Analysis of stages
The analysis of a stage is set up using the Analysis wizard from the Analysis > New analysis task command. Select the option to create a new analysis and select the analysis stage. The remainder of the data in the wizard is entered in the usual way.
The elements that are included in the analysis are those defined in the stage definition. Any other elements are inactive in this analysis and are ignored.
The properties and materials can be modified from the base properties for an analysis stage using either the analysis stage properties or analysis stage materials. If an element has a property that is modified for an analysis stage, e.g. beam property 1 is mapped to property 7, then the properties used as those of property 7. It is an error if the material type changes between the property definitions, so if section 1 is concrete then section section should also be concrete if it is to be used in the analysis stage. The materials can also be mapped. e.g. is the element references concrete material 1 but for the analysis stage this maps to material 5 then the material properties used for this element are those of material 5. The definition of an analysis stage material will always override the material implied by an analysis stage property which in turn will override the material implied in the base element definition.
The other change that can be applied in an analysis stage is creep. Creep can only be applied to concrete elements. If a creep is defined for the analysis stage that creep value is applied to all the concrete elements in that analysis stage, it is ignored if the elements are not concrete. If the creep is specified in the analysis stage materials then this can only be specified if the material is concrete and this creep value will override the value specified for the analysis stage as a whole. The effect of creep is to modify the E and G values of the material.