Traditional steel frame design usually involves a structural analysis (i.e. first or second order elastic analysis) to determine design forces and moments. Subsequently, the members stability is assessed through individual member checks and a cross-section classification establishes the deformation capacity of the cross-sections. Beam finite element (FE) models are widely used for structural design because they are computationally efficient. However, their limitation is that they cannot capture local buckling. For this reason, an advanced inelastic analysis using beam FE models with the continuous strength method (CSM) has been developed for the design of steel structures (Fieber, Gardner & Macorini, 2020). To capture cross-section failure, the analysis requires the use of the CSM strain limits, which are applied along a characteristic length of the steel member to consider the beneficial effects from the local moment gradients.