Tapered Steel Girder

[Tom Weir]

Hi,
I have been trying to make a tapered steel girder family. I made a blend from the mid-point of the girder to the end support point, then mirrored it. I want to be able to vary the middle depth and the end depth so I have those as type parameters, andthe length as an instance parameter.

The insertion is a little clunky. I can't really draw it from point to point. It gets inserted, then I edit the length. Can I improve on that?

So it kind of works ok on a flat plane. But when I try to insert onto a sloped plane it inserts upside down, and I cannot see the stick symbol in plan.

Can anybody help me out here. Somehow I am overconstrained.

Thanks and have a great day....


Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[Paul Andersen]

Tom, is your family small enough to post so we can have a look at what you've got so far?

[Tom Weir]

Sorry I did not post this earlier

Tom

[rmcelvain.103137]

Hi,
I have been trying to make a tapered steel girder family. I made a blend from the mid-point of the girder to the end support point, then mirrored it. I want to be able to vary the middle depth and the end depth so I have those as type parameters, andthe length as an instance parameter.

The insertion is a little clunky. I can't really draw it from point to point. It gets inserted, then I edit the length. Can I improve on that?

So it kind of works ok on a flat plane. But when I try to insert onto a sloped plane it inserts upside down, and I cannot see the stick symbol in plan.

Can anybody help me out here. Somehow I am overconstrained.
Tom,

What template did you start with? I copied your blend into a new family started with the beam template. I added the center and end depth parameters, locked it in the appropriate places and everything looks great. I'm including the revised family for your review.

[Tom Weir]

Very Cool....it works great

I just started my own family from scratch. I can see now your approach was much better, adjusting the basic beam family.

1. Now it can be drawn point-to-point
2. It works on sloped roof conditions (and does not flip upsdie down)

Thanks for helping with that. Put in your library. And Revit should have this as a stock family item, don't you think?

Tom

[rmcelvain.103137]

Very Cool....it works great

I just started my own family from scratch. I can see now your approach was much better, adjusting the basic beam family.

1. Now it can be drawn point-to-point
2. It works on sloped roof conditions (and does not flip upsdie down)

Thanks for helping with that. Put in your library. And Revit should have this as a stock family item, don't you think?

Tom
I think we need to start hitting the WishList Forum with some pretty heavy requests. I'm going to wander over there tonight when I get home and start throwing some stuff in that I've been noticing. We're really just getting to a point that I'm spending more time on Revit than Autocad (and you have to understand - I am really really comfortable with Autocad) so I am starting to notice many things that should be second nature as far as functionality goes with structural drafting.

You might want to clean up that family as far as verbiage goes prior to calling it good ;) ; I just cobbed it together with no families and not much flexing...

[Tom Weir]

Hi,
OK I got a problem with our tapered steel girder: I cannot set the elevation parameter, it is blanched out. I tried for a while but could not fix it. Can anybody help out?

Tom

[rmcelvain.103137]

Hey Tom,

You using the one attached in my post above or have you modified it? If you've tweaked it, could you post the current one and I'll check it out when I get a moment....

[Steven Campbell]

... And Revit should have this as a stock family item, don't you think?
I will open a request.

Steven Campbell
Autodesk Revit

[Tom Weir]

Rick,.
I am using the one you provided. Do you get the same result? In yours I see that the top and bottom reference planes are gone. I tried to put them back in but that did not work.
Steven, thanks for the assist. This is an important family for us to have.

Tom

[Paul Andersen]

Tom, Here's a stab at it. I've aptly named this one frankenbeam for the way it was born. I've been doing quite a bit of testing in the old family editor of late and built this one off of the delivered W-Wide Flange.rfa family. It appears the template that the factory uses to build it's beams has a little more horsepower than the one delivered for us to start with . . . you guys aren't holding out on us are you? ;) Perhaps we can achieve the same results off of the delivered template but I just haven't had time to figure out how yet. I added several parameters to control flange and web thickness (tf and tw) and top and bottom flange widths (bf). It could probably be further refined and I left out an angle parameter to rotate it but it seems to be working pretty well. I've attached an instance and type based version (with respect to the dimensions) and the start of a type catalog. Let me know what you think and feel free to change the name. :grin:

I tweaked the parameter names this morning . . . parenthesis are a big no no in names when working with formulas. My bad.

[Steven Campbell]

It appears the template that the factory uses to build it's beams has a little more horsepower than the one delivered for us to start with . . . you guys aren't holding out on us are you? ;) Shh, don't tell anyone... 8)

Actually it started from the same template just heavily modified over the last 4 years....


Steve

[Paul Andersen]

Hey Steve, your beam family is older than my daughter . . . definitely some cool stuff in there. Can all your modifications be done by the end user or is there some factory only mojo in there? I haven't had time to fully break it down yet but it appears that there may be some locked parameters and hidden reference planes behind the scenes. Any insight would be appreciated. Keep up the good work!

[Steven Campbell]

For the most part yes, I believe there are 2 built in reference planes that I deleted that require some internal tools. They are the stick left and right since the course stick representation is generated in the software in the new versions, but it does not harm the family to leave them in. The additional parameters you mentioned probably come from setting the structural material type in the family category and parameters dialog. Also in that dialog the symbolic representation is set to "from project settings" so if you noticed in the beam family there is no stick model line.

In contrast if you look at one of the open web joist you will see it is closer to the template because it uses the stick symbol of the family as opposed to the software generating it. This allowed me to create a more complex stick representation.

Additional stuff was added over their development to allow for stretchable shape handles for coping and to allow the beam to rotated, etc...

The template themselves are specially marked so they can't be recreated from another template and still have all the built in functions.

Steve

[Paul Andersen]

Thanks Steve.

[Tom Weir]

Thanks Paul,
Awesome job. I am still confused on where you found the "older family". But you even added the web and flange thicknesses.
The elevation can be set but does not work quite right. I want to be at -6.25" yet I have to set it to -1'-7". I have a 4' deep at the middle and 1'-6" deep at the ends.
Also the color will not adjust from the grey to reddish color I like to use. But those seem like minor concerns. At least I can get through the day. Attached see the TSG in action. It's the gym floor for a middle school we are designing.

Thanks Paul and Steve for your efforts.

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[Paul Andersen]

The older family is actually the current W-Wide Flange.rfa that came with RS2. I slapped it together kind of quick so I apologize for the bugs. I hooked up the Beam Material Parameter to the Blends so you should be able to edit the material now. Re-download the families from the original post. With regards to the elevation if you modify the beam dimensions after initial placement (instance based) or switch types on an already placed beam (type based) it appears that the justification isn't holding. As a temporary fix if you toggle the vertical justification to center in the properties dialog and click ok and then toggle it back to top you should be able use the correct elevation. I noticed the same problem with the horizontal justification. I will try to have another look at it when I have some more time.

[hightower783]

I saw the tapered girders that you guy created or modified. I am working an a project where I am using Tapered Steel Cellular/Castellated Beams. I am wondering just a few basics on how those were created. I see that when hovered over them, they read as if they are Blends. I was wondering if it would be the same as the 08/09 version's Sweep tool? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt