More specifically there are two possibilities for the creation of general solids:
1. Import from DWG, DXF, IFC and VRML files. In this case no supplementary license is needed.
2. Entire modelling in Scia Engineer. The ‘basic’ module for this functionality is esa.27, by which basic solids can be created by extrusion or rotation of defined shapes. As extension you need module esa.24, which makes Free Form Modelling possible. The options for the input of solids can be found in the Structure menu, section Modelling/Drawing (image 1).
After the basic solids have been created, they can be adapted further on by means of 3D Boolean operations such as addition, subtraction, intersection and division of solids. These options can be found in the Structure menu, section Transfer/Break/Unify.
To be able to take the general solids into account for calculation, they need to be converted into 1D and/or 2D structure elements (module esa.26).
Two possibilities for this conversion:
1. automatic conversion, at which the program decides itself on the type of element (1D or 2D) that has to be created from a particular general solid.
2. the process can be controlled step by step. On the one hand, the user determines himself which solids have to be converted into beams, or on the other hand into plates or shells.
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The conversion options can be found in the Structure menu, section Transfer/Break/Unify.
These options contain different built in recognition algorithms.
Conversion examples
* General solid into beam/column (image 2)
* General solid into plate/wall (image 3)
