Span loads
What is a span? In SCIA Engineer a span means one of the following:
- if a 1D member is defined by means of a polyline , the span is the segment between two adjacent vertices,
- if a linked node (or several of these) is defined on a 1D member, the span is either (i) the segment between two adjacent linked nodes, or (ii) between a linked node and the adjacent end-node of the 1D member,
- any combination of the above mentioned options.
It may happen that a 1D member extends over several spans, for example a continuous beam or a multi-span frame.
![SCIA Engineer - What are Span Loads and how to use them?](/sites/default/files/styles/embed_medium/public/news-032014-ttse-1.jpg?itok=OreFPxoS)
![SCIA Engineer - What are Span Loads and how to use them?](/sites/default/files/styles/embed_medium/public/news-032014-ttse-2.jpg?itok=QGLQSBDW)
If you design such a type of structure, you may need to define a load that extends just over a single span.
![SCIA Engineer - What are Span Loads and how to use them?](/sites/default/files/styles/embed_medium/public/news-032014-ttse-3.jpg?itok=lFYh7HiB)
To define the load over a span, you have the fill in the following parameters in the properties of a new line load (Line load on 1D) and set the extent to “span”:
![Span](/sites/default/files/styles/embed_medium/public/images/2022-05/Span.png?itok=8o08pmwJ)
Once a span-load is defined, it is stored as a normal load. This means that it can be manipulated the same way as any other load.