the left side of the screen and see the values listed on the tables on the right hand side. Unfortunately, the moment values are in kip-inch units, even though my current units are set to feet and pounds. What do I have to do to get the values to show up in pound-feet units in the tables?
9. What is the purpose of the Beam - Graphs page on the left side of the screen?
10. How do I display the bending moment diagram and the values on that diagram, or shear forces or Axial forces?
11. When I take a picture, it prints on the top half of a 8-1/2 x 11 size page. How can I take pictures that fill the page?
12. How to insert a company logo into STAAD.Pro report?
13. Can I get STAAD.Pro to report the torsion stress ?
14. How can I have STAAD report more than 3 places of decimal in the post processing result tables?
15. How to know the version of the design code which is being used by STAAD.Pro during the analysis?
16. How to see the displacement of only one particular node graphically?
17. What is the difference between the local and global deflection in the member query box?
18. I am analyzing a large 3D structure. I changed the beta angle of one of the members to 90. I expected the MY and MZ for the two scenarios ( beta =0 and beta=90) to get interchanged. However that does not seem to happen. Why ?
19. How to get Member End Forces for a specific selection of beams?
20. How do I change stress output units in the *.ANL output file? They are coming out as kN/m2. I want N/mm2
21. How do I save a 3D rendered view (generated by the pyramid' icon)? I am able to do this for other views using View > View Management

6. If I have a moment vector along the local positive Z axis does it have a twisting action going to the right along the positive direction of the axis?

If a member is drawn with its longitudinal axis (local-X) from left to right, and the local Z axis coming out of the page towards you, a positive MZ would cause tension on the top fiber, and a negative MZ would cause tension on the bottom fiber.

7. What are the sign conventions for moments in a 3-D structure?

The sign conventions are as follows:

Axial (FX) : Positive = Along local X axis, Negative = Opposite to local X
axis
Shear-Y (FY) : Positive = Along local Y axis, Negative = Opposite to local Y
axis
Shear-Z (FZ) : Positive = Along local Z axis, Negative = Opposite to local Z
axis

Torsion (MX) : Positive = Along local X axis, Negative = Opposite to local X
axis
Moment-Y (MY) : Positive = Along local Y axis, Negative = Opposite to local
Y axis
Moment-Z (MZ) : Positive = Along local Z axis, Negative = Opposite to local
Z axis

For axial forces,

Positive at the start node indicates compression at the start node.
Positive at the end node indicates tension at the end node.

Negative at the start node indicates tension at the start node.
Negative at the end node indicates compression at the end node.

8. After performing the analysis, I enter the post-processing mode to view the member end force values. I click on the Beam page on the left side of the screen and see the values listed on the tables on the right hand side. Unfortunately, the moment values are in kip-inch units, even though my current units are set to feet and pounds. What do I have to do to get the values to show up in pound-feet units in the tables?

The unit system in which results are displayed on the tables is set using the facilities available under the View - Options menu. These are known as the display units. To set the display units for the bending moments and torsional moments, please do the following :

In the View menu, select Options - Force units. In the category called Moment, select the units you desire and click on OK.

9. What is the purpose of the Beam - Graphs page on the left side of the screen?

This is another way to display the bending, shear and axial force diagrams on the screen.

In the post processing mode, select the Beam page from the left side of the screen. Then select graphs.

The right side portion of the screen will display the Bending diagram (MZ), shear diagram (FY) and the axial force diagram (FX) with values. In the drawing area, if you select a member by clicking on it, MZ, FY and FX of
that member will be displayed on the right hand side. To display the diagrams of another member, select that member.

10. How do I display the bending moment diagram and the values on that diagram, or shear forces or Axial forces?

First you must Analyze the file. Select Analyze from the Staad.Pro top menu bar. Select the Analysis option. After this, click on Run Analysis at the bottom of the small window dialog box.

After the analysis of the file is completed, click on the Done button.

Next, we go to the Post Processing mode to view the forces and results graphically.

To enter into the Post Processing mode, select Mode from the top menu bar and select Post Processing. Remember that if your analysis is not complete, you will not be able to access the Post Processing mode.

By default, the deflection diagram always opens up in the post processing screen of Staad.Pro.

To view the Bending Moment Diagrams, select the Beam page from the left side. From the top menu bar, choose Results - View value. Under Ranges, choose All. (The All button means the Bending moment diagram will be displayed for all members.)

Under the Beam Results tab, you will see the options Bending, Shear, Axial, Displacement and Stresses.
Make the appropriate choice.

Click on the Annotate button. Then click on the close button.

11. When I take a picture, it prints on the top half of a 8-1/2 x 11 size page. How can I take pictures that fill the page? 

There is no direct way to change the size of the picture from within STAAD.Pro. However here are a few options that you may find useful

Option 1

1. Before taking a picture, please ensure that the model is
   zoomed in sufficiently so that it fills up the space within the picture border as far as possible.
2. Take the picture and include that as part of the report using the Report Setup.
3. Go to File > Printer Setup and change the orientation to Landscape.
4. Go to File > Print Preview Report to check whether it looks satisfactory or not and if so, print it.

Option 2

1. You may copy the picture by going to the menu option Edit > Copy Picture. You can then paste the picture in MSWord or Excel or Paint.
2. Adjust the size of the picture using the tools available within these applications and take a print from there.

12. How to insert a company logo into STAAD.Pro report?

1. Open the start-up window of STAAD.Pro and go to the Configuration option.

2. Choose “File Options” tab and tick the “Remove Bentley Logo from Report” box. This will remove the Bentley logo    from your reports

3. Open the STAAD.Pro file. Go to the Report setup page and click on “Name and Logo” option.

4. Go to file option and choose the path where you have stored your logo. The logo should be in .bmp format.

5. Write the company name. You can orient the logo and company name by the Alignment option.

Note, Ram Elements, Connection and Ram Structural System have similar options. For Elements or Connection go to the upper left menu - General Configuration - Print tab. For RAM Structural System you just have to replace the logo.bmp file in the program directory with your own logo.bmp or logo.jpg file. it tends to work best when the log has roughly a 1:1 aspect ratio.

13. Can I get STAAD.Pro to report the torsion stress ?

STAAD.Pro does not report stress due to Torsion but here are a couple of items which you may find useful.

The beam end forces table that you can get from Postprocessing mode Beam > Forces page, reports the torsion ( MX ) in a beam member.

STAAD is also able to account for stresses due to torsion during the design phase. In steel design for example, the torsion stresses are converted to normal and shear stresses and added to existing normal/shear stresses following guidelines laid out in AISC Design Guide 9. When it comes to the new AISC 360-10 code, currently the software can account for the torsion for HSS sections only although work is under progress to account for torsion for Non-HSS sections too and this should be available in a couple of months. 

14.How can I have STAAD report more than 3 places of decimal in the post processing result tables?

You need to go to the top menu and click on View > Options > Choose the appropriate item and change the corresponding number of decimal places as desired > Click Apply > OK.

15. How to know the version of the design code which is being used by STAAD.Pro during the analysis?

The design code version which is being used by STAAD.Pro during the design phase is written in the Output file

16. How to see the displacement of only one particular node graphically?

1. Analyze the model and go to the Postprocessing mode, Node -> Displacements page.
2. If needed, turn on the node symbol (click Shift + K on your keyboard) and node numbers (Shift + N).
3. Go to the Results -> View Value menu.
4. In the Ranges tab select Ranges and enter the node number(s) for which you want to see the displacement.

5. Then go to the Node tab and select Nodal Displacement which you want to see. Click Annotate.

Now the displacement of only selected node will be seen on the screen. Similarly, beam force diagram values, beam maximum displacements, beam combined stresses and support reactions can be set.

17. What is the difference between the local and global deflection in the member query box?

Figures (1) and (2) show the local and global deflections of the beam #2 which is a part of the beam joining 2 columns:

Figure (1) 

Figure (2)

Global deflection is the largest distance between (a) and (b) where:

(a) is the line joining the ends of the member in its un-deflected position (named as 'Original shape' in the figure (3));

(b) is the elastic curve of the member representing its deflected shape.

Local deflection is the largest distance between (c) and (d) where:

(c) is the line joining the ends of the member in its deflected position;

(d) is the elastic curve of the member representing its deflected shape.

Figure (3)

18. I am analyzing a large 3D structure. I changed the beta angle of one of the members to 90. I expected the MY and MZ for the two scenarios ( beta =0 and beta=90) to get interchanged. However that does not seem to happen. Why ?

The Mz and My would not simply get interchanged when you apply a beta angle to 90 for every situation. The same would be true if you are analyzing a beam in isolation without considering any effect from the rest of the structure. However when a beam is part of a bigger structure, the beam’s local stiffness in each direction would affect the global stiffness of the structure along each DOF. Depending on that there will be a redistribution of the forces which will result in different moments/shears.

19. How to get Member End Forces for a specific selection of beams?

The procedure of specifying the commands to report the member end forces is described in STAAD.Pro Help manual chapter 1.5.12:



Alternatively, one can use a Report Setup with specified Ranges (by group or simply typing in the member numbers in the Ranges field):

20. How do I change stress output units in the *.ANL output file? They are coming out as kN/m2. I want N/mm2.

The units of items reported in the analysis output file are based on the unit settings in the input command file ( editor ). The unit that is current at the time the relevant command triggering the output is processed, is used for the reporting. One can set the units appropriately using the editor ( Edit > Edit Input Command File ) as explained next. For example to get the support reactions and member forces reported in Newton and mm units one needs to enter the unit command before the print commands as shown next

…

PERFORM ANALYSIS

UNIT MM NEWTON

PRINT SUPPORT REACTIONS

PRINT MEMBER FORCES

…

Any other output printed in the ANL file following the above commands, would also be printed in the currently set units of Newton and mm.

21. How do I save a 3D rendered view (generated by the pyramid' icon)? I am able to do this for other views using View > View Management

As of now there is no way to save the 3D rendered view as a Saved View. However here are a couple of options that you may find useful 

1. Right click on the 3D Rendered View and choose the Take Picture option. The picture is then saved and can be accessed from within Report Setup ( File > Report Setup ) and can be included as part of the report.

2. Instead of using a 3D Rendered View, you can plot a full section view ( right click inside the whole structure window and choose Labels > Structure > Full Sections ). This would be similar to the rendered view but the difference is, you would be able to save it through View > View Management

See Also

Product TechNotes and FAQs

Structural Product TechNotes And FAQs

External Links

Bentley Technical Support KnowledgeBase

Bentley LEARN Server

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