Advance Design 2018 comes with a number of predefined combinations, which are formulas containing load cases and calculation coefficients. However, there are some situations in which you might need to make adjustments or even create a new load combination altogether. Such a feature is available in Advance Design 2018.
To create user defined load combinations, you must first open the Combinations folder, which allows the selection of predefined loads combinations files to open. As seen in the image below, the Loads CBN option in the Combinations window will open predefined loads combinations. Each file with the .cbn extension corresponds to a certain standard.
The View button located right next to the Loads CBN option, opens the Combinations folder and displays the codes convention for the previously selected standard. This particular file is displayed as a text document.
To define your own code convention, you must first create a notepad file similar in structure to the predefined .cbn files. The following conditions must be met:
2. The combination line comprises of case codes, coefficients and combination codes, separated by spaces. Therefore a general definition will have the following structure:
For example, the following cases are defined in a project (case codes are written in CAPITAL LETTERS):
The next step involves opening a text document and typing the desired combinations, following the previously defined structure (case codes are also written with CAPITAL LETTERS):
The last step involves saving the text document with the .cbn or .txt extension.
When loading the file, combinations are generated according to custom definitions, and the combination code is assigned to the file accordingly. The combination name is generated based on the combination definition.
It's also worth mentioning that code specific coefficients from Load case Properties are disregarded when using the Loads CBN option.
