Integrated Design modules

Where integrated design modules are included, the integrated design module will use the member forces from the MasterFrame analysis, automatically determining the forces on the relevant MasterFrame physical members.

Since the integrated design module and the MasterFrame analysis are linked, changes to the properties of the physical members will result in changes to the analytic model, in particular, changes to the members of a model will change the stiffness matrix of the analytic model. Therefore, in the integrated design modules, if the properties of the elements in the model are modified, when going back into MasterFrame, the analysis results will no longer be available and the software will prompt for the model to be re-analysed.

After re-analysing the model, a new set of member forces and deflections are calculated. Depending on the extent of the changes made to the model, this may have an impact on the design of the elements in an integrated design module and it is possible to find that, after a re-analysis, the required section properties needed to satisfy the member design change.