Staged Construction [FEA]

Staged Construction models the erection sequence. Each Stage inherits the deformed, stressed state of its prior stage, activates or deactivates parts of the structure, applies its loads, and passes the resulting state forward.

This matters because the structure that carries each load is the structure that existed when the load was applied. A girder erected simply supported and later made continuous carries its self-weight on the simple span forever, regardless of the finished geometry - and only a staged analysis reproduces that.

States declare what is present at each stage and whether it contributes stiffness, weight, or both. Loading schedules existing load cases into stages. Changes modify object properties from a stage onward - releasing falsework, locking a bearing. Prestressing schedules tendon stressing operations. Tendon Path Points define the tendon geometry those operations act on.

A staged result should differ from a single all-at-once analysis. If the two agree exactly, the staging is not taking effect.