Shear Moment Plot

From the Tools > Free Body Diagrams menu, you can select the Shear Moment Plot utility. This tool automatically generates Shear-Moment-Torque (VMT) plots. It requires an *.fbd file from the Resultant Force and Moment (RF&M) utility as its input file. You can select the sections and subcases from the *.fbd file to include in the plot, as well as several other plot options described below.

shear_moment_plot

Shear Moment Plot utility

Option

Description

.fbd file

Click the file browser icon to select the path and name of the RF&M utility's FBD file that contains the data to generate the plot.

Sections

The Sections selector displays all cross-sections available in the selected FBD file. The Sections selector allows you to specify which cross-sections in the selected FBD file to include in the plot. Multiple cross-sections can be selected using the standard Ctrl/Shift functionality.

The following filter buttons allow for additional selection control.

Search for a particular filename.

- Select all sections or subcases listed.

- Exchanges the currently selected items for the unselected items in the list.

- Deselects all selected items.

Loadsteps

The Loadsteps selector lists all subcases available in the selected FBD file. The Loadsteps selector allows you to specify which loadsteps in the selected FBD file to include in the plot. Multiple cross-sections can be selected using the standard Ctrl/Shift functionality.

The Loadsteps filter buttons allow for additional selection control (see above).

VMT Plots

From this tab, you can define the X and Y components for the plot. Options include:

X component - From this menu, select the X, Y, Z, or Mag coordinate values of the summation node for each cross-section. Only one X component may be selected.

Y component - From this menu, select the Fx, Fy, Fz, Mx, My, or Mz coordinate values. These values are defined in the results coordinate system for each cross-section. Multiple Y components can be selected using the standard Ctrl/Shift functionality.

Plot Titles

From this tab, you can define a title and subtitle for all generated plots.

Plot Options

From this tab, you can define several options for generating plots. They include:

Reverse sign - Allows you to reverse the sign (+/-) of the output at one or more cross-sections. The top drop-down menu is populated with the list of selected cross-sections.

The bottom drop-down menu lists the type of reverse to be performed. Options include:

•	Reverse selected section - Reverses the sign of the output at only the selected section.

•	Reverse all but selected section - Reverses the sign of the output at all sections but the selected one.

•	Reverse all - Reverses the output at all sections.

•	Reverse none - Does not reverse any data.

Envelop - Generates an envelope curve for each selected Y component that contains either the maximum value across all selected loadcases or the minimum value across all selected loadcases at each cross section.

Layout - Allows you to choose the plot layout. Options include:

One plot per subcase

One plot is generated for each selected subcase. All selected Y components are plotted for each subcase on each corresponding plot.

If the Envelop option is enabled, one plot is generated for Maximum and one plot is generated for Minimum (as appropriate).

One plot per Y component

One plot is generated for each selected Y component. All subcases are plotted for each Y component on the corresponding plot.

If the Envelop option is enabled, one plot contains all Y component maximum curves and the second plot contains all Y component minimum curves (as appropriate).

One curve per plot

One curve is placed on each plot. The number of plots is equal to the number of Y components multiplied by the number of selected subcases.

If the Envelop option is enabled, the number of plots is equal to the number of selected Y components multiplied by one or two, depending on if the Maximum and/or Minimum options are selected.

shear_moment_ex_1

Sample output for X vs Fy and Mx for four subcases. The Envelop results option is unchecked. The Layout option is set to One plot per subcase.

shear_moment_ex_2

Sample output for X vs Fy and Mz for four subcases. The Envelop results option is enabled for both Maximum and Minimum. The Layout option is set to One curve per plot.