In the Postprocessor, we have three basic options for viewing internal forces on members: All, Summary and Envelope. The Summary option gives one table, where the maximum and minimum axial forces, shear forces and moments are, for example, in members of the selected cross-section and information on what load the maximum/minimum is given. This would be very practical and useful if it were correct. If we imagine a structure where there are simple beams, then for bending values, the table shows both max and min values of 0.0 kNm, which is nonsense. The minimum value is 1/8qL^2. However, this "Summary" option does not look for the actual maximum and minimum values in the selected members, but only the values at their end points and only evaluates these. If the structure is large and with a large number of load combinations, this Summary option is unusable, because it is inherently incorrect. I used AI to create a table for me, which shows me the maximum/minimum values of axial force, shear forces and moments, at what combination this max/min occurs, the member number, where the given max/min is located and where the given max/min force on the member is located. Such a table makes sense, because even for the above example of simple beams it shows the correct value of the minimum bending moment, which is located in the middle of these simple beams. Try to consider whether you should reconsider this Summary option so that the table shows the true maximum and minimum values of internal forces in the selected members.
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Thank you for posting this idea. However, there are some issues with your idea.
You refer to the table the reports the internal forces as having three sheets, All, Summary and Envelope. However, whilst that is correct for the Beam End Forces Table, if you are looking for intermediate forces, then you should be referring to the Beam Force Detail table. That reports data in four sheets:-
All, Max Axial Forces, Max Bending Moments and Max Shear Forces. These are the locations of the maximum and minimum force/moment for each member in each load case that was included.
Are you in fact looking for further summaries that take this data and report for each member, for a given force/moment, the load case and location of the maximum and minimum value along the lines of
Beam, Force, Location, Dir, Load case, Distance, Value
1, FX, 0.0, Max +ve, 100, 0.000, +101.234
1, FX, 0.0, Max-ve, 200 0.000, -12.234
1, FY, ...
etc for all 6 degrees of freedom both positive and negative values, thus 12 entries for each member.
Please note that whilst you may only have structures with simple beams, most models will have members that may have compression in one load case and tension in another or subject to double curvature resulting in one part of the member with compression on the top, but at a point of contraflexure will have compression on the bottom.
Note that if that is your goal, then that seems like something to consider adding to the backlog.
What would really help as well is sharing something about the benefit that providing such a table would offer and how it could help reduce your workload which is clearly what helps motivate the development.
It is interesting to hear that you attempted to create this using AI but the solution it offered appears to be around pulling details from the member end force. I would have expected the AI to use the function:- GetIntermediateMemberForcesAtDistance()