D. Connection Tags XML File Schema
When you initiate a connection tags action for the first time from the right-click pop-up menu, you will be prompted to select a Connection Tags XML file for use with creating and checking connection tags.
ConnectionTagFile
The <ConnectionTagFile> element is the root element for a STAAD.Pro Connection Tags file. Within a ConnectionTagFile element two types of data: connection categories and connection tags.
Categories
The <Categories> element contains individual connection categories. Typically a connection tags file contains both Moment and Shear categories.
CategoryDesc
The <CategoryDesc> element is used to provide a human readable description for the parent connection category. It can contain any alpha-numeric string.
Equation
The <Equation> element contains a user-defined equation.
Contains | n/a (empty element ) |
Contained by | Equations |
Attributes |
EquationID (required, string), Equation (required, string), Condition (required, string), Limit(required, decimal) See " Equations Guidelines " for details on writing equation and condition values. |
Tag
The <Tag> element contains an end release definition and a set of connection capacities to be used for checking connection tags.
EndRelease
The <Tag> element is used to specify the end release conditions to be used with a connection tag.
Contains | n/a (empty element ) |
Contained by | Tag |
Attributes | FX (required, restricted
integer),
FY (required, restricted integer), FZ (required, restricted integer), MX (required, restricted integer), MY (required, restricted integer), MZ (required, restricted integer) The range for these attributes is:
|
Capacities
The <Capacities> element contains one or more connection capacity value sets for a specific system of units.
BeamOrCol
The <BeamOrCol> element is used to specify connection capacity bending and shear capacities for a specific member, or for the default member.
Contains | n/a (empty element ) |
Contained by | Beam |
Attributes |
Name (required, string), Mz.cap (required, decimal), Fx.cap (required, decimal), Fz.cap (required, decimal) alpha (required, decimal) See D. Connection Tags Capacity Checks for details on how these values are used. See " Use of Wild Cards " for details on using defaults. |
Check
The <Check> element is used to specify connection capacity between specified members required for checking connections.
Use of Wild Cards
Instead of specifying the capacities and other details for each individual beam or column section, "wild card" entries can be used. This is particularly useful when the remaining attributes are the same for multiple sections.
Example using the Default wild card:
<Beam Name="UB203x102x23">
<BeamOrCol Name="Default" Mz.cap="35.9156" Fx.cap="207.3451" Fz.cap="" />
</Beam>
Equations Guidelines
The following table contains the expressions that can be evaluated for user-defined equations:
Digits/Characters | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | . | , |
Binary Operators | + | - | * | / | ||||||||
Unary Operators | + | - | ||||||||||
Parenthesis | ( | ) | ||||||||||
Symbols | PI | |||||||||||
Functions | ABS | POW | ROUND | SQRT | ||||||||
MAX | MIN | SIN | COS | TAN | ASIN | ACOS | ATAN | LN | LOG | EXP | ||
Reserved Keywords (variables) | [MZ.CAP] | [FX.CAP] | [FZ.CAP] | [FX] | [FY] | [FZ] | [MX] | [MY] | [MZ] |
Notes:
- "," (comma) can only be used with the POW function
- The ROUND function rounds off to the nearest integer, not to a certain decimal place
- Condition attributes should include any one of the following:
- Reserved keywords should be specified with square brackets
- Reserved keywords, symbols, functions, and conditions are not case sensitive.