The material catalog contains information on material grades.
Materials are displayed in a hierarchical tree, grouped according to material, e.g. steel and concrete.
Topics Viewing or modifying the material catalog (p. 130)
Adding a user-defined attribute to a material grade (p. 131) Adding a material type (p. 132)
Adding a new material grade (p. 132) Deleting a material grade (p. 133)
Defining your own symbols for materials (p. 133) Export and import (p. 134)
Viewing or modifying the material catalog
Option What happens
Replace The current profile is deleted, the profile in the file being imported is added.
Merge Profile properties that are different in the file being imported are added to the existing profile, all the other properties remain unchanged.
Use this option to import only certain attributes of profiles.
Leave The existing profile is not replaced and the definition in the import file is ignored.
The merge option is a very useful one if you want to import certain elements of the catalog. For example, you could use it to import only the user-defined attributes of a profile.
1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog to view the Modify material catalog dialog box.
2. Click an existing material to view or modify its properties.
Information on materials is contained on four tabs in the Modify material catalog dialog box.
General tab The General tab has fields for three alternative names (or aliases) for the material. These are usually the material names used in different countries or standards. It also contains the profile and plate density values.
Analysis tab The Analysis tab has information on the properties used in structural analysis. The structure is analyzed using the Finite Element Method.
Design tab The Design tab has information on design-specific properties such as strengths, partial safety factors, etc. Click the correct design code in the Design code list box:
User attributes tab
In addition to general and analysis properties, you can also create your own attributes for material grades. For instance, you might specify paint layer thickness, or the maximum grain size of concrete using a user-defined attribute.
Adding a user-defined attribute to a material grade
To add a user-defined attribute to a material grade:
1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog... to open the Modify Material Catalog dialog box.
2. Click Definitions on the User attributes tab to open the Modify profile properties dialog box.
3. Click Add to add a user-defined attribute.
4. Click the text under each heading and use the list box to define each attribute.
The following fields can be used:
Units of measure
Set units of measure for both input and output using Tools > Options > Options... > Units and decimals.
Adding a material type
If the tree does not contain the material type you need, you can add material types.
1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog... to display the Modify Material Catalog dialog box.
2. Click a material (e.g. steel) and right-click to access the pop-up menu.
3. Click Add material.
4. Enter the material properties in the Add material dialog box.
5. Click OK to save the material grade and exit the Modify material catalog dialog box.
6. Click OK in the save confirmation dialog box to save the changes to the catalog.
Adding a new material grade
The simplest way to create a new material grade is by modifying a copy of an existing, similar one.
Steps 1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog...to display the Modify material catalog dialog box.
2. Click a material grade similar to the one you wish to create, right-click.
3. Click Copy grade.
4. Change the Material name.
5. Modify the material grade properties.
6. Click OK to save the material grade and exit the Modify material catalog dialog box.
Field Comment
Category The material category to which the user-defined attribute will be applied.
Design code The design code it comes under.
Material type
Quantity type The type of information the user-defined attribute will contain, e.g. weight, area, ratio, string.
Order The order in which user-defined attributes are shown in the dialog box. Smaller values are shown first.
Property name This field is saved in the catalog and can be used in reports and templates.
When this field is used in a template
MATE-RIAL.PROPERTY_NAME indicates where the property name will appear.
Label The property name is translated to the label in various circumstances.
Steps 1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog...to display the Modify material catalog dialog box.
2. Click a material type (e.g. steel), right-click to access the pop-up menu. Click Add grade. 3. Change the material grade name in the Selected grade field.
4. Enter the material grade properties.
5. Click OK to save the material grade and exit the Modify material catalog dialog box.
6. Click OK in the save confirmation dialog box to save the changes to the catalog.
Deleting a material grade
To delete a material grade from the catalog:
1. Click Modeling > Material Catalog... to display the Modify Material Catalog dialog box.
2. Click a material, right-click to access the pop-up menu. Click Delete grade. 3. Click OK to exit the Modify material catalog dialog box.
4. Click OK in the save confirmation dialog box to save the changes to the catalog.
Defining your own symbols for materials
You can replace existing material definitions with your own, which will then be displayed in drawings.
Material definitions can contain text, numbers and symbols.
Where are material definitions stored?
User-defined material definitions are stored in the file defined by the variable XS_MATERIAL_SYMBOL_REPRESENTATION_FILE.
The suggested filename is material_symbol_table.txt. This file does not exist until you create it.
Once this file is created and set for use in the Advanced options dialog box, Drawing properties category, using the variable XS_MATERIAL_SYMBOL_REPRESENTATION_FILE, all the named materials in the catalog will be replaced with the ones defined in this file.
Each line of the file defines a material, using the syntax:
Material_name symbol_file.sym @ n Syntax of the
material file
For more on saving the catalog, read Saving a modified catalog (p. 116).
Value Description
material_name The name of the material used in the material catalog.
symbol_file The file name of the symbol to be used. This must have the suffix .sym. There is an example of a user-defined symbol at the end of this section.
n The symbol number. This number is also displayed in the Symbol Editor.
Example SM400A ud_mat.sym @ 13 A SM400B ud_mat.sym @ 13 B SM490 ud_mat.sym @ 11
This is an example of a user-defined symbol:
Export and import
The export and import process is the same as for the profile catalog, which is described in Merging profile catalogs (p. 128).