Axes drawings are usually used for truss, joist assemblies or models with a great number of linear elements in which a simpler drawing is needed. Because these drawings are usually used before the design of the assembly or building, between the architect, designer, and draftsman, only overview information is represented in them:
- Extreme dimensions of the assembly
- Dimensions between nodes
- Profile sections obtained from the designer's calculations
- Section lengths
Example:
Create a truss using the joint from the "Structural elements" panel, and configure the joint.
Rotate the UCS until the XOY plane is parallel with the truss plane. Open "Drawing Style Manager" and select the "Statics plan without position, complete" drawing style from the "Statics" group. Use the drawing style to create the axes drawing of the truss.
With the standard setting of the drawing style the result should be very similar to the above figure, in which the axes of the elements are represented and the section names placed aligned above the axis.
Usually additional information, like element length and dimensions between the nodes must be found in this type of drawing.
Label information and placement:
To include the axis length of the element in the label perform the following steps:
1. Open the Drawing Style Manager (DSM) and then go to the drawing style used to create the detail. Select the same drawing style but from the "User" category, because this one can be modified.
2. Go to the "Labeling strategy" item in "Object presentation\Beam - All".
3. Create a new labeling strategy and give it a name that is easy to understand (e.g. Section Name Object Length)
4. Create a new label content and then add the "Axis Length" token to the labeling information
If the drawing is needed for calculations to determine the sections to use for the Top Chord, Bottom Chord, Diagonals and Verticals then the designer will need the distance between the nodes to determine the buckling length, thus the "Axis length" token must be used in the drawing style.
5. The space between the axis and the label is controlled from "Arranger control". Here you can change the minimum and maximum distance between the label and the line and you also have the possibility to place the label in the center of the object. First select "New arrangement method" from "Labeling strategy" and then go to "Arranger control" and set the "Min. distance" to 1.00.
There is also a default that controls the same distance called "Minimum distance between labels and the other objects". It can be found in MT in the "Drawing-Presentation" group. For the default value to be considered in the drawings the value must be set between the "Min. Distance" and "Max Distance". If the value is not set between these limits then the labels will be placed with the "Min. Distance" value.
If you want to place the label on the line then select the "Arrange in object center" option, the min. and max. distances will be grayed if this option is selected. The label will start from the center of the line.
In the example the default value is set to 1.00 and the minimum distance to 1.00.
The drawing was created with a 1:20 scale on an A0 prototype.
After these modifications on the labels the drawing should look as follows:
Dimensions:
To create 2 dimension chains, one on each direction, between the nodes of the structure perform the following steps:
1. Open DSM and go to the drawing style you used to create the detail.
2. Go to the "View dimensions" item and add a new dimension strategy (e.g. "Dimensions X,Y - Nodes").
3. Create 2 "linear, relative" dimension chains and in the dimension definition column enter for one dimension chain "View X - Beam system GBA" and for the other dimension chain "View Y - Beam system GBA".
4. The second point selection rule is not needed so it can be deleted. Select every view dimension and then click on the "Ref. Grid" selection of dimension point rule and remove it.
5. For every view dimension click on the remaining selection of dimension point rules and in the drop-down list change the "Point selection name" from "Mp - Beam System" to "Mp - System".
After these changes click the "Apply" button to save them. Close DSM and number the model with single part and assembly number, and the reopen DSM and select the drawing style, click "Use" and create the detail drawing. The result should be similar to the figure below. Labels that contain the section name and axis length arranged on the line center with 2 linear, relative dimension chains, one on each direction, that measure the distance between the nodes.
