Before you can create lofted plates or lofted slabs , you need to have construction objects in your model. Tekla Structures creates the shape of the lofted part according to the geometry of the used construction objects.

You can connect the following construction objects as a lofted plate or a lofted slab:

• construction line to construction line

  For example:

  

• construction line to construction arc

  For example:

  

• construction arc to construction arc

  For example:

  

• construction circle to construction circle

  For example:

  

1. Create the needed construction objects in the model. The shape of the lofted part is based on the construction object shape.

   You need to have

   • construction lines

   • construction arcs

     OR

   • construction circles

2. Depending on whether you are creating a lofted plate or a lofted slab:

   • On the Steel tab, click Plate > Create lofted plate .

   • On the Concrete tab, click Slab Create lofted slab

3. On the toolbar that appears, click a button to specify whether to create the part by using two construction objects, or by using a construction object and a point.

   • If you selected Using two construction objects :

     1. Select the first construction object: line, arc, or circle.

        For example, if you are using two construction circles to create a lofted plate:

        

     2. Select the second construction object:

        

        Tekla Structures creates the lofted plate between the selected construction objects.

        

   • If you selected Using one construction object and a point :

     1. Select the first construction object: line, arc or circle.

        For example:

        

        Tekla Structures shows a preview of the part geometry. Use the preview to set the direction and the height of the lofted part.

     2. Pick a point.

        

        Tekla Structures creates the lofted slab based on the preview.

        

4. If you want to modify the shape of the lofted part, use the direct modification dimension handles and dimension values.

   For example:

   

   

• In some cases when you try to create a lofted plate or a lofted slab by using construction lines, arcs, or circles, the geometry of the part would become self-intersecting. In these situations the part is not created, and Tekla Structures displays the following status bar message: The resulting surface would be self intersecting.

  With construction lines or arcs you can try to resolve the situation by changing the modeling direction of the construction lines or arcs. Select the construction line or arc, and on the contextual toolbar clickSwap ends.

  With construction circles you can try to resolve the situation by moving either of the circles.

• If needed, you can split lofted parts. You cannot split closed cylindrical or conical lofted parts.

  Use the Split command on the Edit tab.

• You can create unfolded single-part drawings of non-closed cylindrical and conical lofted plates, meaning that the lofted plate was created by using construction arcs but not construction circles. Other types of lofted plates cannot be unfolded.

• Rebar sets do not work with lofted parts.

Use the IS_LOFTED_PART template attribute in filtering, fox example, to check whether the part is a lofted part. The attribute returns 1 if the object is a lofted part, otherwise it returns 0.