Hi all,
I am trying to understand what the Bending Moment Distribution Tool (BMDT) actually plots when you take cuts.
I understand that it shows the bending moment about the axis drawn using the tool, but I'm not sure what the plotted values represent.
When I use the Selected Plot Distribution tool, I can see it is slightly different to both the Max and Min Mx/My plots.
However when the BMDT is used, it shows the same values irrespective of the plot you currently have in the model space.
Bottom line: What tool should I be using to view the "real" moments in the structure? This is mostly because I want to confirm design results with simple hand calculations and get a better feel for how the deck is behaving.
Thanks in advance.
Trent