In RFEM, you can display the contact properties between two surfaces by means of contact solids. Among other things, you should ensure that both contact surfaces of a contact solid have the same integrated objects. Therefore, when modeling the contact surfaces, we recommend using the copy function in order to create the second contact surface.
It often happens that loads should be copied as a template into another load case, for example. This article describes two ways to copy loads between load cases.
When calculating foundations according to EC 7 or EC 2, different foundation types or sizes are usually used in one object. However, boundary conditions like the soil parameters, the materials for foundations, concrete covers, and the load combinations selected for design remain the same for all foundations, as a rule.
Supports can be copied and moved using drag & drop, even if the "Move/Copy" function is not available in the shortcut menu. This applies to all kinds of supports: nodal supports, line supports, and surface supports. These can easily be assigned to further nodes, lines, or surfaces.
In RFEM and RSTAB, it is possible to move or copy models or parts of the model in a user-defined coordinate system. To use this option, a user-defined coordinate system must be available, of course.
RF-COM/RS-COM is a programmable interface that allows the user to expand the main programs RFEM and RSTAB with customized input macros or post‑processing programs. A tool to copy and move selected guidelines in RFEM will be developed in this article. It is also possible to copy or move the guidelines to another work plane. VBA in Excel will be used as the programming environment.
Lattice towers represent typical applications in steel construction. Examples of this special type of truss structure are antenna and overhead line towers, as well as columns for wind power stations, cable cars, and supporting frame constructions. The modeling can be done individually in RFEM and RSTAB by entering various tower elements. Furthermore, you can use different copy functions and parameterized input options. However, this procedure normally requires considerable effort. It is more convenient to model such structures using prefabricated catalog elements provided by the Block Manager. These elements are automatically stored in the database during program installation. Thus, you can use tower segments, platforms, antenna brackets, cable ducts, and so on as parameterized building blocks for generating diverse tower structures.
You can move and copy objects directly in the display window in order to work more efficiently. If this feature is not desired by the user, you can simply disable it. To do this, right‑click in the display window and select the "Enable Drag & Drop" entry in the shortcut menu.
When modeling a structure, irregular numbering of objects may occur due to copying, dividing lines and members, and so on. Automatic renumbering allows you to restructure the numbering and thus to improve the clear arrangement. This function is applicable to nodes and members as well as for lines, surfaces, and solids in RFEM.
In RFEM and RSTAB, there are two predefined unit profiles available by default. These profiles cover the metric and the imperial systems of measurement. You can individually adjust the units predefined by Dlubal Software, including the decimal places used. To avoid losing the changes you have made, you can save a new profile for the units (see Item [1] in the picture). The stored profile can be loaded again (see Item [2] in the picture) or transferred from PC to PC. To do this, simply copy the content of the "Units" folder in the RFEM or RSTAB file directory from one PC to another (see Item [3] in the picture). In this way, you can achieve an office standard regarding the units used in all your workplaces.
You can quickly copy nodal loads to other nodes using the "Copy Nodal Load" option in the shortcut menu. To do this, select the nodal loads to be copied first, then click the "Copy Nodal Load" option in the shortcut menu. A "Multiple Selection" window appears where you can enter the relevant nodes to which the nodal load is to be copied. After clicking "OK" to close the window, the nodal load is copied.
With the introduction of OSG graphics for the representation of design reinforcement in RF‑CONCRETE Members and CONCRETE, you can also select the reinforcement position directly in the graphic. Right-click the mouse to open the context menu where you can edit, copy, or delete the selected reinforcement position.
In order to meet the requirements for the parameters of special buildings modified according to standard adjustments, you can create new National Annexes from an existing one. To do this, copy the National Annex and adjust the parameters to the requirements.
In order to also consider loading when copying, mirroring, or rotating, the corresponding option must be activated. To do this, select the corresponding check box in the "Detail Settings for Move/Rotate/Mirror" dialog box. Then, loading is included when copying until you deactivate this function.