Wire Mesh Infill Panel on Guardrails

[Anonymous]

Ok I have a Guardrail system that I need to create a Wire Mesh Infill panel for. The mesh is 4" x 4" x 3/16" pattern with a L 1 x 1 x 1/8" frame all 4 sides. I have the Top and Bottom Chord of the Guardrail established, and have modeled the Angle Framework into the first opening. Any advice on this?

[muleman1]

maybe go to mcnichols.com or brown-campbell.com and get a block dwg of the profile you want, then make 'user profile' or 'special part' from it?

[Anonymous]

Very new to this AS this is only the 3rd model I have input in this program, and it really leaves a lot to be desired in the "user friendly" department. I will see if I can accomplish with the method you are saying. Thanks for the input on this. I input the Panels by inserting 3/16" Dia Round bars on a 4" pattern. Pain the @$$

[AleckGiles]

Hi,

In FIll Panels do not have a macro at this time. Maybe one day . An alternative to using special parts (fixed size) would be to define the desired grating in the database and use a variable grating for the panel. This FAQ describes how to add a new grating to the databases. How to add a grating to Advance Steel.

You can define wire mesh panels in this way.

Then simply draw variable rectangular or polygon variable grating in each opening in the rails. Usually people like evenly spaced posts so hopefully you can copy one panel to lots of positions using the Advance Copy to Transform Elements commands. This video shows how I tackle such infill panels with glass but the same applies to gratings. Advance Steel Architectural Demo

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Aleck Giles

Application Engineer

Graitec UK

[Anonymous]

Aleck the Vertical - Horizontal picket rail option in the Macro is great for Plain Vanilla Railing. However we are a Decorative Metals Fabricator, and 90% of our Rails are not plain vanilla rails. Creating a Glass Panel is fairly simple, and understood even with my limited knowledge on this program. However when you have to start modeling more complex infill panels (woven wire, welded wire, Stainless Cable) this program leaves a lot to be desired. Thank you for the response, and I will look into the directive you have provided. I will let you know what comes of it.

Rob

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

I do know that there is a built in "Wire Mesh" as a grating that is variable meaning it can be any size (LxW).  But the infill is not included in the macro portion.

[Anonymous]

Jonathan any advice on where in the thousand selections on the grating portion this is? Once I locate it I can create a new entree in the Database to Bill Out my materials correctly at least. This will also give me more ammo to go back to the AS Design Team to have them work on incorporating a Mesh Panel with or without bordering framework as an option for railing infill.

Thanks,

Rob

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

Variable Grating -> Square Wire Mesh -> There are a couple sizes that are in there and I am sure that you can add to it.  

I had to do exactly what you are doing recently as well, so I feel your pain with manual drawing.

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

Screen Shot

[Anonymous]

thanks for the screen shot Jonathan!

[Anonymous]

Aleck this solution probably will not work for myself (and I'm assuming plenty others out there) because we do not have "Microsoft Access"

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

Access is the best for database that is widely used but there are some free options.

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/edit-ms-access-database-mdb-file-format-without-having-ms-...

[Anonymous]

Aleck Giles thankyou very much. easy as.

[Anonymous]

Most of this can be done in the Management Tools so you don't need Access.

There is a need for a mesh panel with variable patterns, maybe someone could come up with one (Graitec?). There are a lot of things that I wish this program could do but there is usually a workaround whether by a special part or just modelling something.

You seem annoyed that the program cannot do this, is there a program you were using that could do this, I would be interested to know.

Gary

[AleckGiles]

Hi

@Anonymous There is an optoin wwithin the properties of any cvariable grating to change the hatch pattern to any pattern avaialble in AutoCAD. You can also set the default pattern for that type for grating in the Hatch column of the database table. So you can get different visual patterns for different gratings quite easily. You could even define custom AutoCAD hatch patterns in PAT files if you need to.

The pattern is only a visual cue for what the part is and is not an accurate representation of where the wires / bars / whatever actually are in the emesh or grate.

Regards.

[Anonymous]

Hi @AleckGiles,

I do this all the time, using variable meshes with patterns for visual representations.

There are a lot more pressing issues that need to be dealt with for the developers than a mesh generator, I threw Graitecs hat in the ring in case they may want to add it to a power pack or something. I have used other detailing packages and I don't recall any with a mesh generator. The downside with something like this is someone will always want something different. I have a customer that I did a walkway for using standard grating, he wasn't happy that it was only a hatch pattern he wanted to see all the load bars and the cross bars. So I modelled it for him, charged him accordingly and moved to the next job.

What our demands on AS at any time are based on the needs and whims of our customers, but I have always found there is a way if they will pay.

[jcasti1719]

I use expanded metal flattened and change the hatch and it works great.

[jcasti1719]

Shapes in the Drawing might not appear correctly because they are user elements.

[jcasti1719]

Shapes in the Drawing might not appear correctly because they are user elements.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm having a hard time finding the WIRE MESH grating class as shown in your photo

It does not seem to be available

I'm not sure if they've removed the option since you posted this or if i'm missing something

Does anyone know why i wouldn't be able to see this option? or if there's a new way of doing wire mesh?

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@Jonathan.Jasinskiwrote:

Screen Shot