Automatic member reinforcement design

This part of Setup dialogue is code-independent. It means that it looks the same for each national standard.

General

Maximal exploitation of cross-section

Specifies the maximal utilisation of the cross-section in the automatically reinforced beam.

The value may be between 1 and 100%.

Longitudinal reinforcement

Minimal length of bars	Defines the minimal length of bars automatically inserted into the reinforced beam. The algorithm tries to shorten the reinforcement bars if possible so that they do not extent along the whole length of the beam. The shortened bar cannot be shorter than the value of this parameter.
Check min. number of longitudinal bars above supports	If ON, the number of reinforcement bars above supports is checked and compared to the values specified below.
Minimum number of longitudinal bars above supports	Defines the minimal required amount of reinforcement bars above supports.
Try to reduce length of bars	If OFF, the program uses only bars that extent along the whole length of the beam. If ON, some bars may be shortened if the unity check is satisfied without them.
Minimal number of bars in reinforcement layer	Imagine a simply supported beam. There must be 6 bars in the middle of the span. Only 5 bars are required in a section that is closer to the support. And only 4 bars are necessary in another section that is still closer to the support. And so on. So in general, you could shorten the bars one by one. This may be sometimes impractical as it would lead to a large number of different bars. The value in this parameter defines the minimal number of bars that may be shortened at the same time. The default value is 2. It means that, in our example, you would have 6 bars in the middle, there still will be 6 bars in the section where 5 is sufficient, and only farther towards the support the number will be reduced to 4 bars. And so on.
Maximal number of bigger diameters than the default	Defines how many different (bigger) diameters of the reinforcement can be used for the optimisation. Let us assume that the default diameter specified in the Design default tab is 10mm. If this parameter is set to 2, the program can use diameters 10, 12 (i.e. +1 item in the manufacturing programme) and 14 (i.e. +2 item in the manufacturing programme) for the design.
Do not use "Neighbouring" bars	Some standards recommend that "neighbouring" profiles from the manufacturing programme should not be used in one beam (in order to avoid unintentional interchange of the profiles). Let us assume that the default diameter specified in the Design default tab is 10 mm. Further assume that Maximal number of bigger diameters than the default is set to 2. If this option is ON, the following bars can be inserted into the beam: (i) either 10 mm, (ii) or 12 mm, (iii) or 14 mm, (iv) or 10 mm and 14 mm can be combined together. 10 mm and 12 mm are not permitted to be combined in one beam.

Stirrups

Minimal centre-to-centre distance for stirrups	Specifies the minimal distance between stirrups measured from the centre of a bar to the centre of an adjacent bar.
Minimum reduction length	Defines the minimum reduction length. It may be defined by means of length or number of stirrups in the part. See the next two parameters.
Minimal length of one stirrup part	Defines the length of one part of the beam where stirrups are distributed uniformly. This parameter ensures than a situation the distance between two adjacent stirrups is different for every two adjacent stirrups.
Minimal number of stirrups in one stirrup part	Analogous to the parameter above.
Step for reduction	Defines the step for the reduction of the distance between two adjacent stirrups. This insures that the distance between stirrups is always a "rounded" number – e.g. 200 mm, then 250 mm, then 300 mm, etc. (and not e.g. 200, 246 mm, 298 mm, etc.).
Symmetrical part of stirrups	This parameter may enforce that the stirrup part are symmetrical along the length of the beam.