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RAM Structural System’s Productivity Tool for Gravity Analysis and Design of Steel Structures


Advantages

Part of a Complete Building Solution

RAM Steel is part of the RAM Structural System where the entire structure is modeled, including decks, slabs, slab edges and openings, beams, columns, walls, braces, spread and continuous footings, and pile caps. The complete set of floor and roof loads, gravity and lateral, of any complexity are included. RAM Steel performs the design of the gravity beams, columns and baseplates in the model and provides powerful tools for manipulating, viewing and reporting those design results.

 

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Automated Member Design Loads and Live Load Reductions

RAM Steel performs the most tedious and time-consuming design tasks in a project. Member design loads are automatically determined, including distribution of floor and roof load to supporting members; application of beam reactions to supporting girders, columns and walls; column load takedown; inclusion of deck, slab and member self-weight; and calculation of Live Load reductions where applicable and permitted by Code. 


 

 

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Member Optimization

Every steel beam, steel joist, and castellated or cellular beam is designed and optimized, based on the applicable code requirements and extensive user-specified design criteria. Bays can be analyzed for susceptibility to vibration. Columns are optimized and designed for the axial loads and for the unbalanced moments created by the beam-to-column connection eccentricity and pattern loading around the column. The design of each column segment considers the design of the entire column stack, rather than being independent of the adjoining columns; thus the design considers the location of splice levels, and the sizes in the column stack are all from a common column size group. Baseplates are sized as well.

 

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Composite Beam Design

Composite beams are designed with careful attention given to the selection of shear studs; partial composite action is allowed to produce more economical designs, and the distribution of studs—either uniform or segmented—is clearly called out.

 

 

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Web Opening Design

Web openings can be specified, and the beam is sized to accommodate those openings, with the necessary design checks performed to ensure compliance with design requirements, including reinforcement where necessary.

 

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Automatic Drawing Creation

RAM Steel provides automatic generation of CAD DXF base plan and column schedule, floor plans, including beam size, studs, camber and reactions.  This saves you time in creating your construction documents.

 

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Customizable

Design philosophies and standards vary from office to office. Construction practices vary from location to location. Software should accommodate these differences. RAM Steel allows the user to specify a wide range of design criteria, including deflection, camber, stud selection and building code criteria. Default member property values and design parameters can be set one time for all models, yet over-ridden on a model-by-model or member-by-member basis. Design tables can be edited to remove unwanted sections or change the optimization order. This results in designs that conform to the way you design.  RAM Steel is adaptable so that it fits into your design process; it doesn't force you to change the way you work.

 

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