AD.2007-06.4.1 AutoPIPE Integration Enhancements
An enhancement to how pipe/structure connections are assigned has been made to the Piping module. A new Support Connection Wizard is available to allow you to add multiple supports to the entire model or a subset of a model, based on some general parameters.
Potential connections will be determined after step 4 and fully created at the end of step 5.
Potential connections will be determined by finding the closest beams and closest nodes to each pipe node. In the previewing stage the closest five items, along with a "to ground" option, will be available as options to you, sorted by distance.
Parameter Page / Connection Finder
The connection finding routine runs in two parts. First looking at beams (length of perpendicular from beam) and then looking at nodes (straight line length). The five closest found connectable points are saved to be presented on the results page. In order to provide control over the connection finder, several parameters are available to you for editing. The default values of distance-based parameters will depend on the base unit of STAAD.Pro.
- General
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- Max. Range: double: default 2m / 6’ : Potential connections beyond Max. Range will be discarded.
- Insert nodes into beams at connection points: default true : This parameter effects the connection of the structures rather the point finding algorithm. If set true a new node will be created at each intermediate beam point and the connection made to that rather than to the beam itself. If the algorithm finds new node points within "End Tolerance" of each other then only one new node will be added.
- Beam
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- End Tolerance : double : default 5cm /2" : To allow for differences in precision and to avoid very short beam breaks this parameter will determine at what distance from the node the perpendicular will be considered to be at the node itself.
- Allow Non-Perpendicular Connection at End Nodes: Boolean : default true: This is only really relevant if the node subset does not explicitly include the nodes at the end of members in the beam subset. If set "true" the beam end nodes will be included in the node search. If set ‘false’ the end nodes of a given beam will only be considered for connections perpendicular to the beam, unless they have been explicitly added to the node subset.
This page has no effect on structure diagrams. The connection finding routine is run when advancing from this page.