Create a Beam

Use Beam Settings to define the parameters of your beam.

See Beam Tool Settings.

New Beams can be created in either the Floor Plan or the 3D Window.

Beam Geometry

Choose one of these Geometry Methods from the Info Box.

Note: If you are drawing an inclined beam, only the Single Beam method is available.

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The Single Beam method produces a beam element by clicking twice, at the reference line’s starting point and endpoint.

The Chained method creates a sequence of connected beam elements with automatically coincident reference line endpoints. The process for drawing chained Beams is the same as for Walls.

Only horizontal, non-inclined beam segments can be drawn when creating a chained Beam. When you click to end the definition of the first Beam, you automatically start drawing the second one, and so on, until you double-click to finish drawing the chained Beams.

The Rectangle Beam produces four beam elements with coincident nodes and aligned to the X and Y axes. Define the rectangle by clicking the starting point and the endpoint of one of its diagonal lines.

The Rotated Rectangle Beam method (access it by clicking the drop-down arrow from the Rectangle Beam icon) produces four beam elements with coincident nodes, the first side of the rectangle being defined by the first two mouse clicks at their endpoints and the perpendicular side defined by the third mouse click.

Create a Horizontal Curved Beam

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To create a curved Beam (horizontal only), use one of these three methods:

Centerpoint and radius

Click to define centerpoint.

Move the cursor to define the radius, then click a second time.

Move the cursor to draw the length of the Beam, then click to complete.

Note: To draw a full circular Beam, double-click when defining its radius.

Circumference

Click on three points of the Beam’s circumference (e.g. other elements or intersections, or special snap points).

Click a fourth time to define the length of the Beam.

Tangential: Define a full circular Beam based on three tangential edges or points.

Select three initial points: these can be a tangent edge, a node, or a free-floating point.

The next step depends on the geometric situation.

-If there is only one solution, the circular Beam is automatically drawn.

-If there are multiple solutions, the Eyeball cursor appears and the ghost contour of the Beam flips from one position to the other as you move the cursor around. Click when it is at the right place to complete the circular Beam.

-If there is no solution, (for example, if you define three parallel edges for tangency), no circular Beam will be made.

Note: Since Beams need to have two endpoints, the fully closed circular Beam that you draw will in fact consist of two half-circles. Beams in the forms of full ellipses, elliptic arcs or splines cannot be created directly, but you can trace the shapes of plain drawing elements with the Magic Wand.

Create an Inclined Beam

To create an inclined (slanted) beam, click the inclined beam icon (in either the Info Box or in Beam Settings).

Note: The inclined option is not available for curved beams.

The slant angle field is now enabled. The slant angle of Inclined Beams must be between -89° and +89°, and is measured from the starting point of the Beam. The Beam is inclined in the vertical plane defined by its Axis.

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Inclined Beams are placed the same way as horizontal beams, using the single beam geometry method. The 3D body of an Inclined Beam is created so that the height of its section cut by a plane perpendicular to its Inclined Axis will be constant at every point (and equal to the Beam Height value). In the image below, the Beam’s height was set to 500 mm in its Settings dialog.

//helpcenter.graphisoft.com/wp-content/uploads/ac22_help/040-elementsvb/BeamSectionHeight.png 

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