Problem Description

How to add customized structural sections available for placement in AECOsim?

Background

The majority of our structural placement tools use sizes listed in the Standard Section panel of the placement dialog. The shapes listed in the drop-down menus are populated by XML files from the active dataset supplemented by the ProjectShapes.xml located in each project.

The variable STRUCTURAL_SHAPES can be edited to include other files when required, e.g. if a Company Dataset is in use a Company_Shapes.xml file could be created in the Company Dataset folder and included with the statement:

STRUCTURAL_SHAPES < $(COMP_DATASET)Company_Shapes.xml.

Please search for 'Company Dataset' for more information on how to set up a company dataset.

Where to Create/Edit Section Sizes

We recommend creating custom shapes at Project and/or Company levels.

Do not edit the delivered XML files unless you are happy to extract/reproduce those edits when migrating to later dataset versions.

Steps to Resolve

Create/Edit an XML Section File

Before starting ensure that the Developer tab is enabled in Excel (right-click on the ribbon > Customize the ribbon > Main Tabs list > Tick Developer)

This example will work with C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\projects\BuildingExamples\BuildingTemplate_NM\support\dataset\data\ProjectShapes.xml

1. Open C:\ProgramData\Bentley\AECOsimBuildingDesigner V8i Ss6\WorkSpace\Projects\BuildingExamples\BuildingTemplate_GB\support\dataset\data\ProjectShapesTemplate.xls
2. Save a copy with a meaningful name. The reason for this is to preserve the original data that you import to make it easier to add additional entries at a later date.
3. Go to the Developer Tab > Import ProjectShapes.xml
4. Move through the worksheets adding in the values as required. There is a worksheet for every section type that we provide.
5. Once all the new/revised values are added go to the Developer Tab > Export ProjectShapes.xml overwriting the existing file. (If at this point the file is given a different name the configuration will need to be edited to include that name.)

Note that section profiles that are not currently provided cannot be added by editing the XML, changes to the structural application itself are required. However in ABD SS6 we do have the Place profile tool that can be used to place user defined geometry, although these will not carry structural attributes

Manual XML Editing

In order to add a custom structural section, the *.xml file needs to be configured so that includes the section size you will like to have available,for example; let’s say the section needs to be in the ProjectShapes.xml, open, for example, the us.xml in notepad (or use a xml editor of your choice), copy one of the sections that closely resembles the one you need and paste into ProjectShapes.xml, after that make the necessary changes to the added structural section. Make sure the format is the same between the new section and the delivered ones.