BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ B E A M C O O K B O O K _____________________________ USER'S MANUAL Shareware Evaluation Version 1.0 This manual is copyrighted 1994 by SoftEngineering - All Rights Are Reserved - BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ SHAREWARE This software is provided as Shareware. This means you have the opportunity to try it before you buy it. If you continue to use this software for more than 90 days you are requested to become a registered user. Registered users receive an update to the most recent version of the software, a printed manual, and free support. Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software be- fore buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue us- ing it, you are expected to register. Individual programs dif- fer on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribu- tion. The author specifically grants the right to copy and dis- tribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission be- fore a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. Beam Cookbook is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program use- ful and find that you are using Beam Cookbook and continue to use Beam Cookbook after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $59.95 to SoftEngineering. The $59.95 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one com- puter at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at i BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of Beam Cookbook must register and pay for their copies of Beam Cookbook within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting SoftEnginering. Anyone distributing Beam Cookbook for any kind of remuneration must first contact Softengineering at the address below for aut- horization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guide- lines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering Beam Cookbook immediately(However SoftEngineering must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to- date with the latest version of Beam Cookbook.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of Beam Cookbook along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the Beam Cookbook system. ASP OMBUDSMAN This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman (OMB) can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP mem- ber, but does not provide technical support for members' prod- ucts. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road Muskegon MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombuds- man 70007,3536. The OMB may be contacted by FAX by sending to the ASP FAX number: (616) 788-2765. In communication with the OMB please include a telephone and/or FAX number if available. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER ii BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ DISCLAIMER - AGREEMENT Users of Beam Cookbook must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "Beam Cookbook is supplied as is. The author disclaims all war- ranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any pur- pose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of Beam Cookbook." iii BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S INTRODUCTION................................................viii ABOUT THIS MANUAL.............................................ix WHEN YOU NEED HELP.............................................x C H A P T E R 1 ..............................................1 GETTING STARTED ............................................1 THE BEAM COOKBOOK PACKAGE ................................1 WHAT YOU NEED ............................................1 Necessary equipment .....................................1 Optional equipment ......................................1 INSTALLING BEAM COOKBOOK .................................2 QUICK START ..............................................3 C H A P T E R 2 ..............................................5 BEAM COOKBOOK: AN OVERVIEW .................................5 STARTING BEAM COOKBOOK ...................................5 THE BEAM COOKBOOK MAIN SCREEN ............................5 The desktop area ........................................6 Function key bar and help line ..........................6 A TOUR OF YOUR KEYBOARD ..................................6 Arrow keys ..............................................6 Function keys ...........................................7 The Esc key .............................................7 USING THE MOUSE...........................................8 Basic techniques ........................................8 More mouse shortcuts ....................................9 USING THE BEAM COOKBOOK MENUS ............................9 Shortcuts ..............................................10 USING THE BEAM COOKBOOK WINDOWS .........................12 Window management ......................................13 GETTING HELP ............................................14 SETTING THE DEFAULT DIRECTORY............................15 ENTERING AND EDITING DATA ...............................15 SAVING AND OPENING BEAM FILES............................16 SETTING THE SCREEN SIZE .................................18 Using mouse drivers with graphics cards ................18 EXITING BEAM COOKBOOK ...................................19 C H A P T E R 3 .............................................20 THE PULL-DOWN MENUS .......................................20 ABOUT ...................................................20 FILE ....................................................20 BEAM ....................................................21 SUPPORTS ................................................21 LOADS ...................................................22 MISCELLANEOUS ...........................................22 SOLVE ...................................................23 OPTIONS .................................................23 iv BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ C H A P T E R 3 (CONTINUED) WINDOW .....................................................24 HELP ....................................................25 C H A P T E R 4 .............................................26 INPUT WINDOWS .............................................26 BEAM CONFIGURATION ......................................26 SUPPORTS ................................................28 CONCENTRATED LOADS ......................................29 MOMENTS .................................................30 UNIFORM LOADS ...........................................31 RAMP LOADS ..............................................31 HINGES ..................................................32 MOMENT CONNECTORS .......................................33 C H A P T E R 5 .............................................35 OUTPUT WINDOWS ............................................35 SOLUTIONS ...............................................35 REVIEW INPUTS ...........................................37 REACTIONS ...............................................38 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS .....................................38 SHEAR:MOMENT:SLOPE:DEFLECT ..............................39 BEAM VALUES .............................................40 LOCATION ................................................40 DISPLAY BEAM ............................................41 DIAGRAMS ................................................43 REPORTS .................................................44 C H A P T E R 6 .............................................48 ENTERING DATA .............................................48 ENTERING DATA ...........................................48 EDITING ENTRIES .........................................48 C H A P T E R 7 .............................................51 SETTING OPTIONS ...........................................51 THE OPTIONS MENU ........................................51 HARDWARE OPTIONS ........................................52 Graphics card options ..................................52 Defining the printer ...................................54 Defining the (printer) Device ..........................55 PREFERENCES OPTIONS .....................................55 STARTUP OPTIONS .........................................56 SAVE OPTIONS ............................................57 C H A P T E R 8 .............................................58 WORKING WITH BEAM FILES ...................................58 THE FILE MENU ...........................................58 ACCESSING FILES .........................................59 Opening a file .........................................59 OPENING A NEW FILE ......................................61 SAVING FILES ............................................61 v BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ C H A P T E R 8 (CONTINUED) Assigning a file name ..................................63 OVERRIDING THE DEFAULT DIRECTORY ........................63 C H A P T E R 9 .............................................66 ADVANCED COMMANDS .........................................66 PRIMARY ACTIVATE AND DEACTIVATE COMMANDS ................66 SECONDARY ACTIVATE AND DEACTIVATE COMMAND ...............67 USING BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY COMMANDS ...............67 A P P E N D I X A............................................68 BEAM COOKBOOK KEYS ........................................68 A P P E N D I X B............................................74 ERROR MESSAGES ............................................74 A P P E N D I X C............................................79 TECHNICAL DATA ............................................79 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS .....................................79 STIFFNESS/FLEXIBILITY COEFFICIENTS ......................80 FORCED DEFLECTIONS/SLOPES ...............................81 COMBINING STIFFNESS/FLEXIBILITY COEFFICIENTS WITH FORCED DEFLECTION/SLOPE .............81 I N D E X ....................................................82 vi BEAM COOKBOOK 1.0 ________________________________________________________________ T A B L E S Table 1.1 Quick start commands................................4 Table 2.1 Basic mouse techniques..............................8 Table 2.2 General hot keys...................................11 Table 2.3 Online help hot keys...............................11 Table 2.4 Window management hot keys.........................11 Table 2.5 Manipulating windows...............................14 Table 2.6 Mouse drivers that support enhanced screen modes..................19 Table 6.1 Entry Editor Commands..............................49 Table A.1 Entry editor commands..............................68 Table A.2 Field selection commands...........................68 Table A.3 Menu bar commands..................................69 Table A.4 Submenu commands...................................70 Table A.5 List commands......................................71 Table A.6 Picklist commands..................................71 Table A.7 The Beam Cookbook function keys....................71 Table A.8 Hot keys...........................................73 vii INTRODUCTION This manual serves as a guide to Beam Cookbook, a comprehensive beam solver (linearly elastic systems only) designed to be used by engineers, engineering students or anyone interested in analytical solutions. This is the ultimate "cookbook": instead of having to find the right recipe, Beam Cookbook only contains the ingredients, you supply the recipe. The ingredients are the only constraints you have. Beam Cookbook uses analytical solutions and the principle of superposition (does not use finite elements) to determine reactions, shear, moment, slope, and deflection. The ingredients are: Supports (20 max): simple, guided, and fixed (can have vertical and/or rotational springs - also can have forced deflections and/or slopes) Variable moment of inertia (20 max) Concentrated loads (40 max) Concentrated moments (40 max) Uniform loads (20 max) Ramp loads (20 max) Hinges (10 max) (can have rotational springs) Moment connectors (10 max): transfers moment only (can have vertical springs) You may display or print the following: Input data (text) Reactions (text) Beam values at boundary conditions (text) Beam values at equally spaced increments (text) Beam and loads (graphics) Shear, moment, slope, and deflection diagrams (graphics) viii ABOUT THIS MANUAL This manual has the following parts: Chapter 1, "Getting Started," explains what you need and how to install and run Beam Cookbook. Chapter 2, "Beam Cookbook: An overview," describes some of the basic procedures involved in using Beam Cookbook, such as choosing a command from a menu. Chapter 3, "The pull-down menus," introduces each selection on the menu bar. Chapter 4, "Input windows," describes in detail each input window, such as defining the location and type of support you require. Chapter 5, "Output windows," describes in detail each output window, such as the all the reactions. Chapter 6, "Entering data," explains how to enter data into you beam problem and how to edit entries. Chapter 7, "Setting options," shows how to change options that affect the startup, operation, and hardware that Beam Cookbook uses. Chapter 8, "Working with beam files," explains how you can display open, save, and start a new file. It tells you how move in and out of directories in the directory tree. Chapter 9, "Advanced commands," explains how you activate / deactivate commands on input fields. Appendix A, "Special keys," explains the arrow, function, and other special keys in Beam Cookbook. Appendix B, "Error messages," lists error messages that might occur in Beam Cookbook. Appendix C, "Menu / window tree," is a schematic showing the path to all menus and windows. Appendix D, "Technical data," is the description of the boundary conditions used and their respective equations. Index ix WHEN YOU NEED HELP Customer Service If you need any help with the following, please call us at 1-714-497-3852. * Questions or problems about your bill. * Questions or problems with your shipment. * Questions about returning your product. * Defective user's guide. Technical Support Registered customers get free technical support, notices of product updates, and other announcements. Telephone Call Technical Support at 1-714-497-3852, hours 3:00pm - 8:00pm pacific time. We'll take all the time needed to answer your quest- ions, but you may have to wait a short time while we offer this same attention to other callers ahead of you. CompuServe The SoftEngineering's User ID is 72760,76. We sill do our best to respond in 24 hours. Prodigy The SoftEngineering's User ID is KFPB21A. We sill do our best to respond in 24 hours. Defective disk replapement Usually you receive one of these messages if you have a bad disk: "CRC error ...." "General failure error reading drive ...." "Sector not found ...." "Bad sector ...." "Unrecoverable read error ...." To check, use the DISKCOPY command to copy the entire disk. DISK- COPY reports any bad sectors. (See your DOS manual.) Check all disks. To replace defective disks, call Technical Support at 1-714-497-3852. Within 30 days of purchase, we replace disks free. After this, contact Technical Support for prices. x