- common sections
- custom sections
Common sections are described by a standard geometry and a single material. Custom sections are
defined by an arbitrary geometry and may consist of several materials.
In addition, you can use defined sections to create tapered beams (for BEAM188 and BEAM189 only).
See Defining a Tapered Beam (p. 441) for more information.
15.3.1. Using the Beam Tool to Create Common Cross Sections
The SECTYPE,SECDATA, and SECOFFSET commands (Main Menu> Preprocessor> Sections> Beam>
Common Sectns) are all associated with the BeamTool in the GUI.The appearance of the BeamTool
varies depending on the cross section subtype you select:
Figure 15.3: BeamTool with Subtypes Drop Down List Displayed
The top part of the BeamTool relates a section ID number to a subtype (and, optionally, a section name)
[SECTYPE]. The middle of the BeamTool defines the section offset information, if needed [SECOFFSET].
The bottom contains the fields for section geometry information [SECDATA]. The dimensions defined
by the SECDATA command are determined by the subtype selected. For documentation about a par-
ticular variant of the BeamTool, select the subtype that you want information about, and then click the
Help button on the BeamTool. The subtype dimensions are also documented in the SECDATA command
description.
15.3.2. Creating Custom Cross Sections with a User-defined Mesh
If you need to define a cross section that is not common, you must create a user mesh file. T o create
a user mesh file, create a 2-D solid model and save it using the SECWRITE command (Main Menu>
Preprocessor> Sections> Beam> Custom Sectns> Write From Areas). This procedure is outlined in
greater detail below:
- Create all areas (Main Menu> Preprocessor> Modeling> Create> Areas).
Release 15.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential informationCreating Cross Sections