Must tendons which are modeled as loads be assigned to group ALL?
Extended Question: During staged construction, when tendons are modeled as loads, it appears that loads applied to the tendons are correctly transferred to the model only when the loads are applied to group ALL. The load does not seem to get transferred to the structure when it is applied to individual tendons or user-defined groups containing the tendons. Could you clarify what causes this behavior?
Answer: When tendons are modeled as loads, tendons do not exist within the model as objects (joints, frames, shells, solids, etc.). As a result, load must be applied to groups which contain these entities to be loaded by the tendon. The group ALL feature is useful for this purpose.
Three options are available for modeling tendons:
- Model tendons as objects.
- Determine which objects will be loaded by stressed tendons, then create groups to control loading.
- Apply tendon loads in separate load patterns which are created for each construction stage. Then for a given stage, apply these load patterns to objects within group ALL.