This paper describes the development of a reliability-based optimum design technique for such three dimensional tubular frames as off shore structures. The objective function is formulated for the structural weight. Constraints that probability of failure for the critical sections does not exceed the allowable probability of failure are set up. In the evaluation of the probability of failure, fatigue as well as buckling and plasticity failure are taken into account and the mean-value first-order second-moment method(MVFOSM) is applied for its calculation. In order to reduce the computing time required for the repeated structural analysis in the optimization process, reanalysis method is also applied. Application to two and three dimensional simple frame structures is performed. The influence of material properties, external forces, allowable failure probabilities and interaction between external forces on the optimum design is investigated.