New fabrication drawings - create single-part, assembly, and cast unit drawings more efficiently

Tekla Structures
2022
Tekla Structures

New fabrication drawings - create single-part, assembly, and cast unit drawings more efficiently

Expanding on Tekla Structures in-product intelligence, the 2022 version of Tekla Structures provides a more efficient and simple way of creating fabrication assembly drawings for both steel and precast customers alike.

Fabrication drawings is a new, more efficient and straightforward method for creating single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings. It is a combination of the existing tools for creating single-part, assembly and cast unit drawings and the new functionality that reduces the amount of repetitive work in the drawing creation process.

Similarly to the current functionality, you can create drawings by using saved settings predefined for different model objects, or by using existing drawings in your model as templates. What is new in the fabrication drawings functionality is that it provides better management capabilities over the creation process, allowing you to select settings for every individual model object or, alternatively, select the best matching drawing template automatically detected in the current model.

The new functionality provides the following benefits:

  • Automatic selection of the best matching drawing in the current model

    Unlike the previous functionality, the new functionality eliminates non-productive effort spent on searching for similar drawing templates, as Tekla Structures does this automatically.

  • Mass creation of drawings in one click by using different drawing templates or saved settings

    Create drawings for miscellaneous object types at one go instead of spending time on selecting specific settings or cloning templates for every model object separately.

  • Simplified workflow and user interface

    Drawing creation and drawing cloning functionalities are centralized in one place.

  • Flexible control over creation methods

    The new functionality provides a clear division between the creation of drawings from saved settings and from drawing templates, and allows you to use these two choices interchangeably.

  • Possibility to create drawings for all objects included in an assembly or cast unit

    Let Tekla Structures detect all sub-assemblies and parts that belong to the selected assembly or cast unit, and create drawings for all of them in one click by enabling the Associated parts or Associated sub-assemblies option.

What happened to the old drawing creation commands

The fabrication drawings feature intends to replace the following drawing creation commands:

  • Create single-part drawing (W)
  • Create assembly drawing (A)
  • Create cast unit drawing (C)

These commands have been removed from the ribbon, context menu and contextual toolbar. They are still available in Quick Launch.

The commands for creating drawings and for opening Master drawing catalog are now placed directly on the Drawings & reports tab instead of a drop-down list.

How to start

  • First select objects in the model.

    Note:

    To create assembly drawings, ensure that the Select assemblies selection switch is active in the model before you select any objects. Alternatively, you can use appropriate selection filters and the Object visibility options in the Creation review dialog box to define the objects for which you want to create drawings.

    If you have selected parts in the model, a message is displayed asking you to confirm if you want to create single-part drawings. If you want to create single-part drawings, click OK, otherwise click Cancel.

    This is how the ribbon drop-down looks by default when you have selected objects and enabled both switches:

  • Enable or disable the Creation review and Smart create switches depending on whether you want to create drawings immediatelly, or open the Creation review dialog box for more controlled creation process.

  • Select the Create fabrication drawing command from the ribbon, context menu or contextual toolbar. Tekla Structures creates the drawings immediately, or opens the Creation review dialog box for more controlled creation process, depending on your switch selection.

Create drawings fast with Smart create

  • To create drawings fast based on the best matching drawing template in the current model, select objects in the model, enable the Smart create switch only, and select Create fabrication drawing on the ribbon, context menu or contextual toolbar. If a matching drawing is not found, drawings are created from the settings applied in the drawing properties dialog box.

Keep the Smart create switch disabled if you do not want Tekla Structures to search for the best matching drawing template. When the switch is disabled, and you select the Create fabrication drawing command, the Creation review dialog box opens, and you are proposed to create drawings from Applied settings for all listed model objects.

Note that Smart create does not look for the best matching drawing template for single-part and rebar assembly objects.

Control drawing creation with Creation review

  • To have more control over the drawing creation process, select the objects in the model, ensure that you have both the Creation review and Smart create switch enabled, and select Create fabrication drawing on the ribbon, context menu or contextual toolbar. Select the needed options and settings described below, and click Create.

After the tool has completed the evaluation of model objects, the Creation review dialog box is displayed with a list of the selected objects, and the best matching drawing templates for each individual object are shown in the Create from column.

Select the desired options and settings:

  • When you have Smart create enabled, you can select any other drawing template from the current or any other model in the drop-down list, and use search to find the drawing template.

  • When you have Smart create enabled, you can select from the current model the drawing objects whose drawings you want to use as a template. To do this, select Select from model..., and select the object from the model among the objects that are available for selection.
  • To define whether certain drawing objects should be recreated by using the settings of the selected drawing template or applied settings, open the Smart create overrides dialog box.

  • To use applied settings only, disable Smart create. By default, if the best matching template has not been found, Smart create is disabled automatically and Applied settings becomes available. You can open the drop-down list to select any other saved settings.

  • Clear the check boxes in front of the model objects to prevent the creation of drawings for these objects.
  • To select the same best matching template or applied settings for several model objects, hold down Shift or Ctrl, select the model objects, and then select the desired best matching template or applied settings in the Create from column.

  • Enable or disable the following Object visibility options to control which objects are displayed in the Creation review dialog box:

    • Assemblies: Lists selected assemblies.
      • Associated parts: Lists selected parts associated to assemblies.
      • Associated sub-assemblies. Lists selected sub-assemblies associated to assemblies.
    • Parts: Lists all selected parts.
    • Objects that have drawings: Lists objects that already have drawings.
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