Getting started

First steps #

1. Sign in. A project called My first project with an example calculation opens the first time.
2. Create a project with + in the project panel, or use the example project.
3. Choose New calculation under a project. The window has two steps:
   • Calculation type: every type has a card with a picture of what it calculates. The tabs narrow the cards to one material group (Steel, Wood, Concrete, Foundations, Masonry, Cold-formed steel, Lateral loads, Utilities); the search box finds a type by name or description. Use the arrow keys to move between cards and Enter (or a double click, or Next) to continue.
   • Configure: the main options of the type as picture cards (for example the span condition and the bracing of a steel beam, the number of piles of a pile cap, a square or rectangular footing), the key inputs (member, span, main loads) in the chosen units, the mark (for example B-1), the project, the units and the design method. The Preview on the right designs the calculation as you change it and shows the status, the governing check with its ratio and the type's drawing. Where the server can auto-design the type, Auto-design after create lets the optimizer choose the member (or plate, footing size) for these loads. Select Create. Every other input starts from the defaults (and the project defaults) and is set in the editor. Escape closes the window without creating anything.
4. Enter the inputs on the left. The results on the right update as you type; every change is saved automatically.

The editor #

The editor has two columns:

• Inputs (left): the design method (LRFD or ASD), the units (US or SI) and the calculation's sections. Select a section title to fold it. Manual opens this manual at the calculation's chapter. Save as project defaults stores the materials, methods and limits of this calculation as the starting values for new ones of the same type in this project.
• Results (right): the status, the loads and combinations, key results, diagrams, the report and sheet buttons, and the checks.

Switching units converts every value; nothing is lost going back and forth.

Loads and combinations #

Loads are entered as service (unfactored) values, each with its load type: D (dead), L (live), Lr (roof live), S (snow), R (rain), W (wind) or E (earthquake). ILX Calcs builds every ASCE 7-22 combination of the load types you entered, 2.3.1 and 2.3.6 for LRFD and 2.4.1 and 2.4.5 for ASD, with wind and earthquake acting in both directions, designs for each and reports the governing one for every check. Snow takes the ASCE 7-22 factors (the 7-22 snow loads are strength level): 1.0S as the principal load and 0.3S or 0.15S as a companion in LRFD, 0.7S, 0.525S and 0.1S in ASD. E is the horizontal seismic effect Eh = ρQE. The vertical seismic effect Ev = 0.2SDS D is applied by the modules that ask for SDS (shear walls, masonry wall); elsewhere it is not modeled, nor is the overstrength factor Ω0 unless a module asks for it. The load factor on L is 1.0 (the 0.5L option of 2.3.1 and 2.3.6 is not used). Loads and combinations in the results lists what was evaluated.

Reading the checks #

The status at the top is Adequate when every check is met, Not adequate when one is not, and Not feasible when the inputs describe something that cannot be calculated (the banner says why, and Show takes you to the input).

Each check shows the required value, the available value, their ratio and the load combination that governs it. Open a check to see every equation with its values and the code clause; Read more summarizes the clause. Code compliance lists the limits and recommendations that are not strength checks.

Auto-designing a calculation #

Auto-design (in the editor toolbar of the calculation types that have it) searches the calculation's design variables for the lightest or most economical input that passes every check, using the calculation's own checks for every candidate. It proposes; you decide.

1. Choose the objective: for example the lightest member, the shallowest member, the least concrete or the lowest cost index (relative unit costs of concrete, formwork, reinforcement, steel and lumber, meant to rank the alternatives, not to estimate a job).
2. Choose what may change. Each variable is listed with a check box; clear it to keep the value as entered. A value pinned in the input panel (the pin next to the label) is kept too. Material grades start kept: select them to let auto-design choose the material. Options such as a depth limit narrow the candidates.
3. Select Run. The table lists the best design and up to five alternatives, each with the inputs it changes (old and new value), the quantity of the objective, the governing check and its ratio.
4. Select Apply on a row to put its values into the form. Nothing changes until you apply, and Undo (Ctrl+Z) takes the change back. Review the checks of the applied design as for any calculation.

Every candidate keeps all the other inputs (loads, spans, supports, code options) exactly as entered. The search starts from the cheapest candidates, skips the ones that cannot pass (closed-form bounds from the input as entered, and candidates weaker in every respect than one that already failed a strength check), and stops after the best design and five alternatives are found or at its time limit (a few seconds). When no candidate passes, it shows the closest one and the checks it does not meet: relax a locked value, widen the options or change the layout. The chapter of each calculation says what its auto-design varies. In Batch design, Auto-design each mark runs the same search for every row and keeps the values given in the grid.

Diagrams #

Calculations that analyze a member draw the loading with the supports, and the shear, moment and deflection diagrams of the governing combination, with the extreme values marked. Moment diagrams are drawn on the tension side; deflections are drawn downward.