A local point load is a concentrated load that acts part way along a member and acts in a direction normal (shear) or parallel (axial) to the member.

To apply a local point load to a member

§    Select the member or members to be loaded

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

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

§    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

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.