How can I force drawings of beams to be dimensioned from the top of the profile instead of the part reference line?

Tekla Structures

Not version-specific

Tekla Structures

Dimension

reference

drawing

part

reference line

profile

top of profile

Environment

Not environment-specific

Question:
How can I force drawings of beams to be dimensioned from the top of the profile instead of the part reference line?

Answer:
Typically beams will be modelled with the part reference line at the top of the beam. Sometimes however, the part reference line may be along the centre of the beam and this can mean that dimensions are drawn from the centre of the beam instead of from the top. This article shows how you can control from which part of the beam the dimensions are drawn.

To define dimension settings for profiles, you need to edit the dimension planes table dim_planes_table.txt.

This file is located in .\TeklaStructures\<version>\Environments\<environment>\General\profile

In this example we will copy the file to the model folder and edit this copy so that the changes will only affect the current model, but you can also put a copy of this file in your project or firm folder if you want to use the changes in all future jobs.

Example

In this example there are two beams with holes through the flanges. One has been modelled with the reference line at the centre of the beam. The other has been modelled with the reference line at the top.

When the drawings are created, the distance to the bolts is measured from the centre of the beam for the top beam, but from the top of the beam for the bottom beam.

To get both dimensioned from the top do the following.

On the File menu, click Settings > Advanced options to open the Advanced Options dialog box.
Select Dimensioning: Parts and enter just the file name for XS_PART_DIMENSION_PLANES_TABLE, i.e. "dim_planes_table.txt".

If you enter just the file name, Tekla Structures searches for the file in the model, project, firm and profile folders (in this order). The alternative is to specify a path to the file.

Click Apply and then OK.
Save the model and close Tekla Structures.
Copy the file dim_planes_table.txt from ...\TeklaStructures\<version>\Environments\<environment>\General\profile to the model folder.
Open the file from the model folder using a text editor and change the last three entries in the line that corresponds to the relevant profile to FALSE, FALSE, TRUE* as shown below.

Save the file.

In this case the profile is an I section so we need to edit the line beginning "1". This change will only affect I profiles.

Launch Tekla Structures and open the same model again.
Recreate the drawings for the two beams and check that the dimensioning is not from the top in both drawings, as shown below.

How can I force drawings of beams to be dimensioned from the top of the profile instead of the part reference line?

Example

See also