Introduction

In the last years, freeform architecture became more and more popular. A variety of complex geometric shapes are used for the facades of buildings, which brought the demand of new, innovative tools and solutions for modelling of these structures too. In Consteel we have developed such functions to make the engineers’ work easier.

Section orientation

Orientation of the sections is always a problem. We have implemented a tool, with which the rotation of the sections can be done automatically. Sections can be rotated perpendicularly to the surface of the freeform shape of the structure. Z axis will be perpendicular to the surface formed by the connecting beams.

Load transfer surfaces

Covering a freeform structure with load transfer surfaces -like in the picture below-manually, would take a lot of time and effort. Our tool for multiple load transfer surface placement gives you a quick, easy and effective solution for covering your freeforms.

Introduction

The Frame corner wizard is a useful additional function for modelling and analyzing the corner region in order to consider its special behavior.

What is it for

The frame corner zones have usually significantly different behavior than the beam elements connected to each other without significant angle between their reference line. Frame corner wizard recognises the corner regions and applies special methods during modelling, buckling analysis and global checks. Using this function will provide very similar analysis results compared to where the frame is modelled with shell elements.

But in order to that, the topology of the frame corner must be defined by the user. Four different types can be chosen. The 7. DOF displacement is transferred differently in every case. To learn more technical details of the frame corner types, please see our user manual.

How to use it

At first define Portions of the model containing all the structural elements you intend to connect with the same type of corner topology.