Load cases, load groups and load combinations
You can create, modify or delete load cases including static, influence line and seismic types and there is no limit in the number of cases or groups created.

Load combinations can be created from load cases with user-defined safety factors for each case. Critical combinations are determined automatically from group parameters and load case results. 

Nodal loads
Specify or change forces / moments to selected nodes.

Concentrated beam loads
Specify or modify concentrated forces / moments to selected beam elements.

Point loads on domains
Specify or modify a concentrated load on a domain in global, local or reference direction.

Distributed loads on beams and ribs
Specify or modify global or local, constant or variable distributed forces on beams and ribs. More than one distributed load can be applied to an element in the same load case. Global loads can be defined along the beam or projected to the beam.

Domain line loads
Uniform or linear distributed load between two points, along a polyline or to an arc in domains

Surface loads
Apply distributed loads to shell, membrane or plate elements. Valid components depend on surface element type.

Domain area loads
Mesh independent loads in constant or linear configurations in rectangular, skewed, polygonal or complex polygonal shapes. Holes can be included or excluded. Valid components depend on surface element type.

Fluid loads
Specify or modify fluid load on plates or shells in variable directions and combinations. The actual load is calculated from values computed at the corner of the elements. Fluid loads created with the same definition will be handled as one load. So if you specified a fluid load on more than one element and click on the load contour on any of these elements the load will be selected on all of them and you can easily change the load parameters.

Self weight
Takes into account the self weight of the line elements (that have materials assigned) and domain. It is is calculated from the cross-section, the mass density of the material, the gravitational acceleration g, and the length or area of the element. The load is applied as a distributed load in the direction of the gravitation vector.

Hosszváltozás
This load type is used when a structural beam element is shorter or longer than required due to a fault in manufacturing.

Tension / Compression
Lets you define an initial axial internal force in truss/beam elements.

Thermal load on line elements
Lets you apply temperature loads to the selected line elements (truss, beam, and/or rib).  For beams and ribs different top and bottom temperatures can be defined.

Thermal load on surface elements
Lets you apply temperature loads to the selected surface elements. For membranes only uniform, for plates only non-uniform temperature changes can be applied.

Forced support displacements
Lets you apply forced displacements to the selected nodal support elements.

Influence line load
Lets you apply a relative displacement load to obtain the influence line of an internal force component, on the selected truss/beam elements.

Seismic loads
The seismic loads are taken into account according to the Response Spectrum Analysis method. This method requires a previously calculated number of un­damped free vibration frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes. Based on these vibration mode shapes AxisVM generates equivalent static loads (for each vibration mode shape) which are then applied to the model in a static analysis. Then internal force results obtained for each mode shape are summed using to the method described in design code specifications.

Seismic analysis

Nodal masses
In a vibration analysis the masses are concentrated at nodes that you can take into account by their global components. In second-order vibration analysis, the loads due to the nodal masses are applied on the model, as well as the masses due to the applied loads.

Post-tensioning
Tendons can be assigned to a continuous selection of beam or rib elements. After defining tendon properties and the tensioning process AxisVM determines the immediate losses and the equivalent loads for the end of tensioning (load case name-T0). After completing a static analysis it determines the time dependent losses and the long term equivalent loads from the result of quasi-permanent combinations (load case name-TI). Tendon trajectory tables can be generated with user-defined steps.

Moving loads
Moving loads allow modeling of a drifting load with a constant intensity like a vehicle crossing a bridge or a crane carriage moving along its runway.

Tutorial

Dynamic loads and nodal accelerations
Dynamic nodal loads and acceleration functions can be defined for time-history analysis. Acceleration functions can be used for seismic analysis. In this case it is recommended to obtain proper seismic accelerograms and assign these functions to support nodes to analyse the effects of the earthquake. This method provides more exact results than the response spectrum analysis and can be used even if nonlinear elements are defined in the model (nonlinear supports, tension-only trusses, etc.). Its disadvantage is that it cannot be combined with other load types automatically.