Creating a Member Using Two Points

You can create a member by specifying two points.

Before you begin: Open a structure to place a member.
See Also
About Members
Managing Sections
Creating Coping
In Other Guides
Content for Structure Apps
  1. From the Function section of the action bar, click Member - Point To Point .
  2. In the Member - Point to Point panel, under Material & Orientation, specify the following parameters:
    1. Select the required material and section for the member.

      1. Select the required material reference.
      2. From the Standard list, select the section standard.
      3. From the Shape list, select the required section shape.

        The Shape box is unavailable for selection when the material-section table does not have the SectionShape column, that is when you are using the resolved sections.

      4. From the Size list, select the required section size.

      If no Resources Catalog or Resources Library resource is set in Data Setup, you can click More... to search and select the material and section references from database. If you select a parametric section reference from the database, the Size list is updated with the available sizes and then you can select the required section size.

    2. Set the appropriate orientation.

      1. Select the anchor point.

        The anchor points displayed in the Anchor Point box are defined in the molded convention resource, set in Data Setup. If no molded convention resource is set in Data Setup, the default list of anchor points will be available.

      2. Specify the angle to rotate the section, if required.

        You can click to invert the rotation direction and to twist the member. For more information, see Twisting a Member.

  3. Under Type & Name, specify the type of the member.

    If no dictionary is set in Data Setup, only the default category is available.

  4. Optional: Clear the Automatic check box and enter the required name of the member.
  5. Under Geometry, specify the following inputs:
    1. In the Point 1 box, select the start point for the member.
    2. In the Point 2 box, select the end point for the member.

    Notes:
    • The selected points define the direction of the member.
    • You can select a point or a vertex.
    • You can also create a point on the fly, using the Point command from the Point Toolbox.
    • You can select multiple points. Click to manage multiselection.
    • You can also click to activate the chain mode. With chain mode activated, you can continuously keep on selecting points, and thus creating multiple members. An end point of the previous member is taken as a start point for the next member.

  6. Under Limits, specify the following parameters:
    1. Specify the start and end limits.
    2. Specify the offset and the normal offset values.
    3. Select the limit type.
    4. Define the endcut. For more information, see Creating End Cuts.

      Notes:
      • You can click to delete the endcut and to delete the selected limit.
      • You can click to swap the member ends, if the start and end limits are not set.

  7. Click OK.
    The member is created.