All building framing affected by overhead cranes should be braced for the thrusts induced by sidesway and longitudinal motions of the cranes. Bracing used for wind or erection may be assumed to sustain the lateral crane loadings. These forces are usually concentrated on one bent. Therefore, normal good practice dictates that adjoining bents share in the distribution. Most effective is a system of X bracing located in the plane of the bottom chords of the roof trusses.
In addition, the bottom chords should be investigated for possible compression, although the chords normally are tension members. A heavily loaded crane is act to draw the columns together, conceivably exerting a greater compression stress than the tension stress obtainable under dead load alone. This may indicate the need for intermediate bracing of the bottom chord.