Template

Pier and Link Girder

Templates of structural members of the type pier and link girder serve as a pattern for creating structural members of these types in the model and are not themselves part of it. These templates are as well saved in the respective submenu Piers / Link Girders of the structural members and are marked with a [T] for “Template”. They are defined and displayed in a separate view window and can be managed and edited via the common submenus Stationing / Cross Sections / Variations in the same way as normal structural members.

Templates can be used for creating structural members on the basis of the respective template with the tool Structural member from template. The created structural members are generated in the respective menus of the structural members and are linked to the corresponding template. They thereby take over their properties as Stationing, Cross Sections and Variation.

Templates of structural members contain an additional column Conveyed in their submenu Stationing. Use the checkboxes in this column to choose those stations that should be conveyed to the structural member created from the template (Note: For this, you can also use the “drag and fill”- functionality - see e.g. here). Furthermore, it is also possible to insert additional stations in the structural member created from the template, whereas conveyed stations are not editable.

The assignment of the cross sections is always taken over from the template and cannot be modified in the menu Cross Sections of the structural member created from the template.

The submenu Variation does not exist for structural members created from templates, since variations are always taken over from the template.

Note: It is also possible to transform already created piers or link girders into a respective template (option “As template” in the Property window of the respective structural member). In this case, the structural member is removed from the 3D model and can be viewed and edited like other templates in the respective View window. The other way around, it is also possible to transform created templates (not yet referenced) into structural members using the same option. In this case, the template is removed, and the member appears in the 3D model at the global coordinate origin and can arbitrarily be moved from there. At this, the reference point of the transformed member is always its Geometric Position 1.

Bodies (Prism, Extraction Body, Container)

For templates of the type Body (Prism, Extraction Body, Container) the same principles as described above apply analogously, whereby structural members of this type per se don’t have submenus for the stationing, the cross sections and the variation. Here, the defined properties, such as cross sections and variables, are taken over.

The variables of a prism created from a template can individually be adjusted (for basics regarding that see Prism). That means, the template of the prism takes over the values of the variables from the defined cross section (which, however, can be adjusted for the template of the prism), and the prism created from the template takes over the values of the variables from its template (whereby they can also be adjusted for the prism created from the template). When resetting the values of the variables (checkbox) of the prism created from the template, the values from its template are taken over again. When resetting the values of the template of the prism, the values of the cross section are taken over again.

Templates of Bodies (prism, extraction body, container) can arbitrarily be combined with each other. That means, it is possible to create a new body template in an existing body template (using the context menu of the respective body template in the navigation tree or via the task 3D Modeling for the active template shown in the view window). Further, it is possible to add another existing body template to any template of a particular body (by dragging & dropping the body template to be added from the navigation tree into the view window of the active body template). Thereby, the user can select if the template should additionally be created anew based on the existing template or if the existing template should be moved. When thus combining templates, arbitrary structural levels / dependencies among the body templates are feasible, which are also represented in the navigation tree and can arbitrarily be addressed by respectively selecting them. When combining bodies with other bodies, the Boolean operation Union (distinct) comes into effect by default. However, this operation can also be changed to other Boolean types (Union or Subtract) during the process of adding (or rather afterwards, where the Boolean type Slice is also available). Thus, it is possible to create complex templates using all the tools that are also available when directly modeling in 3D and to (re)use them respectively. If templates are created based on Containers, they can particularly easy be placed and oriented by their reference coordinate system in the 3D model.