RAM | STAAD | ADINA - RAM Concept Plans And Printing [FAQ]

	Product(s):	RAM Concept
	Version(s):	Any
	Area:	Graphics, Results, User Interface
	Original Author:	Bentley Technical Support Group

What's the difference between a plan and a layer?

A layer is an organizational concept. A layer is a collection of related objects and results and each object and result resides on one and only one layer. For example, all slab elements are on the Element layer. Plans, on the other hand, are a display and editing concept. Each plan is a filtered view of all of Concept’s layers. A plan can be set up to edit a particular layer, but the plan does not “own” the layer. All changes that are made to the layer using the plan will be visible in all other plans, because all plans are viewing the same set of layers. See Chapter 3, “Understanding Layers” and Chapter 4, “Using Plans and Perspectives” for more information.

My plans are printing too large across more than one page, how can I change the scale?

Plans print according to their Print Area and Print Scale settings. Everything within the printing area boundary prints using as many pages as necessary to print at the desired scale.

To specify the printed area on the plan

Select the Print Area tool (third tool down on the right).
Click at two opposite corners to identify the rectangular boundary. It's good to leave a little margin on the top edge.
You can review or manually change the print area using View - Print Area as well.

To specify the print scale

Select the View - Print Scale.
Enter the scale in the Print Scale dialog and click OK.

Typically, you want to check “Set for all plans” in the Print Scale dialog if you are printing a report.

Use Report - Window preview to check the results.

I have two items at the same location, how do I select just one of them?

If you have two objects of the same type at the same location in Concept it will cause a warning during meshing. For example, if you copy and paste a column below without unselecting the original column before pasting you will end up with a double column below.

The warning in that case will be something like this:

--------------------------- Analysis Error --------------------------- An error has been found. Two column elements below the slab are at the same location. Delete column element #1 or 2 (below the slab) at (1,1). ---------------------------

Turning on the display of the column numbers will help in locating the double column.

To select just one of the objects, try double clicking right at the location of the double object. The will select the last or "top" object only. It works best when no snap modes are active. You can also use the visible objects control to turn off unrelated object types (like the slab) first.

Once you have selected just one object you can move or delete it without affecting the duplicate.

If you want to select the other, "lower", object instead, start by selecting both at once with a fence, then hold down shift and double click again to de-select the top object leaving only the lower object(s) selected.

Below is an illustration of a problem with two walls below the slab that overlap along part of the length which also causes an error with meshing:

Why do I see nothing in a perspective display?

The perspective “camera” may be looking in the wrong direction. Click Zoom Extent ( ) or Show Print Viewpoint ( ). It could also be that the plotted elements do not exist yet (such as the design strip cross sections which are created during the calc all process)

Why don’t the tendon profiles change in the perspective view?

The accurate tendon curvature and final elevations are calculated by the program in the early phases of the analysis. For anything other than a completely flat slab, the tendon perspective won’t reflect the correct tendon profile until the calculation is run again.

How can I create a layer to view some specific results which are not already included?

Go to Layers menu - New plan.

Give the new plan a label that is meaningful to what you plan to plot.

Pick the parent layer, e.g. the load combination or rule set of interest.

If there are any other Visible Objects you want shown, adjust the Visible objects settings and click OK.

Once the new blank layer is created go to View - Plot and pick the desired plot options.

The Min Frame # and Max Frame # settings can be used to limit which design strips results are plotted for. In the example above, results for design strips 1-3 would be shown only. To show the results from a single design strip, set the Min Frame # and Max Frame # to the same design strip number. If you only want to see the center column strip results, turn off the Left and Right options.

When I print or export the Report, why are some Plans excluded?

For every plan, table and layers there is an "Include" flag for whether that view should be included in the full design report or not. Make sure the desired plans and parent layers to be printed have the “Include” flag set to Yes, otherwise those plans will not be part of the report.

You can always print or export those plans individually.

The Orientation option can be used to control whether specific layers are plotted in portrait or landscape mode.

RAM Concept Plans And Printing [FAQ]