Basic overview

Last modified by Fredrik Lagerström on 2019/10/31 11:30

Overview.jpg
The user interface of PRE-Stress has four primary controls. These are as follows:

  • The main menu is used to perform operations on the whole document or the entire program. 
  • The context selector is the area immediately below the menu bar at the top of the screen, (next to two boxes displaying various data, such as mouse coordinates and number of load combinations). The context selector lets you toggle between the four principal modes of PRE-Stress. Each mode has different options attached to it, and each modifies the program menu to reflect the type of operations you want to perform (define geometry, work with loads, view the results from the analysis, and evaluate the design). As the program can only be in a single mode, only one context can be active at any given time. 
  • The sidebar. The controls shown here depend on the selected context, which means the sidebar can have four different configurations. 
  • The project tree handler. Always opened by clicking the topmost button on the sidebar, the project tree handler allows for fine-tuning the characteristics of each element or load combination (when the active context is Input Geometry or Input Loads) or navigating the view (when the context is Results or Design). Each load combination is represented by its name and a symbol that shows whether we are (at this point in the beam's lifespan) interacting with a regular beam element, a beam element with freshly applied (wet) topping, or a beam element with finished (cast) topping.