Adding supported profiles allows Sync to determine the type of a part selected in the model and its properties. Once a supported profile is setup properly the part’s typical section can be created for export to an Eriksson project file and opened in the appropriate Eriksson design software.
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Profiles and Properties
When a part is selected in Tekla Structures, the Properties tab displays the part’s profile name in the Profile field.
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The properties of the profile are accessed by clicking the button next to the profile field.
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The profile name and the list of profile properties are needed to create a Sync Supported Profile.
Profile Map
A Sync Supported Profile contains a list of the properties needed to describe the particular part in Eriksson’s design software. The properties of the Tekla Structures profile must match up to the properties of the Sync supported profile. This is called a profile map. A profile map relates the properties of a part in the Eriksson design software with values in the profile string in Tekla Structures.
A simple example is a rectangular column. In Tekla Structures a rectangular column’s profile string is comprised of the height and width of the column’s cross section. So a column with a cross section with a height of 24” and width of 32” would have a profile string of 24”*32”. Eriksson Column defines a rectangular column cross section by its depth and width. So the depth value of the column cross section is the first value in the profile string and the width value is the second value in the profile string.
Then, to setup a profile map for a rectangular column, the supported profiles property page shows the Depth property related to the index of 1 and the Width property related to the index of 2. This is how a Tekla Structures part’s profile string is equated to an Eriksson part’s cross section.
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A more complicated example is a profile map for a double tee beam. A double tee has eight properties that must be input in its profile map.
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The cross section for a double tee in Eriksson Beam has eight properties and they must be related to the values in the profile string. For example, the bottom stem width is the first value in the profile string so the profile map relates the property Botttom Stem Width to the index of 1.
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Creating a Profile Map
There are two ways of creating a profile map from the Supported Profiles Settings dialog: Add and Copy. Clicking the Add button will create a blank profile map that requires the user to set the name and type. Clicking the Copy button will create a new row with the name and type of the selected row. Then the Edit button has to be clicked to go to the Settings screen to setup the profile map.
Add
Add creates a blank row at the bottom of the grid.
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A Name can be input and a Type selected before pressing the Edit button or they can be left blank and set in the Settings window after pressing the Edit button.
Copy
Copy creates a row at the bottom of the grid with the name and type of the selected row.
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The name should be changed to distinguish the new profile map from the copied one, but it can be changed in the new row or in the Settings window from clicking the Edit button.
Edit
Clicking the Edit button allows editing of a newly created profile map or an existing one from the profile map Properties page. The Edit Properties page has two sections: the top section for defining the profile map name and type and the main section which contains a grid for setting the relationships between the part’s properties and the values in Tekla Structures.
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The top of the Properties page has the three fields that define the profile map:
Profile Name is the name of the profile as shown in Tekla Structures in the Profile field of the part’s Properties panel.
Profile Type is either Precast or Reinforcement.
Category is the list of available categories for the chosen Profile Type.
Precast has the following options:
Column
Insulated Panel
Solid Panel
IT Beam
L Beam
Rect. Beam
Spandrel
T Beam
The grid displays the relationships between the part’s properties and the profile string’s index. The rows are set automatically according to the type selected in the Category drop down box. The grid is made of three columns:
Property shows the name of the properties as defined in Eriksson’s design software. This column is not editable.
Index/Value is the input column for relating the property value to either the profile string’s index or a constant value.
Is Constant should only be checked if the value in the Index/ Value column is a constant value and not an index to a variable value in the Tekla Structures profile string.
Remove
Clicking the Remove button will delete the selected profile map from the Support Profiles. It will only be deleted after the OK button is clicked to close the dialog window. It will not be deleted if Cancel is clicked.
Example of Working with a Profile Map
The following example will show how to create a profile map by using an existing part that already exists in Tekla Structures. This example will use the LBEAM profile. With an LBEAM selected in the model the Properties panel can be shown.
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The Profile field shows the profile name as LBEAM and a list of values that define the beam’s concrete extents with each value separated by an asterisk. The properties can be viewed in greater detail by clicking the button next to the Profile field.
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This window shows exactly how the profile string is defined and what property of the beam each value in the string represents. For the LBEAM, the profile string is of the form “LBEAM a*b*c*d*f” where the symbols a, b, c, d, and f are values for the different properties of the beam as shown in the grid at the bottom right of the dialog box. The relationship between property and symbol is needed to make the profile map.
From the Supported Profiles Settings window, clicking the Add button will create a new blank row at the bottom of the grid.
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The name for the profile map and the profile type can be set. For this example the name will be “L Beam” and the type will be L Beam. Clicking the Edit button will bring up the profile map Properties window. The Profile Name field will be blank, but the Profile Type will be set to Precast and the Category set to L Beam as selected in the previous window. The necessary rows for the grid will already be added with the fields under Property filled in for the L Beam. The other two columns will be blank.
The Profile Name was found from the beam’s profile string as “LBEAM” so it should be added to the Profile Name box. The indices for the properties are entered in the Index/Value column. The index for each value is its place in the profile string. This can be determined from the grid at the lower right of the Profile properties window from Tekla Structures.
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The profile string for the L Beam has the form “LBEAM a*b*c*d*f” where each letter represents a property in the beam’s cross section. Each letter’s position in the string is the index value to be entered in the the Index/Value column.
The properties for the beam’s cross section from Tekla Structures can then be related to the properties in the profile map window. For example, the Overall Height in Tekla Structures is represented by the Symbol 'a' in the profile string which is the first value in the string, so the Overall Height property in the profile map window will have an Index of 1. This value is variable so the checkbox in the Is Constant column will remain unchecked. The indices for the rest of the properties are added in the same way.
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Once all fields and values are added in the window the Okay button must be clicked to accept the new profile map. Then, the Okay button on the Supported Profiles Settings window must be clicked to add the new profile map to the list of supported profiles.