1. Overview

There are four main parts of the limitstates library: units, objects, design, analysis.

The units library is a light-weight module for unit conversions. All structural objects in the limitstates libary are dependant on the unit library for conversions. See units: for more detail.

The objects library contains generic classes that represent and manipulate structural elements. Members of the object library are not specific to any code, for example a W530x150 cross section has the same geometry for American and Canadian codes. See objects: for more detail.

The design library contains specialized objects for a particular design code, and functions that act on them. For example, “BeamColumnSteelCsa24” is a code specific implementations of the generic “BeamColumn” class, and the function “checkBeamMrSupported”, acts on it to determine a sections unsupported moment. Design libraries are divided by country and material standard. Currently, content only exists for Canadian design codes. See design: for more detail.

The Analysis library will contain functions that act on structural objects to analyze them. The analysis Library is a work in progress.