Plate Hatching

Tekla Structures
Not version-specific
Tekla Structures
Environment
United States (Imperial)
United States (Metric)

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Purpose and description

This plugin extension overrides view and drawing level settings for part hatching properties based on whether the plate is nearside or far side of the main part center. This extension is intended to be used in Cast Unit drawings.

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System requirements

Environments:   US Imperial, US Metric
Languages:   English

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Installing Plate Hatching

To install the application:

  1. Close Tekla Structures (if running)
  2. Download MSI Installer from Tekla Warehouse
  3. Install and run MSI Installer
  4. Start Tekla Structures
  5. Open an existing drawing
  6. Before version 2016: A new toolbar icon which will launch the tool should now be visible when a model is opened. For 2016 version and newer: a new thumbnail under Ungrouped items in the Applications and components side pane will appear.
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EmbedHatchingOverride_image001.jpg
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Using Plate Hatching

To activate plugin for drawing view:

  1. Double click on icon/thumbnail to open settings.
  2. Be sure and set the Part include filter before adding to a view and limit the parts the plugin runs on to the minimum needed objects.
  3. Pick any point inside a CastUnit view to activate for that specific view.
  4. The point you pick will insert a non-print symbol, you can open the user interface for this plugin by double clicking on this in the drawing view.
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EmbedHatchingOverride_image002.jpg

To remove hatching plugin from view:

  1. Delete plugin by selecting the non-print symbol and using the Del key.
  2. Open the part properties by double clicking on the part to change, modify settings on part level to whatever you want using the normal dialog and press modify.

Notes:

  • Changing settings through this plugin acts the same as if you manually click on the part and change the settings overriding the drawing and view level settings.  Once the settings are overridden on this level they do not go back to being controlled by the view or drawing level again. Included with this extension installer is a macro that can force parts to go back to being controlled by view/drawing level settings called: Delete Parts and ReOpen Drawing.cs. To use this macro, select the drawing parts to change back to normal, then run this drawing macro. The drawing will save and re-open, then the plates will be redrawn using normal user interface settings again.
  • In order to hatch hidden (farside) parts the advanced option controlling the display of those part faces needs to be set: XS_DRAW_HIDDEN_FACES=TRUE
Image
EmbedHatchingOverride_image003.gif
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Additional information

The middle plane is calculated by getting the CastUnit main part’s bounding box center z coordinate local to the drawing view coordinate system (middle of the main part).

Depending on your modelling methods and particular application you might need to choose different methods to include, exclude, and filter parts from being affected by plugin.

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EmbedHatchingOverride_image004.jpg
 
  • Part include filter: Only parts in view that match this model selection filter will be changed by this plugin, all others are ignored.
  • Nearside method: Method by which plate is classified nearside or far side of the middle plane
    • Use plate COG: If plate COG z component is above or equal to the middle plane z component it is considered nearside, otherwise it is marked as far side.
    • Use plate Z: If plate local coordinate system z axis is within 5 degrees of the drawing view plane normal (plate xy plane is in the same plane as the drawing view). This method would exclude plates not flat in drawing view in most cases.
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EmbedHatchingOverride_image005.jpg
  • Modify: Whether or not to change any hatching settings for near or far side.  You might want to leave the view level settings controlling hatching for far side plates and only override the hatching for nearside plates for example.
  • Type: The name of the hatching to apply to parts.  Note: not all hatching types can be scaled and disable the scaling feature when selected.
  • Color: The color to apply to the hatching graphics added.
  • Background: The color to apply to the background of the part not hatched or leave Invisible to not add a background color.
  • Scale: This provides an independent x and y factor to scale the hatching graphics to make them small or larger.  You can also rotate the graphics relative to the drawing view by a specified degrees of rotation from x axis.
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