Is it possible to reverse the direction of a concrete beam detail drawing?

Not version-specific

Tekla Structural Designer

Environment

Not environment-specific

Question

I am trying to generate a concrete beam detail drawing but would like the generated drawing to detail the beam in the opposite direction. Is it possible to reverse the direction the beam is detailed in?

Answer

Entities in Tekla Structural Designer have a span direction. You can see this by turning on the Scene Content > Members > Direction option. An arrow is drawn on top of the entity to denote the direction of the member. In the screenshot below the entity arrow goes from gridline 1-2-3.

When you generate a detailed drawing it is always laid out on the DXF from left to right but follows the direction of the entity arrow.

To layout the entity in the opposite direction you can use the Edit ribbon tab > Reverse command to change the direction of the beam. In the screenshot below the entity arrow is now from gridline 3-2-1

Note that reversing the direction of the entity will in-validate the design and hence a Design command needs to be undertaken again.

If we generate the concrete beam detailed after reversing the element direction and updating the design we can see the drawing now displays the beam in the opposite direction as required. i.e. from left to right with the beam drawn from gridline 3-2-1.