Creating a Rebar Wire from a Smart Sketch Plane

You can define a sketch plane on the fly, by hovering over and selecting a planar/curved surface, an edge, a plane or a point, before switching to the Sketcher app. If the plane is not suitable, you can position it with commands available in a context toolbar.

You can solve rebar self-intersection in the Rebar Creation dialog box and obtain a 3D valid profile for the bar. You can choose the distance used for the bar spacing at the crossing location and the position of the final wire with respect to the Sketch support.

See Also
Creating Rebars on the Fly
Creating an Additional Wire
About the Wire Selection Mode
  1. From the Reinforcement section of the action bar, click Rebar Creation .
  2. Click Wire selection to define a rebar layer based on wires.
  3. To define a plane, click Smart Sketch Plane .
  4. Hover over a planar or curved surface, an edge, a plane or a point.
    Depending on your selection, the result is as follows:
    Selection Result

    A planar surface



    		 The plane of the surface is proposed and the origin of the plane is the mouse cursor position.

    A curved surface



    		 A tangent plane to the curved surface is proposed and the origin of the plane is the mouse cursor position. The plane normal vector is the normal vector of the face at the cursor position.

    An edge



    		 A normal plane to the edge is proposed and the origin of the plane is the cursor position.

    A plane



    		 An offset plane to the selected plane is proposed and the origin of the created plane is the origin of the selected plane.

    A point

    If the point is a point on curve or a tangent point (with specifications), the origin of the plane is the point itself. The plane is created normal to the support of the point.

    If the point is a 3D point (with coordinates), the plane of the last flown over surface or edge is proposed, and the origin of the plane is the point itself.
    Note: At this stage, press Escape to go back to the Rebar Creation panel and click Cancel, or click the geometry to validate the plane position.

    You can refine this position by using manipulators and context toolbar commands to edit it more accurately in the 3D area.

  5. Pick an element according to your needs.

    In the example below, when you select an edge, a dimension is displayed.



    Some geometric features (point, plane) are aggregated under the current Rebar layer feature, visible in the Geometrical Set in the tree, under the Wire selection node. And a manipulator is proposed in the 3D area:

    Notes:

    Once you have initialized your design, you can refine its positioning by editing/isolating some elements of the sketch plane.

    Once the Sketch plane is validated by the Smart Sketch Plane command, you can no longer re-enter the command. If you need to modify the plane, use the context toolbar options (see next step).

  6. Click the dimension and change its value in the Parameter Definition panel.
  7. Optional: Modify the plane position by selecting the context toolbar options of your choice:
    OptionDescription
    Sketch

    		Launch the Sketcher app with the plane as support.
    Point

    		Edits the point on curve or the point on surface feature.

    When editing the point, you can choose either an Euclidian distance (with the m unit, a straight line distance between two points) or a Geodesic distance (with the G unit, the minimum length between two points inside/along a curved surface).
    Plane

    		Edits the Normal to curve plane or the Offset plane.
    Robot Axis

    		Moves the plane using the Robot which is automatically dropped onto a plane or an axis system. It provides handles for translation rotation and alignment. And you can modify the plane direction and orientation according to the robot axis.
    Isolate

    		 Isolates the point and the plane for free modifications.
    Exit

    		Exits the command and go back to the Rebar Creation command.

    In the Sketcher app, the created geometry is always included in a plane. In Rebar design, you can first draw a bar profile in 2D even with self-intersections and, some parts of the wire are moved automatically to generate a 3D profile.

    Examples of wire sketching (with or without intersection):

    The above edition commands are still available in a context toolbar at the top of the Concrete Structures 3D Design app.

    After changing dimensions, you can visualize the rebar wire based on the sketch plane:

    A wire with self-intersection (see next step):

  8. Click Exit to switch back into the Concrete Structures 3D Design app and click Apply in the Rebar Creation dialog box. You obtain a 3D profile of the bar:
    A bar profile in 2D with self-intersection

  9. To solve rebar intersection, use the Solve self-intersections option in the Rebar Creation dialog box. This option is selected by default and can manage multi self-intersections on the same bar.

    Before the solving operation, you can see the contact location:



    Note: If you deselect the Solve self-intersections option, the sketch is not modified and remains as created.
  10. To specify the offset distance between bars, use the following Wire Parameters:
    • Bar axis offset: the distance used for the bar spacing at crossing location.
    Bar spacing location equal to the bar diameter

    By default, this value is the bar radius multiplied by 2.
    Bar spacing location superior to the bar diameter

    After edition of the Bar axis offset, you obtain:
    • Side: the position of the final wire with respect to the Sketch support:
    Front Side:

    On the front side, the first edge of the sketch is fixed and the rest of the bar moves to solve the self-intersection.
    Rear Side:

    On the rear side, the last edge of the sketch is fixed and the rest of the bar moves to solve the self-intersection.
  11. Click Apply.