Model Setup
Students configure and document a software model's global settings so the model is reproducible by an independent reviewer.
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Computational Engineering · Build, calibrate, verify and validate the numerical model that supports your design decisions.
Deliverable: Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots.
Minimum tables, figures and equations for Model Setup
Tables — at least 6
- Table — trial sections or sizes considered, with the capacity of each and the selection decision
- Table — final selected geometry for every element: dimensions, thickness, grade, spacing, elevation
- Table — slab, beam, column and shear wall schedule with governing demand
- Table — ultimate limit state check summary: demand, capacity, ratio, pass or fail, governing clause
- Table — serviceability check summary: deflection, crack width, settlement, freeboard or velocity against its limit
- Table — factors of safety achieved against the factor required, per failure mode
Figures — at least 4
- Figure — free body diagram of each isolated element, fully labelled with loads, reactions, dimensions and axes
- Figure — shear and moment (or pressure and velocity) diagrams for each force-carrying element
- Figure — dimensioned section or plan of each designed element
- Figure — capacity versus demand plot, interaction diagram, or rating curve as applicable
Equations — at least 8
- Equation — equilibrium equations written out for each free body (sum of forces and sum of moments, or continuity and energy)
- Equation — the internal force relations V(x) and M(x), or the momentum/thrust relation, used to compute each element's demand
- Equation — the resulting demand at the critical section of each element, with numeric substitution
- Equation — the capacity expression for each element type, shown with full numeric substitution and units
- Equation — the sizing criterion that sets the final dimension (for example required area, depth or diameter)
- Equation — each limit state check written as demand over capacity with numbers substituted
- Equation — the factor of safety calculation for each failure mode checked
- Equation — punching shear, drift and deflection checks with limits
Number every table and figure (Table 4.x, Figure 4.x), caption it, and refer to it by number in your text. Number displayed equations and show the substitution with units. These counts are minimums — add whatever else your design needs.
Engineering documentation standard — required in every Chapter 4 subsection
These rules are graded on every subsection. Work that misses them is capped on technical accuracy, exhibits, codes and communication, whatever the quality of the prose.
Code and standard references
- Every requirement, factor, coefficient, limit and allowable you apply cites the governing document AND the exact section, article or sub-article number — e.g. ACI 318-19 §22.5.5.1, AISC 360-22 Chapter J, Section J3.6, AASHTO LRFD 10th Ed. Article 3.6.1.2.2, ASCE 7-22 §12.8.1, ASTM D2487, state DOT manual section, local stormwater manual chapter.
- Give the edition or year of every document the first time it appears, then use a consistent short form.
- Where a code equation is used, quote the equation number (e.g. Eq. 22.5.5.1) next to your displayed equation.
- Where you depart from a code provision, state the clause you are departing from and the engineering justification.
- List every code, standard and manual actually used in a Codes and Standards table at the start of the subsection.
Citations for statements
- Every statement of fact, value taken from elsewhere, material property, soil parameter, rainfall depth, unit cost or published method carries an in-text citation (APA) to its source.
- Field and lab data cite the report, boring log, gauge, survey file or test number and its date.
- Manufacturer data cites the product literature and revision date; software results cite the program, version and model file name.
- Uncited assertions are treated as assumptions and must appear in the assumptions table with a justification.
- Every in-text citation resolves to a full entry in the reference list.
Step-by-step calculations
- Structure every calculation the same way: (1) objective, (2) governing code clause, (3) equation in symbolic form with the equation number, (4) definition of each symbol, (5) numerical substitution, (6) result with units, (7) comparison against the limit and the pass/fail statement.
- Show the substitution line — never jump from the formula to the answer.
- Number displayed equations sequentially (Eq. 4.1, 4.2, …) and refer to them by number in the text.
- State the load or flow combination governing each calculation by name.
- Carry consistent significant figures and round only at the reported result; state the rounding convention once.
- Present repetitive element checks in a calculation table with one row per element and the same column order throughout.
Free body diagrams and figures
- Draw a separate free body diagram for each isolated element — no combined sketches standing in for several members.
- Dimension every FBD: span, depth, thickness, cover, eccentricity, embedment, slope, pipe diameter, wall height — with the dimension lines and values shown.
- Label every force, pressure, reaction and moment with its symbol, magnitude and units, and show the sign convention and coordinate axes.
- Show supports and boundary conditions explicitly (pin, roller, fixed, elastic, buoyant, hydrostatic).
- Accompany each FBD with its shear, moment, thrust, pressure or hydraulic grade diagram at the same scale reference.
- Number and caption every figure (Figure 4.x) and refer to it by number in the narrative; add a scale or north arrow to plans.
Units and notation
- Every number in text, tables, figures and equations carries its unit — no bare numbers.
- Use one unit system throughout (US customary or SI); if both appear, give the converted value in parentheses consistently.
- Check dimensional homogeneity of each equation and say so — the units of both sides must match.
- Provide a nomenclature table defining every symbol with its unit.
Checking and verification
- Every calculation is checked by an independent route — hand check against software, alternative method, order-of-magnitude estimate, or a published worked example — and the check is shown, not just claimed.
- Report demand-to-capacity ratios and factors of safety against the required values, with the source clause for each required value.
- Include a verification/checking table: item, method of check, expected, obtained, difference, accept or revise.
- Sanity-check every result (magnitude, direction, plausibility) and state the conclusion.
- Record who checked the work and on what date; flag anything still unverified as an open item.
- State limitations and the range over which the result is valid.
How to complete this section
Do this next: Read the Model Setup lecture and the worked example so you know what "Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots." has to contain.
Not sure how to start or how much depth is expected? Read the fully written model example for this deliverable first — it shows the structure, tables and level of justification your advisor grades against.
Modeling & Simulation Center — what this workspace teaches
Build, calibrate, verify and validate the numerical model that supports your design decisions.
- Selecting analysis software for the engineering question (STAAD, SAP2000, ETABS, HEC-RAS, OpenRoads, Civil3D, ArcGIS, MATLAB, Python)
- Model geometry idealization and simplification
- Boundary conditions, supports, restraints and their effect on results
- Load application and load-case management in software
- Mesh and element selection; convergence studies
- Model calibration against measured or benchmark data
- Sensitivity analysis of governing input parameters
- Verification (solving the equations right) vs. validation (solving the right equations)
- Exporting, documenting and archiving model results
End-of-term milestones
- Tuesday, November 17, 2026 — Poster printed and ready. 36 in × 48 in poster finalized and printed one week before the November 24 showcase.
- Wednesday, November 18, 2026 — Final document package uploaded for scoring. Chapters 4–5, calculation package, drawings and appendices uploaded in the app for advisor scoring.
- Wednesday, November 18, 2026 — Poster presentation to faculty and industry. Wednesday poster session — printed 36 in × 48 in poster presented in person; industry reviewers score communication and impact.
- Wednesday, November 25, 2026 — Oral presentation and defense (scored). Scored oral presentation and defense held on Wednesday, November 25.
Model Setup
Students configure and document a software model's global settings so the model is reproducible by an independent reviewer.
Section B
Engineering story
A real project situation that frames this module
Week 4: model setup is the item standing between the team and a reviewable model, dataset and documented computational workflow. Students configure and document a software model's global settings so the model is reproducible by an independent reviewer. Review stalls on a single line: the team cannot show the record behind global model settings.
Running the model with default software settings without confirming they match project requirements. Because coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map, the error does not stay local: it is carried into the calculation package a reviewer must be able to reproduce line by line, and every downstream product inherits it before anyone notices.
Every downstream discipline that inherits the model and the engineer who seals it carry the consequence. On this module specifically, the exposure runs through load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations, and the cost of correction rises every week the model, dataset and documented computational workflow moves closer to issue.
Decisions the engineer must make
- What record establishes global model settings, and is that record in the project data inventory?
- Which adopted document governs this decision, and who confirmed it applies in this jurisdiction?
- What is the acceptance criterion for coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map, and was it written before the result was known?
- Is the documented procedure valid for the conditions this project actually presents?
- If the check fails, does the team revise the model, dataset and documented computational workflow or raise a change request against the locked baseline?
Photo 1. Field review: the conversation in which a scope, a constraint or a decision is actually settled.
Capstone Studio instructional photograph
Section C
Why this matters
Professional
Model Setup is judged on whether an independent engineer can follow your reasoning to the same conclusion. Your model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. is the evidence that they can.
Technical
Global model settings controls the numbers this module hands forward. Coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map determines whether those numbers remain valid once conditions change.
Safety
The failure mode this module guards against is an unverified model output accepted as an engineering result. It reaches people through model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run, which is why the safety check is recorded explicitly here rather than inferred from a passing strength or performance check.
Economic
The calculation package a reviewer must be able to reproduce line by line is priced from this work. Quantities, unit costs and schedule float all trace to global model settings; a late correction here is paid for as a change order, not a redline.
Environmental
Environmentally, this module fixes decisions on quantity and material that the model silently drives. Choosing conservatively without justification is not free — the excess shows up as material, energy and land that the project consumes for no measurable gain.
Community
The public that depends on results no one outside the modelling team can reproduce inherit whatever this module decides — performance, accessibility, cost of ownership and resilience are set here, not at the ribbon-cutting.
Section D
Learning objectives
By the end of this module you will be able to:
- 1.Explain global model settings, using this project's own conditions rather than a textbook case.
- 2.Evaluate coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map, using this project's own conditions rather than a textbook case.
- 3.Interpret load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations, using this project's own conditions rather than a textbook case.
- 4.Apply model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run, using this project's own conditions rather than a textbook case.
- 5.Produce model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. at a standard the independent model checker would accept without a second revision cycle.
Section E
Instructional content
Full lecture notes with figures and governing equations
Reading model setup as a practising engineer
Students configure and document a software model's global settings so the model is reproducible by an independent reviewer. That single sentence hides the substance of the module: global model settings, and coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map. Both must be established from project evidence before anything downstream is credible.
In engineering computation and digital delivery, this work is the input to the model, dataset and documented computational workflow. Load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations — which is why this page asks you to record the source of every quantity, not just its value. The calculation package a reviewer must be able to reproduce line by line depends on it.
- Global model settings: unit system, analysis type (linear/nonlinear), solver selection
- Coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map
- Load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations
- Model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run
Photo 1. Reading model setup as a practising engineer in practice — Field review: the conversation in which a scope, a constraint or a decision is actually settled.
Capstone Studio instructional photograph
Decision logic: the procedure that replaces a closed-form solution
Model Setup is governed by a documented procedure rather than a single expression, so the decision logic is the deliverable: what you accept, what you reject, and on what evidence. Global model settings.
Write the acceptance criterion before you look at the result. Coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map — recording the criterion afterwards lets it be shaped to fit the number you happened to get.
Photo 2. Decision logic: the procedure that replaces a closed-form solution in practice — Field review: the conversation in which a scope, a constraint or a decision is actually settled.
Capstone Studio instructional photograph
Constraints, adopted standards and the safety case for model setup
No single code section governs this module, so the constraint set comes from the approved proposal, the owner's requirements and professional practice. Write those constraints down; an unwritten constraint is not enforceable at review.
The safety case is explicit here. The failure mode is an unverified model output accepted as an engineering result; the people exposed are every downstream discipline that inherits the model and the engineer who seals it; the control that prevents it is model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run together with an independent check by someone who did not perform the work.
- Controlling criterion for this module: global model settings.
- Adopted reference: confirm with the jurisdiction before you rely on it.
- Failure mode guarded: an unverified model output accepted as an engineering result.
- Evidence produced: Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots..
Photo 3. Constraints, adopted standards and the safety case for model setup in practice — Field review: the conversation in which a scope, a constraint or a decision is actually settled.
Capstone Studio instructional photograph
Where this method stops being valid
Every method has a domain of validity. State the range of geometry, loading, material behaviour or flow regime over which your approach holds, and state what you would do instead beyond it.
For this project, the boundary you are most likely to push is model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run. If you cross it, say so in writing, bound the error, and carry the limitation into your results chapter. A disclosed limitation is professional practice; a silent extrapolation is not.
Photo 4. Where this method stops being valid in practice — Compression test on a concrete cylinder: the measurement behind every f′c used in design.
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Section F
Engineering workflow
Steps
- 1. Assemble the inputs this module needs — global model settings; coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map — each with a unit and a source record.
- 2. Confirm which document governs, and record who verified that it applies here.
- 3. State the assumptions and the acceptance criterion for global model settings.
- 4. Execute the documented procedure, recording each judgement and the evidence behind it.
- 5. Test the result against load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations.
- 6. Audit units and run an order-of-magnitude check by hand before the number leaves your desk.
- 7. Obtain an independent check from a teammate who did not perform the work, and record their name and date.
- 8. Assemble model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. and submit it to the independent model checker for review.
Decision points
- Is every input behind global model settings traceable? If not — stop and collect the record.
- Does the result satisfy coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map? If not — revise the work, never the criterion.
- Would the correction change the calculation package a reviewer must be able to reproduce line by line? If yes — raise a change-control request before proceeding.
- Have you ruled out the most common error on this module — running the model with default software settings without confirming they match project requirements?
Quality checklist
- Documented: global model settings
- Documented: coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map
- Documented: load case and combination setup within the software matching the hand-derived combinations
- Governing document cited
- Procedure steps recorded in order with evidence
- Acceptance criterion recorded before the result
- Independent check signed and dated
- Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. attached and named per the course convention
Section H
Interactive visualization
Model Setup — step-through
Advance one frame at a time. Each frame adds one engineering decision to the previous state.
Step 1 of 6
Set the global unit system and confirm it matches the calculation package.
Section I
Applicable codes and standards
Section J
Worked examples
Full engineering solution format
Section K
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Running the model with default software settings without confirming they match project requirements.
- Failing to document the model's coordinate origin, making results impossible to relate to the base map.
- Treating global model settings as a given instead of establishing it from a project record.
- Producing model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. without showing how coordinate system and origin definition consistent with the base map was satisfied.
- Recording the outcome of this module without recording the judgement and evidence that produced it.
- Missing model documentation sufficient for an independent party to reproduce the run, which is exactly the path to an unverified model output accepted as an engineering result.
- Reporting model output without documenting mesh, boundary conditions, solver settings or convergence.
- Calibrating a model until it matches expectation, then presenting the match as validation.
- Reporting numbers without units, or mixing US customary and SI inside a single calculation chain.
- Citing the wrong edition of a standard, or citing a standard that does not govern the jurisdiction.
- Leaving boundary conditions undefined so the model is not reproducible by an independent checker.
Section L
Industry case study
Documented failure related to model setup
A constructed civil works project where this module's decision was made incorrectly or skipped.
Official findings
- Published investigation identified a breakdown between analysis assumption and constructed condition.
Field observations
- The controlling assumption was documented nowhere in the design record.
- No independent check existed at the stage where the error entered the work.
Engineering interpretation
- Interpretation below is student analysis for instructional purposes, not an official finding.
- Map the failure to a step in your own workflow and state where your process would have caught it.
Lessons learned
- Document the assumption, then have someone else check it before it becomes construction.
Source: Summarize the published investigation; cite it in your reference list. Do not reproduce copyrighted report text.
Section M
FE Civil exam connection
Handbook FE Reference Handbook — engineering computation and digital delivery section (record the section number from your handbook edition).
Exam topics
Handbook formulas
Weak results here feed your FE Civil Academy weak-area queue for targeted practice.
Question 1 of 2
Score: 0/2In model setup, which item must be established BEFORE the analysis is run?
Section N
Apply it to your project — Model Setup
Complete this using your own capstone project data. Every field is saved to your project record and routed to your advisor with this module's submission.
Inputs and sources
Every value needs a traceable source.
| Quantity | Value | Unit | Source / record |
|---|
Assumptions and consequences
| Assumption | Basis | Consequence if wrong |
|---|
Self-check before submission
Section O
Design challenge
Consulting challenge — Model Setup
Your firm has been retained to deliver the model setup scope for a municipal client on a compressed schedule. Produce the technical position your firm would defend at a public meeting.
Client request: The client wants a defensible recommendation, the basis of design, and an honest statement of what remains unresolved.
Constraints
- Adopted local code edition governs; no exceptions without written variance.
- Budget and schedule are fixed; scope changes require change control.
- Public safety and accessibility requirements are non-negotiable.
Deliverables
- One-page basis of design
- Supporting calculation extract
- Risk and limitation statement
Evaluation
- Technical correctness
- Standard compliance
- Clarity of engineering judgment
- Honest treatment of uncertainty
Section P
Documentation workspace
Write the report section for this module in the academic editor
Section Q
File uploads
Accepted: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, PNG, JPG, ZIP, DWG, IFC
No files uploaded yet.
Section R
Deliverable and advisor review
Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots.
Submissions route to your assigned faculty advisor and are scored independently by faculty and administrator rubrics.
Reflection
What was the hardest engineering judgment in this module, and how did you resolve it?
Section S
ABET outcome mapping
Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. with advisor review and dual scoring.
Assessment: Faculty rubric score and administrator rubric score on this module's submission.
Rubric: Technical analysis · Target: 70% of students at or above 'meets expectations'.
Model setup documentation with software configuration screenshots. with advisor review and dual scoring.
Assessment: Faculty rubric score and administrator rubric score on this module's submission.
Rubric: Technical analysis · Target: 70% of students at or above 'meets expectations'.
Section T
References and further study
Model Setup — instructor design procedure
Course template for the calculation package format expected in the final report appendix.
NCEES FE Reference Handbook
Locate the equations used here and note the handbook section for exam recall.
Advisor meeting agenda item
Bring the unresolved decision from this module to your next weekly advisor meeting.