There are several connections, such as "Double side clip angle" or some connections from the "Bracings" category that have two or three secondary beams connected to the main beam. The calculation efforts are considered to be on the secondary beam therefore the user must define the efforts for each secondary beam.
To exemplify this, a "Gusset plate for 3 diagonals" connection is used.
The first step is to identify the secondary beams.
The calculation efforts are generated using the load combinations.
The load cases must be defined using the "Forces" command from the "Tools" toolbar. After that, the load combinations must be defined.
The "Loads-Secondary Beam 1" window will appear and the load cases will be defined with the corresponding values for the first secondary beam.
In this case, the following load cases are defined: the dead load case, the live load case and the wind load case. The load cases defined for the first secondary beam will be the same with the ones from the second or third secondary beams. The load cases will have independent values for each secondary beam.
On the left-bottom side of the "Loads- Secondary Beam 1" window, the options used to change the secondary beam are available. Using these options, the second secondary beam can be selected. The window name will automatically change to "Loads-Secondary Beam 2" and the specific values can be inserted:
The specific values of the third secondary beam can be inserted in a similar way.
After the load cases are defined for each secondary beam, the load cases must be generated.
The load cases will provide the calculation efforts for each secondary beam. These efforts can be viewed from the joint properties window:
