A global point load is a concentrated load that acts at a position part way along a member and acts in a direction parallel to one of the reference x, y or z axes.

To apply a global point load to a member

§    Select the member or members to be loaded

§    Choose Global Point Load from the Load menu or the short cut menu

A dialog box will appear with icons to indicate the direction of loading.

In a two dimensional view, there will be four icons indicating the four possible loading directions.  In the 3D view, all six possible icons will be displayed with the direction of the arrows in the icons showing the direction of the action of the loads as they will be displayed in the current view.

§    Click on the icon which shows the direction in which the load is to act

§    Type in the value for the magnitude of the load

§    Press Tab and type in the position of the load measured from joint 1

§    Click on the OK button

There is no need to enter '+' or '-' signs for your load magnitudes.  The directions are determined from the icon that you select.

When you enter positions of loads in the member loading dialogs or the Data window, you can enter calculation expressions for the position.  For example, if you want a load to be at mid span you can enter L/2 for its position.  If you enter this in a load dialog, this expression will be calculated for all the selected members.  This means you can apply this load to a number of members of different lengths simultaneously.  You can also enter more complicated expressions such as 2*L/3 or 1.35+(L-4)/2.  The variable L is always available and contains the length of the member, the syntax of the expressions is the same as that used in the CalcSheet.

Multiple loads of the same magnitude and direction may be added to the members by entering a comma separated list of load positions.