Applies To
	Product(s):	STAAD.Pro
	Version(s):	All
	Environment:	N/A
	Area:	Steel Design
	Subarea:	General Steel Design Solutions
	Original Author:	Bentley Technical Support Group

Can I design a stringer using STAAD.Pro?

To answer your question, we would like to offer some insight into how the capabilities of a structural engineering software are related to the type of sections you wish to analyze and design.

Typically, almost all structural engineering programs have 2 parts to them :

* Analysis - Computing forces and moments in beams, columns, plates, etc., nodal displacements, support reactions.

* Design - Checking the adequacy of a section for a beam or column to carry the forces induced into that member from the applied loads on the structure.

For analysis, these programs do not care about the shape of the cross section. Regardless of what the shape is, the programs simply look for 4 pieces of information : Area, Moments of Inertia about the 2 principal axes, Torsional Constant. If shear deformation calculation is desired, the shear areas should be provided too. However, to help you avoid the chore of specifying these 4-6 values, these programs also allow you to specify the section as one of the standard shapes built into the program, and then internally calculate these 4 quantities using the property calculation rules for that shape. So, if the shape you wish to have analyzed is one such standard shape, you can simply define it in that way, as for example, the flange width, flange thickness, web depth and web thickness for an I shape.

However, if the shape of your section does not conform to one of the built-in shapes that the program supports, you will have to type in these 4-6 property values using a property type usually called PRISMATIC.

For design however, shape does matter. That is because, all design codes are written to allow design of only certain specific shapes, due to the fact that buckling of elements of the cross section plays a major role in determining the capacity of the section. Usually, these shapes are limited to I shapes, T shapes, Channels, Angles, Double angles, Z shapes, Rectangular tube shapes, Circular pipe shapes, etc.

So, the answer to your question is :

Analysis - Yes.

Design - Depends on the shape of the section, and the code according to which it should be designed.