Curved beam
A curved beam is a beam which runs through 3 points. The dialog box corre-sponds with the Beam properties dialog box. The radius of the beam is automat-ically calculated on the basis of the 3 picked points.
Polybeam
A polybeam is a profile which runs through several points.
In addition, each bend has a handle. The purpose of this handle is to add a cham-fer to a curved segment. After double-clicking the handle, the dialog box Cham-fer properties appears. In here you can set the size and the shape of the chamCham-fer.
NC files While modeling polybeams, always model the polybeams a little bit shorter (1), to fit them afterwards or to connect them by using a component (2):
Only in this way you will have the correct information in the NC files.
See also For more information, see Chamfer (p. 72).
It is not possible to generate NC-files of curved beams. Use polybeams instead.
Do not enter any values for the radius or the number of seg-ments in the polybeam properties, it will effect the output in a negative way! For curved beams you can enter values for the radius or the number of segments.
1
2
First, a number of points have to be placed. The open end of the beam is always that end between the penultimate picked point and the last picked point (is start point). Also Folded plates have to be modelled as polybeam.
The shape of a folded plate can be changed by selecting and moving the chamfer-symbol. This can be done with the Move > Translate command or with Drag and Drop.
See also For more information, see Moving start- and endpoints (p. 29).
Orthogonal beam
Typical for Orthogonal beams is that the profile always is placed perpendicular to the work plane. The dialog box corresponds with the Column dialog box.
Twin profile
With the Twin Profile command two parallel profiles can be created. The dialog box corresponds mostly with the Beam properties dialog box, the only difference is that in the Position tab a frame is added in which the mutual position can be set, see image below:
Pick at least 3 points you want the beam to go through and dou-ble-click the end point, or click the middle mouse button to fin-ish picking
Contour plate
Contour plates are free-form shaped plates. The shape is determined by the points that are picked. In the profile notation, only the thickness of the plate may be defined (e.g. PL20); the shape is determined by the picked points.
Contour plate
orientation You can set the contour plate main axis to follow the line created by the first and second points you pick. This enables you to manually define the plate orientation in drawings or reports.
To define the contour plate orientation with first and second picked points:
1. Create the contour plate. The first and second points you pick also define the plate’s main axis
2. Double-click the plate to open the Contour plate properties dialog box 3. Click User-defined-attributes and go to the Orientation tab
4. Select From 1st to 2nd point in the Main axis direction list box 5. Click Modify, and close the dialog box
6. Click Tools > Numbering > Modified to update numbering
7. To view the orientation of the plate, create a single-part drawing of the plate.
In the model
In the drawing
First and second creation point 1
2
From 1st to 2nd point Automatic
Adding a corner Adding a corner to a contour plate goes as follows:
1. Select the contour plate 2. Go to Edit > Polygon shape 3. Pick the corner positions (1 - 2 - 3)
Removing a corner
Removing a contour plate corner goes as follows:
1. Select the contour plate 2. Go to Edit > Polygon shape 3. Pick the corner positions (1 - 2) 4. Pick the corner to be removed (3)
1
2 3
1
3 2
Modeling gratings and non-slip profiled plates
Gratings and non-slip profiled plates, created as a plate or as a contour plate in Tekla Structures, always get the same numbers. This, because plate top and bot-tom sides don’t differ. Whereas you want different numbers for gratings and non-slip profiled plates.
Example Gratings created as plates:
To differ gratings in numbers, you can select the setting GRATING in the dialog box Beam properties:
R1 GRATING R1 GRATING
A parametric profile is used. On one side this profile contains a (small) facet. The number of the mirrored profile differs from the original profile number. The facet is now located on the other side.
In case you are modeling gratings, the value for the chamfer (the value c) is set to 2 by default. However, this value can be left out.
R1 GRATING R2 GRATING
You also have the possibility to create a grating in reality. For this, you can use component Generation of profiles (48).
This component contains the setting "grating". Load the setting and pick 3 points:
Weld all profiles or even better, put together all profiles!
Custom component Grating_dejo
You can also import custom component Grating_dejo. After that, the custom component is available in all new models directly:
1. In the Windows Explorer, go to the folder
...europe\custom-components\std and extract the file Grating_dejo.zip, both *.uel file and accompanying component setting(s)
2. Start Tekla Structures and create a new model
3. Click icon Find a component in the Components-toolbar, or use shortkey
<Ctrl + F> to open dialog Components catalog and set the picklist to Custom to display the Custom components
4. Double-click GRATING_DEJO, the custom component and the settings are now available:
Gratings and non-slipped profiled plates in drawings
To represent gratings and non-slip profiled plates in drawings more clear, you can make use of surface treatments. First, model the gratings and non-slip pro-filed plates as described above.
Step plan 1. In the Surface treatment properties, select the type Special mix, for Surface treatment name, select one of the following hatches:
2. Add one or more surface treatments
3. The surface treatment will be represented as follows in the drawing:
See also For more information about surface treatments, see Tekla Structures.pdf in the folder disc:\TeklaStructures\version\environments\europe\pdf.
A-ANSI31 B-ANSI37 C-DELTA
D-AR-CONC E-SOLID F-RASTER
Profiles in drawings
Profiles are placed on drawings according to their orientation in the model.
Example It may happen that a beam with some purlin stubs will be displayed upside down on the drawing, i.e. with the stubs are displayed at the bottom of the beam.
The reason is the orientation of the primary part (the beam). To correct this, change the Rotation of the beam 180 degrees.
You can prevent this by setting the component 1011 (U stub) to the direction AUTO. When you now generate this component in the model and the profile is orientated upside down, the stub will be generated at the bottom of the profile.
Example For I- and UNP-section profiles, it is easy to determine the rotation of the profile.
For tubes this is more difficult. It is handy to change the profile temporary to a rectangular hollow section profile. To do this, just change the notation of the pro-file from PD or TUBE to RHS.
An other work around for this problem is to set the component direction to AUTO.
Drawing Model
Hide parts
You can quickly hide selected parts from a view. For example, you could use this feature in complex connections, to temporarily hide parts in order to see the parts behind them:
1. Select the parts to hide 2. Right-click and select Hide
The selected part is now invisible, by default, Hide changes parts into sticks.
To make parts visible, use the command Window > Redraw all or right-click the sticks and select Exact lines.
Create a reference model
In Tekla Structures, reference models can be inserted, they serve as help (refer-ence) to model the structure. To insert a reference model, double-click the icon opposite. The following dialog box will appear:
To completely hide parts, combine the <Shift> key with the Hide command.
File name You can now select the reference model, for this click on the button <Browse>
Scale The value you enter for the scale, depends on how this DWG or DXF file is cre-ated in AutoCAD.
In the most cases those DWG or DXF files are not saved with a dedicated unit such as mm or meters so Tekla Structures will not define any units.
Instead of finding the correct scaling afterwards it will be of help to set the unit in the DWG or DXF file directly in AutoCAD. For this, in AutoCAD go to Format
> Units:
Now specify in the dialog box Drawing Units the unit in the list box Units to scale inserted content:
With this the unit is defined while storing a DWG or DXF file, the unit will be recognized in Tekla Structures and the reference model will be scaled correctly.
XML files You can use DWG or DXF and also DGN (Microstation) files. You can also use webviewer models which are created in XML format.
Example An existing model needs an addition, in this case an awning. First, save the existing model as a Webmodel. To do this, go to File > Publish as Web page...
In the model folder, in sub folder ..\PublicWeb, the file Model.xml is stored. This file will be used as a reference model.
Now delete all models from the current model and add the file Model.xml as a reference model.
To be able to select a complete reference model, activate switch Select compo-nents, to select the reference model at the highest level.
To switch on or off one or more layers in the used reference model, make use of the button Select layers....
Reference models will keep the size of Tekla Structures model files relatively small, because the reference file(s) are considered as single objects. It is possible to snap to vertexes from the reference model.
If there are several reference models in the Tekla Structures model, it can be use-ful to hide the reference models separately.
This can be done in dialog box Reference models. To open this dialog box, go to File > Reference models. The dialog box below will appear:
When selecting a line in this dialog box, the corresponding reference model will Modeled
awning Hall as a reference model
The visibility of several reference models can be set in column Visibility. By pressing the current setting in column Visibility, a list box will show up.
The options are Visible and Hidden.
If Tekla Structures is restarted, the reference model shall be invisible initially. To display this reference model again, check the option Reference model in View Properties > Display.
The displayed text in columns Description, Name and Info text in the dialog box above, can be entered in the User Defined Attributes of the reference model.
Updating reference models
You can easily update the reference models in your model in case there have been changes in the original reference models after you have brought them into Tekla Structures. To update all reference models:
• Click File > Reference models...
• Click <Reload all>.
Tekla Structures will go through all the reference models and re-generates the reference models having newer modified date.
Handling large reference models
Snapping to reference models
While snapping to high detailed, large reference models it may happen that a large number of snap points is found. This may result in a delay.
In such cases, it is advisable to switch off the select switches which are not necessary at that moment. For example, if an endpoint has to be found, it may be useful to switch off the other select switches.
Split reference models
Split large reference models into smaller ones. Because of that only the parts you need in the model view are represented. This of course effects the speed.
Delete a reference model
To delete a reference model you open the dialog box Reference models by File
> Reference models... Now select the model and click the icon Delete, or select the model in the model and click Delete or click <Delete> on the keyboard.
It affects picking speed, because one dgn file is one solid object and it takes time to find correct picking point.