Limitations when using Tekla Connection Designer with Tekla Structural Designer
General
- The analysis results used for the connection design follow the selection (1st order or 2nd order) made on the Analysis page of the Tekla Structural Designer Design Options.
- It is always necessary to export all connection types to Tekla Connection Designer for reporting purposes.
Base plate connections
- When working to either AISC or Eurocode, base plates cannot be transferred to Tekla Connection Designer for design, but can be checked directly in Tekla Structural Designer. For details, see: Column base plate design in the Steel Design Handbook.
- When working to British Standards, base plates cannot be checked directly in Tekla Structural Designer, but can be transferred to Tekla Connection Designer for design. For details, see: Design connections in another application.
- Base plate connections only deal with major axis shear. Hence when transferred to Tekla Connection Designer only one value for shear is available in the Combinations grid. (This is a limitation in the Green Book also.)
- When working to Australian or Indian Standards, base plates cannot be checked in Tekla Structural Designer, or transferred to Tekla Connection Designer for design.
Moment connections
- Although the “Return Connection to TSD” command is available, it does not currently return all connection data back to Tekla Structural Designer. This primarily affects data derived from the connected elements. Therefore, if you make changes in Tekla Structural Designer and then run the analysis or design processes and re-export the connection for checking, you must review the connection data. You may need to manually re-enter some of the settings previously made.
- For beam-to-beam and beam-to-column moment connections that frame in at an angle, the forces in the beam are NOT resolved into the plane of the connection. The designer must assess the impact of this limitation, which depends on the steepness of the angle and the relative magnitudes of the axial and shear forces in the beam.
- For beam-to-column moment connections designed according to Eurocodes, column forces are NOT automatically populated and must be entered manually by the engineer. A warning message, "column forces are not exported," appears in the Process window to indicate this. When entering these values manually, be aware of a reduction factor for the column web in compression. This factor accounts for coincident forces within the column itself, specifically moment and axial force. This reduction factor is known as kwc. In most cases, kwc is 1.0, meaning no reduction is applied. However, if the stress resulting from the column forces is high (greater than 0.7 fy), then kwc will be < 1.0. Refer to Clause 6.2.6.2 (2) for more details.
Simple connections
- It is not currently possible to transfer Simple Connections from Tekla Structural Designer to Tekla Connection Designer.
Hollow section connections
- It is not currently possible to transfer Simple Connections from Tekla Structural Designer to Tekla Connection Designer.
Column splice connections
- Splice connections with significant ‘real’ moments (other than eccentricity moments) cannot currently be transferred from Tekla Structural Designer to Tekla Connection Designer.
Note: Significant 'real' moments being greater
than the Ignore forces for member design below limit in Design
Settings.