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Manage design section orders

Tekla Structural Designer
2021
Tekla Structural Designer

Manage design section orders

A design section order is a list of sections you wish to consider for design when the Autodesign property is checked.

The design process commences by starting with the first section in the chosen order file. Any section that fails any of the design conditions is rejected and the design process is then repeated for the next available section in the list.

On completion of the design process, the first satisfactory section from the section designation list is assigned to the member.

View the list of sections in a design section order

You can view the list of sections in a design section order, by following the steps below.

  1. Edit the properties of the member.
  2. Click the Design section order drop list and select <New\Edit...>
  3. Choose a section order from the available list and then click Edit...
The sections contained within the chosen order file appear in the Sections in use list on the right of the page.

Specify that a section in the list should not be considered for design

You can control which sections in a design order list are considered by following the procedure below.

Only checked sections within the list are considered during the design process. Uncheck a section and it will no longer be considered.

Warning: Limiting the choice of sections by unchecking a section within an order file is a global change that affects ALL projects, (not just the currently open one). It is typically used to eliminate unavailable or non-preferred sections from the design process. If design requirements for an individual member require section sizes to be constrained, (due to, for example depth restrictions), then the choice of sections should be limited instead by using Size Constraints, (as these only affect the current member).

Sort the listed sections by a different property

You can sort a design section order list by following the steps below.

While viewing the list of sections:

  1. Click Criteria... to open a dialog for selecting the sort critera.
  2. Select a property from the Available Criteria list and click Add.
  3. Choose the order for sorting (Ascending, or Descending).
  4. Add further criteria as required.
  5. Click OK to close the dialog.
  6. Click Sort to re-order by the chosen criteria.
  7. Having sorted, if you don't want to subsequently move individual sections up or down the list, check Keep sorted to de-activate Move Up and Move Down.
Note: Changing the order of sections within an order file is a global change that affects ALL projects, (not just the currently open one).

Specify that a section is non-preferred

Some sections might be more expensive or difficult to obtain; you might therefore want other sections to be chosen in preference to them, (whilst still keeping them available).

You can achieve this by moving the "non-preferred" sections further down the design order list.

To move a section up or down the list:

  1. If Keep sorted is checked, you must uncheck it in order to activate Move Up and Move Down.
  2. Highlight the section in the Sections in use list and then click Move Down or Move Down to promote or demote it.
Note: Changing the order of sections within an order file is a global change that affects ALL projects, (not just the currently open one).

Reset a design section order back to the original default

If you have made changes to a design order list, the following steps you through resetting the order file to the original default values.

  1. Edit the properties of the member.
  2. Click the Design section order drop list and select <New\Edit...>
  3. In the Select a Section Order dialog, highlight the section order that you want to reset.
  4. Click Reset
The highlighted design section order is reset to its default settings.
Note:

The Reset button is only displayed for the pre-installed section orders. (User defined section orders can be deleted but not reset.)

Create a new Design section order

If you want to create a completely new design section order you can do so as follows:

  1. Edit the properties of a member.
  2. Click the Design section order drop list and select <New\Edit...>
  3. In the Select a Section Order dialog, click Add...
  4. Enter a unique name for the new design section order.
  5. Select the Country and the Section Group required.
  6. Either click Add All to add all the available sections, or highlight just the sections you require and click Add Selected.
    Note: When adding selected sections you can use the Top, Bottom, Above Selected, Below Selected options to specify where they appear in the list. However, these options are ineffective if you have a sort criteria specified and the Keep sorted box is checked.
  7. Sort individual sections in the Sections in use list, using Move Up or Move Down, as required.
  8. When the list of sections in use is as you want it, click OK
The new design section order appears on the list of available section orders.
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