Steel – Cross-section AutoDesign

Autodesign of cross-section steel check is the same part as the Autodesign located in the standard Steel >ULS Check> Check.

Autodesign in Steel service

When user clicks on action button Autodesign then the following dialogue is displayed. The dialogue is a bit different than the one used in the general Autodesign dialogue but the functionality is the same.

We will focus on Autodesign running from Autodesign service in this case. Generally, results based on the same settings in Autodesign and the individual service have to be the same.

Illustrative example

Let us consider a very simple example of a steel truss girder for Autodesign. The structure is shown in the following figure. The structure is subject to four point loads acting on the bottom chord. The aim of this example is to find the optimal dimensions of two tubular cross-sections. The initial dimensions of the tubular cross-sections are:

Cross-section	t [mm]	D [mm]
CS1 - tube	12	84
CS2 - tube	10	62.5

The Autodesign function is defined for each of the cross-sections. You can see the settings for CS1 – Tube,

and for the CS2 – Tube. The advanced Autodesign is used for both cross-sections. Thickness of the tube (t) is optimized (Autodesign is YES) and the diameter (D) depends on the thickness (Related to t through the defined ratio).

Autodesign of both cross-sections can be run in one step using Autodesign all..

The results are automatically printed in preview.

The comparison of the dimensions is in the following table.

Cross-section	Initial		Optimized
	t [mm]	D [mm]	t [mm]	D [mm]
CS1 - tube	12	84	10	70
CS2 - tube	10	62.5	8	50

Evaluation of the steel unity check along the beam is compared in the following figures.

Evaluation of steel check for initial cross-section dimensions

Evaluation of steel check for optimized cross-section dimensions