Structural steel sections & profile manager

[Anonymous]

Assuming that I'd get a chance to test ArchiCAD in a project... (Been only looking at the demo for a few hours and it looks quite appealing, I must say.)

How does one - in real world - (i) create and (ii) manage even a modest selection of steel sections? Is there something in the profile manager I don't get?

I mean: if I have the standard hot rolled sections from channels to IPE & HE A/B/C, stock sizes of RHS, SHS and RHS etc., is there an efficient way to store & select sizes? Can the profile be a parametric object?

[Anonymous]

Craig wrote:
This guy obviously has nothing better to do with his time than to moan and post reply after reply about how he can't get his columns to work.

At the moment, I don't. I am considering ArchiCAD as the vehicle for my next project. At present it appears - despite the enormously useful contributions of Messrs. Waltz, Worden & Djordje - that certain essential aspects of it cannot be delivered with ArchiCAD.

Since I can't Save or Export anything, without paying 8000 €, I can't test how it would go. Now, the project is big enough to pay for an ArchiCAD licence or two, but I'm still not rich enough to buy them if the software can't deliver. Especially as I'm still in negotiation stage.

I gather the said Messrs. have no fiscal or financial responsibilities and can just go around burning someone else's money. I can't. Maybe they do not have professional standards to adhere to. I have.

[Anonymous]

~/archiben wrote:
ok. i see what you're saying. that is kind of true, but only takes a minute to fix:

Well, without paying the King's Ransom, I can't save anything. I can indeed follow your thinking - makes perfect sense to me - but would need to know how the IF-class is created in the process.

--

It would of course be lovely if the Finnish distributor of ArchiCAD (M.A.D.) knew how to activate the Trial Version. The fact that they do not know does not exactly create confidence. What - should I pay 8000 € just to learn that something cannot be done and/or that the distributor doesn't have a clue?

For my money, Texas Hold'm in an opium den in Shanghai is a much more appealing proposition.

[Dennis Lee]

According to this page, here is a fully functional trial program. Have you tried downloading from here?

https://trialregistration.graphisoft.com/

[Anonymous]

Dennis wrote:
According to this page, here is a fully functional trial program. Have you tried downloading from here?

I think so. Then, when nothing worked, I rang M.A.D. and they obviously are from Barcelona - "we know noothing". (I'm of course referring to Fawlty Towers, not actual Barcelona.)

If the distributor does not know, what is one expected to do?

[Dennis Lee]

Well, if you are not sure enough to say "yes", then I would try to download the trial program again. See if it works or not, and if it doesn't, then you can try to look for answers on how to install the BIM experience kit, etc.

[__archiben]

Petri wrote:
I can indeed follow your thinking - makes perfect sense to me - but would need to know how the IF-class is created in the process.

you're not creating the class - you're simply assigning that object to a specific building element subtype. it is these subtypes that are used by the IFC translation engine when exporting: an element in the Model Element>Building Elements>Column subtype - whether from the basic toolset or object-by-subtype - automatically gets exported to the equivalent IF class.

by the way - the 'trial' version of the software is a new thing with AC11. GS have never provided a trial before - it's always been demo, non-save versions or demonstrations from resellers. that probably explains your resellers not knowing much about it. but you really should make those resellers work for the sale - get them back to prove the concept of IFC export to you. or whatever proof of operations you'll need.

~/archiben

[__archiben]

in fact, since you can't 'Save As...', i've attached one here for you. i may not have dotted all the 'i's or crossed the 't's, but the basics of it are correct:

an inclinable column that belongs to the subtype 'Column' and therefore the IF class "IfcColumn" on export . . .

place it in your archicad 11 library alongside the LCF for best results, (it needs some of the macros and text files in the main library in order to work properly), and then re-load your libraries. (File>Libraries & Objects>Library Manager...)

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Ben!

Thick as a brick - can't get the top & bottom to be cut along the horizontal plane as I can when using the Column tool...

Must be something very simple...

EDIT
I don't want (=can't afford) to model the column/beam joints exactly as they need to be done on the site.

[Anonymous]

~/archiben wrote:
you're not creating the class - you're simply assigning that object to a specific building element subtype.

Of course. I know that. FBOW, IFC is a prescribed system, so at theoretical level, it is not truly object-oriented. In an orthodox & ideal system, the user should be able to define new subclasses that would inherit properties from above. The other user might (and should!) only see what I choose her/him to see, ie. the common level at which our software can operate.

I may classify kitchen cupboards as "IFC Furnishings Type". Fair enough.

Within this classification, a standard cupboard is such-and-such as comes to specifications. Fair enough indeed.

Furthermore, I may wish to specify that the cupboards are of that-and-that manufacture from the phenomenally expensive range, hand-crafted by Italian Princes. Nevertheless, they are dimensionally (etc, especially in the not-at-all-beautiful mind of the Purchasing Clerks of some Chester-Perry Organisation) compatible with those churned out en masse by slave labour in China.

I'd rather not go back and re-classify, instead of letting the resident Bristow to order whatever his boss tells him to order.

[Anonymous]

Rob wrote:
In other words, resolving all joints and mitering manually as oppose to a bit less detailed virtual building showing on GA plans and solving odds and sods in 2D detail.

Sounds sensible to me. (Assuming I get your drift.)

In "traditional" steel construction (simplified view) there are columns and beams, either welded or bolted together, either with or without plates and similar devices. Trying to incorporate all the details and situations in a Comprehensive Model seems to me to be a rather pointless exercise.

There may be beams of different heights supported by columns of different dimensions. The plates (eg) are, in reality, (almost) identical and welded in the same fashion.

Fully prefabricated "assemblies" are another kettle of fish.