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IES VisualAnalysis 10.0 Introduction
Overview: VisualAnalysis is a structural engineering package for structure, frame, beam, and finite
element analysis. This tutorial will walk you through modeling a frame and applying a basic load.

Open VisualAnalysis. Go Start, all programs, IES, VA 10.0 Edu.

1. Lets start by sketching a frame up, using several different ways to create members.
a. The first way to sketch a member is to click, hold, and drag the mouse
i. Click and hold the mouse on the origin, then drag it upwards until the member
is 20 feet long and snaps to the default grid.

ii. If you want to change the grid spacing, select the grid tab. The grid spacing can
be edited by changing the values under spacing.

b. The second way to create a member is to use the Quick Add Member tool.
i. Click on the Create Members button (see the following screenshot).
ii. For the start of the member, either select an existing node or manually enter
the X, Y, Z coordinates. For this example, lets select an existing node.
iii. For the end of the member, you have the option to end at an existing node, end
at a specific coordinate, or specify a length and angle of member. For this
example, lets specify an end coordinate of (40, 20, 0).
iv. Click Create Member

c.

A variation on the Quick Add Member tool is to specify the members length and angle
i. Click on the Create Members button (see the following screenshot).
ii. Select Node N003 for the beginning of member
iii. Choose the length and angle option
1. Enter a length of 20 feet
2. Enter a Z-angle of 270 degrees

2. Your model frame should now look like this:

3. Now lets add a lateral brace to the frame.

a. Using the click and drag method of creation, add the following member.
i. (Select the Draw Member tool; click and hold on the upper left corner of the
frame, then drag to bottom right corner).

4. Now that we have this nice two-dimensional frame, lets talk about modeling in 3 dimensions.

5. This is what your viewport should look like:

6. Though it can be tricky, I like to sketch in the isometric view.

7. Rotate your grid 90 degrees in the Y-orientation so we can sketch more easily.

8. Now lets sketch some members on the YZ plane as shown below:

9. Now we can introduce you to copy paste in Visual Analysis.

a. While holding the ctrl key on the keyboard, select (by clicking on) the following three
members:

b. Now use the ctrl+C command, or go to editcopy.

c. Next use the ctrl+V command, or go to editpaste.
i. This window should come up

d. Hit next, then fill in the fields as follows. Be sure to use -20 ft!

e. Your model should now look like this:

10. Now lets sketch in some final members:

11. Now that we have modeled our frame, we need to define the connection and support types.
a. Left mouse click the node on the origin
b. Under the modify tab, under the support subsection, change the type to fixed

12. Lets now define all the other support types as shown below:

13. Now that we have the model of our frame modeled and it is statically determinant, lets analyze
it by adding a point load to this node:

14. To apply the load to this node:

a. Left mouse click the node you want to apply the load to
b. Now right click it
c. Select Apply Nodal Load(s)
d. You should have a screen that looks like this:

15. Lets apply a 50 kip load in the -Y direction:

16. Click ok
a. Visual Analysis should have drawn in the applied force and your model should now look
like this:

17. Now lets view the results from this load case
a. The tabs on the bottom of the window allow you to change between model, result,
design, and report views.
b. Click the Result View tab to view the qualitative model deflection

c. Click on the Design View tab to check for failed members: