Location of Loads on Beam

[CWEngineer]

I am trying to figuere out the convention for location of loads. Say you have a beam, where should the moment, Vertical and Horizontal Force be located? Are they located on the top center?

Is there a way for me to input he moment, horizontal and vertical force on the face of a beam on the bottom center or centroid of the beam?

THANKS

 

[dozer]

Look up "cardinal points" in help. This should explain it.

 

[CWEngineer]

Thanks, figured it out.

 

[Coulomb]

I have another question concerning the gap element and specifying the directions. The stiffness is defined in the u1 direction, which is also the direction of the physical separation (equal to 'open'). So, for a physical separation between a wall and a shelf in the horizontal direction, do I draw a node at an offset (in the horizontal direction) to the shelving unit equal to the actual separation and connect the two nodes with a gap element?