How is the structure managed in the Advance Design Pilot?

Section 1: the 3 phases

1. The "Modeling" phase.
This phase allows the modeling of the structure (geometry and loads).
The Modeling toolbar corresponds to this phase:

2. The "Analysis" phase.
This phase allows the definition of numerical objects (such as DOF restraints, DOF constraints, etc.), the configuration of calculation hypotheses, the meshing of the structure and the post-processing of the results.
The following toolbars correspond to the Analysis phase:

3. The "Document" phase.
This phase allows accessing the generated documents: calculation reports and graphical views.

Section 2: structure definition

The pilot manages the model elements using a system tree (for geometry) and load case families (for loads).

The first block of this tree structure is located under the "Structure" system, into which sub-systems can be created, that will contain the elements of the structure (Linear elements, Planar elements, Supports, Windwalls, etc.). It also provides access to the Workplane management.

It is also possible to import a system tree previously saved as an XML file.

A color code indicates the different states of the systems:

• Blue: the system is "active"; the generated elements are placed in this system.
• Red: the system to which the selected elements belong.
• Grey: the system elements are hidden.

Section 3: loads management

This part of the model tree structure corresponds to the loads management.
The elementary load cases can be created individually or simultaneously.

The loads that are grayed are not displayed in the working area (double click the load case to show/hide it). We can distinguish the different load cases depending on their creation type (through the concept of family), that allows a simplified determination of the combinations of actions.

Advance Design also provides:

• 3D climatic loads generator
• Seismic loads generator

Section 4: hypothesis management

This section allows the access to the main calculation hypothesis.
The combination management is simpler than that of Effel Structure, because you can select the regulation to automatically generate load combinations, without setting the elementary load cases.
In this section there is also:

• The envelopes management
• The modal analysis
• The generalized buckling
• The non-linear analysis

Section 5: saved views

Using this section of the Pilot, you can return to the different views saved in the modeling phase (the views can be saved using the first button of the "Modeling" toolbar).

After launching the calculation sequence, a new section can be found on the lower part of the Pilot: "Post-processing", where the different views saved during the post-processing phase can be found and are color-coded (green: updated views, and red: views to be updated).