supervisión y evaluación que permitan ajustar las modalidades de su oper ación o decidir sobre su cancelación
2.11. P rocurar que sea el medio más eficaz y eficiente para alcanzar los objetivos y metas que se pr etenden
How to control the display of beam and node numbers: • Re-open the file named Dataset 2_3.std.
• Make sure the Beams Cursor is active.
• Hover the cursor over the horizontal member. The structural tool tip help pops up to display the beam number.
• Additional information such as member length, incidences, etc. may also be displayed.
• Click View | Structural Tool Tip Options…. • Click Beam in the Tool category.
• Note the other options that are available to display for beams. • Note that Tip Delay can be adjusted to control the delay time
before the tool tip is displayed. The Tip Delay is in units of milliseconds, so 500 = ½ second delay.
• Make sure that Number and Length are selected in the
Options category, and then click OK .
• Hover the cursor over the horizontal member again, and note that the tool tip now provides the beam number and the member length as requested.
• Click View | Structural Tool Tip Options… again. • Click Node in the Tool category.
• Make sure that Node Number, Coordinate, Displacement, and Support are all selected in the Options category, and then click OK .
• Hover the cursor over the node in the lower left corner, and note that only node number and coordinates are displayed. This is because supports have not yet been assigned in this model and displacements have not been calculated. • Another way to display beam or node numbers is with the
Query function.
• Double-click on the horizontal member with the Beams
Cursor.
• A dialog opens providing the beam number and other information about the beam.
• Right now there is not much information in this dialog because only member geometry has been defined so far.
• After properties have been defined and an analysis has been run, this dialog will be filled with information on the member including properties, analysis results, shear, bending and deflection diagrams, etc…
• The Query feature can also be used to get a node number or other information about a node by activating the Nodes Cursor and double-clicking on the node of interest.
• Double-click various nodes in the model with the Nodes
Cursor. Notice that the node number and coordinates update
in the Node dialog for each node.
• Note that the Tables category in the Node dialog provides direct access to several tables pertaining to nodes in general: • The Nodes button opens the Nodes table, which provides the coordinates of all the nodes in the model. The current node is highlighted in the table.
• The Loads button opens the Load Values table, which indicates the magnitudes and directions of any loads applied to the nodes, if any have been defined. Again, the current node is shown highlighted in the table.
• The Supports button opens the Supported Nodes table, which provides information about supports, if any have been defined.
• The Reactions button leads to the Support Reactions table. • The Displacements button leads to the Node Displacements
table.
Both the Reactions button and the Displacements button trigger the Results Setup dialog to open, in order to select which loads and nodes will be reported on.
Neither table is available for this model in its current state, because no loads have been applied and the model has not been analyzed.
• Click the Close button in the Nodes dialog.
• It is also possible to display beam and node number labels, as well as many other types of labels, directly on the structure diagram in the Main Window, as explained in the following section.
How to display structure labels:
• With the file named Dataset 2_3.std still open, right-click in the Main Window .
• A pop-up menu appears with some of the most frequently used commands in STAAD.Pro.
• Select the Labels… command. The Diagrams dialog opens with the Labels page active.
The Labels page can also be accessed quickly from the
• The Labels page is an extremely useful page that is used frequently.
• It provides options for labeling Nodes, Beams (Members), Plates, Solids, Surfaces, Physical Members, Loads, Properties, General display information, etc...
• Click the Node Numbers checkbox in the Nodes category and the Beam Numbers checkbox in the Beams category.
• Click OK.
• Notice that the node and beam numbers now appear in the Main Window, next to the corresponding beam or node.
If it is difficult to differentiate between the node labels and the beam labels, their graphic appearance can be modified
individually. This will be covered in an upcoming section on “How to control label appearance”.
• Click the Symbols and Labels icon on the Structure toolbar to return to the Labels page.
• “Hotkeys” are shown in parentheses following the various label names. These hotkeys are available for most of the labeling options.
A reminder is shown at the bottom of the Labels page indicating, “For quick access to the labels using keyboard hotkeys, press Shift + the letter shown in brackets.”
For example, to display node numbers, simply hold down the
Shift key and press the N key without leaving the Main
Window.
• Click OK to close the Diagrams dialog.
• Hold down the Shift key and press the N key repeatedly. Note that the node numbers are toggling on and off without having to leave the Main Window.
• Click the Symbols and Labels icon on the Structure toolbar again.
• By default, certain labels will only appear when particular pages are active in the Page Control area.
• For example, items under Loading Display Options will only appear when the Load sub-page of the General page is active. To override this default, select the radio button labeled Always
Use Current Label Settings located at the bottom of the Labels
page.
• Another commonly used option on the Labels page is Beam
Ends labeling in the Beams category. It is particularly useful
while modeling and interpreting results, as it establishes the orientation of Beam members.
• Beam Ends labeling identifies the starting end (also called End A) and the ending end (End B) of each beam by showing each end in a characteristic color.
• On the Labels page, two colored squares labeled Start Color and End Color identify the color used to denote each end of a beam. By default the starting end is green and the ending end is blue.
These can be changed by clicking on the colored squares, and choosing new color(s) from the color selection palette. • The assignment of starting and ending ends is based on the
direction the beam was originally drawn. For example, if a column is drawn starting at the bottom, the bottom end will be the starting end.
• It is often important to know which end is the starting end and which end is the ending end, for instance, when you are assigning member releases to only one end of the beam.
• If the Beam Ends checkbox is toggled off, the beam end colors will be displayed on an individual beam when the Beams
Cursor is hovered over that beam.
• Hover the cursor over the horizontal beam at the top of the frame to see the Beam Ends colors displayed.
• If the Beam Ends checkbox is toggled on, the beam end colors will be displayed on all beams in the model, all the time, until the feature is toggled off again.
• Leave this file open for use in the next section.
How to control label appearance:
• With the file named Dataset 2_3.std still open, press the Shift + N “hotkey” to turn on all node numbers if necessary.
• To differentiate between node numbers and beam numbers, the appearance of these labels can be modified.
• Click View | Options…. The Options dialog opens. • Select the Node Labels tab.
• Pull down the Style list on the Node Labels page, and note the various built-in styles that are available for node numbering. • The alignment (positioning) of the labels can be controlled in
both the vertical and horizontal directions.
• If the Opaque option is selected, any model geometry that tends to interfere with the node number labels will be “whited- out” to clarify the labeling.
• Click on the Font… button in the lower left corner of the dialog.
• Select Arial Black for the Font, Bold for the Font Style, select Blue for the Color, and click OK .
• Click OK in the Options dialog.
• It should now be very easy to distinguish node numbers from beam numbers.
• To see another helpful labeling option, click Tools | Options, and select the Beam Labels page.
• Toggle on the checkbox labeled Angle Text. • Click OK to dismiss the Options dialog.
• The beam labels will now be oriented parallel to the members they correspond to, making it even easier to associate the members and the numbers.
These settings are saved in a text file named
StaadPro20070.ini, which is saved in the Windows (or WINNT) folder, so the settings affect all STAAD.Pro models that are opened on a particular computer.
• Click File | Close. It is not necessary to save this version of the model.
How to display member lengths and the distance between two nodes:
• Open the file named Dataset 2_9.std. Assume the goal is to determine the lengths of the diagonal members of the frame. • One method is to use the Dimension Beams tool.
• Press the Shift + B hotkey to turn on beam numbers. • Hold Control (Ctrl) and click the four diagonal members,
numbered 3 , 4 , 10 , and 11 , with the Beams Cursor. • Click Tools | Dimension Beams….
• Ensure that the Display radio button is selected in the
Display/Remove Dimension dialog.
• Click Dimension to Selected Beams in the Options category. Note that the Dimension to Selected Beams option will be “grayed out” if no members are selected.
• Click Display, and drag the Display/Remove Dimension dialog out of the way. The dimensions for the four selected members are displayed.
• Two limitations to this tool should now be obvious: • First, for structural elements consisting of multiple
segments, the Dimension Beams tool is inconvenient because it reports the individual member lengths rather than the overall length.
• Second, the Dimension Beams tool only works on members. It cannot be used to measure the distance between two nodes like node 1 and node 4 that do not have a member modeled between them. (Remember that Shift +
N is the hotkey to show node numbers.)
• For these kinds of conditions, there is a more appropriate tool. • Click the Remove radio button in the Display/Remove
Dimension dialog to clean up the display.
• Click Dimension to View in the Options category. • Click Remove. All dimensions in the view are removed. • Click Close.
• Click Tools | Display Node to Node Distance.
An alternate method of accessing this tool is to click the Display Node to Node Distance icon in the Structure toolbar.
• All existing nodes in the model become bold, and the cursor changes to indicate that STAAD.Pro is in the node to node distance measuring mode.
• Click node 1, then click node 3.
The dimension 10.63ft {3.20 meters} is displayed for the overall length of the brace.
• Click node 2, then click node 4.
Both cross braces are now dimensioned, but the labels may be overlapping and difficult to read.
• Click View | Options…, and choose the Dimension page. • Click the Angle Text checkbox, and then click OK to clarify
these dimensions.
The dimensions are now rotated parallel to the members they reference, making the display much easier to interpret. • To remove one dimension at a time, use the Display Node to
Node Distance tool to click between the two nodes again.
• Click Tools | Display Node to Node Distance again to stop adding or removing dimensions.
• The command and the icon act as a toggle, so selecting it the first time turns the mode on; selecting it a second time turns the mode off.
• To remove one dimension, ensure that the dimensioning mode is active, and then click the end nodes of the dimension to be removed.
• Click Tools | Remove Node Dimension to remove all dimensions at once.
• Click File | Close. It is not necessary to save this version of the model.
How to control the view:
• Open the file named Dataset 2_15.std to experiment with the view control tools.
• STAAD.Pro provides a variety of View Management options for viewing the structure. There are tools for changing the perspective of the Main Window, and also for creating separate view windows of all or part of the structure. • STAAD.Pro provides two toolbars for changing the viewing
aspect: the Rotate toolbar and the View toolbar.
• The Rotate toolbar is docked in the upper left corner of the STAAD.Pro screen by default, but can be dragged to any desired location.
• It contains fourteen buttons for changing the viewing angle. The functions of the Rotate tools are generally evident from their names. Click on each tool and observe its effect. • View From +Z • View From -Z • View From +X • View From -X • View From +Y • View From -Y • Isometric View • Rotate Up • Rotate Down • Rotate Left • Rotate Right • Spin Left • Spin Right
• Toggle View Rotation Mode is used to select a node to serve as the center of view rotation.
• The View toolbar is docked in the top middle of the
STAAD.Pro screen by default. It, too, can be dragged to any desired location.
• The View toolbar contains twelve buttons for changing the viewing distance and location:
Display Whole Structure
• Turns on all members in the structure
• Returns structure to the Isometric View orientation • Resizes the structure to the maximum size that will fit
within the Main Window.
Dynamic Zoom
• Provides a fence to select a portion of the model to be magnified in a separate Zoom window.
• The extent of the fence remains visible as a heavy rectangle in the Whole Structure window as long as the
Zoom window remains open.
• The fence can be repositioned by dragging the fence with the cursor in the Whole Structure window to view different parts of the structure in the Zoom window. • Scroll bars are provided to move side to side, and up and
down.
• Plus (+), minus (-) and extents (E) buttons are provided in the lower right corner of the window to adjust the zoom level.
• Several Dynamic Zoom windows can be opened at the same time. Each of their respective fence rectangles remains visible in the Whole Structure window as long as the Zoom window remains open.
Zoom Extents
• Performs similar to Display Whole Structure with the exception that Zoom Extents does not turn on elements that are not currently displayed.
• For example, if some elements have been turned off in a view by using View | View Selected Objects Only, those particular elements will remain invisible when Zoom
Extents is used.
• Returns structure to the Isometric View orientation. • Resizes the structure to the maximum size that will fit
within the Main Window.
Zoom In
• Zooms in on the model a set amount with each click.
Zoom Out
• Zooms out a set amount with each click.
Zoom Factor
• Zooms in or out based on the factor entered in pop-up dialog.
• Factors greater than 1 will zoom in. • Factors less than 1 will zoom out.
Zoom Previous
• Restores the view to the previous zoom level.
• Only retains one previous zoom step set by Zoom Factor or Zoom Window.
Zoom Window
• Provides a fence to select a portion of the model to be magnified in the current window.
Previous Selection
• Returns the selection state to the condition it was in one step prior to the current state.
Pan
• Allows the model to be repositioned within the current view.
• Zoom level remains unchanged.
• Pan remains active until it is toggled off.
Magnifying Glass
• Provides a quick way to temporarily enlarge a portion of the structure for closer inspection.
• Click this tool, and then click and hold left mouse button to see how the magnifying glass works.
3D Rendered View
• Displays the model in a new window with its assigned sections.
• Provides controls for adjusting lighting.
• Dynamic panning is enabled. Click and rotate with cursor. • All functions in the View toolbar are available in the View
• All functions in the Rotate toolbar are also available in the
View pull-down menu under the Orientation item, although
they are in a slightly different format.
• In addition to these tools, note that often the mouse itself is all that is necessary.
• Roll the wheel on the mouse to see how it zooms in and out. • Click and hold the wheel to grab the model and pan.
• Another way to change the view is with the arrow keys. Click in the Main Window to make it active. Then use the arrow keys to rotate the model up, down, left or right.
How to display only selected objects in the Main Window: • With the file named Dataset 2_15.std still open, assume the
goal is to turn off the display of the hip rafters and central column.
• Click the View From +Z icon.
• Click Select | Selection Mode | Drag Line.
• Drag a horizontal line across all rafters, just below the vertex. All rafters and the central column are selected. • Click Select | By Inverse | Inverse Beam Selection. The
selection inverts.
• Click View | View Selected Objects Only. • All unselected objects become invisible. • Click the Isometric View icon.
The structure is displayed without the hip rafters and central column.
• Click View again, and note the check mark next to the View
Selected Objects Only command, indicating that the command
is toggled on.
• Click View | View Selected Objects Only once again to restore the entire structure to the Main Window.
Another option is to click the Display Whole Structure icon.
How to isolate a portion of the structure into its own view: • With the file named Dataset 2_15.std still open, assume the
goal is to isolate the framing members in the horizontal plane at the eave of the hip roof.
• Click the View From +Z icon.
• Click Select | Selection Mode | Drag Box.
• Click and drag a fence around the framing members at the elevation of the eave. Make the box large enough to
completely include the members in the horizontal plane, but small enough not to include the mid-points of any of the other members.
• Click View | New View.
• Choose the option to Create a new window for the view in the New View dialog, and then click OK .
A new window is created in which only the members in the horizontal plane at the eave elevation are visible.