topic Tapered Beams in Libraries & objects

Tapered Beams

Andy Thomson — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:02:00 GMT

Can anyone instruct me as how to add a parameter that will allow the tapering of one end of a beam? (ie. bottom chord slopes upwards, top stays static/horizontal)

I am especially interested in applying this to the 'Z Section Beam 11.gsm' object. I see there are many options for the inclined beam object, that are not available for other profiles (like the Z).

Or better yet - would anyone be 'inclined' to add a couple more profiles to this object? Such as box-tube section, Z and C and Lipped C? Then we could just throw out all those other objects! This appears to be a very neat and tidy object.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Tapered Beams

__archiben — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 04:52:35 GMT

andyro wrote:
Or better yet - would anyone be 'inclined' to add a couple more profiles to this object? Such as box-tube section, Z and C and Lipped C? Then we could just throw out all those other objects! This appears to be a very neat and tidy object.

hi andy

which object is that to begin with . . . i would imagine it's easier to add profiles to the tapered one than to taper a non-tapered object. if you let me know where to find that object i'll have a look over the weekend . . .

ben

Re: Tapered Beams

__archiben — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:00:27 GMT

ah! that will teach me to read too fast: the inclined beam.

just looking at the script, it looks as though it calls a steel macro called 'I Beam Slope' for as many times as you have different sized regions in your beam - passing the size parameters to it as it goes.

try opening that macro and see if you can reverse engineer it for different profile shapes using the standard profile shapes as a reference . . .

then you will have to find some way of assembling it into a beam you need. i will have a look over the weekend, but i'm pretty flat out at the moment . . .

ben

Re: Tapered Beams

Rob — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:03:02 GMT

...bad news I have checked the inclined beam macro (I-beam macro) and the definition of the beam is not done parametrically in terms of section shape type.
it's hard coded just for that type of section (and using SEO group commands inside).
I would recommend SWEEP or TUBE commands to do such stuff.