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Create and modify wall supports

Tekla Structural Designer
Modified: 31 Oct 2025
2025
Tekla Structural Designer

Create and modify wall supports

Point supports under columns or other 1d elements are covered elsewhere, for details see: Create supports.

Specify wall support fixity

Note: Supports can only be edited for both mid-pier and meshed concrete walls via the wall properties.
  1. Select the wall, (making sure you select the entire wall rather than an individual wall panel).
  2. In the Properties window, expand Wall support.
  3. Specify the Fx, Fy, Fz, Mx, My and Mz degrees of freedom (dof) as either "Fixed", or "Free" according to your needs.
  4. If you want to define a spring in a particular direction, you can do so as follows:
    1. Ensure the appropriate dof is set to "Free", then change the corresponding Translational or Rotational stiffness from "Release" to "Spring linear", or "Spring non-linear", as required.
    2. For a linear spring, specify the stiffness.
    3. For a non-linear spring, specify the -ve and +ve stiffnesses, and the -ve and +ve Fmax values.

Automatically generate a support when placing a wall

  1. In the Properties window, ensure Automatically generate support is selected.
  2. Place the wall.
If there are no members or slabs underneath it capable of providing support, a support will be automatically generated which adopts the support fixity specified under Wall support in the wall properties.

Add a support to an existing unsupported wall

Note: Supports can only be added to existing mid-pier and meshed concrete walls via the wall properties.
  1. Select the wall
  2. In the Properties window, unselect Automatically generate support.
  3. In the Properties window, select the Generate support option.
A support is created which adopts the support fixity specified under Wall support in the wall properties.

Remove a wall support

Note: Supports can only be removed for both mid-pier and meshed concrete walls via the wall properties.
  1. Select the wall
  2. In the Properties window, if Automatically generate support is selected, unselect it.
  3. In the Properties window, unselect Generate support.
    Note: Generate support is only available for editing if Automatically generate support is inactive. When Automatically generate support is selected, Generate support is automatically cleared if members are created underneath a wall to support it. Similarly, Generate support is automatically reselected, if the supporting members are deleted.

Graphic representation

  • Fully fixed wall supports: When a wall support is fully fixed (all 6 degrees of freedom are fixed), it is represented in 3D views as a rectangular prism.

  • Other wall support configurations: For all other wall support configurations, a triangular prism is used.

Color customization:

To differentiate between support types, you can configure distinct colors for fixed, pinned, linear spring, and non-linear spring supports as follows:

  1. On the Home ribbon, select Settings.
  2. In the Settings dialog, select Scene > Colors
  3. Expand the Support heading in the table and select the colors for the support types as required.

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