Abstract:

ESDU 03005 provides a User Manual for an interactive Windows program, Amops, for calculating the section constants of planar shapes. The program determines the total area of the shape, the position of the centre of area, first and second moments of area, product moments of area, principal axes, principal moments, and radii of gyration. Shapes are defined by a series of graphics commands entered in an integrated editing pane. Amops includes a library of example shape files, which can be studied or used as a basis for defining other shapes. A drawing of the defined shape or a list of the computed properties of the shape is displayed in the Results pane. The drawing and properties can be printed or saved to a file in a variety of formats including metafiles, bitmaps, HTML, SVG, DXF, as well as plain text. Likewise, a complete report of the analysis, which includes the drawing and properties, can be printed or saved as a web page. This Data Item provides guidance on the running of the program and on all aspects of the graphics commands language used to define shapes. Guidance is also given on interpreting the displayed calculation results.