Additional information for Girders/Stationing/Thickness

This function was especially implemented for modeling diaphragms and cross girders for steel bridges. It allows for modeling cross girders without having to insert additional station points for the thickness of the cross girder before and after the respective stations.

The basic idea is to model the main girder as usual and to additionally model a second girder along the same axis which only contains the stations at which cross girders should be placed. At these station, the thickness of the cross sections (cross girders) assigned at these stations can be defined.

At this, the cross section is always extruded in the direction of the tangent in the station point (thus, it is generally recommended to set the orientation of the cross section plane to “normal” in the properties of the girder). The thickness is always measured orthogonally to the cross section and applied symmetrically to both sides. If a thickness is assigned at the start or rather end station of the girder, the thickness is only applied in positive or rather negative station direction (i.e. forwards or rather backwards).

Notes:

This function was especially developed for the application case described above and therefore designed for thin element thicknesses. However, it can generally be used for all girders and thus other application purposes.

Thereby, it should be noted that the thickness of the cross section can also exceed other existing stations. Thus, bodies created by assigning thicknesses can also overlap each other. This is (generally) not checked by the program and is the responsibility of the user.

Further, by inputting a negative thickness at a station, the cross section assigned there can also be left out over its length thus defined.