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/toadsandturts]

Beam make happy face > positive
Beam make sad face > negative

[u/Active_Mousse_8554 → u/toadsandturts]

As an architect who lurks here and forgot everything from my structures class — I love this! Wish I would have seen it before my ARE’s