Beam Deflection Calculation Guide

1. Choose one of the two frozen support types

TOOL-007 supports only simply_supported and cantilever_fixed_left.

2. Define span and supported loads

Enter span L and one or more Point Loads and/or uniform distributed loads. UDLs may be full-span or partial-span.

3. Enter E and I

Young's modulus E and second moment of area I are mandatory. TOOL-007 has no statics-only mode.

4. Read Deflection as the primary result

Review Deflection Series, maximum and minimum deflection with their locations, and Critical Locations.

5. Treat Reaction, Shear and Moment as Context only

These values are inherited read-only context from TOOL-001. TOOL-007 does not independently recalculate them and does not promote them to primary results.

6. Apply the inherited sign convention

x increases left to right, downward loads are entered as positive magnitudes, sagging internal moment is positive, and downward deflection is negative.

7. Check the support boundary conditions

Simply Supported uses v(0)=0 and v(L)=0. Cantilever Fixed-Left uses v(0)=0 and inherits θ(0)=0 from TOOL-001.

TOOL-007 does not add slope or rotation as a separate output.

8. Interpret Critical Locations correctly

criticalLocationsM is intentionally non-exhaustive. It contains beam boundaries, Point Load positions, UDL breakpoints, and inherited TOOL-001 deflection extrema; it is not every analytical root, slope-zero point, or one-sided limit.

Scope limits

This guide does not cover multi-span systems, triangular or trapezoidal loads, material-strength checks, code-based design verification, utilization, or PASS/FAIL conclusions.