Questions from potential user (ex strucad)

[Anonymous]

Hi

Am strongly considering advance steel to replace my strucad however I have a few questions that I would hope someone can help with:

1. Can you convert a line to a member or to a gridline, very handy when you import the engineers dwg file

2. When working with multiple floor levels, does the grid move up to the next level to let you layout steel at that level or does it stay at the base and you layout your steel on plan view at the given level. Just not sure how you guys do this, in strucad the grid moves to the new level so you can work in 3D

3. If levels are given starting at say 50m does the grid still start at 0m so when you zoom extents it zooms out to include om level?

4. On the GA drawings is there a button that you can add a level to say an elevation by clicking on the member?

5. On the Fab drawings is anybody able to print 90-100% of the fabs without needing to tidy them up, has anyone templates set up that work almost all the time?

Many thanks for the info and any other relevant tips from ex strucad user

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

1. Line to member is something I use multiple times a day.  It works great.

2. I would like to know this too, but most of my structures are single level.

3. I would recommend using a "Level Symbol" and keep the grid at 0,0,0 but change the level symbol to be at the 50m starting height.

4. Advance steel works from the model first and drawing second.  Meaning the drawings are from the model, not the other way around.  Adding a level to the model will add it to a drawing that would/should show that level

5. I have spent many hours tweaking all of my templates but I still need to do a fair amount of clean up.  Given all the time in the world, what you are looking for is possible, but the return on time investment goes down quick.  Depending on your reseller (I know Graitec does this) you can send an example set and have them make a bunch of template rules for you.

The more you use the templates and get used to the software, you can tweak the drawings as needed.  Also, I am still tweaking everything bit by bit.

[FCort]

1. Yes. You can convert line to member; but not line to grid line.

2. NO. We hope that the newer version will have 3d grid. For now you will have to copy the grids to each level.

3. There is not 3d grid. So zoom extend will be only to your model limits.

4. Yes. In GA drawings you can use add label and choose token top flange elevation.

5. No. Unfortunately advance steel needs to improve drawing presentation. And if you have to update the drawings probably the user modifications will disappear.

[AleckGiles]

Hi,

Further to other comments:-

2:- If you want the grid in the floor plan drawing you must copy it up to each level. However, if it is just to aid in modelling you do not need to copy it up. You can use Levels in Project Explorer to lock beams to certain Z height and still snap to the grid at the base.

3:- You should model with the base of your structure at z=0. Then place a Level Symbol in the model with the correct datum value to provide the correct elevations in the drawings.

4:- There is a proper Level Symbol command on the Labels & Dimensions ribbon. These symbols on all drawings and all level symbols in the model share the same datum value (see 3 above).

5:- It all depends what you are modelling of course. The most important thing is correctly assigning the model roles to each and every object. Leaving objects with Model Role = None or calling everything simply Beam or Plate instead of more specific names is the best way to get poor drawings. When editing drawings make sure you do it in the right way and always use the Preferred for Manual Dimensions osnap with dimensions and this will minimise any issue with your edits changing when a drawing is updated.