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Current design of cold-formed steel members is unduly complicated. Part of this complication arises from the need to perform elastic buckling calculations by hand. Also, complications occur in determining the effective width and resulting effective properties of members. Further, as cross-sections become more optimized (e.g., through the introduction of longitudinal stiffeners) both the elastic buckling and effective width calculations become markedly more complex. In order to investigate alternatives to current design a large amount of experimental data on flexural members of varying geometry is collected. The use of numerical elastic buckling solutions for the entire member, is investigated as an alternative to current practice. Employing curves on the entire member, similar to the effective width curves for an element, it is found that a strength approach is a reliable alternative to current design. Such an approach leads to complete flexibility in cross-section geometry, thus greatly increasing the ability to optimize cold-formed steel members. Conservative limitations of the direct approach are also addressed.