Take Control with Truss Studio

Issue #17317 - December 2025 | Page #152

By Carolyn O’Hearn

Layout programs do a great job with truss-to-truss connectivity and load transfer. But the process is not foolproof and sometimes, loads need to be adjusted. Some applications don’t give you the freedom to make changes to loads after a truss has been analyzed. But Truss Studio does. With our software, you have the power to decide when and how loads are transferred. And if you need to adjust a load, it’s a simple process.

Load Transfer Defined

Load transfer takes the reaction information from a “child” component support location and applies that as a point load on a girder “parent” component, including all constituent parts for Roof Live, Dead, Live, Snow, Wind and Seismic values for correct factored application in required load combinations.

There are many ways you can control loads in Truss Studio. [For images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]

You can do the following with Load Transfer point loads:

Enable/disable individual, groups, or all loads.
Disable an individual load by selecting the load, checking the Enable box, and saving the load.
Disable a group of loads by selecting with Ctrl-click or Ctrl-shift-click, checking the Enable box, and saving the load.
When loads are disabled, they can easily be re-enabled simply by checking the Enable checkbox – no information is lost (just turned off), allowing loads to be turned back on quickly.
To disable all loads at once, simply uncheck the Load Transfer check box on the main Component Loading dialog.

You can also easily select a load or group of loads and copy them with the Copy button. Copied loads allow you to: