Once the footing group is created either via Manual Creation or Cloning, the Footing Layout page displays vital information and various options.
Clicking inside the footing plan view displays the offset of each footing centerline from the reference footing under Footing Details section to the right.
Footing Details:
If a footing in the group needs to be enlarged or shrunk in specific increments, enter the increment of the footing size in inches or mm depending on the input units. Click the "+" or "-" buttons in the appropriate direction to enlarge or shrink the footing. You can also choose if the piers or load elements must keep their existing offsets from the centerline of the footing (the load element offsets are maintained when the footing is resized) or keep existing load positions (the load elements are kept at the same location but the footing size changes). Clicking on various footings displays the offset of the footing in X and Z directions from a reference footing.
When the first footing is created, the footing origin offset is assumed to be at (0,0). Clicking + or - buttons in any direction will change the footing offset accordingly. For eg if the first footing was 5 X 5 ft, and the footing size increment was set to 24 inches, clicking "+" in the positive X direction will change the footing size in the X direction to 7 ft. The footing origin X offset will display a value of (7-5)/2 = 1 ft.
To change the offset of a footing, enter the desired offsets in the X and Z direction to move the selected footing to the desired location.
For a strap footing, clicking on the strap beam connecting the two footings will display the strap information. Clicking the + / - buttons will increase /decrease the length and the width of the strap beam.
Combine Footings:
To combine two or more footings, select the footing with a left click on the footing. Select the footing adjacent to the selected footing in either X or Z direction by holding the Ctrl key on the keyboard and a left click on the adjacent footing such that the two selected footings are highlighted. Click "Combine Footings" button to combine the two footings. The footings are combined in such a way so as to generate the largest combined footing from the selected footings. The X dimension is determined from the west-most or east-most face of any selected footing, while the Z dimension is determined from the north-most or south-most face of any selected footing. If default footing name prefix is used when footings are cloned, the new combined footings created are given numbers that were not used previously when footings were cloned and they display towards the end of the footing name tabs on the Footing Geometry page.
Spread Footings:
To separate a combined footing, select the combined footing with a left mouse click and then click "Spread Footings" to separate the footings with piers. The combined footing will be split creating a footing for each load element. Each new footing will have a padding from the face of the load element = 2 * Footing size increment. For eg if a spread footing of size 5' X 5' is desired with a pier size = 2', set the footing size increment to 9 inches (0.75'). This will create a new footing = 2' (pier) + 2 * (2 * 0.75) = 5'.
Note: When footings are cloned or combined or split is such a way that the action results in overlapped footings, the footing layout page still shows the overlapped footings without any error messages or warnings. However trying to calculate these footings will result in a validation error preventing further calculations.
Delete Selected Objects:
To delete objects selected on footing layout page, click the Delete button under the Footings button group.
Strap Footing:
To create a strap beam between two footings, select the two adjacent footings that must be strapped with a strap beam and then click the icon next to "Clone Footing" icon. This action will create a strap beam between the two selected footings. For information regarding requirements in creating a strap footing, refer to the section " Assumptions in a strap beam foundation layout and design" in topic Strap Footing
Operations in Footing Layout
1. When two footings are combined using the combine footing button, the strap beam will be removed if the two footings were originally strapped together
2. The length of the strap beam will automatically change when the footing dimensions are changed
3. Footings cannot be cloned if the two strapped footings are selected on the footing layout page
4. If one of the two footings of a strap foundation is deleted, the strap beam is automatically removed
Data Tab
That Data tab on the Footing Layout page displays all the footings in a tabular grid displaying various items such as the dimensions, tag identication, reinforcement in each direction and level. If the footings need to be sorted by a specific category such as dimensions, simply select the appropriate drop-down option.
If the footing dimensions and/or specific reinforcements of a specfic footing need to be used by a set of selected target footings, click the check box against the source footing. Then select the rows of the target footings that must have the same values as the source footing. Click the Apply button to copy the desired and selected footing parameters from the source footing to the target footings.
The undo button allows a single or last undo of the copy as long as the focus remains on the footing layout page.
A Tag identification may be specified on the Footing Geometry page and the footings may be sorted by this tag as well.