Robot - New User

[dbakerstl416069]

Hello,
My company is looking into purchasing Robot and we downloaded the 30-day trial version. I'm in the middle of analyzing an existing structure against the current seismic codes so I built the lateral resisting frame plus the floor deck in revit structure and sent it over the robot for the analysis which operated flawlessly, however I can't seem to figure out how to even get started with my load combinations/seismic analysis. A little insight would be a HUGE help. Thanks for your time.

-Dan

[kmarsh]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to Robot! take a look at the tutorial and additional note on load combinations in this thread:
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...lysis-Tutorial

Seismic load case is configured in Analysis>Analysis Types... select "new" and then choose Seismic Equivalent Lateral Load and fill out the parameters. In order to run more advanced analyses, you'll need to first add a modal load case (watch out for the "disregard density" checkbox as unchecked will add mass of modeled structural elements unless you haven't accounted for them in your dead load) and you'll need to specify a load case to convert to mass on the "convert to mass" tab of the the Analysis Types dialog. Once the modal "load case" is added, you will have access to the more advanced analyses (time history, spectral etc)

I've been learning Robot over the past year myself so have been through the process recently; feel free to ask questions!

Thanks,
-Ken

[dbakerstl416069]

Ken,
Thank you for responding, I really appreciate it. I tried to follow what you said for the seismic case (i'm using RSA2012 btw) and I'm not seeing "Seismic Equivalent Load" as an option. All I have available is modal, modal with auto definition of seismic cases and football. Is there any way I could possibly send you my RS and RSA files? I'm guessing I've set something up wrong or my analytical model in RS is off (I'm fairly new to Revit Structure as well). Again, thanks for your help.

-Dan

[kmarsh]

Hi Dan,
You can post your RSA file here and one of us can take a look and see what settings you have configured. I don't have 2012 installed in a handy way but will be happy to take a look. I've attached a screenshot of RSA2013 analysis options.
RobotAnalysisOptions.png
Once you add a modal case you will have access to configure additional analyses which use the mode shapes/periods in the analysis. (might also help to know which codes you have configured in project settings)

Your model in RST is probably fine, the RSA link is quite robust and if you can run a gravity analysis (simple static) in RSA then things are likely well connected in RST already.

(Have you had a chance to try out the tutorial? it's not the most recent of tutorials but it seems to do the job mostly)

Hope this helps,
-Ken

[dbakerstl416069]

Here's the RSA file...thanks for taking a look at this. I went ahead and downloaded Robot 13 and saved it in there since it has the simplified seismic analysis

[kmarsh]

Hi Dan,
On a quick look, the model isn't connected in RSA (which probably means it wasn't connected in Revit before running the link) it looks like your floor analytical model is at the top of the slab and the beams are maybe at the level. There is an option in the link to use offsets (or something like that) which you can try but the easiest thing to do at this point is to set your analytical floor to the same elevation as your beam analytical models. (Analyze tab>Analytical Adjust, select the floor and choose "projection" for alignment from the properties palette and then select the level (assuming that's where the beams are))

Hope that helps. I'll take a closer look later and let you know If i see anything else that jumps out at me.
-Ken

[kmarsh]

Some of the elements at the roof also have some mis-connections. If you've sloped your roof steel in Revit, and you don't want to analyze it as sloped then you'll need to adjust it in Revit to be flat. Alternatively you could turn off the analytical roof (floor) in Revit and add your own in Robot to model the exact slope of the roof deck though it would not likely play well in the round-trip scenario (I haven't tested it but I believe that the link would add new floor on update which is probably not desired)

Here is the spot I noticed. There are also no loads applied in Revit so you'd have to add those in Robot.

2012-08-09_0735.png

[kmarsh]

Hi Dan,
A more in-depth look at Robot load combination functionality is available in Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional - Essentials located here: http://tiny.cc/RobotEssentialsa

Hope you're still enjoying Robot Structural Analysis!
-Ken