When ordering SACS to do the unity checks according to the Eurocode 3, the SACS manual states in section 3.6.4:

“1. It is extremely important to define physical members as a span using SPAN lines.“

However, the current version of Precede has very limited options to check if SPAN lines are correctly defined.

Precede has no option to display the Span IDs similar to how joint/member IDs can be displayed in Precede. This causes problems when a wrongly defined SPAN line is identified in the model viewer, because in the model viewer the SPAN ID cannot be displayed. This means that if you see a wrongly defined SPAN line in your model you have no way of knowing which SPAN ID corresponds to the wrongly defined SPAN line.

Furthermore, The function ‘Span of members’ in the Labeling options needs to be changed such that each SPAN is highlighted in a different colour or with a colour fade such that the beginning and end of the SPAN line can be identified. In the current version all SPANS are highlighted in the same colour, which causes problems when two SPAN lines are connected because it is no longer clear where each SPAN line begins and ends.