Design timber members using Tekla Tedds

Tekla Structural Designer
2021
Tekla Structural Designer

Design timber members using Tekla Tedds

Design a selection

To design several timber members or groups in one go:

  1. Select all the timber members you want to design.

  2. Right click and select Design using Tekla Tedds> Selection

    Tekla Structural Designer highlights the first member or group in the selection and a Tedds dialog opens displaying the design forces at the member's first design section.

    Note: If grouped design is active, a single grouped design is performed for each group included in the selection using critical design forces established from all members in the group (irrespective of whether or not they were included in the selection). At the end of the process all members in each designed group are checked, (irrespective of whether or not they were included in the selection).
  3. Using the results preview, design the member's first design section for its critical design forces, then if there is a second section design that also.
  4. When all sections are satisfactory, click Finish.

    Tekla Structural Designer highlights the next member or group in the selection and the Tedds dialog re-opens to allow it to be designed.

    Continue in the same way until all the selected members/groups have been designed.

    Note: If a section is changed during the design to a size that does not exist in Tekla Structural Designer's Timber Section database, it will be automatically added to the local section database that exists for the current model only.

Design a group

If you have activated timber member design groups, each group can be designed as follows:

  1. In the Project Workspace, click Groups tab.
  2. In the Design tree, expand Timber Beams, Timber Columns, or Timber Braces as required.
    Note: When designing timber brace pairs, the groups for these are always located under Timber Braces and not Timber X Braces, A Braces, V Braces, K Braces. These latter groups are used for editing purposes only, but not design.
  3. In the Design tree, right-click the timber member group you want to design.
    1. It can be useful at this point to click Select in visible views to confirm all the group members.
  4. In the context menu, select Design using Tekla Tedds> Group.
    This design gathers the analysis results for all members in the group and collates them into one set of critical design forces. (In effect assuming that all the worst case loads are happening on one member simultaneously.)
  5. Using the results preview, design the first design section in the group for its critical design forces, then if there is a second section design that also.
  6. When all sections are satisfactory, click Finish.

    If the section size was changed during the design, all members of the group are updated to the new section.

    Irrespective of whether the section has been changed or not, all members in the group are then automatically checked against only the loads that they see individually. A pass fail status and utilization ratio is calculated accordingly for each one.

  7. In the Review View, review the utilization ratios for all members in the group - if these indicate an efficient design, the design can stop at this point.
    Note: For columns in particular, the envelope of critical design forces applied to members of the group can be overly conservative - e.g. if some columns are loaded about one axis, and some loaded about the other, they are all designed as if loaded about both axes.

If the utilizations indicate the existing grouping is not very efficient, you can investigate alternative grouping arrangements by adding extra groups as necessary and re-allocating members between the groups. You might also consider individually designing grouped members (as described below) when optimizing the groups.

Design a grouped member

If after running a grouped design some group members have a lower than desired utilization, you can re-design them individually to investigate the effect optimizing them would have on the rest of the group.

  1. Highlight a group member which has a lower than desired utilization, right click and select Design using Tekla Tedds> Member

    The analysis results of the selected member are used to establish the set of critical design forces.

  2. Optimize the design of the member for its forces.

  3. Click Finish.

  4. If the section size was changed during the design, all members of the group are updated to the new section and checked against only the loads that they see individually.

  5. In the Review View, review the new utilizations for the group members - note that some of the group might now be failing.

  6. Using the new utilizations to better inform you choice, add extra groups as necessary and re-allocating members between the groups.

  7. Run Design using Tekla Tedds> Group for each of the new groups.

  8. Iterate the process as necessary until the groups are fully optimized.

Design an ungrouped member

If you have elected not to make use of design groups, each member can be designed individually as follows:

  1. Highlight the member, right click and select Design using Tekla Tedds> Member

  2. Tekla Structural Designer highlights the member and a Tedds dialog opens displaying the design forces at the member's first design section.

  3. Using the results preview, design the member's first design section for its critical design forces, then if there is a second section design that also.
  4. When all sections are satisfactory, click Finish.

  5. If the section size was changed during the design, it is updated to the new section in the Tekla Structural Designer model.

  6. The member status and utilization are displayed in the member tooltip.

Design model

If you want to design every timber (and precast) member in the model in one go:

  1. In the Project Workspace, click Group tab.

  2. In the tree, right-click Groups.

  3. In the context menu, select Design using Tekla Tedds > Model

    At the end of the process the status and utilization of each member is displayed in a Review View.

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