How is a new grating created?

The version 2009 of Advance Steel has a new object type, GRATING. By default Advance Steel has a grating library to which you can add new gratings or modify the existing gratings.

The new grating object has a new database, which you need to modify. This new database is called AstorGratings.mdb and is located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2009\Steel\Data.

The grating has 2 options. The first option is a standard grating, which is a grating type with defined dimensions, and the second option is a variable grating with variable dimensions.

Example - Creating a new grating

1. Start the Management Tools by selecting MANAGEMENT TOOLS on the start menu of Advance.
2. Start the 'Table Editor' application.
3. Click the OPEN DATABASE ODBC icon and select AstorGratings (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Graitec\AdvanceSteel\2009\Steel\Data).
4. As you can see there are 2 types of tables, Standard and Variable. Depending on what type of grating you need to create the title of the table should have one of these words.

5. To create a new table we suggest starting from a similar existing one. For example we will create a new table starting from the "McNichols_Standard_GBB_19P2". Select the table, right click and choose "Copy table with data".

6. A dialog box appears.

Enter the name of the new table, "Ohio_Standard_19_SG-2", and click OK. The table is created.

7. Next, modify the data in this table to match your standards. Look for the table and open it (double click it). The information for the copied grating is in the table. You can erase all the rows except the first one, to have it as an example.

The first column, "Name", is the internal name of the grating and should be entered without spaces and should contain the description of the grating.

Example: Ohio_19SG2_1x1/8_39x16bar
Where:
This information should be taken from each supplier's catalogs.

The second column, "RunName", contains the name you will see in Advance Steel and in the drawings. This name can have spaces.

The third column is the "Length". This is the span of the grating (you can find it in the catalog). This dimension should be in mm. In our case we have 39 inches (990.6 mm).

The fourth column is "Width". If you create a bar grating this value is dependent on the number of bars you require. This is why, in the name of the grating, the last information is referring to the number of bars. In the catalogs you can find this width according to the number of bars. In our example for 19SG2 with 16 bars the width is 18 inches (457.2 mm).

The fifth column is "Thickness". This is the thickness of the grating, which in our case is 1 inch (25.4 mm).

The sixth column is "Hatch". This is the column where you can choose what type of hatch is shown in the model and in the drawings. These names are the names from AutoCAD or you can create your own hatches.

The seventh column is "ConnectorName". This is where you can enter the name of the connectors for each type of grating or you can leave it as "Standard connector".

The eighth column is "ConnectorQuantity". In this column you need to enter a number for how many connectors you need for each grating.

The ninth column is "Material". This column should be completed with the grating's material. This material should exist in AstorBase.

The tenth column is "Coating". This column should be completed with the grating's coating (Galvanized). This material should exist in AstorBase.

The eleventh column is "Weight". In this column you need to put the grating's weight (you can find it in the catalog). In the catalog the information is in Lbs/sf, in the table you need to use kg/sm (kg/square meter). In our case the weight is 1.71 Lbs/sf (8.34822 kg/sm).

The twelfth column is "System" and you can enter 0.

The last column is "OwnerText" which should be your author, different than "DCS" (e.g., "My Company"). So the row we create should look like this:

After you create all the combinations you need, you can erase the first line, which is not part of this grating, and you can close the table.

To be able to work with the new grating we need to complete another table called "GratingStandardMaster". There are two tables called "Master". The first one, "GratingStandardMaster", is for all the gratings that are standard (where we need to add our grating) and "GratingVariableMaster" for all the variable gratings.

Open "GratingStandardMaster".

In the last row you need to add the new grating.

The first column is "ClassName". It is the internal name of the grating and should be entered without spaces and should contain the description of the grating (e.g. "Ohio_Standard_19_SG_2").

The second column, "ClassRunName", contains the name you will see in Advance Steel when you create the grating. Because we are already in "GratingStandardMaster" the word standard can be erased from ClassRunName (e.g. Ohio 19-SG-2).

The third column is the "TableName". This name should be the same with the table name we created earlier (Ohio_Standard_19_SG_2). If it is not the same with the name of the table the new grating will not work.

The forth column is "System" and you can enter 0.

The last column is "OwnerText" should be your author, different than "DCS" (e.g., "My Company").

Now you can close the MANAGEMENT TOOLS and you can open Advance.