Automatic Light Gauge Steel Frame Creator macro

[yorik]

About Arch structure and structural nodes:

All Arch Structure objects have a Node property, which holds a list of 3D vectors. These vectors define a polyline or a face (in case of slabs). It would be easy, I believe, to make all the studs independently, then join them all into one structural object. But the Node property won't be able to express the different studs correctly, because it only stores a simple list of 3D vectors. I can imagine 3 possible paths:

1) We change the Node property so it can show more complex situations like this one, but I don't know how
2) Each stud would be one arch structure
3) We change the Arch structure object so a sketch or any other 2D object can be used instead of the Node vectors. This would be by far the most powerful solution, but it will be more work to keep the sketch updated...

Now I'm going to test this macro..

*EDIT* Amazing work! One small defect I saw, editing the Windows property directly in the Property editor gives errors because the string is split into different numbers.

Also looking at how it works, I'm not sure the Arch Structure thing above makes much more sense. Better add a method to your object that outputs the 2D lines. Then we can see how to use that to for ex. generate Arch Structure nodes or export to dxf directly...

[hhassey]

That is exactly what we need for FEM.
Another intersting addition would be:
Generate the 2d-lines (center of gravity of U-shapes) to get a 2-D model
for running a calculation with beam elements.
regards Thomas

I am in love with the idea, of both fixing the Macro for FEM and creating an export for 2D modeling , the beam element should go where the moment of first order = 0, I will start with the FEM switch first.

Also I would like to fix my code to whatever conventions are followed by the FreeCAD community, I apologize for the mess of code I have, I started just playing a bit with the idea, and never though it would get this far. So if someone knows what conventions are followed for FreeCAD, please let me know and I will polish my code.

[hhassey]

About Arch structure and structural nodes:

*EDIT* Amazing work! One small defect I saw, editing the Windows property directly in the Property editor gives errors because the string is split into different numbers.

Yes I had noted that problem before, I actually wasn't sure about how to store my window tuples in a property, I went through the documentation and found the list of properties that one can set, but no documentation on each, how they work, etc... I actually don't like the way I read the window property a lot, because I read a text, and transform it into a tuple (but as I was desperate to get this working I settled for that) , I would be better off reading tuples or FreeCAD Vectors straight from the UI. I was very surprised to find that FreeCAD.Vector object was not defined for more than 3 dimensions. One of my failed attempts was a Vector List.

Please @Yorik, if you know of a better way to input the window/door tuples, steer me in the right direction.
And also, I don't understand quite well, why is is that when I change any property except windows, the geometry gets changed immediately, but for the windows/doors, you have to manually hit the "Recompute Active Document" button. I would love to polish that out.

I am a rookie in FreeCAD, But I love this project and want to add whatever I can, so please be patient with me.

BTW the macro is working fine in 0.17 !!!

[hhassey]

That is exactly what we need for FEM.

DONE!

Please Grab the latest version in Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/Oriond/FreeCAD-Steel_Frame.git now we have the FEM switch, and when turned on, the profiles overlap themselves. Could you please give it a run with the FEA workbench and let me know how it goes?

I will try to get my FEA workbench running. I still don't know how to compile FreeCAD with gmesh support

.

[Kunda1]

now we have the FEM switch, and when turned on.... Could you please give it a run with the FEA workbench and let me know how it goes?

Imagine one day a FEM switch that will be prevalent throughout most/all of the FC interface.

Would you like to run a Finite Element Ananlysis on this?

[thschrader]

Could you please give it a run with the FEA workbench and let me know how it goes?
I will try to get my FEA workbench running. I still don't know how to compile FreeCAD with gmesh support

There are still gaps in the structure. I did a second run with an additional horizontal loading
of 100 kg (as I did in the beam-calculation above), the x-deformation gives 19 mio mm!!!
That means: the structure is unstable at this moment
regards Thomas
(compiling FC with gmsh: maybe you should ask bernd in FEM-forum. I am running on
Windows, gmsh is integrated)

gapAtUpperBeam.JPG (122.9 KiB) Viewed 399 times

gapAtWindow.JPG (45.9 KiB) Viewed 399 times

[thschrader]

or must I change some parameters in macro?
FEM=true?

macro.JPG (59.4 KiB) Viewed 395 times

[thschrader]

Set "FEM=True" in macro, generate frame, gmesh==> error

gmeshError.JPG (123.87 KiB) Viewed 388 times

[yorik]

Please @Yorik, if you know of a better way to input the window/door tuples, steer me in the right direction.

Maybe use App::PropertyFloatList instead of App::PropertyStringList? Then you just need to check that the length of the list is a multiple of 4...

[bill]

Very cool macro hache-HASSEY. This deserves five (or cervezas)

Excellent analysis schrader! This type of engineering TEAMWORK I miss from the old days.

The FEM analysis becomes a next level SOLVER!