Custom Steel Assemblies

Overview

Although some users have extended this system to other purposes, the original intent was to enable the design and documentation of heavy steel connections. Beam saddles, post bases, multi-beam connectors...anything you would typically create from steel plate and standard hardware/fasteners. 

This is not a full-blown steel fabrication engine, there is currently no support for weld callouts, tolerance or radius tags, or several other standard heavy steel design tools. However, the system does allow the timber designer to establish and document geometry, to place and document both common fasteners and any other type of standard hardware, to export linework for plasma CNC and to schedule this work across a project. Custom Assemblies can also act on beams they are  attached to with either cuts, slots, or daps to receive plates and with drills for pilot holes and through bolting.

Process

  • Standard Fasteners that will be required are imported from Excel via a dedicated TSL
  • Beams are positioned to model steel plates.
  • Blocks are created to model specialty hardware such as threaded rod or spring tension washers
  • Fasteners are inserted as required
    • The company library establishes default values for pilot holes, countersinks, and through holes but these can be reviewed and adjusted manually as required
  • Cutting Block TSLs are inserted where operations on any Beams the Assembly is attached to will be required.
  • Cutting Tube TSLs do the same job, but for drills instead of rectangular cuts
    • Typically there is a dedicated Display Configuration for inserted the Cutting TSLs, since we do not want them to display in the finished model
  • The completed assembly is defined as an HsbColEntity using the Collection Entity Style Manager
  • Custom Assemblies are inserted on the timber, panel, or stickframe model as required.
  • Custom Assemblies are linked to beams or panels with Apply Custom Assembly TSL
  • Shopdrawings can be generated from Custom Assemblies inserted in the model
    • Beam or Panel Shopdrawings can optionally show attached Custom Assemblies and list them by name in a keynoted schedule table
  • Schedule Tables of inserted Custom Assemblies can be created.
  • Special notes around installation or finish can be associated with each Collection Assembly instance

TSL Descriptions

Cutting Block, Cutting Tube

CollectionEntityCuttingBlock and CollectionEntityCuttingTube are used to remove a box or cylinder volume from Beams that the final Assembly is attached to.

The CuttingBlock TSL has only 4 Properties, 3 of which simply list the box dimensions. Dimensions can also be controlled with Grips. In the below screenshot the TSL is selected and the Grips are apparent, notice also the cone-headed arrow at the center of the script:

 

This CuttingBlock is being used to carve a slot to receive the knife plate of this simple post base. The arrow (pointing up, between the slots on the knife plate) indicates the fixed end of the cutting block, it typically points into the Beam it will act on. The side opposite the fixed face will expand as needed so that the operation exits the beam, dimensions in the other 2 directions (4 faces) are fixed and exact.

Note the Target Beams Property, this concept applies to both the Cutting Block and Cutting Tubes TSL. This is simply a grouping of Beams done when applying the Custom Assembly to the beams it will act on. The options for Target Beams are Parent, Children, or All. Sometimes it is useful to have tools in the Assembly which only affect some of the Beams the Assembly is attached to. More on this later in the article.

CuttingTube allows drilling operations to be declared in the Assembly which will act on Beams the Assembly is attached to. Like the CuttingBlock it can target Parent, Children, or All beams. It has a base diameter and a "Drill Diameter" so that it can be precisely placed in the assembly (for instance, on a round Beam modeling a steel pin) but have some tolerance value influence the final drilling 

CuttingTube also includes the concept of a fixed end and one which freely expands to daylight the operation in any size beam, but unlike CuttingBlock the Fixed/Free ends can be toggled with the Property, or the Operation can be set to Exact in which case no expansion takes place.

Since CuttingBlock and CuttingTube are simply present to declare tooling operations, their graphic display is only relevant during the initial creation of the Custom Assembly. Having theses scripts visible during standard modeling phases where you're inserting the Custom Assemblies is distracting and serves no purpose, so typically they are set to display only in special Display Configurations (usually called "CollectionEntityCreation" or "Diagnostic".