In the loads tab provide an option to specify that a load is part of the self weight. between the internal concrete block outs, and sometimes having geometry that doesn't perfectly match the library beam self weight, it would be helpful to be able to specify that a point or line load applied in the load table is part of the self weight of the beam so it's included as self weight in the camber and shear/moment tables.
| Civil Product Used | OpenBridge Designer |
In the current Loads tab, users can specify a point load and apply it anywhere along individual beams as “diaphragm” or “cross-frame” self-weight. This load is included in the moment/shear and camber results. Is this what you are looking for?
The diaphragms point load table partially does what we need, and works pretty well for adjacent box beams, but it does mean additional math on the back end as the diaphragms are not included in the self weight in the results. The diaphragms are a separate spot in the outputs so has been the closest we've gotten and is where we have been putting the internal weights. However this still falls short in a number of scenarios:
- On spread box beams you have both additional self weight internal loads and external diaphragm loads, having these lumped together can cause complications for correct haunch and camber tables on those structures.
- Occasionally we need to account for the voids being smaller than in the standard NYSDOT beam templates. We don't wish to include it part of the strength design, but we do need to account for it's weight. Rather than having to make a custom beam template it is more convenient to just apply that additional load that results from the smaller voids as a line load, but then it's lumped in with the DC-prec loads instead of as a self-weight load as it truly would be.
Having an option for self weight in the loads table where the drop down is for DC-prec/comp and DW-prec/comp would help address both of these scenarios.