AC 20 - Modelling steel

[Anonymous]

What are the best options for modelling steel please?

Beams and columns are fairly straightforward as far as I can see but my query primarily relates to the connections and details such as haunches.

[Erwin Edel]

Beams and collumns are limited in how they connect.

The object library has most of the steel profiles you'd need and offers a (bit confusing at times) way to cut the ends at different angles. You can also have the beams at an angle, however you cannot rotate the profile and the beam both.

You'd have to model the small details with other tools. I quite like the roof tool for having a lot of control over the floor plan display options.

That said, I generally do not model in this level of detail.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Erwin.

Could you point me in the direction of how to cut beam/column ends please?

[Erwin Edel]

The objects allow you to set angles for the cut ends.

With beam and collumn tool you will have to use Solid Element Operations to cut the ends at different angles. You will probably need to draw operators and put them on a hidden SEO layer. I would use 0 thickness single plane roofs as operators.

The object database is quite complete though, and you have a more control over floor plan symbol too.

There is a 3rd and 4th option for making steel portals, there is a Trussmaker addon that makes objects where you can define basic steel shapes. It is a bit old and crude. It is found under Design > Design Extras > Trussmaker.

You can also make creative use of the curtain wall tool by saving out the steel profile sections as curtain wall frame profiles, hiding panels and frames where needed to make the portal.

Personally I use the steel objects, I find that they offer the most control. If your rotation angles are 'neat' round numbers, it is easy enough to figure out the cut angles and fill out those fields in the objects settings.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Erwin.

I can see truss maker coming in very handy thank you. Different colours for different steel profiles/sizes should give me the flexibility I need.

Thanks also for highlighting the objects that are available, I didn't even think to look for steel frames etc

[Steve Jepson]

thompsonmp wrote:
What are the best options for modelling steel please?

Beams and columns are fairly straightforward as far as I can see but my query primarily relates to the connections and details such as haunches.

That is an interesting thing to model because anytime steel frames like that are used, they are Engineered. And when they are Engineered, it is usually with Engineering Software for the sake of structural evaluations, so there are probably already Shop Drawings for it somewhere. Just not a 3D model of it?
So are you modeling this per steel shop drawings? or is this for modeling an initial concept that will be used in the process of engineering the final solution?

https://www.steelconstruction.info/Concept_design#Single_storey_buildings