Soil Support

Soil supports are elements, which connect structural members with the soil, e.g. a pier to the soil, whereby the stiffness of the elements can be adapted by spring constants for each direction/rotation during the input or later in the Properties window.

To define a soil support, you need to specify the position of the soil support by a reference point or docking point in the cross section of the pier, e.g. center point of the cross section.

To interactively create a new soil support

1. Right-click on the tree item Structural Supports to open the context menu and select the menu item New soil support.
2. Optionally, edit the name and the description in the opening input window.
3. Define the spring stiffnesses for the 6 degrees of freedom of the spring directly or by using the predefined types (for details see here).
4. Confirm the input with OK.

   In the tree, a new soil support is created in the menu Structural Supports.

5. In the 3D view window, click the reference point / docking point (to be selected in the Properties window), at which the soil support should be created.
6. In the view window, click the cross section of the structural unit (e.g. cross section of the pier), which should be connected with the soil support.

   Note: The connection between the soil support and the soil is set up automatically.