A manual for - LARSA, Inc.

LARSA 4D Introductory Training Manual
• “Properties” refer to the project input that defines the behavior of the elements in the model,
including material properties, cross-sectional properties, nonlinear spring stiffness properties,
and time-dependent material properties.
• “Geometry” refers to the joints and elements that make up the structure.
• “Joints” are connection points, or nodes, between elements. Joints have 6 degrees of freedom
(DOF), three directions in translation and three in rotation.
• “Members” are 2-node elements, including beams and beam-columns, cables and trusses.
• “Springs” refer to spring elements used as 2-node springs and 1-node foundation springs. A
spring can be linear elastic, nonlinear elastic or nonlinear inelastic.
Basic Modeling Procedure
LARSA 4D users normally follow these steps when creating a new model:
• Set project units from Input Data → Units .
• Import material properties from Input Data → Materials .
• Import section properties from Input Data → Sections .
• Create the geometry, either by drawing, using the spreadsheets ( Input Data → Geometry ),
or the Model Data Explorer.
• Create load cases and load combinations, either using the spreadsheets ( Input Data → Load
Cases & Combinations ), or the Load Cases Explorer.
• Running an analysis.
• Inspecting results graphically and numerically ( Results → Spreadsheets ).
The rest of this manual will illustrate these steps.
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