The additional loads from self‑weight are usually composed of several layers; for example, classic floor and ceiling layers in buildings, or road coatings for bridge constructions. When defining load definitions in RFEM and RSTAB, you can use the multi-layer load to define the individual layers with thickness and specific weight.
For designing glass in the RF‑GLASS add‑on module, you can use one of two calculation methods: a 2D or a 3D calculation. The main difference between these design options is the automatic modeling of the layers in a temporary model. In a 2D calculation, each layer is generated as a surface element (plate theory); in a 3D calculation, it is generated as a solid. Depending on the selected layer composition, you can either select an option or find it preselected by the program.
To better distinguish between the different layer compositions (for example, for walls and ceilings), you can assign user‑defined colors and textures to each composition.
In addition to manually entering values, you can enter line loads in the "Member Load" dialog box using the "Multi-Layer Composition" function. This is a library that contains the compositions of several layers for applying loads. You can freely specify the layer structure using the parameters of description, thickness, density, or surface load, and comment for each layer.
RF-LAMINATE allows free definition of materials. Thus, you can combine any compositions of different materials. The combination of concrete and timber is possible as well. However, the rigid composite must be provided when defining such a composition. In RF-LAMINATE, you can consider full shear coupling or no shear coupling at all.
Just as in the RFEM Display Navigator, you can set the distribution of internal forces in surfaces in RF‑STEEL Surfaces. Since deformations are always the result of the FEM calculation, the corresponding forces will be recalculated. This means that the internal forces on an FEM element are calculated depending on the composition (triangular or square) in three or four places. In order to obtain continuous internal forces and thus a smoothed distribution, these internal forces have to be interpolated. Interpolation is done by selecting the "Distribution of internal forces" option in the surfaces.