Girder Designer

The Girder Designer feature is used to "take an educated guess" at an initial design for a selected girder in your bridge.

NOTE: A successful design attempt does not guarantee compliance with all Project Criteria or LRFD Specification requirements. Always review the Spec Check Report.

Select Girder(s) to be Designed

Two options are available for selecting girders:

1. Design a single girder: Use the drop down lists for the span and girder to select the girder that will be designed.
2. Design multiple girders: Click [Select Girders] to bring up the multiple girder selection window and select the desired girders.

Design Options

Check the boxes in this section to select a design option.

Option	Description
Design For Flexure	Designs the girders for flexure
Slab Offset ("A" Dimension) Design	These options are only available if Design For Flexure is checked, and Slab Offset design is enabled in the Project Criteria library. When enabled, the Girder Designer will attempt to find the optimal slab offset for the selected girder(s). If fillet design is selected, the Girder Designer will change the fillet value to the minimum fillet value as defined in the girder library entry. Uncheck this option if you do not want the Girder Designer to alter the slab offset.
Design for Shear	Designs the selected girders for shear
Start with Current Stirrups Layout	If this option is selected the Girder Designer will first perform a specification check on the currently input stirrup layout. If the check passes, the Girder Designer will not modify the current stirrup layout. If the specification check fails, the Girder Designer will attempt to modify the layout of the stirrups by moving the stirrup zone boundaries. If this option is not selected, the Girder Designer will design the stirrups using the design control parameters from the Shear Design tab for the girder library entry.

NOTES:

• Slab offset ("A" Dimension) design is not available if there is no slab or if slab offset design is disabled in the Project Criteria.
• If multiple girders are selected for slab offset design, the girder designer will attempt a separate slab offset design for each girder, which may result in unique slab offset values for each girder. You, the engineer, are then responsible for inputting the optimal slab offsets for all girders in the bridge.

TIP: If your PGSuper Administrator has defined standard stirrup configurations for your girders (for example WSDOT and TxDOT), you generally WILL NOT want the Girder Designer to design for shear.

Refer to Design in the User Guide for more information about designing girders.