Displaying Diagrams

 

In addition to the Sketch of the beam, we can also display several types of diagrams. Selecting the Diagrams tab will display the Shear/Moment/Deflection diagram as shown below.

 

Of special interest are the checkboxes that control the location of live load for the analysis shown in the graphic. Because this program automatically moves the live load around on the beam to obtain the governing values of shear, moment, and deflection on each span for the final calculation results, there really is no single load case that represents the entire beam analysis.

 

By selecting the live load locations here you can view the detailed shear/moment/deflection variations produced by each load application.

 

Note: In the previous steps, we turned on the option to have the program automatically handle unbalanced Live load placement.  While this is a helpful feature for design, it tends to produce an abundance of results. If you'd like to view shear, moment, and deflection diagrams that are similar to those shown below, click the Span Loads tab and temporarily turn off the option to have the program automatically perform unbalanced Live load placement.