About Braces

When you add a brace to a building, you place it between two points. For the beginning and the ending points, use points on grid segments or on the neutral-axis of beams, columns, beams within beam patterns, or other braces.

Buildings and Civil Structures Design supports two types of braces:

• Cast braces - These are braces cast specifically for the building project. These braces include cast concrete braces.
• Catalog braces - These are the braces that you select from a catalog of commercially available member shapes. These braces include steel braces.

As with other structural members, Buildings and Civil Structures Design requires a structural grid as a prerequisite to adding braces. Cast braces require a building grid for the structural grid. For catalog braces, you can use either a building grid or a reference plane grid.

The grid can include curved grid segments. With curved grid segments, you can create braces that extend to curved segments. Once you place braces in a building, the system automatically updates member locations whenever someone revises the structural grid.