You can use members and member sets for design of structural components. While it is usually sufficient to use members for cross-section design checks, member sets are often required for a correct stability analysis. The RFEM manual describes creating and properties of member sets in Chapter Member Sets; in this chapter, their significance for timber design is explained.
Using Member Sets
A stability analysis requires using a member set in order to determine the critical load for the lateral-torsional buckling analysis or to consider the entire component length as an effective length. For members, the respective member length is considered; a cross-member design check of the component is only possible with member sets. The nodes between the members of a member set can be considered as intermediate nodes in the Effective Lengths dialog box.
In the add-ons, you can only design the member set of the "Continuous Member" type, and not the member set of the "Group of Members" type.
Either Member or Member Set
The members that are part of a member set can be designed either as a member or using a member set. In order to avoid conflicting entries and results, the associated members are automatically deactivated in the case of the design of member sets. In case of the design of members, the associated member sets are automatically deactivated.
In the Not Valid / Deactivated result table, a message is displayed for all members selected for the design using a member set, which are therefore deactivated (see Chapter on the
Not Valid / Deactivated
result table. A message is also displayed for the member sets, if they are not designed.
Assigning Design Properties
The same design configurations and types of the timber design as for members can apply to member sets. If the design properties are assigned to a member set, all included members get the "Via parent member set" property and the tabs relevant to the design are hidden for the member.
If there is no member set assigned yet, you can use the
button under Design Properties of the member to create a new member set.