ACA Structural Member Styles - Part 2

First Article in the Series (Structural Member Catalog)

Structural Member Wizard
Sometimes you need a Structural Member Style for a standard shape which is not in the Structural Member Catalog. Or perhaps it is early in the design process, and you have an approximate size for a steel shape, but not an exact size. Rather than pick an exact section, you would like to create a generic member as a placeholder until the structural design is finalized. For these cases, the Structural Member Wizard can speed the creation of the necessary Structural Member Shape Definitions and Structural Member Styles. Access the the Structural Member Wizard on the Manage ribbon tab, by selecting the title of the Style & Display panel to expand the panel and choose the Structural Member Wizard tool on the flyout.

The Structural Member Style Wizard dialog has three "pages". On the first page, you select the Member Shape, from a list of standard shapes in three categories: Concrete, Steel and Wood.

The left pane of the dialog shows a schematic sketch of the standard shape selected, and indicates the dimensions over which you will have control. The illustrations that follow are based on the Steel, Wide Flange (I) shape, but all work in a similar manner.

With the desired member shape selected, select the Next button to advance to the second page, where you will enter the dimensions that will be applied to the Member Shape to be generated.

Most of the values will be shown on the sketch in the left pane; any that are not, such as E - Weld Radius, should be evident from the description. In this case, the Weld Radius is the radius of the fillets between the web and flange. When the values are set as desired, select the Next button to move on to the third page.

On the third page, you specify a name for the Structural Member Shape Definition and Structural Member Style to be created. The page also gives you a summary of the shape type and associated parameters, with the values you entered. Review these to verify that they are correct. You can use the Back button to return to either of the previous screens and make any changes, if needed. When you are satisfied that all values are correct, select the Finish button on the third page to generate the definition and style.

You can check what was created by opening the Style Manager (on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Style & Display panel, select the Style Manager tool). Under the current drawing in the left pane, expand the Architectural Objects node, and then expand both the Structural Member Shape Definition and Structural Member Styles nodes. You will find that a shape definition and a style using that shape definition have been created using the name you specified and the Member Shape selected and the geometric information entered in the dialog.

Next article in the series (Manually Created Structural Member Shapes)