One of the great benefits of SDS/2’s connection design capabilities is its ability to recognize framing situations or opposing members and make adjustments accordingly. Occasionally, however, users may need to override these checks. While this can always be done through User connections or by making graphical changes, there are many cases where the option to Disable framing situation checks can be used to achieve the desired results. This option is located in the Member Edit window under the Connection Type section for both the left and right end of a member.

Simply put, when Disable framing situation checks is turned on, SDS/2 ignores opposing members framing into the same or nearby location when designing that particular connection. The following examples are just a few where this option may come in handy.

In the first example, you will notice SDS/2 uses a Cut flange width operation on the bottom flange of the beam framing to the column web. This is to make extra clearance from the bolts in the connection of the beam framing to the column flange.

There may be times this Cut flange width operation is not required. By turning on Disable framing situation checks, SDS/2 will not check the opposing members and the connection design should produce the results below, without a Cut flange width operation done to the bottom flange.

Another example of this can be seen framing to the top of a column with opposing members framing to the column flange.

If Disable framing situation checks is turned on, the Cut flange width operation again is not applied during connection design. It is important to note that Disable framing situation checks is applied per connection, so in this example it was necessary to edit each beam and turn this on for the left end of one and the right end of the other to achieve the results shown.

A final example where Disable framing situation checks may be used is at the corner or intersection of beams framing to a tube column. SDS/2 may apply a Cut flange width to both the top and bottom flanges of a beam for clearance from the opposing beam(s).

By turning on Disable framing situation checks, SDS/2 will design a connection that does not have the Cut flange width applied.

While Disable framing situation checks can be useful for overriding some of the above examples, there are some situations where having this turned on can potentially cause problems. An example of this may be at a shared offset connection where SDS/2 will typically use larger angles to share the bolts in opposing clip angle connections.

If Disable framing situation checks is turned on for both connections involved in this shared offset connection, SDS/2 will not account for the fact that their connections could interfere with one another when designing these connections. You can see a simple clip angle connection is designed for both connections and their bolts will clash with the opposing clip angles.

These are all just a few examples of where Disable framing situation checks can be useful and also potentially cause issues. Please contact your support representative if you have further questions.

It can sometimes be confusing which member detail and BOM field bolts will be associated with when they are manually added or added through processing a non-system connection in SDS/2.

In Fabricator Options – Bolt Detailing/Fabrication Options, the option Field bolts listed on which members: will, in most situations, determine which member the field bolts are associated with.

There are some scenarios (detailed below) in which this setup option does not control or handle the situation, so it is up to the user to know how this behaves to achieve the required results.

Process and Create Solids

Process and Create Solids has the ability to match holes and add bolts to user-created materials. If SDS/2 cannot determine which member is the supported and which is the supporting, the field bolts will be associated with the member with the lower member number of the two.

In Figure 1, an end plate was manually added to each beam for a splice connection and holes were added to the material on B_135. If Process and Create Solids is used to automatically match holes and add bolts, SDS/2 cannot determine which member is the supported or supporting. In this scenario, the field bolts would be associated with [187] B_135, since that member has a lower member number.

One easy way to determine which member the field bolts are associated with in the model is by turning one of the members to stick. If the bolts are still visible, this means they are associated with the solid member. If they are not visible, they are associated with the member that is turned to stick (see Figure 2).

In Figure 3, during Process and Create Solids it can be determined that B_137 is the supported member; therefore, during Process and Create Solids, SDS/2 will associate the field bolts with B_137 based on the setup mentioned earlier.

To change which member has the bolts associated with it, users can manually add bolts via Bolt Add.

Using Bolt Add

When manually adding bolts via Bolt Add, the first member selected will be the member the field bolts are associated with. In Figure 4, the bent plate member was selected first, and therefore, the field bolts will be listed with it.

Selection lists save time by allowing users to make and save selections based on selection of members, group members, or material in either the model or in selection windows.

To save a selection list from the model, simply select what is to be saved, then go to the Edit pull down and choose Save Selection….  If only members are selected, a dialog window will immediately open, prompting the user to choose the location and file name of the list to be saved. This file will be saved as a list of member numbers and piecemarks, if already assigned. If members and materials are selected, SDS/2 will prompt which is to be saved after choosing Save Selection…. Selecting members will give similar results if only members were selected, but selecting material will result in a selection list storing material piecemarks only. Selection lists can also be saved from a selection window by clicking Save on the right side. The selection list will save exactly what is selected in the selection window, whether that is member piecemarks, member numbers and piecemarks, or submaterial piecemarks.

Once a selection list has been saved, it can be loaded in the model by choosing the Edit pull down and then Load Selection…. A dialog window will open to choose which selection list is to be loaded. SDS/2 will then prompt if members, group members, or materials are to be selected. Whichever item is chosen will then be added to the selection in the model. To load a selection list from a selection window, simply click Load on the right side of the window, and then choose the selection list to be loaded. SDS/2 will add the items from the chosen list to the selection in the window.

To learn more, please attend the April 23rd Selection Lists webinar. You can register by clicking here. You can also contact your SDS/2 support representative to answer any questions you may have.