Embed creation in practice

Creating objects for the embed

Use undefined materials for all items and parts e.g. "Steel_undefined", "Misc_undefined". For rebars use grade “Undefined”, for bolts use standard “UNDEFINED_BOLT” and for studs “UNDEFINED_STUD”. All of these are available in all environments.

Use the following numbering prefixes for all parts and rebars:

• Part prefix: EB_Product name (e.g. EB_Rd20)
• Assembly prefix: EB_ Product name (e.g. EB_Rd20)
• Rebar name: EB_Product name (e.g. EB_Rd20)

This way all embed parts can be easily filtered and the numbering series become small, which speeds up numbering process.

Avoid using round bars, as they will slow down the performance. Use rebars or studs instead. For round holes use the bolt –command instead of part cuts.

Each part included to the embed should be welded to the assembly using workshop welds. The parts then form a steel assembly. If bolts are used, select workshop bolts.

Attach the reinforcement to the steel parts either during creation just by picking a steel part as father part, or later on by selecting and using right click > attach to part command.

Check with Inquire > assembly, that all required objects belong to the steel assembly.

Use Class 100 for all items, parts and those rebars that should NOT be listed in reports and drawing templates as individual objects, but rather as a single embed entity. Such rebars are e.g. fastening plate anchor bars, which always come together with the plate, and do not need to be separately ordered.

Use Class 101 for those items, parts and rebars, which need to be separately ordered, and therefore must be listed in reports and drawing templates. Such rebars are e.g. lifting anchors.

Defining embed weight and unit

In many cases embeds contain rebars and/or studs, which make the calculation of embed weight a bit complicated in templates. To make reporting easier, add the weight information to main part “Product weight” UDA. For embeds with varying length or area, use weight/meter or weight/m².

For most embeds the ordering unit is piece, but for those that need to be ordered by length or area, add unit information to “Product unit” UDA. Use L for length and A for area. The default for unit is ‘piece’, and it does not need to be added to UDA.

Creating the custom part for the embed

Coordinate system

Create/rotate the parts so that they are oriented correctly in relation to the concrete part they belong to. Set the workplane parallel to the surface of the concrete part. See Input points of different embed types for more information and examples.

Custom part name

Standard embed should be named according to the product name. Use EB_ as a prefix for the product name, e.g. EB_TPA20x5. This way all embeds can easily be found in the component catalog.

Input points

It is important that the embed input points are defined in a consistent way. This makes placing of the embed easy and enables embeds of the same type to be interchangeable, also when they are used as nested components inside custom connections, details or seams.

Defining the input points for different types of embeds is covered in detail in Input points of different embed types .

Embed positioning setting

Custom parts are by default positioned the same way as normal parts, i.e. according to the center point of the bounding box. The user can then adjust for example "At depth" setting to "Front" or "Behind" when needed. For building parts like sandwich walls this is consistent and desired behavior.

However, for most embeds the desired positioning is fixed so that they will always lay on the concrete surface.  In addition, the desired input point (where the dimension in the drawing should point to) may be something else than one of the defaults (e.g. Front, Middle, Behind). A wire loop is an example of such embeds.

For these reasons you should clear the setting "Use the center of the bounding box in positioning" when creating embeds.

Embeds created this way will by default be placed exactly to the definition point, and rotation options (Top, Front, Back, Below) will rotate the component around the input point (and not the bounding box center), which is desired in most cases.

However, “At depth” settings (Front, Middle, Behind) will not work correctly for embeds created this way.

Adding parameters to the custom part made of Tekla Structures native objects

Although the number of parameters should be minimized, there is a set of basic parameters that are needed for all embeds for drawing and report output:

• Product name (e.g. Rd20)
• Product description (e.g. PFEIFER LIFTING SOCKET 2.0T)
• Product code (e.g. 05.337.032.430)
• Finish (e.g. Galvanized)
• Numbering prefix (e.g. EB_Rd20)
• Start number (e.g. 1)

Having them parametric enables:

• using the same embed with different materials (=different name, description and product code)
• using different languages (name, description and unit)
• using company specific product codes
• using the same embed with different finishes
• using numbering prefix and start number to group embeds for reporting purposes

Parameter names

In order to have consistent functionality in connections, seams and details which are using embeds, the parameters must have common names: P1a for Product name, P2a for Description, P3a for Product code, P4a for Start number, P5a for Finish and P6a for Numbering prefix.

For embeds with varying length or area the following parameters are used: P7a for Product unit and P8a for Product weight (see earlier chapter Defining embed weight and unit in this guideline).

IFC attributes use P9a for IFC_ENTITY and P10a for IFC_ASSEMBLY. They both have values IfcMechanicalFastener or IfcDiscreteAccessory depending of the type of the embed. As these are fixed values, it is recommended to write the values directly to the corresponding UDA fields and not show them on the dialog. In this case P9a and P10a attributes are not needed.

Example of parameterizing

New variables are created using the correct parameter names:

 

Label text translations

To enable automatic translation for different languages available in Tekla Structures, the labels in the dialog box should be written as shown in table below:

Product name	albl_Name
Description	j_Product_description
Product code	j_Product_code
Start number	albl_Start_number
Finish	albl_Finish
Numbering prefix	j_Numbering_prefix
(Product unit)	(j_Product_unit)
(Product weight)	(j_Product_weight)

Linking parameters

The parameters are linked in the component browser to the following attributes:

• Product name > Main part name
• Description > Main part's Product description UDA
• Product code > Main part's Product code UDA
• Finish > Main part's Finish-field
• Numbering prefix > All parts' Part numbering prefix and Main part’s Assembly numbering prefix
• Start number > All parts' Part start number and Main part’s Assembly start number
• (Product unit > Main part's Product unit UDA)
• (Product weight > Main part's Product weight UDA)

 

Example of linking the parameters:

Main part:	Secondary parts:

Checking the results

As a result, the component dialog looks like this:

If you open the properties of the main part of the embed, you can check that the values are correctly stored there:

And if you open the properties of the rebars, you can check that the values are correctly stored there:

Using items as custom part objects

Same principles apply to custom parts made of items as those made of Tekla Structures native objects. See previous chapter for detailed instructions. Here are the differences what needs to be taken into account with items.

As the items in shape catalog may come from any other 3D software and by various producers, the input points are not consistent. Therefore, the use of items directly in Tekla Structures model can be challenging.

Example of an item created in SketchUp compared to custom part:

You can use the items like native Tekla Structures parts in custom parts and give same input points. Use the same attributes and UDA’s as for parts:

 

In Custom Component Editor add the parameters P1a…P5a and link them in Custom Component Browser same way as for parts. Add the missing parameter info directly into the dialogs and modify (you can add them also before creating the custom part).

In the model the new custom part having item looks and behaves same way as any other custom part.

Add thumbnail and keywords as shown in next chapter Finishing the embed.

Finishing the embed

Creating a thumbnail

Create a thumbnail image for the embed and save it in .bmp format. Preferred size is 96 x 96 pixels, 96x96 dpi with color depth of 24 bits.

Use white background when creating the thumbnail. Show also the input points in the thumbnail. Do this by selecting the input points before taking the snapshot, see the example above.

Save the thumbnail to any location and add it to the component in the Applications & components catalog by selecting the component > right click > Change picture.

From Tekla Structures 21.1 version onward, right click > Thumbnails > Add thumbnail.

 

Add keywords

E.g. manufacturer's name or embed brand can be added as keywords.

You can add suitable keywords for the embed in component catalog by selecting the component > right click > Edit keywords.

From Tekla Structures 21.1 version onward, press the black arrow on icon’s bottom right corner > add a New Tag from the + button.