I am trying to determine the best way to add materials (not for rendering) to structural beams in ADT/MEP 2008.
I have a range of different profiles, IPE, UPE, KKR, VKR etc. on palettes, linked to structural member styles in a definition file. The goal is to achieve a schedule of beams with materials, lengths, weights and surface area of various beams used in a model.
Question 1:
I note that there is no way (or I haven´t found it) to link a material Propery Set to a beam in the palette tool, but if the PS is defined in the template I can link the PS to a beam (in extended data properties) after insertion, right? Please tell me I´m wrong, show me a way to make the material follow the tool at insertion!
Question 2:
I would like a material property to be categorized and selectable at or after insertion !! according to the type of beam !! . As for KKR it would be the material S355J2H or S355MLN, for Tubular profiles it would be ST35 or ST37 and so on. Materials that are not applicable should not be selectable.
I would also consider using some sort of material property standard, applied to specific projects, but that is not a priority at this point.
Question 3:
In the property set def. it is possible to add material property, but how is this supposed to work? What are the prerequisites? Could I use that function?
Please help me with this. Any hint and advice will be greatly appreciated.
BRGDS
Gunnar L.