Reinforcement bars and steel connections in 3D

After a design, Struxt3D can show the result as it would be built: the reinforcing bars inside concrete members, slabs, walls and footings, and the plates, bolts, welds and anchors of every steel connection. Both are result quantities marked 3D in the Show list and the Results menu. They appear only when the design produced them — bars for concrete, connections for steel.

#Reinforcement bars

Choose Reinforcement bars. The model is drawn as built — whole members and slabs, not the analysis mesh — with the concrete see-through and the designed bars inside it:

• Main bars in red: longitudinal bars of beams and columns, bar meshes and extra bars of slabs and walls, the mats of footings.
• Links and ties in blue: stirrups in beams, ties in columns.

Beams that continue over several supports are shown as one beam line, with continuous corner bars and extra bars over the supports and in the spans. Columns that stack up through the floors are shown as one column stack, and run down to the top of their footings, where their bars go. Footings are shown as glass blocks with their bars.

Zoom in to see the bars. On large models the first view of the bars takes a moment to build.

#Bars only

Tick Bars only (hide the concrete) under the Show list, or choose Results › Bars only in the Full interface, to hide the members, slabs and footings and see just the steel.

The bar layout follows the design: the sizes and numbers in the design tables and the calculation report are the ones drawn. Read How to design a reinforced concrete beam and … column to learn how they are chosen.

#Steel connections

Choose Steel connections. The model is drawn as built with every designed connection in place at its joint: base plates with their anchor rods, end plates and fin plates with their bolts, gusset and knife plates for braces, splices, and the welds. Member ends are trimmed as they would be fabricated — a beam stops at the column face, a secondary beam is coped where it frames into a girder, a splice leaves its gap. Support symbols are hidden in this view so they do not cover the base plates.

The connection types designed are:

Type	Where
Base plate	Column on a support: plate, anchor rods, welds
Moment connection	Rigid beam-to-column joint: extended end plate
Shear connection	Pinned beam end: fin plate or end plate
Brace / truss end	Bracing and truss members: gusset or knife plate, cable socket
Splice	Where a member is joined along its length: bolted or welded

Steel connections are designed when Steel connections is on in the design settings (it is by default) and the members are steel.

#Connection details

Click any plate or bolt, or the joint, to select its node. The node inspector then lists the Connections at that joint, and a member's inspector lists its End connections. Each connection is a card that shows its ratio, the member or joint and the type, and a one-line description. Click the card to open it:

• Drawing — a dimensioned sketch of the connection: the fin plate elevation, the end plate face, the base plate plan, the gusset with its Whitmore width, the splice.
• Parts — plates, bolts, welds and anchors with their sizes and grades.
• Design forces at the end — the largest axial force, shears, torsion and moments, with the combination each comes from.
• Checks — every check of the arrangement: its ratio, the demand against the resistance with units, the formula and the clause. The governing check is marked, and failing ones are red.

Open cards stay open while you click around. The same details, with the drawing, appear in the joint's and member's calculation reports, and the Full interface's Connections table lists every connection with its ratio and governing check.

For the engineering behind each check, read How to design steel connections. For fabrication drawings of the connections, see Shop drawings.