Fast and accurate structural analysis is the foundation of all computer aided structural design. Multiframe helps you get the results you require by providing powerful, yet easy to use analysis capabilities. Multiframe's 3D analysis tools give you an exceptionally powerful and flexible means of creating, analyzing and examining results for your structures. A built in range of methods for automatically constructing geometry, restraints, materials and loading conditions lets you concentrate on the problem at hand, not on the software you are working with. Although Multiframe offers unsurpassed ease of use and a complete graphics working environment, it also provides all the computational power you need for complex structural analysis.
All types of framed structures may be modeled and can include special structural features such as springs, prescribed displacement, member releases and pinned joints. Because Multiframe is designed to work the way you do, it offers automatic factoring of load cases, automatic inclusion of self weight and a range of commands to automate the generation of regular geometry such as continuous beams, curved beams, trusses and high rise frames.
Multiframe's built in library of common structural shapes let you analyze steel, concrete or timber frames. You can include sections made from any other material or automatically include sections designed using Section Maker.
Multiframe Automation using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a feature unique among structural analysis programs. Using Automation, you can prepare calculations and drawings in Excel, Word, or AutoCAD, and dynamically access any and all of the design data you need directly from the Multiframe model. In Word, you can prepare a design template document and have it filled out automatically by data from Multiframe. In AutoCAD, you can automatically generate a drawing from a Multiframe model, or alternatively, generate a Multiframe model dynamically, directly from an AutoCAD drawing.
The most demanding job a structural designer is faced with is the dynamic analysis of an existing or proposed structure. To help solve these difficult problems, Multiframe 4D brings dynamic analysis to the Multiframe range. Using the same set of powerful and flexible modeling tools available in all the Multiframe programs, 4D is the fastest way to determine the dynamic response of the frames you are designing.
Multiframe 4D features a fast solver that uses sub-space iteration to quickly find the natural modes, frequencies and periods of your structures. For more complex problems, Multiframe 4D's time history response option allows you to simulate the structure's response to seismic or other dynamic loading over time. A built-in library of earthquake spectra can be used or your own dynamic data sets can be entered and stored for future use.
Either lumped or distributed masses may be used to automatically take account of the self weight of the structure. User control of the number of mode shapes or time steps and convergence criteria make it easy for you to calculate a quick estimate of dynamic response or a more rigorous and accurate solution. When analysis is complete, a click on a joint or member reveals a graph of its response over time. Alternatively, the whole structure can be animated to show the total structural response.
Multiframe is available in 3 models to provide solutions matched to the varied tasks that you perform.
Multiframe 2D is suitable for 2D static analysis of framed structures.
Multiframe 3D is suitable for 3D static analysis of framed structures.
Multiframe 4D is suitable for 3D static and dynamic analysis of framed structures.
Features common to all models
Additional Features in Multiframe 3D
Additional Features in Multiframe 4D