Hello All,

I modeled up a simple lifting beam that connects to a shop crane that the our shop foreman would like to fabricate in order to lift & move some heavy bridge girders across shop.  I have it set up as a multi-body weldment with the structural tube member HSS16 x 8 x 1/2 and welded plates.  The lugs and end plates are to be welded to the tube.  I thought it would be kinda cool to show him how the beam will deflect under loads (we never used SW simulation for anything at work).  I  SW2010 Premium which has it built in (could also used simulation express to keep it simple if possible).

I did some research last nite and found out that even the latest SW doesn't support multibody for simulation analysis.  Just wondering if I can do something using simple beam analysis by merging the end plates and lugs to the tube so its all one, or to just get rid of everything except the tube itself and choose points on the tube that would serve as the lifting points if that's possible (which I think could be considered the fixture points).  Any advice would be great.  Basically, the beam is supported at 2 points where the sketched line connects to the lugs, and then a force would be applied symmetrically off centerline to any of the lugs).  Thanks in advance!

Dave