STAAD.Pro Ideas Portal

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Status Already exists
Created by Saul Cuen
Created on May 26, 2026

RELATED IDEAS

Project units, display units, input units

Now I find very complicated to work units in Staad. I select units when creating new project, but if I need to change units for some process I have to change Input units, which is somewhat OK. But display units are different, so I have to change that too. But if I work in another project with different units, display units are like constant to staad, so I have to change constantly between input units and display units.


Could work fine a method to create the in any units, but a more flexible way to change the units to input loads, distances, properties, or to check forces without tampering with all the structure of the file.

Also, there are like hard coded units. I mean, I could want moments in N instead of kN.


I see that in the bottom right the Input Units is shown. Maybe that could be changed into a button to a menu where we can easily change input units and display units, without losing analysis nor results. So, I want to input in Newtons, I put it, I want to check in kN, I change it, I want streses in Mpa or N/mm2 or psi, I just change it there directly.

  • Admin
    Carlos Aguera
    Aug 7, 2026

    Thank you for posting this idea. As you have illustrated managing units in a project is difficult precisely because designers want to constantly change what units they want to use in different locations and times. The most important and basic logic is that the units defined in the input file specify what the values represent from that point in the file onwards, until there is another units command to change the value. That way the structure can be defined in metres, then the section properties can be changed to work in cms, then a change later in the file before starting loads, means that the loads can be defined in metres again with a force unit of Kilonewtons. The GUI on the other hand by its very nature does not have a flow but acts in a free form way allowing the engineers to jump to any part of the process, so a logic was defined that the input units will be set as the last defined in the input file that is opened, but can be changed at any time. The display units then can choose to be set for different types of unit, geometry, properties, forces, etc. Changing display units or the input units does not invalidate the results, only if you add a new command to the input file using the new units.

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