Hello,
There’s no point in applying the notional load against other lateral loads. In STAAD, it’s possible that the Load Combination where automatically generated so the notional loads are generated for all directions even if they countermeasure the main lateral load.
Having that many Load Combinations to be analyzed will greatly increase the time required to complete the analysis without yielding meaningful results. I would say that automatic combinations should only include notional loads in the direction of the main lateral load.
J.Arnold
Please can you provide an example of where the application currently creates excessive combinations and what logic should be used to reduce this to a smaller set of combinations. It is important to remember that STAAD.Pro is intended to be generic and as such this logic should be able to be applied to any model.
Thank you for posting this idea. However, I would perhaps question how you would determine the condition 'the main lateral load'? The point of lateral loads is that they are determined by the vertical load and their effect can apply in any direction. It may be that their effect can be more significant on some members when applied in one direction, but on others when applied in the other.