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Section 5
5-5
5.1.2 Command Formats
a) Free-Format Input: All input to STAAD is in free-format
style. Input data items should be separated by blank spaces
(not commas) from the other input data items. Quotation marks
are never needed to separate any alphabetic words such as
data, commands or titles. Limit a data item to 24 characters.
b) Commenting Input: For documentation of a STAAD data file,
the facility to provide comments is available. Comments can be
included by providing an asterisk (*) mark as the first non-
blank character in any line. The line with the comment is
"echoed" in the output file but not processed by the program.
Example
JOINT LOAD
* THE FOLLOWING IS AN EQUIPMENT LOAD
2 3 7 FY 35.0
etc.
c) Meaning of Underlining in the Manual: Exact command
formats are described in the latter part of this section. Many
words in the commands and data may be abbreviated. The full
word intended is given in the command description with the
portion actually required (the abbreviation) underlined.
For example, if the word
MEMBER is used in a command,
only the portion MEMB need be input. It is clearer for others
reading the output if the entire word is used, but an
experienced user may desire to use the abbreviations.
d) Meaning of Braces and Parenthesis: In some command
formats, braces enclose a number of choices, which are
arranged vertically. One and only one of the choices can be
selected. However, several of the listed choices may be
selected if an asterisk (*) mark is located outside the braces.