Print

The Print menu provides options for printing the design briefs. These options include the printing of the graphics and design output for the currently selected design brief. The Print menu also provides an option to select multiple connection provides

Job and Project Reference

Opens the Job and Project Reference pop-up. The inputs available are the Project Title, Job Reference, Sheet Reference, Made By and Checked By entries. These are used in the calculation sheet title-blocks.

Print Current Joint Graphics

Prints the graphics for the currently select connection brief for the currently selected loadcase

Print Current Joint Summary

Prints the design results in a summary format for the currently selected connection with the results taken from the currently viewed loadcase.

Print Current Joint

Prints both the connection geometry and the joint summary for the currently selected connection and the currently active loadcase.

Print Manager

The Print Manager option allows for a range of connection design briefs to be printed and gives control over the level of detail given in the printed output. The Print function also gives control over which load cases are to be printed. On selecting the Print option, the Joints Print Manager pop-up will appear. The layout of this window is shown below.

Design briefs can be selected using the buttons. Selecting "All" will print all design briefs (which have at least one load case set to print). To print the current brief only, select the "Current" option. With the "Selected" option active, the design briefs are then selected in the design brief area. A brief is selected when highlighted in blue. Briefs are selected graphically using the mouse. Briefs can be de-selected simply by left clicking on them.

The Output area controls the level of detail of the structural calculations output for each selected design brief. Selecting "Full Output" will give the detailed design output and connection graphics, while the "Graphics+summary"option will print out a summary of the design results, producing a list of the utilisation factors for each structural component check in the connection design, along with a print of the connection graphics. The "Graphics Only" option prints just the frame connection graphics.

The "Export full page graphic" option can be selected in conjunction with the above options. Selected this option prints the connection graphics as a full page.

The Load Cases selection option allows for the only the user selected load cases to be printed, or to print all load cases associated with the selected design briefs. The required load cases are set to print in the Print Case input of the connection property grid. Multiple load cases are only available for moment connections and simple bracing connections.

Alternatively, click on the 'Select Print Cases' button to open the screen below where you can select which particular briefs and loadcases to print/export.

The case selection manager provides a full list of load cases with their design unity ratio summary for all aspects of design, enabling you to make informed decisions on which loading cases you would like to print a full report on. You can also auto select the critical print cases, either based on a unity ratio or the specified top number of cases. There is also a connection multi-select mode, whereby you can specify the print cases for all selection connections in one operation.

The print output options are selected from the icons located at the bottom of the Joints Print Manager window. To Export the required output to Word, click on the 'Export to Word' button. To print to a printer, or to print to a pdf document, select the 'Print' button.

Print to Printer

Once the  icon has been selected the print manager screen will open. The provides options for selecting whether to print to a printer or to print to a pdf. There are also option to control both the page size and orientation. Additionally, the project references can be entered, if they have not been done so previously, or amended. The layout of the print manager window is shown below.

To print to a Printer, select the  icon. Any printer detected on the same network can be selected from the Printer drop-down list. The line size can be set from the Line Size drop down. To select the page size and orientation, click on the  icon.

To Print to pdf, select the  icon, or, alternatively, select a pdf writer from the Printer drop down menu. In certain cases, printers will also enable a pdf to be created, and this can be done by selecting the printer from the Printer drop down and then checking the PDF checkbox adjacent the Printer drop down. When the print to pdf option is selected, an additional input is displayed, where the filename can be entered.

If a company logo has been created, this can be printed by selecting the  icon. When selected this icon displays in an orange highlight.

The settings tab contains additional options to control the output of both printed and pdf documents.

Once the required print settings have been selected, click on the  icon.

Print to PDF

Selecting to print to a pdf document is outlined above. Once the document setting have, clicking on  will create a pdf document. In the bottom border area of the main Masterframe screen, a notification will signify that a PDF session is open, indicating the current number of pages included in the PDF. A typical example is shown below.

When printing to pdf, it is possible to add further pages to the session. Hence, when the print to pdf option is selected and the print icon is clicked, the pdf document is not immediately created and a file made. This means that further connection design output can be added to the pdf document. Also, since the pdf session remains open unit it is closed by the user, the connection output that can be added to the pdf document is not restricted to the one connection file; existing files can be opened and selected connection briefs added to the pdf, or a new connection file can be created, connections designs and then their output added to the pdf document. It it also possible to exit the connection module itself and access other Masterseries modules and print the design output from the modules into the same pdf document.

Once the required design outputs have been added to the pdf session, the pdf files is created by selecting the small printer icon and then clicking on the