Casting direction

To indicate the casting direction of a concrete part, you can define which part face you want to face upwards in the casting form. The top-in-form face is displayed in the front view of a drawing.

Casting direction for concrete and non-concrete parts

To enable this feature for non-concrete parts as well, and to indicate in the model the part face that is shown in the drawing main (front) view, use the advanced option XS_SET_FIXEDMAINVIEW_UDA_TO_AFFECT_NUMBERING.

The casting direction affects the numbering of parts. If you define the casting direction for parts that differ only by their modeling direction, they get different position numbers. This is because the modeling direction affects the top-in-form face of the parts. By default, the casting direction of the parts is undefined, which means the modeling direction does not affect numbering.

Note:

In drawings, use the Fixed coordinate system to show the top-in-form face in the front view.

Example

In the following example, each cast unit gets a different position number, because the top-in-form setting and the orientation of the panels is different. The red arrow indicates the modeling direction.

In the following example, the cast units get the same position number, because their top-in-form setting has not been defined. The red arrow indicates the modeling direction.

Define the casting direction of a part

You can define the casting direction for concrete parts.

Set the rendering of parts to Rendered by doing one of the following:
- On the View tab, click Rendering > Parts rendered.
- Press Ctrl + 4.
Select a concrete part.
Right-click and select Cast Unit > Set Top in Form Face.
Select the part face that will face upwards in the form.

Tip:

Alternatively, you can do this in the user-defined attributes of the part.

Concrete parts: Select an option for the Top in form face user-defined attribute.
Non-concrete parts: With XS_SET_FIXEDMAINVIEW_UDA_TO_AFFECT_NUMBERING set to STEEL, TIMBER, and/or MISC, select an option for the Fixed drawing main view user-defined attribute.

Show the top-in-form face

You can display the top-in-form face of a concrete part in a model view.

On the Concrete tab, click Cast unit > Show top-in-form face.
Click the concrete part whose top-in-form face you want to show.

Tekla Structures highlights the top-in-form face in red:

Tip:

To hide the top-in-form face again, right-click the view and select Update Window.