Steel and Precast Detailing Services

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  • Extracting Bolt Distances of Single Part Drawings (Beams) With an Output In Excel – Part 2 (Tekla Open API)

    This is a picture of a rusty beam. I added the picture here because it looks cool and for no other reason.

     

    In the last part, we left off having collected the relevant Single Part Drawings that we were after. Hopefully we have applied the correct property to filter out the ‘HEA’, ‘IPE’ and ‘CC’ drawings. We will now focus on part II – extracting the distance of the bolts from the beam’s start position.

     

    1. Get every SinglePartDrawing which name starts with “HEA/IPE/CC”
    2. Calculate the distance of every bolt distance from the start of the corresponding Single Part. ** This blog post will address Part II.
    3. Write the name of the Single Part and every bolt distance to Excel.
    4. Refactor the code.

     

    I did refactor the code a little bit, so it might not look exactly the same as the last version. The code is pretty self explanatory. But you will note that:

    • I am projecting the bolt positions along the beam’s vector (defined from the start to end point of the beam).
    • Therefore we do not need to save and set the transformation plane.
    • A corollary (and potentially unintended consequence) is that this will capture the bolt positions of all bolts, no matter if they are on the flange of the beam, or on the web etc. This may have some unintended consequences. Again, caveat emptor – programmer beware!

     

    Here is the code in all it’s glory – simply follow the well detailed comments and it should be fairly straightforward. As always, any questions, feel free to ask.

    We now have extracted the relevant information. Part III will delve into extracting this data in an Excel format. We will most likely use an OpenXML on other such library for that purpose. That post will come shortly, when I get a spare moment. Till that time, enjoy the following – or perhaps it can be left as an exercise for the user?!

  • Extracting Bolt Distances From Single Part Drawing Files With an Output In Excel – Part 1 (Tekla Open API)

    We want the bolt distances of all the single parts.
    We want the bolt distances of all the single parts.

    Every now and again we obtain a request from our readership to tackle a problem. If it is of general interest to the public and given our commitments we do sometimes oblige. Here is one such interesting problem. We will tackle this in three parts, and will focus on part 1 in this blog post.

    1. Get every SinglePartDrawing which name starts with “HEA/IPE/CC”
    2. Calculate the distance of every bolt distance from the start of the corresponding Single Part.
    3. Write the name of the Single Part and every bolt distance to Excel.
    4. Refactor the code.

    The first part is easy enough – and the code is pretty self-explanatory. We want to iterate through all the drawings and filter for the specific drawings that we are after.

    Here is the code:


    In the next part, we will look at obtaining the relevant parts that we want and calculating the bolt distances from the start and end points. And finally, we will look at refactoring the code, because it is a little slow, and also from a maintainability point of view.

     

    An Addendum

    • I was simply following the instructions of the question without inquiring too far into its purpose. If you actually want to extract NC information via the API – Tekla can very easily do this. But that was not the scope of this particular task – it was to deliver a very specific and peculiar set of requirements to a particular reader, but it is a topic which will be of general import to the public.

  • Drawing Metal Edges – BubbleDeck Detailing (+ Video Demo)

     

    Drawing these metal edges is time consuming and error prone.
    Drawing these metal edges is time consuming and error prone.

     

     

     

    What is the task at hand?

    You have a set of 30 panels. You need to draw metal edges around the edges of all these panels. That’s easy, but it’s subject to certain specific requirements.

     

    If it’s a Perth job then:

    • The metal edge can only be a maximum of 3.0m long.
    • Minimum distance: 0.4m long.

     

    If it’s an Adelaide job these are the metal edge requirements:

    • The metal edge can only be a maximum of 2.4m long.
    • Minimum distance: 0.4m long.

    That means you may need to do some maths. And you actually have to draw the things in. It’s a royal pain, and more than likely, you’ll make mistakes.

     

    Video Demonstration of the Draw Metal Edges Tool

    This tool obviates the need for manual calculations and drawing by hand. Chances of pick point errors and wrongly stipulating an unmakable and unorderable metal edge is there by significantly diminished.

     

    Here is a video demonstration:

     

    Draw Metal Edges from Tek1 on Vimeo.

  • What are curve parameters? (AutoCAD .net API)

    A perusal of the .net Reference Guide reveals these types of functions:

    This is a snapshot of the .net API Reference guide.
    This is a snapshot of the .net API Reference guide.

     

    But as per usual, there is no explanation in the documentation as to what a exactly a parameter is. This is best explained by example. Stay with me here:

    • Suppose you have a curve (i.e. a polyline) that has n points. Or in this case, 10 points.
    • If you called `polyline.GetStartParam()` you’d get a value of 0. And if you called: `polyline.GetEndParam()` you’d get a value of 9. You’ve got 10 points of course, but remember,  you’d get a value of 9 because it’s all zero index based.

    Some Notable Exceptions:

    • Now you have to remember that Ellipses and Circles are also curves too. If you asked an arc or a circle a question about its parameter, then you are really asking it about the angle around the circle or arc (starting from 0). E.g. circle.GetPointAtParameter(0) should give you (100,0,0) and circle. GetPointAtParameter (2π) should give you (100,0,0).
    • Suppose you want to calculate the halfway distance between vertex 0 and vertex 1 for a polyline? Should you use polyline.GetPointAtParam(0.5)? The answer is: no! This is because the mapping between parameters and points need not be linear. To be safe you should use: getDistAtParam() to get the distances d0 and d1 and you should then use getPointAtDist( (d0 + d1) / 2 ).

  • BREP API – A Very Basic Primer (AutoCAD .net API)

    A very nice mesh surface of a face.
    A very nice mesh surface of a face.

     

    The boffins at AutoDesk have ported that which has existed in the ObjectARX API into .net – it’s basically a wrapper. And on a side-note – it is well worth reading the ObjectARX documentation for that very reason – let’s face it – the documentation for AutoCAD APIs are not very good. So definitely read the ObjectARX API.

    Here are some very useful resources that you will need in order to fully utilise this API:

    What is the BRep API all about?

    • Think of Breps as a novel way of representing shapes in a hierarchical way. This won’t make much sense to you – but consider the example below: re: traversal of this hierarchy.

    What is it useful for?

    Brep API is useful for: (i) traversing a hierarchy of shapes, (ii) Point Containment calculations and (iii) Meshing.

    (A) Traversing a hierarchy of shapes.

    Ok. When you think of a cube for example, you have a 3d object:

    • Cube (the cube can also be thought of as a shell – a set of connected faces).That cube is made up of 6 faces, all of which are squares.
      • Those faces are made up of 4 edges each.
        • Those edges are bade up of 2 vertexes bounded by a curve.

    All 3d objects can be broken down somewhat into a hierarchy of simpler objects. The BREP API allows you to traverse that hierarchy and make queries according to your particular requirements/needs/application.

    (B) Containment calculations

    Let’s suppose you have a sphere and you want to determine whether a point lies within the sphere or outside of it. You could use the Brep API to make this determination.

    (C) Drawing meshes to represent surfaces

    You could use the API to create meshes which can approximate a 3d surface or object.

  • Getting Started In AutoCAD .net Development

    Wanna be startin' something?
    Wanna be startin’ something?

    Simply check out the following links:

    • My first plug in training:

    http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=18162797

     

    • Download the .net Wizards, and the other resources on the AutoDesk website.
    • Download Visual Studio https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/community/

    Handy resources:

    https://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32381.0

     

    • Popular blog:

    http://through-the-interface.typepad.com/

     

    • Documentation:

    http://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-BA686431-C8BF-49F2-946E-9CEB2F7AE4FA

    http://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2018/ENU/

    Our own blog – with code snippets and case studies:

    https://www.tek1.com.au/category/autocaddotnetapi

  • How To Make Alternate Dimension Units Appear Below the Primary Units (AutoCAD .net API)

    Showing many different dimension styles.
    Showing many different dimension styles.

    This was a question which someone asked.

    I accordingly answered it with a code example. The answer is simple:

    Ensure that you add `“\X”` as a suffix to the `DimStyleTableRecord.Dimpost` property.

    Here is a code example:

  • What is the difference between Freezing a layer vs Turning it off? (AutoCAD tips)

    Freezing improves performance. That's the difference.
    Freezing improves performance. That’s the difference.

    A tyro to AutoCAD will immediately notice that he or she has two options available to him – both of which ostensibly render similar results: freezing a layer and turning it off. But what is the real difference?

    • When you turn a layer off, it is still loaded into memory. AutoCAD is keeping track of it.
    • When you freeze a layer, then AutoCAD basically ignores that layer and everything on it. You should notice a slight increase in speed and performance when you freeze layers – especially if they contain hundreds of thousands of elements. That will give you a significant performance boost cf: if you simply turned that layer off.

    That’s the difference and I hope you learned something.

  • Identifying Duplicate Panel Names (+Video Demo)

    How are you going to identify one duplicate in a sea where everything looks the same?
    How are you going to identify one duplicate in a sea where everything looks the same?

    Duplicates are a problem – an expensive problem, especially if you are dealing with hundreds and perhaps even over a thousand panels. Somebody cocks up – usually on the client side – but how are you meant to identify it?

    You could manually do it, but then that will more than likely take a long time. Or you could just employ Tek1 to do that sort of thing for you. Here is a video demonstration:

    Identify Duplicate Panel Names In Precast Panel Detailing from Tek1 on Vimeo.

    Features:

    • It can work for all clients with only very minor modifications. Very well abstracted out in the code.
    • It is super fast. Comparing the thousands of elements in each drawing takes a bit of computing power – but with smart algorithms, you can cut down the time.
    • It can work in the marking plan and elevation or layout. The same code, the same command, but x3 the power.

     

    Example of Well Abstracted Code: