Create Floor

Structural Design User Guide

Walls and Floors : Create Floors : Create Floor

Creates a Floor (FLOOR) element. Floors are soft types of panel, and are created from the same window as User Defined Walls and Screeds.

Make sure a suitable default floor specification and a default storage area at the current building level are defined. A Compound Floor (CFLOOR) element can also be used as a suitable storage area.

Set the Justification to Bottom (this allows you to position the bottom face of the floor on the top of the supporting sections).

Set the Thickness, if a floor specification has been set, the default thickness is shown, entering a new value is permitted.

If a Confirm window displays, click Yes to override the default thickness value and change it to Unset.

Click No to disregard the entered thickness value and retain the default value.

By default, Representation is set to Predefined: Default. These settings (Levels and Obstruction) affect the way items display in 3D views and how they are dealt with when checking for clashes between design items.

For example: you can define four vertices, V1-V4, to define the overall area of the floor which is shown shaded in the diagram. Refer to Component Visibility, Drawing Level and Obstruction for further information

The Create Methods part of the Create Floor window allows you to define each vertex.


	Derived points from graphic picks	Allows you to pick a point graphically with the Positioning Control window.
	Derive points from centres & plines	Allows you to construct a point from the intersection of two Plines with a floor that already exists.
	Trace boundary of another extrusion/panel	Allows you to create vertices which follow the shape of a floor that already exists.
	Explicitly defined position	Allows you to specify a position by entering explicit co-ordinates.
	Point offset from previous	Allows you to specify a distance and direction which define a point relative to the position of the vertex that precedes it.
	Define arc fillet	Allows you to construct a fillet arc with a specified radius between two picked tangent lines.
	Derived arc passing through three points	Allows you to construct a fillet arc that passes through three picked points.
	Fixed radius arc, passing through 2 points	Allows you to construct a fillet arc with a specified radius, that passes through two picked points, which curves towards a picked direction.

For the purpose of this user guide, two options are used to illustrate the principles:

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Derive Points From Graphic Picks

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Point Offset From Previous.

Click Derive Points From Graphic Picks. The Positioning Control window displays and indicates that you are now in event-driven graphics mode, ready to pick the position of the first vertex.

From the Positioning Control window, select Element then Intersect, you are prompted to ‘Define vertex (Intersection [1]) Snap:’

Pick the column and either of the beams whose intersection coincides with V1 in the diagram. From the Create Methods part of the Create Floor window, ‘No vertices currently defined’ is automatically changed to ‘1 Vertices defined (no Floor created)’. After the definition of this first vertex, Remove Previous Point becomes active. From this, you are able to delete the previous vertex definition.

Note:

The first vertex defined for a new floor becomes the origin (as displayed) by default. You can change this if required.

Repeat this point-picking procedure to define V2 and V3, in that order. As soon as you have defined three vertices, the plane of the new floor is shown in the 3D view (as a triangle) and a FLOOR element added into the model explorer.

From the Create Methods part of the Create Floor window, ‘1 Vertices defined (no Panel created)’ is automatically changed to ‘3 Vertices defined (Panel created)’.

Once the third vertex is defined, an axis aid displays at the default floor origin. It shows the floors axis system. The Y (North) direction is defined by the direction from vertex 1 to vertex 2.

As a demonstration, V4 is positioned relative to V3. Click Point Offset From Previous. The Define vertex window displays in which you can specify the required offset.

Set the Direction and the Distance, click Apply to create the vertex, or click Dismiss to discard any information and close the Define Vertex window.

The Create Methods part of the Create Floor window, is automatically changed to ‘4 Vertices defined (Floor created)’.

If required, you can modify the floor vertices immediately, to do this, select the Display modification form check box.

Click OK to complete the floor creation operation.

Once the floor element is created, the Model Explorer now includes one FLOOR, one PLOO and four PAVE elements.