RussU Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 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 Quote Link to comment
Marionette Maven Marissa Farrell Posted September 14, 2016 Marionette Maven Share Posted September 14, 2016 @RussU You can set a custom profile by setting the Member Type in the Structural Member Settings to "Custom" and then pressing the "Select Shape" button. You'll need a symbol of your profile in your resources of the file. Hope this helps! 1 Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment
RussU Posted September 14, 2016 Author Share Posted September 14, 2016 Thanks for that. It'll take a little getting used to I think! Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Matt Panzer Posted September 14, 2016 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted September 14, 2016 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. 1 Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Matt Panzer Posted September 15, 2016 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted September 15, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Yes that would be nice, if you can see the final proportions - in case you mixed up height and width or so Quote Link to comment
Asemblance Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 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.. Quote Link to comment
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