Model, analyse and design three-dimensional structures — multi-storey steel and concrete frames, portal-frame sheds, trusses, grids and continuous beams. Build the model from templates, the structure wizard, editable joint and member tables or a plain-text command file; assign sections, materials, releases and supports; apply self-weight, joint, member, floor and wind loads with AS/NZS 1170.0 combinations; run a 3D stiffness analysis with optional P-Δ and a modal analysis; then review deformed shapes and force diagrams in 3D, check members to AS 4100 and AS 3600, let the studio select the lightest passing sections, and issue drawings, Excel and PDF calculation sheets.
Scope & limitations
Preliminary analysis and design for study and feasibility. Verify the model, loads, connections and stability and have the design checked by a qualified structural engineer.
What the 3D Frame Studio does
A full three-dimensional frame analysis program in the browser. Build the model from a template or the multi-storey wizard, or type it as joints and members; assign steel catalogue sections, rectangular and circular concrete sections or user-defined properties, materials, β angles, end releases, truss members and supports including springs.
Primary load cases take self-weight, joint loads, uniform, point and linearly varying member loads in global or local axes, two-way floor loads distributed to the beam grid and wind pressures on the windward face; AS/NZS 1170.0 combinations are generated and can be edited.
The solver is the 6-degree-of-freedom direct stiffness method with member releases, optional P-Δ for the strength combinations and a modal analysis with mass participation. Results show deformed shapes, N, V, T and M diagrams in plan, elevation and isometric views and in 3D, with reactions, displacements and member end forces.
Steel members are checked to AS 4100 (section, member, combined and biaxial) and concrete members to AS 3600 (simplified); the select command finds the lightest passing section per group. The model can be written to and read from a plain-text command file, and exported as A3 drawings, Excel and PDF calculation sheets.