Steel W Beam Library Object

joelsdg — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:46:01 GMT

I'm trying to use the Library Packs (LIBPACK) instead of what I think now could be considered the "legacy" Library (LCF). In the old LCF, there used to be objects for various steel shapes, such as a W Beam, that could be custom sized by simply entering the desired height and width, or by picking from a lengthy dropdown list of common American sizes (W8x28, W10x12, W44x335, etc.). This was very valuable to us and helped us build very descriptive models, quickly.

I cannot find these library objects (more specifically the W Beam) in the new LIBPACKS. What I can find, under section 1. BASIC LIBRARY/1.4 Building Structures/Steel Structures/Steel Beams BS is a Universal Beam. And this appears to be what I'm looking for, BUT the units are all metric, as far as I can tell. And the predefined sizes dropdown is much much shorter. If I choose the custom defined option, the properties window opens, but with metric units for Moment, Modulus, etc.

The other common steel shapes also appear to function this way.

I am an Architect and by no means a structural engineer, but these objects were a great time saver for us when we had a house with one or a few steel beams, columns or posts. And it made the model discussion with our structural engineering consultants much more efficient and effective.

Am I missing something? Or has the W Beam object and it's siblings I'm looking for been disappeared?

Thanks for any help,

Joel

Re: Steel W Beam Library Object

Barry Kelly — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 08:23:03 GMT

Have you seen this post?

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Libraries-objects/Who-ate-the-Archicad-Model-Library/m-p/640794

Barry.

Re: Steel W Beam Library Object

joelsdg — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 17:04:21 GMT

Thanks Barry, I think I've found something we can use from that post. Turns out Graphisoft hid a database of custom beam profiles based on the W Beam object I was looking for.
Time will tell if it works just like the old object, but this is worth exploring.

Thanks again for your help,

Joel

topic Re: Steel W Beam Library Object in Libraries & objects

Steel W Beam Library Object

Re: Steel W Beam Library Object

Re: Steel W Beam Library Object