Design Checks

The Design Checks category in the Navigator allows you to specify which design checks, along with their respective design ratios, are displayed for the designed objects. You can select to display the envelope based on all types of design checks or to display the design ratios separately by limit state and design type.

Ratio Envelope

At every point on the designed object, the maximum design ratios from all design checks are displayed. Since all design types and limit states are combined, the result diagrams are usually not continuous.

Graphical Display of Results of Envelope of All Design Checks

The Envelope is useful to quickly gain and document an overall view of the design ratio of the various objects. Errors in the display of the design checks can be ignored if the entirety of the valid design checks is to be displayed. For this purpose, you can also use the “Max. of all design checks without errors” option.

If only certain design checks are to be included in the envelope, activate the “Max. of selected design checks” option. You can then select the relevant design types.

For an overview of critical areas in a beam structure, the “Without Diagram” display mode is recommended. The design ratios are displayed as colored lines according to the color scale in the control panel. You can use this option when displaying the envelope or a single result type.

Displaying Member Results Without Diagram

Design Ratio by Limit State and Design Type

The results can be displayed specifically for each limit state (load capacity, serviceability, fire resistance) using the individual design types (cross-section check, stability, and so on).

For members, the maximum design ratio of the results for the selected types of design is displayed at each location. This option allows you to determine which type of design is governing at a specific location.

Graphical Display of Results of Individual Design Checks

The selected results are displayed simultaneously on the model (see also the image Displaying Multiple Result Types). In the control panel, you can view the colors assigned to the design types and adjust them, if necessary (see the chapter Control Panel of the RFEM manual).

For surfaces, the design ratios are displayed as isobands.

Displaying Design Ratios on Surfaces

You can also select the layer side whose results you want to display:

• Top
• Middle
• Bottom

Note: If the local z-axis in the local-axes model base data is oriented downward, the upper surface side is in the direction of the negative z-surface axis (−z), and the lower surface side is in the direction of the positive z-axis (+z). If the local z-axis is oriented upward in the Base Data, this definition is reversed.