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Structural Shapes


RussU

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Hi Everyone.

I've been keen to get into using the structural member tool, and so far I've picked up a couple of issues, but I might be wrong of course!

Firstly, I'm in the UK and although we have a big list of Universal beams, I can't find any UK universal columns. Have a look at Tata Blue book,

http://tsbluebook.steel-sci.org/EN/Browsers/Main.htm

Go to, advance sections, Advance UKC on the left, and perhaps click axial compression to see the standard steel sizes.... Can't find them in VW2017 (I've got the designer edition)

 

I also use a lot of custom profiles, such as Metsec and Kingspan purlins and side rails and would like to input these custom shapes... In the preview teaser video the gent mentioned that you could put in custom profile details, but I can't find that anywhere!

Is there a csv text file or something where I can add my own custom profiles in? and are the UK Universal columns going to be added, just like the Universal Beams are? It's a bit useless without the ability to use the most important steel shapes

 

Cheers

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 hours ago, zoomer said:

I think there is a little issue with the preview update, the one on top.
I tried wood and it would only show the girder option although I switched to a standard rectangular Beam.

Hi Zoomer,

Not so much a bug as it is an overly generalized graphic for the selected member type. Ideally, these would be live previews of the selected profile. I entered an enhancement request for this.

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Thanks Matt,

yes it looked like a generalized graphic but I thought there are more of them,
like for wood there are 3 types, round, rectangular and girder. Concrete even more of them.
I think I got it, there are only 3 to show the Material selected.
Would be nice if it would use those Thumbnails already existing in the "select shape" box
as these look unique already.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
17 hours ago, zoomer said:

Thanks Matt,

yes it looked like a generalized graphic but I thought there are more of them,
like for wood there are 3 types, round, rectangular and girder. Concrete even more of them.
I think I got it, there are only 3 to show the Material selected.
Would be nice if it would use those Thumbnails already existing in the "select shape" box
as these look unique already.

Right. Using the available thumbnails was something we considered, but there is not an ideal mechanism to have these show in the dialog without using a symbol popup control (similar to the select shape dialog). Cosmetically, it would not be great. A live preview in the dialog would be better, IMO.

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  • 1 year later...

A follow up to this - Please add the standard UK column steel sizes to the Steel Member tool! Since the shapes for these are already present elsewhere in the software (Theres a full range of UK Steel sizes in the 'Wide Flange Tool Set'), it seems crazy that they haven't been added to the Steel Member Tool..

 

I'll add in wishlist I guess, unless its already in there..

 

1217853121_BSIColumnsinSteelMemberrequest.thumb.jpg.276a8148b3c3dc03828e0978b67ec78f.jpg

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