FF reinforcement

Tool(s): Secondary Reinforcement

This tool automatically creates and places reinforcement components.
If you select this tool in the Precast Slab module, all the components are available. But if you select this tool in the Precast Wall module, you can place only secondary wall reinforcement.

To place reinforcement components

1. Choose Edit Element (How) or Element Plan (How), select a precast element and click Secondary Reinforcement.
   

   Activate Element Plan in one of the following ways

   • Menu bar: Create Precast Precast Slab/Precast Wall/Structural Precast Elements

   • Palette: Tools Create area in the following module(s):

   Precast Slab

   Precast Wall

   Structural Precast Elements

   Production planning

   

   Activate Edit Element in one of the following ways

   • Menu bar: Create Precast Factories Precast Floor/Precast Wall/Structural Precast Units

   • Palette: Tools Create area in the following module(s):

   Precast Floor

   Precast Wall

   Structural Precast Units

2. On the Secondary Reinforcement Context toolbar, click FF Reinforcement.
3. Specify the defaults for the reinforcement components by switching the appropriate buttons.
4. Click OK to confirm the settings.
5. Select the relevant catalog and click the desired component.
   

   Additional tools for selecting components

   All components are shown graphically. When you drag the cursor over a component, ToolTips with a description of the relevant component appear.

   Clicking the individual components with the right mouse button and selecting Enlarge View enlarges the display of the component clicked.
   In addition, you can use the slide bar at bottom left in the dialog box to enlarge the graphic preview in its entirety. But this is reset when you quit the tool.

   Prior to selecting a component, you can use the Mirror across y axis option to mirror all components, thus adjusting asymmetrical components to the existing shell.
   This option also applies to all the other components, but you can change it every time you enter a component.

6. Click OK to confirm the dialog box.

   A preview of the component is attached to the crosshairs. Before placing it, you can define the placing parameters in the dialog box. Using the shortcut menu, you can mirror the entire component and specify how the bending shape is to look.

7. Move the crosshairs across the workspace. As soon as the program detects an appropriate component geometry, the component expands.
8. Left-click in the workspace to place the component
   Or:
   Right-click in the workspace to open the shortcut menu and choose Use handles to adjust component. Select the handles and the corresponding edges. When you have finished, press ESC.
   For secondary wall reinforcement, you can use on the shortcut menu to fit in the geometric template. The dialog boxes open.
   

   Fit in geometric template

   By default, additional wall reinforcement is placed at existing shell edges, which are automatically detected by the FF reinforcement tool. This can be the end of a wall, for example.
   Using a geometric template, you can place additional reinforcement anywhere within a wall.

   1. As soon as the reinforcement expands or the desired shell edge is highlighted, click in the workspace with the right mouse button.
   2. Click Fit in geometric template.
   3. Place the two imaginary wall leaves where you require.
   4. If necessary, modify the reinforcement parameters.
      

   Note: This way, you can also create additional reinforcement in solid walls or slab elements.

9. Define the reinforcement parameters, such as the Diameter, Bar spacing, Bar length and Concrete cover. The program immediately displays all these settings on screen.
   You can enter global values or bar-based values.
   You can have the program calculate the bar lengths.
   For secondary wall reinforcement, you can enter the stirrup width as a fixed value or you can have the program determine the width automatically. In addition, you can enter the Number of bars and the Spacing of the longitudinal reinforcement.
   

   Stirrup width as fixed value

   If you enter 0.00 for the stirrup width, the program automatically calculates the stirrup width based on the concrete covers set and the existing wall geometry.

   As an alternative, you can also enter a fixed value for the stirrup width and have the program calculate the concrete covers automatically. The stirrup width must not exceed the width of the wall.
   Depending on the concrete covers specified, the following placement options are available:

   • If both concrete covers are set to 0.00, the stirrup is centered in the wall.
   • If one of the two concrete covers is set to 0.00, this concrete cover is determined automatically based on the value set for the other concrete cover and the stirrup width.
   • If both concrete covers are not set to 0.00, the concrete cover on the selected wall side is taken into account. The value for the other concrete cover is determined automatically based on the stirrup width.

   Note: Use Record management to save component settings and to retrieve them later.
   You can use the Replace option to globally replace individual parameters by entering the old and new values.
   For the column with three stirrup regions and some stair types, you can use to specify whether you want to create individual bending shapes as reinforcing bars or as bent-up meshes.
   For secondary wall reinforcement, you can use to expand the dialog box so that you can make specific settings for precast elements. Various list types are available in the Reports tool for printing out structural starter bars.

   

   Replacing component parameters globally

   This dialog box provides a convenient way of modifying selected parameters of entire components.

   1. Select the parameters you want to change.
   2. Enter the old and the new values for the parameter(s).
   3. Click OK to replace the parameters.

      The program scans all the parameters you have selected for the old value and replaces it with the new value.
      This way, for example, you can change the diameter of an entire stirrup reinforcement without changing the diameter of the longitudinal reinforcement.

   Note: Please bear in mind that the Bar Spacing, Placing Length and Segment Length parameters are mutually dependent. i.e., changing one setting may cause another to update accordingly.

10. Click OK to confirm the dialog box, specify the parameters for automatic placement and then click Automatic Placement.
    

    The placing parameters available to you and the approach depend on the module in which you select Additional Reinforcement and thus FF Reinforcement.

    • Precast Floor module
    • Precast Wall module