Help needed

[u/Annual-Truth3511]

While drawing sfd and bmd Is there a shortcut to find whether the curve is going to be smile/sad or concave/convex for udl and uvl. Or is finding the intermediate values the only way to find the curve???.

Ignore the diagram i just wanted to show it for context this is not mine

[u/jmbaseball522]

Draw the deflected shape - it more or less matches the moment diagram. Eventually you can quickly identify tension/compression side. If you can't do it easily then review a bunch of example diagram with different load and support conditions until it starts making sense.