Organize the rebar catalog view

You can organize the rebar catalog view in the Rebar catalog dialog box to suit your needs and ways of working. For example, you can change how the rebar definitions are grouped, hide certain property columns, or change the order of the property columns. You can also filter definitions and mark them with stars and tags.

Some of these methods work the same way also in the Select rebar dialog box; grouping by some of the properties, showing and hiding property columns, changing the order of the columns, filtering, and starring. The Select rebar dialog box opens when you click the ... button next to the Size box in a reinforcement object's properties, or in a component dialog box to select a rebar definition.

The status bar at the bottom of the Rebar catalog and Select rebar dialog boxes shows useful information, such as:

The number of definitions in the selected group.
The property by which the definitions are grouped.
The property by which the definitions are sorted.

The arrow symbol indicates if the sort order is ascending or descending .

In the Rebar catalog dialog box, the status bar also shows the number of the selected definitions.

The changes you make to the dialog box layout are automatically saved to the rebar_catalog.settings.UI file in the ..\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Trimble\Tekla Structures\<version>\Catalogs\ folder. Tekla Structures will use the saved layout next time you open the dialog box.

Show or hide the catalog ribbon

If needed, you can show or hide the ribbon in the Rebar catalog dialog box and in the Select rebar dialog box.

By default, the ribbon is shown in the Rebar catalog dialog box, but hidden in the Select rebar dialog box.

To show the ribbon, click the down arrow at the right end of the (Home) ribbon title bar.
To hide the ribbon, click the up arrow at the right end of the (Home) ribbon title bar.

Change the grouping of rebar definitions

You can select the property by which the rebar definitions are grouped in the rebar catalog. By default, the rebar definitions are grouped by grade.

On the File menu, click Catalogs > Rebar catalog to open the Rebar catalog dialog box.

Alternatively, you can use the Select rebar dialog box.
Click Group by, and then select the property by which you want to group the rebar definitions.

For example, you can select Size or Cross section area.

The definitions can also be grouped by a property whose property column is not visible.

The properties that are available may vary in the Rebar catalog and Select rebar dialog boxes.

Work with property columns in the catalog view

You can organize the rebar catalog view in the Rebar catalog dialog box and in the Select rebar dialog box by showing and hiding the property columns, and by changing the order, sort order, and width of the columns.

The Star column is always visible and you cannot hide it.


To	Do this
Show or hide a property column	Click Show columns to open a list of the available property columns. A check mark in front of a column name indicates that the column is visible. To show a column, click the column name to add a check mark in front of the column name. To hide a column, click the column name to remove the check mark.
Change the order of the property columns	Drag a column header to a new location.
Change the sort order of a property column	Click the column header. The arrow symbol next to the column header indicates if the sort order is ascending or descending . To sort values by two properties and in two columns: Sort by one column. Hold down Shift and then sort by the other column.
Resize a property column	Drag the edge between this and the following column header. For example: You can also click Fit columns to adjust the widths of the visible columns so that the longest value in each column (or the column header in the shape catalog) is shown. This does not affect the widths of the columns you have manually resized.

Filter rebar definitions

You can filter rebar definitions in both the Rebar catalog dialog box and the Select rebar dialog box. You can use filtering together with the other methods, such as sorting, to narrow down the number of definitions shown in the rebar catalog view.

On the File menu, click Catalogs > Rebar catalog to open the Rebar catalog dialog box.

Alternatively, you can use the Select rebar dialog box.
In the Filter box, enter the search term or filtering criteria.

For example, to find rebar definitions that are suitable for stirrups and ties, enter tie.

Tekla Structures shows the groups that contain matching definitions.
Select a group.

Tekla Structures shows the matching definitions in the group, for example, the definitions that have Usage set to tie/stirrup.

Add stars to rebar definitions

You can mark important or preferred rebar definitions with stars, so that you can easily find these definitions later. The definitions that are marked with yellow stars appear in the Starred group in the rebar catalog. Starring is user-specific, so it is only visible to you.

The starring settings are stored in the current model folder in the rebar_catalog.settings.user.<username> file, where the <username> suffix is your username.

If you have starred definitions, the Rebar catalog dialog box opens with the Starred group selected.

On the File menu, click Catalogs > Rebar catalog to open the Rebar catalog dialog box.

Alternatively, you can use the Select rebar dialog box.
Browse or search for the definitions that you want to mark with stars.
In the definition list, click the white star symbol in the Star column for each definition that you want to add to the Starred group.

By default, the Star column is the first column and the star symbol is at the beginning of each definition row.

The star symbol turns yellow and the definition is added to the Starred group.
To remove the starring from a definition, click the yellow star symbol on the definition row.

The star symbol turns white again and the definition is removed from the Starred group.

Add tags to rebar definitions

In the Rebar catalog dialog box, you can add tags to rebar definitions. You can use tags to add keywords or other metadata to the definitions.

For example, you could use tags like Stainless and Acid proof.

Tags are model-specific and saved to the rebar_catalog.settings file in the current model folder.

On the File menu, click Catalogs > Rebar catalog to open the Rebar catalog dialog box.
Select the definitions that you want to tag.
Enter the tag in the Tags box at the bottom-right corner of the Rebar catalog dialog box, and then press Enter.

To add several tags to a definition, enter the next tag in the next tag box and press Enter.

Each group of tagged definitions appears with the symbol in the list of groups, after the Starred group:
To remove a tag from a definition, select the definition and click the X symbol after the tag name in the Tags section in the property area.
To delete a tag completely, select the tagged group, select all the definitions in the group, and then click the X symbol after the tag name in the Tags section in the property area.
Click Save to save the changes to the rebar catalog.