IES VisualAnalysis User's Guide
Modeling For Design
As you create models in VisualAnalysis, you should be aware of the design ramifications. In most cases, you will model a beam as a single member element. With girders, columns, and other types of frame elements, may choose to use multiple member elements, for some reason. The normal approach would be to draw in the full-length of the member and use the Connect Crossings feature to insure that the FEA model is split, but the member used for design checks is the full length. This introduces a complexity in design, especially for bracing.
The design software looks primarily at your member, not the FEA (split) member elements. If you split members up at crossing points, you may need to adjust the design options for span length, bracing, deflection limits, and other parameters.
Design is usually an iterative process. As you make design changes you change the stiffness and therefore the moment distribution in your model, causing the design checks to become invalid. By selecting reasonable preliminary sizes before you run the design software you can save time.
Size Constraints
The design software allows you to limit the depth of beams, or the size of columns using Size Constraints. This can have two benefits: The software will not 'design' members that fall outside of these boundaries (or will warn you if you model members outside these boundaries). This can also dramatically reduce the "design' performance when searching for a size that works, because many shapes in the database can be skipped! Note that setting beam width constraint is only available in the 'Advanced' level of VisualAnalysis.
Although tapered members are supported in VisualAnalysis for analysis, there is very limited 'design' support for them. If you attempt to design a tapered member, you will get unpredictable results. At best, the member will be sized as a prismatic member; at worst, you will get garbage design results. You will see a message in the Design View "tips" to indicate this condition.
The only support for plate element design is in the concrete wall/slab component.
If you are looking for design help with circular structures, or in materials other than concrete, you will not find it in VisualAnalysis—yet. For these types of problems, you will be able to get analysis results (stresses, deflections) and then you may perform your design manually or with non-IES tools (such as a spreadsheet) using this information.