Mechanical APDL Structural Analysis Guide

Cross sections and user section meshes may be saved and stored in cross section library files. You may
assign beam cross sections as attributes of a line using the LATT command. These section definitions
will be incorporated into the generat ed beam elements when the line is meshed with BEAM188or
BEAM189.

15.2. How to Create Cross Sections

The general procedure for creating cross sections consists of the following steps:

1. Define the section and associate a section ID number with the section subtype.


2. Define the geometry data for the section.

The following commands are available for creating, viewing, and listing cross sections, and for managing
cross section libraries:

Table 15.1: Cross Section Commands

Command Purpose

PRESOL Prints section results

SECTYPE Associates section Subtype with SECID

SECDATA Defines section geometry data

Defines section offset for beam cross sec-

tions

SECOFFSET

SECCON- Overrides program calculated properties.

TROL

Identifies the SECID to be assigned to an

element

SECNUM

SECPLOT Plots geometry of a beam section to scale

Creates an ASCII file containing user mesh

or a custom cross section

SECWRITE

Sets default section library path for

SECREAD

/SECLIB

Reads a user defined section library, mesh,

or custom cross section

SECREAD

SLIST Summarizes section properties

SDELETE Deletes a cross section

For complete documentation of the cross section commands, see the Command Reference.

15.2.1. Defining a Section and Associating a Section ID Number

Use the SECTYPE command to define a section and associate it with a section ID number. For example,
the following command assigns a section identification number (2) to a predefined cross section shape
(circular solid):
Command(s):SECTYPE, 2, BEAM, CSOLID
GUI: Main Menu> Preprocessor> Sections> Beam> Common Sectns

Release 15.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information

Beam Analysis and Cross Sections