QuikFrame is renowned for its fast intuitive input, analysis and high quality results.  Now you can use Quik5950 to produce fully qualified working designs in a few additional minutes.  It does for trusses what QuikPort does for portals.

Quik5950 has a minimilist user interface, but still offers the designer complete flexibility in his choice of restraint systems, effective lengths, section shapes, loadings etc.  It can do this:

• Because of the innovative nature of QuikFrame (i.e.  members are input as members not elements between nodes, so the top boom of a truss is one member, not six elements).

• Because, like all QuikSoft programs, Quik5950's user interface has been designed and refined with ease and speed of use paramount.

Quik5950 comes with sections tables for all common steel shapes.  See Standard section files including European.  Using Quik5950's companion program Merlin, you can even define your own sections tables, with special section sizes, or compound sections at non-standard spacings.

Quik5950 is part of the QuikSoft library of Programs

Quik5950 is available in both 16 and 32 bit versions for Windows '95 and Windows NT.

All design checks are carried out in accordance with BS5950:Part 1:1990.

All Quik5950 calculations and checks can be viewed or printed.  For ease of checking these calculations are as similar as possible to hand calculations showing all final and many intermediate results.

Quik5950 like all the QuikSoft programs seeks the exact positions for all bending moment maximums and minimums.

All capacity, and buckling checks are carried out at critical sections.  A critical section is a point where any of the following occur.

• End of the member
• Start of a distributed
• Finish of a distributed load
• Each side of a point load
• Bending moment maximum or minimum (Zero shear)

Whether the calculations are reported depends upon the settings under the Options Calculations brevity option.

Prior to design, Quik5950 processes its input and produces tables of unrestrained lengths for use in lateral torsional and strut buckling checks.

Where a member has non-discrete lateral restraints to one or the other flange the program will refer to the bending moment sense to determine whether the compression flange is restrained.  Quik5950 will properly cope with restrained lengths containing contraflexures.  It can cope with any restraint system with any combination of loading and any bending moment shape. 

Struts

Sections with at least one axis of symmetry are checked in both planes, first between in plane restraints, then between out of plane restraints.  Single angles are checked between restraints providing both in plane and Out of Plane location.

Different effective length factors may be entered for in plane and out of plane buckling.  See Effective length factors.

Struts may be designed taking into account eccentricity of connections: See Strut properties

Compound struts including back to back channels, battened channels and back to back angles are checked in accordance with 4.7.9 using a value for LambdaC which is the lesser of: 0.333*L/Rmin; and 50.

The gross area of the section may be factored to produce a net area used in tension capacity calculations.  See Tie properties.  Note any eccentricities specified in the Strut properties dialog will also be used in calculations where the member is acting as a tie.

Lateral torsional buckling

In Table 14, where a member is not symmetrical about the horizontal axis (Tees and compound angles) Quik5950 assumes the worst case.  For the lateral torsional buckling of single angles the program uses clause 4.3.8.