A STRUCTURE IS AN ASSEMBLY OF INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS SUCH AS

BEAMS, COLUMNS, SLABS, PLATES ETC... IN STAAD, FRAME ELEMENTS AND

PLATE ELEMENTS MAY BE USED TO MODEL THE STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS.

TYPICALLY, MODELING OF STRUCTURE GEOMETRY CONSISTS OF TWO STEPS:

 
THE FIRST THING THAT YOU NEEDED TO DO IS TO IDENTIFY AND DESCRIBE
JOINTS OR NODES. SECOND IS YOU NEED TO SPECIFY THE CONNECTION OR
INCIDENCES BETWEEN JOINTS WHEN MODELING THE MEMBERS OR
ELEMENTS.

IN GENERAL, THE TERM MEMBER WILL BE USED TO REFER TO FRAME

ELEMENTS DURING OUR DISCUSSION. BUT IN STAAD YOU WILL PROBABLY
SEE LATER THAT MEMBER IS ALSO CALLED BEAM. CONNECTIVITY FOR
MEMBERS OR BEAMS CAN BE PROVIDED THROUGH THE MEMBER INCIDENCE
COMMAND.

STAAD USES TWO TYPES OF COORDINATE SYSTEM TO DEFINE THE

STRUCTURE GEOMETRY AND LOADING PATTERNS. THE FIRST ONE IS CALLED
GLOBAL COORDINATE SYSTEM. GLOBAL COORDINATE SYSTEM IS AN
ARBITRARY COORDINATE SYSTEM IN SPACE WHICH IS UTILIZED TO SPECIFY
THE OVERALL GEOMETRY & LOADING PATTERN OF THE STRUCTURE.

WHEN CREATING A GEOMETRY, THE MOST BASIC GLOBAL SYSTEM THAT YOU
CAN POSSIBLY USE IS THE CONVENTIONAL CARTESIAN COORDINATE
SYSTEM. THIS COORDINATE SYSTEM IS A RECTANGULAR COORDINATE
SYSTEM (X, Y, Z) WHICH FOLLOWS THE ORTHOGONAL "RIGHT HAND" RULE.
THIS COORDINATE SYSTEM MAY BE USED TO DEFINE THE JOINT LOCATIONS
AND LOADING DIRECTIONS. AS SEEN IN THE FIGURE, THE TRANSLATIONAL
DEGREES OF FREEDOM ARE DENOTED BY U1, U2, & U3 AND THE ROTATIONAL
DEGREES OF FREEDOM ARE DENOTED BY U4, U5, & U6.
THE SECOND METHOD OF SPECIFYING A GLOBAL COORDINATES OF A
GEOMETRY IS BY USING WHAT THEY CALLED CYLINDRICAL COORDINATE
SYSTEM. IN THIS COORDINATE SYSTEM, THE X AND Y COORDINATES OF THE
CONVENTIONAL CARTESIAN SYSTEM ARE REPLACED BY R (RADIUS) AND Ø
(ANGLE IN DEGREES). THE Z COORDINATE IS IDENTICAL TO THE Z
COORDINATE OF THE CARTESIAN SYSTEM AND ITS POSITIVE DIRECTION IS
DETERMINED BY THE RIGHT HAND RULE.

WITH REVERSE CYLINDRICAL COORDINATE SYSTEM, IT IS A CYLINDRICAL

TYPE COORDINATE SYSTEM WHERE THE R- Ø PLANE CORRESPONDS TO THE
X-Z PLANE OF THE CARTESIAN SYSTEM. THE RIGHT HAND RULE IS FOLLOWED
TO DETERMINE THE POSITIVE DIRECTION OF THE Y AXIS

A LOCAL COORDINATE SYSTEM IS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH MEMBER. EACH

AXIS OF THE LOCAL ORTHOGONAL COORDINATE SYSTEM IS ALSO BASED ON
THE RIGHT HAND RULE.

AS SHOW IN THE FIGURE, THE LONGINTUDINAL AXIS OF THE MEMBER IS THE

FIRST AXIS AND IT WILL TAKE THE POSITIVE DIRECTION BASE ON THE START
AND END OF NODE. THE FIRST AXIS WILL BE THE LOCAL X AND THE SECOND
AXIS WHICH IS THE LOCAL Y WILL BE ORIENTED SUCH THAT THE LOCAL X-Y
PLANE IS THEN BE PARALLEL TO THE GLOBAL Y. THE THIRD AXIS WHICH
LOCAL Z WILL THEN BE A NORMAL TO THE FIRST AND SECOND AXES AS
DEFINED BY THE RIGHT HAND RULE.

IN THE CASE OF A VERTICAL MEMBER WHERE THE LOCAL X AXIS IS PARALLEL

TO THE GLOBAL Y AXIS JUST LIKE A COLUMN, THE LOCAL Z AXIS WILL THEN
BE MADE TO BE PARALLEL TO THE GLOBAL Z AXIS AND THEN THE REMAINING
AXIS IS ORIENTED.