I-Beam loads for new dock

[Anonymous]

Hi, All,

Not sure if F360 has this feature, but is there a way to calculate loads?

I'm designing a loading dock and using measurements of beams and posts of other docks I've seen in the commercial building 'hood.

I've looked online for the answers but could only find calculations information--and that world I don't understand at all.

Thank you in advance. (attached the file I'm playing with)

G

[paul.clauss]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for posting! You may want to start by looking through our learning material for the Simulation workspace, which could allow you to run FEA analysis to calculate loading on your model. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions - I'm happy to help!

[Anonymous]

Thanx.  I'll try  it now.

[Anonymous]

Typically, I'm lost.

I tried the steps in the video and things do not work out as laid out.  Not sure why not.

Thank you/

[Noah_Katz]

If this is going to be a real loading dock, I hope you're going to have someone who does know structural analysis to check your work.

[paul.clauss]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for the response! As FEA analysis is a broad subject with many different applications, it is likely that your design does not require you to simply follow the steps laid out in any of the educational videos. I would recommend starting to approach this problem by;

• Researching and understanding the hand calculation information you mentioned not being familiar with in your original post. Computerized FEA analysis is a powerful tool, but the results it provides should always be verified with other methods. 
• Spend some time learning about meshing for stress simulation, material properties, load cases, and boundary constraints. The difficulties you are experiencing with your simulation are likely due to a misunderstanding of one or more of these variables. In fact, I would spend some time reading through all of the subjects on our Simulation learning page. 
• I'm not sure which video you watched, but working through the Structural Buckling How-to exercise may be helpful, as it will likely be similar to the analysis you need to run. Again, I would work through a few of our Hands On Simulation Exercises to gain familiarity with stress analysis.

Hopefully this helps you get started! If you come to a point where you have more specific questions please let me know - I'm happy to help!