Tekla Crane Version 1.0 1. Purpose This application allows an Erector or Project Manager to easily setup Crane Positions and Reach in the Model using Reference objects of those cranes such as *dwg, *dxf, *dgn, or any other acceptable reference object format for Tekla Strucutres. The application allows the user to add their own cranes, and store some properties about those cranes. This tool also features allowing the Erector or Project Manager to Animate the travel path and basic swing pattern of the crane for presentation purposes to a customer as well as internal Erection planning.
2. Installation This macro uses the Tekla Structures .NET Application Programming interface and is built to work with Tekla Structures version 13.1 only. To install the macro do the following steps.
1. Rename the TeklaCrane.e_e to TeklaCrane.exe (unless already named properly) 2. Double Click on the TeklaCrane.exe (It is a Winzip Self Extractor) 3. unzip the files to your environment folder (ie. C:\TeklaStructures\13.1\environments\usimp)
Files will be unzipped into your system, macros, and macros\modeling folder. 4. Restart Tekla Structures version 13.1
3. .NET Framework 2.0 To run this macro you will need to have .NET framework 2.0 on your computer. The .NET framework is a software update to windows that allows these Tekla macros to run. Your computer may already have this framework installed, but some may not. If after you follow the instructions in section 4 of this document, you see a message saying you need .NET framework version 2.0, go to the following website and download and install it for free. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856EACB-4362-4B0D8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en
4. Launch the macro To run the macro, follow these steps 1. Open a Tekla Structures model. 2. Go to the Tools>Macros menu 3. Select the TeklaCrane macro in the dialog box. 4. Click the Run button 5. The Tekla base plate applicator dialog box will then appear. (First time launched make take a few moments to load)
5. Suggested Use of the macro 1. When you first launch the macro a dialog similar to below should appear.
The first thing to explain is the Crane Name and Crane w/Beam Name fields. These are a list of the reference models of cranes that are read from the C:\TeklaStructures\13.1\environments\usimp\macros\Cranes directory.
Notice in this Windows Explorer window you will see the Crawler.dwg file. Along with that are similarly named files like Crawler.jpg, and Crawler.txt. The *.jpg file is a bitmap snap shot that is loaded in the Crane Name Preview pane on the dialog box. You can add your own cranes in this folder and your own *jpg images to show as a preview in the dialog. The acceptable crane file types are *. dwg, *.dxf, *.dgn, *.ifc, and *.xml (Tekla Structures Webviewer XML format). The *.txt file is a file that stores dialog box settings for that particular crane, and the files are created by pressing the SAVE INFORMATION button on the dialog box. 2. the difference between the Crane Name and Crane w/Beam Name is the Crane w/Beam Name is the reference object that will be used during the swing process when the crane is picking up steel from the pile and moving it to the building, and Crane Beam is the reference model used when the crane is moving along its travel path, or when it is coming back from the building to pick up another beam from the stack. Any Cranes you make should have the origin of the Crane at the bottom center of the main body of the crane, and the arm of the crane should be pointed in the positive X direction as shown in the diagram below.
3. If you have built your own Cranes and you now need to get and fill in the Height and Reach radius of those cranes, I would suggest initially using the INSERT CRANE button at this point. When you press this button you will be prompted to pick two points to define the direction and insertion elevation. This also allows you to strategically place your cranes in the model even without animation.
4. You may notice the grey Erection Clearance Cylinder around your crane might not be at the correct Dimensions. To fix this you will use the PICK buttons next to Height and Radius to capture that information. When you press PICK for Radius it will only capture the distance between your two picked points in the X and Y direction (so you don't have to worry about picking two points at different Z elevations). When you press PICK for Height, it only records the z distance between your two picked points so it doesn't matter where you pick in the X and Y for your two points, the main thing is you are defining the vertical Z. You can also type these fields in manually. If you have the IMPERIAL checkbox checked, the values are expected to be Inches. If you have it unchecked the values are expected to be mm. 5. Depending on if you pick your points in a 3D or 2D views you may want to explore changing settings on the following toolbars. Say you are working in a 3D view, where the base grid or viewplane of that view is at Elevation 0'-0. Which the default 3D view in the model is. You can switch your snap settings all off and to FreePlace, set your 'Snap to Geometry Lines and points' to be pressed down (so you can select corners and edges of your reference object cranes), as well as changing the plane selection to View Plane. When you switch it to View Plane, it means the points you pick in the model will only be down on the 0'-0 elevation or whatever plane that 3D view was cut from. If you switch it back to Auto (which is where it should be at most times), in the 3D views it will allow you to snap anywhere in the model, and in 2D views only snap to points in that view plane. Again you can adjust your snap settings as needed to properly pick your crane path, insertion points, and Height, elevation, or Radius dimensions for your Crane.
6. The Elevation field is so you can set the Elevation where the Crane will be inserted when you run the animation. It is so in case you accidentally pick a travel path or the Swing Angle points at different Z angles, the application will still put the crane at this specified elevation. 7. The Angle field is disabled because the application calculates the Swing Rotation by the points you pick when you are using the ANIMATE CRANE feature. 8. The Number of Picks option is the amount of times the Crane will Swing back and forth to animate Swing path of Erecting Steel from a Pile to the Building. 9. The Speed option is how fast you want the animation to be displayed. The animation may very depending on the distance between your travel path points or points picked to define the angle of Swing. Also varying computer Speeds and RAM can speed up or slow down the Crane animation.
10. The Leave Crane checkbox is there so after animation is complete you may want the crane and the Erection Clearance to stay in the model. 11. Once you have all of your settings filled out, delete the first crane you INSERTED into the model (and the Erection Clearance cylinder), then press the INSERT CRANE button again to test your new settings for Crane placement and Erection clearance. Once you like the settings you have, press the Save Information button. This will create a text file in the C:\TeklaStructures\13.1\environments\usimp\macros\Cranes folder. Every time you change the crane name at the top of the file the settings will be loaded if it finds a settings file. It is not suggested to manually edit those files. 12. Now at this point as you are planning your Crane Placement, you will have different Cranes saves away that are at different Angles for the arm and this display different reaches so you can evaluate the different possibilities for Crane placement and capacity. If you know the capacities for each of those cranes at different arm angles you could select Assemblies that appear in the Erection Clearance Cylinder, right click, and select the Center of Gravity option. A red point will then appear in the model, and also a report will appear telling you the Weight of that Assembly. To Select Assemblies have the Select Assemblies icon depressed on your Select Switches toolbar.
Once done selecting Assemblies, you can change the selection switch back to 'Select Components', or 'Select Objects in Components' buttons just to the left of the Select Assemblies button. 13. Now you can go ahead and choose to also use the Animation option. I suggest first laying out some construction lines to outline where you will pick in the model for your Crane paths before it actually does the swings. You also will want to layout some graphic objects representing your lay down/ staging areas for the steel that the crane will pick up. At this point the application doesn't animate depletion of your pile, or the actual Assembly being put in place, or having multiple pieces in a pick, but it does show the main crane placement and Swing animation on the project. You can activate the Construction line command on the Points Toolbar or menu
Center of Gravity Sample
Sample Crane Path layout with Construction lines.
14. Now pick the ANIMATE CRANE button. You will then pick the travel path points of your crane (the Final Crane Position point should be picked by pressing the MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON).
Once you have picked the Crane Travel path, you will then be prompted to pick two more points to define the Start Swing Position of the Arm at the Pile, and the final Swing Position at the Building. The program will calculate the angle formed between those two points and your Final Crane path picking point to determine the Swing.
After that watch you Crane added to the model and become animated. Repeat this process as needed. I might suggest leaving your Crane path construction lines, and also using the single construction point command to place points where you selected to define your angle so you can use later for presentation purposes.
