# Members and Design
For design to work, it is necessary for Member definitions to be complete and consistent. The recommended approach for creating a GSA model is to define members first, and then to create elements from them. This approach is also more efficient when coordinating the GSA model with a BIM model. The Create Elements from Members tool (under Model | Coordination menu) generates elements from Members.
Before starting to design members, the following must be ensured.
- Restraint Conditions must be defined appropriately.
- Members and the corresponding element definitions must be in-sync with each other. The ‘Highlight inconsistent elements’ display under Graphic settings highlights Members and Elements that are out of sync.
- Steel Members must be appropriately restrained along their length.
Design Task
A Design Task must be set up and executed for designing Members.
Prior to setting to a Design Task, the following must be ensured.
- The Design code must be specified from ‘Specification | Design Specification’.
- Design grades available to the project must be populated under ‘Material | Material Grades | Steel’.
- Populate the Section Library. The ‘Add Catalogue Sections’ and ‘Add Standard Sections’ tool under ‘Model | Section Tools’ can be used to add several section sizes to the library at once.
- Group Members and assign each group to a Pool. Add Sections into the relevant Pools from the Pool definition wizard.
- Set up combination cases.
- Set up a Design Task.
- From the Design Task view | Right click menu, choose to either design or check the task.
The Design Task uses a code checker as specified in the Design Specification. The ‘Notes on Code Checks’ section outlines the checks, design code references and assumptions for each code of practice.
The analysis capabilities allow the user to determine forces and stresses in elements. The steel design option checks these against the capacity of the members. Steel design is integrated within GSA so that the design model coexists with the analysis model. Steel design is carried out on the design model using analysis results to establish the steel utilisation to the selected design code.