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How to create combined cross-sections
Creating Combined Cross-sections in Tekla Structures is easy but because many
of us are so used to the ‘part add’ feature, this functionality has not been
commonly used. Using this feature, you can create parts that consist of two or
more different cross sections.
In order for this to work, the number of points to be used in cross-sections
must match; otherwise it would be impossible to combine.
Rey Ople
picture 1
The picture (picture 1) on the right illustrates end cross sections of a part. After
defining the cross sections (say cross1 & cross2) you can then add/create a
profile in the catalog to join them together.
I’ve listed the steps below using Version 14.0.
1.
Add profile in the catalog (Modeling > Profiles > Profile Catalog). Right-click in Modify
Profile Catalog dialog and select Add profile. Modify the profile as shown below;
Profile name: (say) COMBINED CROSS SECTION
Profile type: User-defined, fixed
Profile subtype: cross1 (select from drop list)
Equivalent type: Rectangular hollow sections or U profiles
2.
Click Update
3.
Add the second cross section to the profile by clicking “Add” button in the Select Profile
dialog box. Cross section number should now be 2 as shown in picture 2.
picture 2
Profile name: COMBINED CROSS SECTION
Profile type: User-defined, fixed
Profile subtype: cross2 (select from drop list)
Equivalent type: Rectangular hollow sections or U profiles.
Click Update > OK then OK to confirm/save changes to the model.
picture 3
The Relative location of the cross sections is 0.00 and 1.00 respectively. If a third cross section
is to be added, the Relative location of the middle should be in between these two values, e.g.,
0.500, 0.700, etc. Also, if the cross sections are to be in a specific location, then cross sections
need to be defined in such order.
cross1=0.00
cross2=0.50
cross3=1.00
4.
Apply the profile.
If the steps were followed correctly then you will see in your model something similar to Picture
3.
Try it and have fun! For more information about this functionality, or to send your comments,
please email [email protected].
ConneXion - October 2008
Contributors: Ewen Dobbie, Arvin Eugenio, Rey Ople, Tero Laine, Tom Knight, Dave Berryman Editor: Ewen Dobbie
Art & Design: Thomas Cetnarowski - [email protected]: Tel. 604.629.6085
The Dowco Technology Services Technical Support Team: Tero Laine – [email protected], Tom Knight – [email protected],
Ted Yuen – [email protected], Rey Ople – [email protected], Dave Berryman - [email protected],
Abdelmalik El Ouahabi - [email protected]
Tekla Structures Sales Team: Ontario – [email protected]; 905.565.9030
Quebec: Christine Boutet – [email protected]; 519.910.9046
Rest of Canada: Ewen Dobbie - [email protected]; Tel 604.606.5802 I Arvin Eugenio – [email protected]; Tel 604.629.6087
Toll Free Number – 1.866.77.DOWCO (1.866.773.6926) ext 1 (SALES), ext 2 (Tech Support)
Administrative Assistant: Dorothy Smith – [email protected]; Tel. 604.606.5800 ext 5512
Accounting: Judy Beckett – [email protected]; Tel. 604.606.5810
Dowco Technology Services Ltd. is a member of Dowco Group of Companies and is located at : 201, 5660 192 Street, Surrey, BC V3S 2V7
Visit the [email protected] Copyright 2008, Dowco Technology Services Ltd.
Tekla Structures, India Software Sales: ’Underway’
Fall Greetings! A lot has been going on
with Dowco and many of you have been
aware of recent developments
particularly in regards to Fabtrol and our
recent software sales expansion in our
India Office. Ewen has a summary of
events ongoing in this issue of
ConneXion and Rob Forester, Fabtrol’s
Arvin Eugenio
National Sales Manager, has a brief
operations update on this page.
We have now finalized discussions with Tekla (owners and developers
of Tekla Structures software) and have an Agreement for our Tekla
Structures 3D Modeling Software sales, training, and specialized
services division to expand their territory to now also include India.
We will now be proceeding with the establishment of a Dowco branded
“Integrated Construction and Technology Solutions Centre’
concept in India. This centre of excellence in services and product
offerings represents a significant opportunity as the potential for local
business is tremendous. The Indian economy has been growing at a
Ewen Dobbie
rate of 10%+ for the last few years and the country continues to attract
President
billions of dollars in investments…most of which is being spent on
construction of facilities and infrastructure which are directly
‘mainstream activities’ of DowcoMax (steel detailing, Tekla Software sales). Thus modern
technologies (software sales/support and related services) in the construction industry,
namely, 3D modelling/drafting/design/analysis/detailing/fabrication management, represents
a tremendous business opportunity.
Tero has elaborated a few vignettes which is always a
worthy read while Tom’s article may answer many
questions on using 64bit Technology and gives an intro
to Tekla Structures 15.0. Don’t forget to browse through
Rey’s article on Page 4 on ‘Creating Combined CrossSections’.
Also by this time, some of you have already returned
your hardware locks and have received your FLEXnet
entitlements for your licenses. A recent addition to our
team, Dave Berryman, has an article on Page 2 which
has quite a bit more information on these types of
licenses which I’m sure many of you would find useful.
Check Profile and make sure Profile subtype is correct.
Note:
Foreword
We are also happy to announce the addition of
Abdelmalik ‘Abdel’ El Ouahabi to our Tekla Structures
Support Team. Fluent in both English and French, Abdel
is based out of our Laval office in Quebec and will be
supporting many of our customers on the East Coast as
well as perform Tekla Structures Training in French at
that office.
With our recent acquisition of Fabtrol and their subsequent plans to establish a global
reseller model, DowcoMax will also be among the first authorized resellers. We are excited
to be introducing much-needed Fabtrol products to the Indian marketplace.
Our goal will be to provide the Indian Steel industry with an enterprise-wide solution,
offering services ranging from engineering to detailing, software solutions in Tekla
Structures and Fabtrol, and also the necessary implementation and training services.
DowcoMax CEO, Jyoti Chatterjee, and his HR team have been working feverishly over the
last few months to recruit and hire the necessary staff to meet our business objectives.
Special thanks to Räty Risto, Executive Vice President at Tekla Corporation for his continued
support and belief in Dowco.
Tekla Structures Drafter & Project Manager Changes
To better support junior detailers tasked with basic drawing cleanup, the
Tekla Structures Drafter functionality will be receiving a facelift. Available
only on future versions of Tekla Structures starting from 14.1, Users can
now modify drawings from the main level, including e.g. drawing layout
changes. The ability to update drawings has also been added, making the
Drafter more powerful especially when working with multi-drawings.
The added functionality also meant an increase on the list price from
$6,500.00cad to $9,600.00cad per license. Correspondingly, the annual
maintenance and support fees have been increased from $1,300.00cad to
Tero Laine
$1,960.00cad* per license. This change in pricing takes effect when Tekla
Structures 14.1 Final is released early November. Users owning existing Drafter licenses do
not have to pay the difference in license pricing except for the slight increase in the maintenance
per license costs.
Tekla has also improved the Project Manager configuration. In order to support the normal
work process of e.g. shop managers, a Project Manager configuration will now be able to:
- Modify and create phases
- Create NC files
- Import XML files from Fabtrol for status information
- Creating MIS exports (already available in previous versions)
We think these added features will make Project Management Configuration the right tool for
all project managers!
* no adjustments in maintenance fees for 2008 for existing Tekla Structures Drafter owners increase in the maintenance and support fees will be in effect in 2009. Price increase for
License and Maintenance fees for new purchases for this configuration are effective
immediately.
FabTrol Systems, Inc.
Proud new member of the
Dowco Group of Companies
All of us at FabTrol Systems are excited
to now be part of the Dowco family.
Rob Forester
Our flagship fabrication management
software solution, FabTrol MRP, currently
has an install base including 22 countries.
With the synergies of Dowco/FabTrol, we
are building a reseller foundation that will
allow us to enter new markets that have
traditionally been difficult to service and
support due to time zone differences.
The steel industry’s growing commitment to BIM, modelbased estimating, and other application data exchange
initiatives provide perfect opportunities for our companies
to leverage resources to positively impact our customers
and the industry as a whole.
FLEXnet Licensing lets you Flex your muscles!
FLEXnet Licensing lets you Flex your
muscles!
The day of the hardware-based licensing system is
rapidly coming to an end at Tekla. With the release of
version 14.0 (which is completely FLEXnet enabled)
many customers are now seeing the benefits of
switching over. No longer are you bound to a hardware
key. FLEXnet gives you the freedom you need in
Dave Berryman
today’s rapidly changing work environment. The
benefits include the ability to setup many stations with
several different versions of the software which can access a “pool” of one
or more licenses on the LAN server. Being able to borrow a license is also
a new concept. Now you can easily loan out a license for up to 30 days or
take one home for the weekend. If a borrowed license expires it simply
becomes available again on the original computer.
Here are some simplified instructions to give you an idea of the processes
involved with installing FLEXnet. There are essentially 2 main types of license
installations: Stand-alone and File Server.
License Server installed on a standalone computer
for one user:
download using the following service releases: 12.0 uses SR6, 12.1 uses
SR3, 13.0 uses SR7. Keep in mind that FLEXnet does not alter your model
in any way. By upgrading to a higher service release you get all the fixes
available before you may run into problems.
After upgrading your 12 or 13 versions:
· Edit the user.bat file if the license was installed on a server
· Add as a second line,after line “@echo off”:
set XS_LICENSE_SERVER_HOST=27000@myservername
· Activate the temporary entitlement with the Tekla Licensing
Administration Tool and run LMTools
License Administration Tool (LAT)
· Is always installed and run on the computer that hosts the
entitlement certificate (license)
LMTools
· is installed when you install the license server (LAT)
· is always run from the computer that hosts the entitlement certificate
· can be used to start and stop the license sever too
correct some problems that may occur
· can be run from a work station computer to give a Status Inquiry
about the server’s license usage
· can be run to determine if you have used the correct server
name and other diagnostics
Determining your Server Name
Server Address
The quickest way to determine the name of the server is to
· log onto the server and click the Windows START menu
· right-click on MY COMPUTER >> Properties
· In the popup you’ll see the COMPUTER NAME tab
· Open this to view the full computer name
· when you type in the server address at startup (ver 14) this
information is saved to system registry, not to a file
· therefore, in version 14 the user.ini is not edited
for the XS_LICENSE_SERVER_HOST path
· The usual address formats are
27000@myservername
(27000 is the default TCP/IP port
number for the license service)
@myservername, @ipaddress or
@myserver_ipaddress
Releasing Dongle keys is always a concern because you may still work
with models that are based on version 12.0 and 13.0 which were not FLEXnet
capable. Versions 12 and 13 can all be upgraded to FLEXnet with a simple
FLEXnet-Enabled Tekla Structures
Versions will work on 64bit
Windows operating systems, but
are run in 32bit mode. Using a 64bit operating system enables the
handling of bigger models also
while using current 32bit versions
of Tekla Structures. Tekla
Structures can however, use up to
4GB of processing memory and
Tom Knight
running two simultaneous sessions
will equally utilize 4GB each
(because the 64bit operating
system can use upper areas of the memory). This is
of course possible, provided that users are running
more than 4GB RAM on their machines.
Templates and reports created with Template Editor
version 2.20 will however, not work in Tekla Structures
15.0 due to the 64bit environment. Therefore, the old
reports and templates need to be converted to the new
format in Template Editor 3.31. The conversion
procedure is same for textual (reports) and graphical
(templates) files.
Tekla.lic
License Server installed on a file server to serve
several users:
64bit Tekla Structures and templates
done with older versions
Tekla Structures 15, which will be released in 2009,
will now be able to run in 64bit mode. This enables
Users to manage considerably bigger models than in
previous versions, so long as 64bit operating systems
are used.
Some basic facts about FLEXnet:
· Install Tekla 14.0 or 14.1 the License Server software
(from the CD or download it)
· This creates a folder called C:\TeklaStructures\License\Server·
You will receive a file called the EntitlementCertificate.html in your email
· Copy the EntitlementCertificate.html to the
C:\TeklaStructures\License\Server folder
· Run the Tekla License Administration Tool from your START menu
· Run LMTools and reread the license file (must be done only once)
· Open Tekla
Switching to FLEXnet
Users can now filter items shown in the default attribute list in Tekla Structures
14.0.
This
can
be
done
with
Advanced
Option
XS_ATTRIBUTE_FILE_EXCLUDE_LIST. You can find this from Advanced
Options
->
File
locations.
For
example,
using
‘XS_ATTRIBUTE_FILE_EXCLUDE_LIST=PC_;Precast;CipH;Field;Cip_;IFC_’,
Tero Laine
the saved attributes files with “PC_”, “Precast”, “CipH”, “Field”, “Cip_” or
“IFC_” in them will not be visible.
The picture below then shows how the default US Imperial AutoDrawings (formerly known as
Drawing Wizard) dialog content is cut down from items you need not see when working in steel
detailing projects.
After you return your dongle key(s) to Dowco Technologies we will send a
permanent entitlement file or may continue to send you temporary monthly
entitlements depending on your account. Prior to installing successive
entitlement files you must deactivate the previous temporary entitlement
and then copy over and activate the permanent one.
· is always located on the computer where you installed the
Tekla Structures License Server package
· is always modified (if needed) on server computer
· must be modified if you use a separate license server
with work stations connected to it
· is never modified on client computers (as they are obtaining
the licenses from the separate server machine)
· does not necessarily need to be modified if you run server
locally on your TS workstation
· modifications are not related to TS versions – same tekla.lic
serves all the FLEXenabled TS versions
· Install the License Server software at the file server (or download it)
· Edit the Tekla.lic file to indicate the server name
(this is most critical step)
· Copy an Entitlement file to your file server hard drive
(you’ll receive it in an email)
· Run the Tekla License Administration Tool at the file server from
your START menu
· Run LMTools from the file server and reread the license file
(done only once)
· Open Tekla at the work station and enter the file server
name 27000@myservername
Filtering unwanted Attribute Files
Out of User Interface
US Recommended connections
Because Tekla Structures comes with a large
set of custom components, finding the best
components from this group is sometimes
difficult with the ‘Component Catalog’, not to
mention the trouble of using old connection
toolbars!
Tekla has added a nice help for detailers into
14.0 localization, a set of components which are
typically used in North American jobs. Users can
find them easily in new models by typing
“recommended” to the Component Catalog
search field, and a nice set of basic components
for typical U.S. projects will be available.
This information is stored in the
‘ComponentCatalog.txt’
file
in
the
C:\TeklaStructures\14.0\environments\usimp\system
folder. Copying this file to the system folders of
previous versions will also work.
Incorrect PIPE Profile Wall Thicknesses in US Imperial Catalog’
Tekla Structures 13.1 and 14.0 US Imperial profile catalog has one error you should note: the
wall thicknesses of EDI compliant pipe profiles are double what they should be. In the example
below, the right wall thickness would be 1/2" untitled.PNG If you have a profile catalog using
these incorrect values, you can request a file from support which fixes the problem. The US
Imperial environment default profile catalog will be fixed to Tekla Structures 14.1.
There are two ways to convert the reports and
templates: one at a time or converting the whole report/
template folder at once. In both cases the converted
files often need some editing work before they can be
used. The amount of work needed depends upon the
structure and complexity of the reports and templates.
Simple templates convert automatically most of the
time; complicated ones take several hours of work to
finalize. It is recommended to get familiar with the new
editor before starting the template conversions. Users
will notice that it will take only minutes to create
templates from scratch once they get comfortable with
it (we’ve noted that the new Template Editor by the
way is considerably easier to use than the old one) .
Many users who have started to use the new version
have experienced the added versatility as well as the
ability to add more functionality into their templates.
Tekla has released a special template conversion
tutorial, which covers typical use cases and addresses
some problems users run into after switching to new
Template Editor. For more information on this, please
visit
the
Tekla
Extranet
or
email
[email protected].