Building will be introduced laterIn this example we will draw and model 7 story building using all features of Building Design Suite. Materials to be used are 4000 psi concrete and ASTM A615 Gr60 steel for reinforcement. Floor elevations and other properties such as thickness of slab are given in the drawings.
AutoCAD Settings
Drawing layers of structural objects are imported from Autocad Settings on Tree View.
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Upload reference drawings as shown below.
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Go to Drawing Files → Upload Drawing
Select reference “.dwg” files and click OK
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Create stories to draw as shown below. We have 7 stories + 1 roof +1 upper roof so we will create 9 stories to be modelled.
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Go to Stories → Add
Enter number of Stories
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Enter elevation of each story
Assign drawing filefiles to the stories
Select default materials for slab, column and slab rebar
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We will start modelling from top to bottom.
Go to Roof → Overlay
Select Xref drawing as Roof Linked Drawing
Click OK
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Reference drawing must be as shown below.
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Zoom in and start drawing. Since Upper roof drawing is the top floor plan there in no column or shear wall above. We will draw slab and beam objects.
Click + next to Roof item on tree view
Go to Slab → Slab Edge Button
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Start to draw slab
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You can view slab edge drawing by right clicking on spreadsheet and selecting in AutoCAD as shown below.
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Enter the properties of slab such as thickness or clear cover.
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You can edit material from clicking relevant cell above if you imported more concrete material.
Since there is no association between slabs you should draw them all by using slab edge command. So just hit space to repeat last command which is slab edge and draw. Enter slab edge properties as shown above.
Click update button to update changes on 3D view and cloud
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If you do not see thickness of slab on 3D view;
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Go to Project Settings
Detailed Render → Select true
Update the project
Beam object causes error so could not be modelled for now.
If reference drawings are floor plans which means it shows columns/shear walls above, you must overlay the drawing of one lower floor to draw columns and shear wall which are carrying the slab.
To draw shearwalls below;
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Go to Roof → Overlay
Select Xref drawing of 8th Floor linked drawing
Unselect Roof linked drawing
Click OK