We’re excited to introduce a powerful new feature in ClearCalcs: Lateral Restraints Inputs for Steel Beams! 
This new functionality allows you to manually or automatically define lateral restraints along your steel beam, giving you greater control over bracing conditions and improving the accuracy of your bending moment capacity calculations.
How This Feature Helps You
Manually Define Restraints – Easily specify top or bottom flange bracing at key locations, such as midspan or any other custom position. This is directly reflected in your bending moment capacity calculations.
Automatic Restraint Input – If your beam has evenly spaced restraints (e.g., from joists or a floor diaphragm), you can input a spacing value, and ClearCalcs will automatically distribute the restraints across the beam.
Flexible Restraint Conditions – You can define individual bracing points, apply continuous bracing, or use standard assumptions like floor barriers for automatic restraint placement.
More Accurate Bending Moment Capacity Calculations
Once lateral restraints are applied, you’ll see the bracing locations visually represented in the diagram. The bending moment capacity calculations update accordingly, reflecting reduced effective span lengths for positive and negative moments, ensuring a more precise and efficient beam design.
Try It Out & Give Us Your Feedback!
This new feature is designed to make steel beam design more intuitive and flexible, but we’re always looking to improve! If you have any feedback or suggestions, let us know—we’d love to hear from you.
Give the new Lateral Restraints feature a try today!
Happy designing,
The ClearCalcs Team 
