RAM Elements Selection Tools

[Pcacciat]

Hi All,

I am learning to use RAM Elements right now and I am struggling with the interface, I was hoping someone can explain something to me. I am importing a model from RAM Structural System and analyzing it in Elements - when I do so I get a bunch of errors that need to be corrected such as missing member profiles and incorrect diaphragm assignments. my question is, is there any way to select a node or element bu its number or any assigned properties, or to select a node/member from the spreadsheet? essentially I want to find the node/member in question in the spreadsheet and filter my selection so i can view only that member - is this possible? It seems that the selection tools in Elements are very poor.. It makes it much more difficult to find individual components and fix them.

Any assistance or direction to a useful tutorial would be greatly appreciated! I looked on the communities website and on youtube and have not found an answer to my question.

Thanks

 

[SteveGregory]

See the wiki article "RAM Elements - Importing From RAM SS"

http://communities.bentley.com/prod...i/3422.ram-elements-importing-from-ram-ss-tn.

There are a few tutorials that you can access through the little blue help button in the program that will help you with the interface.

Here is one way to identify members that are undefined in your imported model. Select all members first then click on "Rendering" located on the View tab. The undefined members will not be rendered in 3D and will remain displayed as lines. If you haven't already turned on member numbering, this will help you get started.

 

[structSU10]

if you click the spreadsheet tab, and have a material type or member type selected within the smaller member tab, and then hit the green check mark near the top left of the screen, you will select just the members that have that property.

 

[Pcacciat]

Thanks to both of you for your advice, these are both helpful tips. I was hoping that I could actually deselect members using the spreadsheet (for instance if I use the filter in the spreadsheet and then hit delete it will still delete all the members not just the ones showing in the current filter) but it seems that at least using these tricks I can locate the members/nodes in the 3D view, then select them individually as needed.

I am surprised by how cumbersome some things are in Elements compared to RAM Frame of ETABS - I want to like it because I find the standalone modules to be intuitive and useful, but it seems to me like the program is just not geared towards analyzing complete building frames (which is what I was hoping to use it for more regularly). Anyway, thanks for the help!

 

[SethGuthrie]

Reverse Selection (ctrl+I) could help you. I also think saved model views are key to working with larger models. Some tips about that are here:

https://communities.bentley.com/pro...n/w/structural_analysis_and_design__wiki/8217