Adding Couplers on Rebars

You can add couplers between bars. In infrastructure projects, in which density of rebars is important, couplers are frequently used to avoid making the rebars overlapping.

To help you find the reference information you need to use the content delivered along with your app, you can consult the 3DEXPERIENCE Native Apps Content User's Guide.

Before you begin:
  • Open a rebar layer containing several bars.
  • Create a rebar split. You can also launch Rebar Split from the Rebar Accessories dialog box.
  • The Coupler ObjectTypes and the configuration table provided by Dassault Systèmes are available in the following resource directory: \startup\Civil\Rebars. The ObjectType is stored as content in a dedicated 3Dxml file that must be imported as a Reference. You can use these object types of couplers as an example to define yours.
  • The app optional content is not automatically installed along with the code. Contact your administrator if you must install the files you need. For more information, see Install Optional Content. You can also see Installation and Setup:Install: 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: Installing 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Services for the First Time: Installing Services One-by-One: Native Apps: Installing Native Apps: Installing a Native App.
  1. From the Reinforcement section of the action bar, click Rebar Accessories .
    The Rebar Accessories dialog box opens.
  2. To choose a coupler type, click Define by type .
  3. Choose either of the couplers:
    • Fixed coupler: is linked to a configuration table.
    • Adaptive coupler: adapts to the bar's geometry. It is a means to share your design with other designers even if you do not have the manufacturer's bar diameters.

    A Most Recently Used functionality is available to directly select the favorite coupler.

  4. Select a fixed coupler in the list.
  5. To display a preview of the selected object type in a side panel, click Template Helper .
    A template viewer opens next to the Rebar Accessories dialog box and displays the shape of the object type and axis systems.

    In the Helper, you can move and zoom in the coupler object type. Click again the same element (axis system or support) and the object type moves back to its initial position.

    To close the Helper, click or

  6. Optional: To ghost/unghost the elements that are not couplers, click .
  7. To change the color of the created couplers, click the color picker button .
  8. To select the layers to be linked by couplers, do either of the following:
    • Select two layers in the 3D area or in the tree.
    • When no rebar split exists, click Rebar Split to split the bars where the couplers need to be located.

      The Rebar Split dialog box is displayed. You can split the bars where the couplers need to be located. When you quit the command, the layers created by this command are then used to place the couplers at each split location.

      If a Rebar Split feature already exists, it can also be picked in the tree to directly select the related split layers.

      As a split has been created, only couplers compatible with the bar's diameters, are proposed on each split in the 3D area. They are placed on the axes that have been created on the split rebars.

      Notes:
      • If at least one layer has a hook at the extremity to connect, a message is displayed indicating that the layer with the hook cannot be selected.
      • Couplers can be set on bars that are not threaded because the threaded property is not managed on rebar layers.
      • If a configuration exists, once the Rebar layers are selected, the designations available in the Object Type's configuration table are filtered: only the coupler designations with internal diameters fitting with the bar diameters of the selected layers are proposed. If no matching designation is found in the list, an error is raised. This is the default behavior. A filter button is available to activate or deactivate the filtering of configuration.
      • The template parameters of the selected ObjectType are duplicated and displayed in an expander of the command. Those parameters are greyed out if they match the PSet parameters set in the Object Type’s configuration table (they are overloaded by the PSet parameter values). The PSet and Qto parameters are also replicated in a dedicated expander.
    After clicking Apply/OK, the udf coupler will be instantiated between each bar to connect.

    When you click Apply, a progress bar at the bottom of the dialog box indicates the progression of an action. It is accompanied by a textual information, for instance: 30/50 rebars, to know the time needed for rebar creation.

    To stop the computation, press the Escape, then computation is stopped and the feature returns to the state before this computation.

  9. Create Coupler Object Types that are reusable parametric predefined objects to be used in civil engineering domain.

    For more information, see the Building and Civil Assemblies User's Guide: Defining Object Types: Defining Object Types.

    You can shape couplers in the 3D area through an udf file/template that must be embedded in a coupler objectType. The parameterization of the udf file/template enables to generate a lot of different coupler/anchor elements. But the Object Types are not suitable, you can define your own udf file/template in a new ObjectType. This ObjectType is proposed in addition to the default ones.

    To be recognized, a coupler Object Type must respect the following rules:

    • When creating an Object Type of Reinforcing Coupler type by selecting Add > Content in the list (or press Ctrl+N) in the top bar. The IFC standard does not describe the rebar coupler elements. Then the extensions of IfcMechanicalFastener element and type in the 3DExperience platform are added and inherited to have the rebar coupler objects and types available in the platform along with the dedicated PropertySet.
    • In the Objet Type creation dialog box, you must select Distribution.
    • Specify the Coupler attributes for your object type: those attributes are the PSet attributes of coupler element type. Qto attributes are computed by the command; no needed to fill in the field.
    • Templates: an udf file and a template generating a 3D volume for the coupler are mandatory. An Axis system named Base Axis System is expected as input. Its X axis is in the longitudinal direction of the coupler. The origin of the Axis system is centered between the bars extremity to couple. The coupler bolts are just designed for Interference check purpose, there is no behavior expected from them. A coupler can be created between two bars that have different diameters, which explains the existence of the InternalDiameter/InternalSecondDiameter and InternalSmallDiameter/InternalSmallSecondDiameter parameters.
    • Configuration: a configuration table is mandatory, in addition to the udf file/template, in the ObjectType. An accurate format is expected for this Design Table:

      • First row (header):

        The first cell must be named Designation.

        In the other cells: to overload a PSet attribute, the column title must be formatted as PSetName_PSetParameterName (for example: AecMechanicalFastenerCouplerType_NominalDiameter).

      • Other rows:

        The first cell must define the coupler/anchor configuration name.

        The other cells must contain the parameters dimension of the coupler to describe the configuration. As an example, look at the provided configuration table of couplers stored in \startup\Civil\Rebars.