Multiframe News February 2000 - Formation Design Systems

Multiframe Version 7 Released!

We are very pleased to announce the final release of Multiframe version 7.0. This is the latest upgrade in our on-going program of enhancements to the Multiframe range. This release adds numerous enhancements to the software.

Joint Orientation

When modelling structures it is sometimes convenient to define restraints that are not aligned with the global coordinate system. These types of restraints can now be specified using a new Joint Orientation feature.

The Joint Orientation is used to specify an arbitrary local coordinate system at each joint. The orientation of a joint is specified by 3 angles that measure the rotation of the local coordinate system from the global coordinate system.

This local coordinate system is then used for applying boundary conditions and loading to the structure. This is very similar to the concept of a local coordinate system for a member.

All restraints, springs and prescribed displacements that are applied to a joint are now specified in the local coordinate system. The local orientation of a joint can also be used for defining joint loads. As with member loads, joint loads can now be specified in either local or global coordinates. This is particular useful when working with curved or cylindrical structures.

Joint Linking / Master-Slave

The implementation of Joint Linking has been revised in this release so that linked rotational degrees of freedom now impose rigid body rotation of the linked joints. As part of this implementation, the user can now specify the master joint from a list of the linked joints.

The properties of a linked group of joints can now be edited by double clicking on the group in the Frame window.

Global Moment diagrams

New plots have been added to Multiframe v7 which display moments about each of the three global axes rather than the usual local member axes. These diagrams are useful when viewing the moments in rectangular frames in which the members are aligned with the global axes but the orientation of some members is non-zero. The resulting diagrams show the moments in the members in the plane of the frame rather than the local members.

Graphical Reactions

The joint reactions from an analysis can now be displayed graphically within the Plot Window. The reactions are drawn as arrows with the tail of the arrow scaled according the size of the reaction. Colour shading is also used to show larger reactions in brighter colours. This provides a very easy way to quickly visualise the behaviour of the foundations of your model.

Tension and Compression Diagrams

Further plots have been added to Multiframe to display axial tension and axial compression. Complementary plots showing axial tensile and compressive stresses have also been added. These plots can be accessed via the Actions and Stresses sub-menus in the Display menu.

Overlay Plots

Overlay plots can now be displayed in two colour scales. The original scale displayed the overlay plot using shades of colour from blue to red to represent the magnitude of the overlay action. Red represents large magnitudes while blue is used to signify small magnitudes. A new colour scale has been added which displays positive values in shades of red and negative values in shades of blue. This is particularly useful for tension and compression displays.

Plot Window

The speed of drawing in the Plot window has been improved in this release. This improvement is most noticeable in the drawing of the displacement diagrams for which the drawing speed has been improved by a factor of 4 to 5.

Symbols Toolbar

A Symbols toolbar has been added to Multiframe to provide a quick and simple way to turn on or off symbols such as joint numbers, joint labels, member numbers, member labels and section names. A button has also been included to toggle rendering of the section shapes.

Other Additions

There are numerous other enhancements to Multiframe in this release including: a summation of the reaction components at the bottom of the Reactions table; a new line selection tool which allows the user to drag a line to select members intersecting the line; a new command to insert an existing Multiframe structure into the current frame; the Report Window is now activated within Multiframe at all times; a speed increase of up to 40% for the solver; user customisable colours for displays; new Geometry and Properties tables in the Data window.

Steel Designer

Steel Designer has also received an upgrade with this release. Most important is the addition of a new Design Member capability which allows you to group together a number of members and treat them as one for design purposes.

Design Members

When designing a structure using Steel Designer, it is common to subdivide members for modelling and analysis, but treat them as one for design purposes. This can now be done using a new Group Members command in the Design menu. The grouped members (referred to as "Design Members" in the program) share design properties like effective length and lateral restraint spacing which can be set in a new tabbed dialog which appears when you double click on the design member.

When viewing results for members which are grouped together, the diagrams for the entire design member are displayed in the Plot window. You can also click on an individual member within the diagram of the group to drill down to the diagram for that member.

Lateral Restraints

The location and type of lateral restraints can now be displayed graphically in the Frame and Plot windows. The display of lateral restraints can be turned on or off via the Symbols Dialog which now contains options for displaying lateral restraints and labelling these restraints.

The restraints are drawn as a short line in the plane of the major axis of the member. These lines extend each side of the member for a distance that is roughly the scale of a purlin or girt. Lateral restraints are also displayed in the rendered view of the frame in which they are draw to extend from each flange by approximately the size of a purlin. The restraints may be labelled using a one or two letters to indicate the type of restraint (e.g. F - fixed, P - partial).

Note that lateral restraints at the end of a member are drawn slightly offset from the node so that restraints at the ends of connected members may be more readily distinguished.

Governing Load Cases

The governing load case associated with the design of a member is now recorded when designing or checking a member. The governing load case associated with each member is displayed in the Efficiency table.

The governing load cases associated with each of the individual design checks are also stored as part of a design. The governing load case for a particular design check is displayed as a cell tooltip in the Efficiency table or as a member tooltip in the Plot Window when a plot of the efficiency is displayed in the Plot window.

Constraints

The implementation of constraints has been modified so that any design requirement that is not dependent upon the design actions can be testing independently of the load cases. The concept of Design Constraints is now used to encompass the existing constraints that can be imposed upon the dimensions of a member as well as any constraints that may be imposed by various design checks. (e.g. a slenderness check that may be required as part of a bending design).

For most of the design codes no additional constraints have been added and the only design constraints will be the constraints on the size of the member. For the AIJ design code, a check on the Width/Thickness ratio of the section is performed with several of the design checks. Design constraints are applied when designing and checking a member. Previously, the constraints on the size of a member were only applied when Designing the member.

User Profile - Kajima Corporation

Kajima Corporation in Tokyo is one of the most respected design and construction companies in Japan. Established over 100 years ago, the company has a long history of innovative design and construction projects. They were responsible for some of the facilities at the Nagano Winter Olympics and build high rise and power generation projects throughout Japan. The company has over 13,000 employees and offices around the world.

The company has Multiframe software installed at a number of design and construction offices around Japan. Kajima design engineers use Multiframe for a variety of projects, one of the most interesting being an observation platform in the new Fuji Television Building in Tokyo. Kajima designed this building in conjunction with sub-contractor Kobori Research Complex, Inc.

This building forms a new headquarters for the Fuji Television Network and features a number of unusual structural configurations. The innovative design divides building space into an office tower and a media tower linked by three enclosed pedestrian bridges. These bridges lengthen the structure and make it highly earthquake resistant. Next to the media tower is a spherical observation platform which was built on the roof of the 7th floor and raised to its final position on the 25th floor by means of hydraulic jacks.

The 1200 tonne, 32 metre diameter sphere was a very complex model to design and analyse. Multiframe was used extensively over several months to create the 882 member/544 node model. This was used both to visualise the assembly of the structure as well as to assess its structural performance. In fact the Kajima design engineers commented that "none of this would have been possible without Multiframe".

Tips and Tricks

Now that you can apply labels to members and nodes in Multiframe, you can combine this with the new sorting in tables to refine your view of your structure. By using an appropriate naming convention, you could sort your tables by location, type of section, or form your own criteria for grouping.

You could even keep multiple sets of labels in a spreadsheet and copy and paste in the required set depending on the work you are doing. Remember that you can now use the Clipping and Masking commands in the Data window as long as you select the entire row for the range of rows that you are interested in.

Multiframe Subscription Program

We have now introduced a new Multiframe subscription program which automatically delivers new updates to Multiframe users as soon as new versions are released. Multiframe users are supplied with updates to programs free of charge for one year after the date of purchase. After this period our subscription program will keep you up to date with the latest software versions.

The subscription lets you pay one annual fee for all of the programs you own and will normally give you two major upgrades as well as any minor updates during the year. Subscription fees are approximately 10% of the current retail price of each program.

Updates are delivered on CD as well as being available for immediate download from our web site. If you haven't already done so, please advise us of your email address to that we can notify you when updates are available for download.