Oasys GSA Documentation

# Preferred Units

In many cases there is a set of units which users will want to use for most of their work. In GSA these are termed preferred units. These can be edited and set from the Input page in the Preferences. This brings up a dialog box to allow individual units to be selected.

A selection of units for each of force, length, etc are offered. For these units the conversion factor are known. If the required units are not in the list, the user can enter the name and must then set the conversion factor. The pre-programmed units are:

  • Force – N, kN, MN, lbf, kip, tf
  • Length - large – m, cm, mm, ft, in
  • Length - small (displacement) – m, cm, mm, ft, in
  • Length - sections – m, cm, mm, ft, in
  • Mass – kg, t, kt, g, lb, Ton, slug, kip.s²/in, kip.s²/ft, lbf.s²/in, lbf.s²/ft, kip
  • Time – s, ms, min, h, d
  • Temperature – °C, K, °F
  • Stress – Pa, kPa, MPa, GPa, N/m², N/mm², kip/in², psi, psf, ksi
  • Strain – ε, %ε, mε, με
  • Velocity – m/s, cm/s, mm/s, ft/s, in/s, km/h, mph
  • Acceleration – m/s², cm/s², mm/s², ft/s², in/s², g, %g, milli-g, Gal
  • Energy – J, KJ, MJ, GJ, kWh, in.lbf, ft.lbf, cal, Btu

Also set is the value for gravity, which is fixed at 9.80665m/s².

Along with the units that can be set here the user can also set the preferred currency units. No conversion takes place between different currencies!

The preferred units are stored in the registry against the current user so that the next time GSA is used the same units are offered as the preferred units.

← Units in the model →