Connections in Thin Wall Beam Sections
A connection is a point of contact between two or more open sections. A spot weld, for example would define the placement of a connection for two sections of sheet-metal connected at the weld.
When you create a thin wall beam section you cannot have overlapping geometry or chains that do not touch at the connection points. For unattached line segments or chains you can create a connection to close the beam cross section. Click > > > to create a connection between two entities.
The following diagram shows how connections are used to close open beam sections:
In the diagram, the figures to the left show the beam section geometry drawn in Sketcher. The figures to the right show the resulting cross sections.
• Figure 1 shows a closed loop drawn in the Sketcher
• Figure 2 shows the resulting cross section of the beam.
• Figures 3 and 5 show unconnected line chains. Connections are used to create contact points between the unconnected chains.
• Figures 4 and 6 show the beam sections resulting from adding connections in figures 3 and 5 respectively.
To create a connection between two entities the following relation must be satisfied:
[(t1+t2)/2]*0.9≤d≤[(t1+t2)/2]*1.1
where t1 and t2 are the thickness values of the two entities. d is the distance between them.
Return to Sketched Solid and Sketched Thin.