In the Steel Joint add-on, you can use not only the usual member types of "Beam", "Truss", and so on, but also the member type of "Result Beam", as well as cross-sections from surface elements. You should select a suitable cross-section for the result beam and then define any member openings in the surface model using the member editor.
The "Results by Story" table of a building model shows the center of gravity for load cases and load combinations. In addition to the self-weight, the vertical loads of the respective load cases and load combinations are also taken into account.
You can also use the "Center of Gravity and Information About Selected Objects" dialog box to display the center of gravity, taking into account the selected loading.
The "Surface Contact" component in the Steel Joints add-on allows you to take into account a pressure contact between two parallel plates/member plates. Furthermore, you can optionally consider the friction between the surfaces.
The "Stub" component is available to you in the Steel Joints add-on. It allows you to extend a member using a purlin joint with another member (stub) and to connect it to a reference component.
You can neglect openings with a certain area in the building model calculation. This function can be activated in the global settings of the building stories. A warning message appears saying that the openings have been neglected.
In the Steel Joint add-on, you can arrange plates in various geometry shapes. In addition to the "Rectangle" and "Circle" shapes, the "Polygon" shape is also available. The polygonal shape is defined by entering the point coordinates.
Both optimization methods have one thing in common. At the end of the process, they provide you with a list of model mutations from the stored data. Here you can find the details of the controlling optimization result and the associated value assignment of the optimization parameters. This list is organized in descending order. You can find the assumed best solution shown in the first line. For this, the optimization result with its determined value assignment is closest to the optimization criterion. All add-on results have a utilization < 1. Furthermore, once the analysis is completed, the program will adjust the value assignment to that of the optimal solution for the optimization parameters in the global parameter list.
In the material dialog boxes, you can find the additional tabs "Cost Estimation" and "Estimation of CO2 Emissions". They show you the individual estimated sums of the assigned members, surfaces, and solids per unit weight, volume, and area. Furthermore, these tabs show the total cost and emission of all assigned materials. This gives you a good overview of your project.
When modeling stories, you can use the "Semi-Rigid Diaphragm" option for slabs.
In principle, this modeling option selects the same approach as for the "Rigid Diaphragm" modeling of stories. In contrast to the rigid diaphragm, no nodal coupling is carried out from the center of gravity to each FE node. This way, it is possible to take into account the flexibility of the slab.
In the Steel Joint add-on, you can define several ribs at the same time on one member or plate. The distribution can be carried out according to an orthogonal and a polar pattern.
You can use the "Plate Cut" component to cut plates (for example, gusset plates, fin plates, and so on). Various cutting methods are available:
Plane: The cut is performed on the closest surface to the reference plate.
Surface: Only the intersecting parts of plates are cut.
Bounding Box: The outermost dimension consisting of width and height is cut out of the plate as a rectangle.
Convex Hull: The outer hull of the cross-section is used for the plate cut. If there are fillets at the corner nodes of the cross-section, the cut is adapted to them.
The building story generator in the Building Model add-on provides you with the option to automatically create building stories, depending on the topology of the model.
For each load case, the deformations can be displayed at the end time.
These results are also documented for you in the printout report of RFEM and RSTAB. You can select the report contents and extent specifically for the individual design checks.
Building stone on stone has a long tradition in construction. The Masonry Design add-on for RFEM allows you to design masonry using the finite element method. It was developed as part of the research project DDMaS - Digitizing the Design of Masonry Structures. Here, the material model represents the nonlinear behavior of the brick-mortar combination in the form of macro-modeling. Do you want to find out more?
Automatic generation of FE analysis models: The add-on automatically creates a finite element model (FE) of the steel connection in the background.
Consideration of all internal forces: The calculation and design checks include all internal forces (N, Vy, Vz, My, Mz, MT) and are not limited to planar loading.
Automatic load transfer: All load combinations are automatically transferred to the FE analysis model of the connection. The loads are transferred directly from RFEM, so manual data input is not necessary.
Efficient modeling: The add-on saves you time when modeling complex connection situations. You can also save the created FE analysis model and use it further for your own detailed analyses.
Extensible library: An extensive and extensible library with predefined steel connection templates is available.
Wide applicability: The add-on is suitable for connections of any type and shape, compatible with almost all rolled, welded, built-up, and thin-walled cross-sections.