ORION 18: HOW TO MODEL BEAMS

You will learn how to model beams in this part of the tutorial series on CSC Orion 18.

In our previous tutorials, we had learnt how to prepare the software for modelling the structure by choosing sheets and drawing axes. We also modelled columns and walls. Now we continue with the modelling of beams.’

We will model the beams by following the simple steps as outlined below:

Step 1

Click on the ‘Beam’ iconin the menu toolbar at the top of the screen. A ‘Beam Properties’ dialog box appears. In this dialog box, enter 350 in the option labelled as ‘b’. This is the width of the beam.

Step 2

Click on ‘Insert Options’, then select. This option is chosen (as we also showed similarly in previous tutorials) is chosen so that the axis line of the beam passes through the centre of the beam. The value, 175, is automatically entered into the box for ‘b2’.

Step 3

Enter ‘h-Bot’ as 300. The value ‘h-Bot’ is the thickness, as measured from the top of the slab to the bottom of the beam. The value ‘h-Top’ is only used if a part of the beam is to project above the top of the slab. For the case of this tutorial, ‘h-Top’ is zero (0). The dialog box, when completely filled, is as shown below.

Click on the intersection 1/A, and without releasing the mouse, drag to 1/B. Repeat the procedure to model beams between 1/B and 1/C, 1/C and 1/D until you get to 1/I.

Alternatively,

Click on 3/A, then drag the mouse (without releasing) to 3/I. Both procedures described give the same result.

NB: Hold ‘ctrl’ on the keyboard when drawing modelling to ensure whatever that is being modelled (column, beam, wall, etc) is in a completely vertical or horizontal direction.

Step 4

Next, we model a set of vertically running beams. In this new set, Enter ‘b’ as 500, ‘b2’ as 250 and ‘h-Bot’ as 300, then model the beams running vertically between 3/B and 1/B, 3/C and 1/C until 3/H and 1/H.