Hi

Starting to use simulation for a shelf, and have a question about the external loads: what would be better to use,force, remote load, or distributed mass; the force seems to be more straightforward to understand (at least to me), same could be for distributed mass, whereas remote load is a bit more confusing.

Which one would you use for a simple shelf, imagine two brackets on which a straight piece is sitting (no bonding between them).

The load could be anything, i.e. books, or relatively heavy tools/objects.

Does the force mean that on each given point of the shelf there is such a load?

I am not an engineer so please be patient.

Thank you