I have a deplyable installation on six machines and then a standard installation on my homw machine for SS4. All set up as is without any changes to config.
The are all identical.
1. The stairs will only do schematic and none of the other types
2. hand rails will only do chairail and last option. Other say error - load section file.
3. I copied chairrail. No issue. Copied to handrail. Changed rail to 1 1/2" rail. It does not stay. It will work but then at some point revert back. this is for height alo. Saved several times and no affect.
4. Stair risers. Select place stair and it show 14 treads and 15 risers. change no of risers and it still shows 14 treats.
5. Staris in U - 2 landing or sqaure 3 landing. dialog asks whether to handve lead depart landing. Departing is not tied to end of stair. but to 2nd or 3rd landing??? Thiought this was to add a landing to the beginning or end of an entire stair. not the middle.
6. Offset maybe on inside at one point and outside at another. espeically at landings or floors. I like the line tool, hten can mod ends and joint several. Then extrude works better for a plan rail. I can try the other rails yet.
It does sound as though you're missing some part of the dataset, odd as it seems. For kicks, you could also try renaming your existing \prefs folder.. I don't recall whether any of this is stored via an MRU.
I started with a fresh machine yesterday and a totally new install. Everything came up CLEAN without anything from the past available. Before I added my parts and dgnlib files I tried the stairs with same results.
Ustn since 1988SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64bEric D. MilbergerArchitect + Master Planner + BIMSenior Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight CenterThe Milberger Architectural Group, llc
Eric,
You might want to check the cfg variable STRUCTURAL_SHAPES value for the dataset you are using. Both the stairs and railing catalogs will use the structural sections found in the xml defined by the above config variable.
HTH,
Pradnya
Well NOTHING was assigned to this so I assigned all *.xml in the folder where the stairs were.
It did not change anything but I am finding I have two different things going on.
The errors are still saying it cannot find the section HOWEVER.
When I try and place the stair - if I rotate it during placement - sometimes it will show up and sometimes not. And if lucky, I can place a stair that I can edit.
The stair error still says cannot find sections.
But note that I cannot place the pan or open stair. The error is still there. ( I can place the concrete and schematic stair)
On the handrail no luck at all. See picture. Too much is missing and If I use the pulldown (Blue arrow) there is now a dialog with pulldown but they are empty.
Note that this is a toal fresh install with a my old machine but all ABD directories were deleted after uninstall.
I did notice there is no CODE or TYPE attached to anything.
On a profile I have a pull down for items
On a Structural Section I have an empty box - no pulldowns available - for CODE OR TYPE.
I have changed structural shapes to *.xml and to railings.xml and no change.
C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i\WorkSpace\BuildingDatasets\Dataset_US\datagroupcatalogs\*.xml
or
C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i\WorkSpace\BuildingDatasets\Dataset_US\datagroupcatalogs\railings.xml
Below in this thread is an example of the frustation that I feel too many times. A simple thing as delivered does not work and the organization of information is not intuitive.
What was happening here is that the install we have on all our machines and I have from the disk delivered by Bentley Select on my personal machine doe NOT attach the Structural File. This I had to guess and find it was missing my US.xml. It is an undefined variable on all machines.
So now my questions are:
Why the 4 different steel section files? (what are the differences?) (Glulam I understand)
Will they all be utilized when necesary?? Or do I have to program them as I need them.
Now I don't understand xml well - except that it is ugly - very 2 dimensional in use - and not user friendly.
HOWEVER
The way the xml files are used for the structural shapes are BEAUTIFUL.
QUESTION: -- CAN WE SIMPLY EDIT THIS WITH A TEXT EDITOR?
By default, all of the delivered PCFs do have the STRUCTURAL_SHAPES variable define. The value varies from dataset to dataset but is always populated. So if yours was empty then you have something customized at some level in order for that value to have changed.
Also, there are 30+ Structural XML files included in the C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss4\WorkSpace\BuildingDatasets\Dataset_Name\data folder for each dataset as well. So fi you're seeing only four, then your dataset is not completely as-delivered either.
As far as the number, they are to support many regional standards. I suppose each dataset could include only section files specific to that region, but honestly, this is the way section files have been handled as long as a I can remember.
Understood but I wasn't very clear :)
I see all the structural files but 4 or 5 were for US. I was wondering the difference. As a dumb old Architect I pull out the steel manual and that is what I match.
As far as teh STructural for handrails - the variable is not being set on any of the 6 deployable and one normally installed system. Once I set the variable everythign works. WE HAVE NO CUSTOMIZATION.