General Truss Generation

The general TrussTemplate generation is used to make various trusses and forms of truss joists. The truss is comprised of nodes and an optional top chord, bottom chord, vertical strut member and diagonal brace member. You can make the truss out of any material type (General, Hot Rolled, Wood, etc.) by choosing your Material.

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Truss Template Options

Option	Description
Truss - tab
Plane	Plane defines the plane in which the truss is drawn.
Truss Type	Truss Type defines the classification or categorization of truss structure.
Material	Material defines the material used to assign the truss member.
Origin	Origin defines the reference point or coordinate system used to establish a fixed position or origin point for the structural model.
Panels - tab
Left Panels	Left Panels defines the number of panels left region of the truss.
Right Panels	Right Panels defines the number of panels right region of the truss.
Truss Options - tab
Truss Dimensions	Truss Dimensions defines centerline to centerline or out to out dimensions
Pin-Pin Segments	Pin-Pin Segments defines if segments should be considered pinned (checked) or fixed (unchecked).
No. of Copies	No. of Copies defines the number of copies the truss is generated.
Member Prefix	Member Prefix defines the prefix used in the member label for each new member generated.
Node Prefix	Node Prefix defines the prefix used in the node label for each new node generated.
Section Set & Rotation - tab
Top Chord	Top Chord defines the section set for the top chord members.
Bot Chord	Bot Chord defines the section set for the bottom chord members.
Verticals	Verticals defines the section set for the vertical members.
Diagonals	Diagonals defines the section set for the diagonal members.
Chord Unbraced Lengths - tab
Top	Top defines the unbraced lengths for the top chord members.
Bottom	Bottom defines the unbraced lengths for the bottom chord members.

The Origin for the truss generation defines the first point of the bottom chord.

You must enter the truss height and the panel lengths to the left and right of truss "peak".

The Truss Type selects what configuration the truss will use. The Truss Plane defines the plane of the truss.

Optionally, you can enter a Node label prefix to be used for all the nodes generated as part of the truss. Similarly, you can enter a Member label prefix to be used for all the members generated as part of the truss. This is useful if you want a way to track individual parts of your model by looking at Member or Node prefixes.

You can optionally create members for the bottom chord, top chord, vertical strut and diagonal brace.  For each one of these members you must assign a valid independent section set and ”x-axis rotate angle”. Note that you must check the checkbox for a member type before you can set any of the values to indicate that you want generation performed for that member type.

The “x-axis rotate” can be used to rotate the local axes to a desired orientation, however you may find that a K-node better serves this purpose in some instances.