The notation used in Steel Designer generally follows that used in the LRFD and LRFD SAM. Use has been made of subscripts to clarify the axis of the member to which a quantity refers. For example, the nominal flexural strengths about the X and Y axes are denoted M_nx and  M_ny respectively.

The geometric axes of a member are denoted as the X and Y axes where X represented the horizontal axis of the member and Y the vertical axis of the member. For design to LRFD, it is assumed that the X axis is the major axis and Y is the minor axis. For most sections these corresponds to the principal axes but for some sections, such as angles, the geometric axes do not correspond to the principal axes.  In this case, quantities pertaining to the major and minor principle axes are denoted using U and V respectively.