Section Builder enables you to create arbitrary compound sections from rolled steel profiles and plates, and calculate their geometric properties required for structural analysis.  

The following values are determined for the designed section:

• cross-sectional area А;
• values of the moments of inertia I_y and I_z around centroidal axes parallel to the coordinate axes of the right-handed Cartesian coordinate system Y and Z;
• radii of gyration i_y and i_z about the same axes;
• torsional moment of inertia I_t;
• coordinates of the center of mass;
• value of the angle of the principal axes of inertia (angle a between U and Y axes);
• maximum I_u and minimum I_v moments of inertia;
• maximum i_u and minimum i_v radii of gyration;
• maximum W_u+ and minimum W_u- section moduli about the U-axis;
• maximum W_v+ and minimum W_v- section moduli about the V-axis;
• core size from U-axis along the positive аu+ and negative аu- directions of V-axis;
• core distance along the positive W_v+ and negative W_v- directions of U-axis.

The calculations are performed according to the rules of strength of materials, the torsional moment of inertia is approximately determined as the sum of the torsional moments of inertia of profiles comprising the section.

Assembling

Section Builder provides the following methods of assembling:

• joining an element by one of its nodes to a node of a section element;
• joining an element by one of its nodes to a section point defined by Y and Z coordinates;
• joining an element by merging lines that are going through two nodes of the new element and the selected element of the section.

When using the first two methods, the element is added to the section with a specified orientation. When joining by a line, the orientation of an element in the section is defined by orientation of the lines used to join the elements.

Report

A report containing properties of the selected section can be created. The report is the RTF (Rich Text Format) file. After the file is created, an application associated with the RTF is automatically invoked (e.g. MS Word or WordPad).

Exporting results

The results of the calculation of the geometric properties can be exported to SCAD and to Kristall.

Information on the cross-section components

You can also obtain information about rolled profiles which comprise the section.

Interface

Section Builder functions under Windows operating environment. All the windows, dialog boxes and controls are fully consistent with this environment.

Help (Reference Information)

The application is provided with a detailed help which includes descriptions of the user interface and conventions of using the application.