Missing components in Applications & components side pane

Anyone can Customize the Applications & components catalog to suit their needs. Each Environment and Role may hide certain items by default. The customizations can also be made in Project and firm folders or the Current model folder.

To see if the Application or component is in the model, but hidden, toggle the Show hidden items check box. You can Hide / Unhide items by right clicking on them and choosing the item in the dialog.

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The absence of certain Applications or components in a model typically is caused by how the model was created; generally it is not related to the installation of the software. An exception to this would be if the Install the Tekla Structures environments installation step was not performed.

Unfortunately, if a model has been created without Custom components it cannot be undone unless a new model is created using the correct Environment and Model template. The Copy Special from another model function will let you place the structure from one model into a new one, but it will only allow you to copy the 3D model. Not drawings. 

Otherwise, all missing Custom components must be manually imported. The path for custom components in versions 2019 and newer is:

..\TeklaStructures\<version>\Environments\USA\Imperial\General\CustomComponents

For versions older than 2019 is:

..\TeklaStructures\<version>\Environments\usimp\custom_components

There are several reasons how or why a model was created without Custom components, and sometimes the cause is unique, but among the causes are:

• Model was started with the blank project (no) Environment
• Model was created without using a Model template (blank template)

Model was started with the blank project (no) Environment

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When starting the program a startup screen is presented to select the environment. If the program was started with the blank project (no) Environment and the model was created, the area specific Environment provided components would be missing.

Model was created without using a Model template (blank template)

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If the model was created with a the Blank template, the template would not include area specific Environment and Role provided components.

You can check how the model was created by opening the TeklaStructuresModel.xml inside the Model folder in a text editor:

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Customizations to the Applications & components catalog are saved to a ComponentCatalog.xml file.

If the ComponentCatalog.xml being read has been corrupted the next one in the Folder search order will be used. This could cause the expected items to not be displayed. If the model is shared and not every user is using the same Project and firm folders with custom ComponentCatalog.xml files, users of the same model may have different presentations in the Applications & components side pane.

The solution — in both these cases — is to copy a ComponentCatalog.xml from a model where it works — or a Project and firm folders — and replace the ComponentCatalog.xml in the Current model folder. Make sure Tekla Structures is closed when replacing the file.

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The custom model template with which the model was started was not created with Custom components included. In that case, the custom Model template will have to be overwritten or modified as shown in the linked article under "Modify an existing model template."