Deflection check of a beam modelled as multiple segments

Question :

Several beams in my model have been defined with multiple intermediate nodes. So, a
beam which is say, 45 feet long, is defined as three segments of 15 feet each.

Please tell me what I should do to perform the deflection check for the 45 feet span,
instead of the individual 15 ft spans. The allowable deflection is based on the length of
the sum of the segments expressed in inches divided by 500.

Answer :

Let us look at the figure below which has 3 horizontal members. Together, they form a
single beam that stretches from node 201 to 204. We call this single beam, a physical
beam or a physical member.

The deflection check on this physical beam is achieved by doing two things :

1) The start and end nodes of the physical beam have to be conveyed to the program
using the steel design parameters DJ1 and DJ2. DJ1 is assigned the node number 201,
and DJ2 is set to node number 204. These two parameters are assigned to the 3 segments
- 2001, 2002 and 2003.

2) The 3 segments are assigned the DFF parameter. This parameter stands for the
permissible limit of length divided by maximum allowable deflection. If we do not want
that limit to be less than 500, set DFF to be 500 for the 3 members.
The above two steps are represented using the following commands in the STAAD input
file:

PARAMETER
CODE AISC
TRACK 2 ALL
DJ1 201 MEMB 2001 TO 2003
DJ2 204 MEMB 2001 TO 2003
DFF 500 MEMB 2001 TO 2003
CHECK CODE MEMB 2001 TO 2003