Steel Strut Designer Page 1 of 3

Steel Strut Designer

This module designs steel members subjected to axial load only. It recommends a cross-section for a given load. In addition to design, it can also analyze
a given cross-section to check if it is of sufficient capacity for a given loading, by calculating the cross-section properties, effective length factor and
slenderness ratio. The module checks the allowable stresses by calculating Combined Code Stress Ratio and the adequacy of slenderness by calculating
the slenderness ratio.
The Steel Strut Design program has one screen for overall strut design. Whenever the Steel Strut program is activated, the following menu options are
available on the form.

Menu and Toolbar System

File

The menu commands under File let you save and print the results.
Start New Strut: Choose this command to start a new Strut for design or investigation.
Open Strut Data: Select this command to open a Strut data file previously saved.
Save Strut Data: To save recently entered Strut data, select this command.
Save Strut Data As: To save currently entered strut data for the first time or to save an existing strut data file in another name.
Print Current Section: This menu command prints the currently displayed results to the printer.
Change Authorization: This menu command allows you to modify the User Authorization level.
Exit: Choose this command to quit the module.

Edit

The Edit menu provides commands for copying and cutting selected text, graphics or results. This option is available for input data, the result list and the
figure.
Copy: Selected information may be copied into the clipboard and may then be pasted into other applications.
Cut: In addition to copying selected information, this deletes that information from the screen.

Tools

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This menu provides some special tools for improving the productivity and for arranging important options.
Working Units: This menu has options for selecting working units. There are three units you can select: SI, Metric and US.
Loading and Bracing Data: Use this option to activate Steel Bracing form to input the bracing data for X and Y directions.
HRS Selection Criteria: Activates the Steel Sections Selection Criteria dialogue box. Here the user can select the type of section to be used for
design. The program will only choose from among the selected section types.

Report

The menu commands under Report let you prepare, for-mat, preview and print the results.
Project Information: Select this command to provide basic project information such as Project Name, Client, Job Title, Engineer and Organization.
Report Item Content: Choose this command to select the content of the report from various options listed.
Report Format: Report layout, text styles and contents of the report can be specified using this command.  
Print: This menu command prints the results that have been added to the report.
Preview: Use this menu command to preview the for-matted report before printing it.
Save Report Content: Choose this command to save the report as simple text for future use.

Help

This menu has all the commands related to help for the program.
Help Topics: Use this command to get a list of Help Topics.
Contacting ACECOMS: Use this command to contact ACECOMS for technical reference and learn about ACECOMS activities.
About the Program: This menu command opens up a dialogue box that contains Copyright information and information about the End User
License Agreement with a User ID Number for the Steel Strut Designer.
Apart from the menu system a toolbar is available within the program’s main window for simple operations. Instead of opening menus and choosing
commands you can click these buttons. The toolbar options are described below:

Starts a new problem.

Opens a previously saved file.

Saves the current file to a specified location.

Prints the currently displayed Result List to the default printer.

Activates the Loading and Bracing Data form.

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Activates the Steel Sections Selection Criteria dialogue box.

Activates the Help file.

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