Tekla Structures: Drawing Manual

Tekla Structures
Drawing Manual
Product version 10.0

January 2004
Copyright © 2004 Tekla Corporation

Copyright© 1992-2004 Tekla Corporation. All rights reserved.
This Software Manual has been developed for use with the referenced Software. Use of the
Software, and use of this Software Manual are governed by a License Agreement. Among
other provisions, the License Agreement sets certain warranties for the Software and this Man-
ual, disclaims other warranties, limits recoverable damages, defines permitted uses of the Soft-
ware, and determines whether you are an authorized user of the Software. Please refer to the
License Agreement for important obligations and applicable limitations and restrictions on your
rights.
In addition, this Software Manual is protected by copyright law and by international treaties.
Unauthorized reproduction, display, modification, or distribution of this Manual, or any portion
of it, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties, and will be prosecuted to the full extent
permitted by law.
Tekla, Tekla Structures, Xcity, Xengineer, Xpipe, Xpower, Xsteel, and Xstreet are either regis-
tered trademarks or trademarks of Tekla Corporation in the European Union, the United States,
and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned in this Manual are or
may be trademarks of their respective owners. By referring to a third-party product or brand,
Tekla does not intend to suggest an affiliation with or endorsement by such third party and dis-
claims any such affiliation or endorsement, except where otherwise expressly stated.
Elements of the software described in this Manual may be the subject of pending patent applica-
tions in the European Union and/or other countries.
Contents
Preface......................................................................................................... 1
1 Introduction to Drawings .......................................................................... 5

1.1 Basics .................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Screen layout .......................................................................................... 8
1.3 Toolbars ................................................................................................. 9
1.4 Selecting drawing objects....................................................................... 12
1.5 Using commands................................................................................... 13
1.6 Drawing types ....................................................................................... 16
1.7 Three levels of editing drawings.............................................................. 20
1.8 Colors in drawings ................................................................................. 21
2 Getting Started with Drawings ............................................................... 23

2.1 Opening drawings.................................................................................. 24
2.2 Creating drawings.................................................................................. 28
2.3 Working with drawings ........................................................................... 35
2.4 Saving and closing drawings .................................................................. 41
2.5 Drawing reference ................................................................................. 41
TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL iii

Contents
3 Drawing Layout ......................................................................................... 43
3.1 Introducing layouts................................................................................. 43
3.2 Table layouts......................................................................................... 45
3.3 Working with tables................................................................................ 47
3.4 Key plan................................................................................................ 51
3.5 Scale and location of drawing views ........................................................ 53
3.6 Drawing size.......................................................................................... 57
4 Dimensioning ............................................................................................ 63
4.1 Dimension basics................................................................................... 64
4.2 Part dimensions..................................................................................... 69
4.3 Bolt dimensions ..................................................................................... 76
4.4 Position dimensions ............................................................................... 78
4.5 Check dimensions.................................................................................. 88
4.6 Controlling dimensions ........................................................................... 90
4.7 Dimension appearance and location ...................................................... 101
4.8 Dimension reference ............................................................................ 111
5 Drawing Properties ................................................................................. 113

5.1 Common drawing properties ................................................................. 114
5.2 Drawing view properties ....................................................................... 119
5.3 Drawing section view properties ............................................................ 132
5.4 Parts and neighbor parts in drawings ..................................................... 138
5.5 Bolts and welds in drawings.................................................................. 145
5.6 Reinforcement in drawings ................................................................... 149
5.7 Marks in drawings................................................................................ 152
5.8 Merging marks..................................................................................... 166
5.9 Grids in drawings ................................................................................. 170
5.10 The Drawing Classifier ......................................................................... 172
5.11 Drawing properties reference ................................................................ 178
iv TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

Contents
6 Editing Drawings .................................................................................... 179
6.1 Additional drawing objects.................................................................... 180
6.2 Additional marks.................................................................................. 187
6.3 Symbols in drawings ............................................................................ 188
6.4 Adding text and links to drawings .......................................................... 190
6.5 DWG and DXF files in drawings............................................................ 195
6.6 Working with drawing objects ............................................................... 197
6.7 Working with drawing views.................................................................. 205
7 Printing ..................................................................................................... 209

7.1 Printing reports.................................................................................... 209
7.2 Printing drawings................................................................................. 214
7.3 Printing drawings to file ........................................................................ 219
7.4 Creating a PDF file .............................................................................. 223
7.5 The plotter catalog............................................................................... 224
Index ........................................................................................................ 231
TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL v

Contents
vi TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL
Contents
Preface
Introduction
This is the Tekla Structures Drawing Manual. The following paragraphs
explain how this guide is organized, suggest different paths for different types of
user, describe the other guides provided in the package and the procedures used
in case some problem is found in the software or guides.
Audience
This guide is for structural engineers, detailers, and designers who model, ana-
lyze, and design concrete, steel, and timber structures.
We assume that you are familiar with the processes of structural engineering.
Additional help resources

The following resources also provide information about Tekla Structures:
Web site
http://www.tekla.com
Email
Contact your local helpdesk via email:
Area office Email address

China TeklaStructures.Support.CHI@Tekla.com
Finland TeklaStructures.Support.FI@Tekla.com
France TeklaStructures.Support.FR@Tekla.com
Germany TeklaStructures.Support.GER@Tekla.com
Japan TeklaStructures.Support.JPN@Tekla.com
TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 1

Preface
Area office Email address
Malaysia TeklaStructures.Support.MY@Tekla.com
Middle East TeklaStructures.Support.ME@Tekla.com
Sweden TeklaStructures.Support.SWE@Tekla.com
UK TeklaStructures.Support.UK@Tekla.com
US TeklaStructures.Support.US@Tekla.com
If you believe you have discovered a problem with this software, please report it
to your Tekla Structures Reseller using the maintenance request form provided at
Help > Tekla on the Web > Maintenance request....
Please send any comments or suggestions about Tekla Structures documentation
to BetC_Documentation@tekla.com.
Conventions used in this guide

Typefaces We use different typefaces for different items in this guide. In most cases the
meaning is obvious from the context. If you are not sure what a certain typeface
represents, you can check it here.
• Any text that you see in the user interface appears in bold. Items such
as window and dialog box titles, field and button names, combo box
options, and list box items are displayed in this typeface.
• New terms are in italic bold when they appear in the current context
for the first time.
• All the text you enter yourself appears in "quotation marks".
• We use italics for emphasis.
• Extracts of Tekla Structures’s program code, HTML, or other mate-
rial that you would normally edit in a text editor, appears in mono-
spaced Courier font.
• Program names, such as functions, environment variables, and
parameters, appear in Courier bold.
• Filenames and folder paths appear in Arial.
Noteboxes We use several types of noteboxes, marked by different icons. Their functions are
shown below:
A tip might introduce a shortcut, or suggest alternative ways of

doing things. A tip never contains information that is absolutely
necessary.
2 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

Preface
A note draws attention to details that you might easily overlook.
It can also point you to other information in this guide that you
might find useful.
You should always read very important notes and warnings,

like this one. They will help you avoid making serious mistakes,
or wasting your time.
This symbol indicates advanced or highly technical informa-

tion that is usually of interest only to advanced or technically-
oriented readers. You are never required to understand this kind
of information.
Related guides
Tekla Structures includes a comprehensive help system in a series of online
books. You will also receive a printed installation guide with your setup CD.
• Modeling Manual
How to create a physical model.
• Analysis Manual
How to create loads and run structural analysis.
• Detailing Manual
How to create reinforcement, connections, and details.
• Drawing Manual
How to create and edit drawings.
• System Manual
Covers advanced features and how to maintain the Tekla Structures environ-
ment.
• TplEd User’s Guide
How to create and edit report and drawing templates.
• SymEd User’s Guide
How to use the SymEd graphical interface to manipulate symbols.
• Installation Guide
Printed booklet explaining how to install Tekla Structures.

Preface
Organization
This guide is divided into the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Drawings

Introduces you to Tekla Structures, its user interface, and the basic concepts of
the Drawing Editor. This is the best chapter to start with to gain a basic under-
standing of Tekla Structures drawing types and drawing modification levels.
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Drawings

Explains how to create drawings and work with them in Tekla Structures. If you
are new to Tekla Structures, you should read Chapter 1 before this chapter.
Chapter 3: Drawing Layout

Explains how drawing layout works in Tekla Structures. You should read Chap-
ters 1 and 2 before you work through this chapter.
Chapter 4: Dimensioning
Explains how to create dimensions in Tekla Structures drawings.
Chapter 5: Drawing Properties

Explains how to set the properties of different drawing types in Tekla Struc-
tures.You should read Chapters 3 and 4 before you start creating drawings.
Chapter 6: Editing Drawings

Explains how to edit drawings in Tekla Structures. This chapter also explains
how to work with additional drawing objects, such as text, symbols, and marks.
Chapter 7: Printing
Explains how to generate and print reports and drawings in Tekla Structures.

Preface
1 Introduction to
Drawings
Introduction This chapter provides an overview of the Tekla Structures Drawing Editor inter-
face, and introduces its basic features. It also explains the different types of
drawings you can create, and the various levels of editing drawings.
Assumed This chapter has been written for beginners who already know the basics of mod-
background eling with Tekla Structures.
This is the best chapter to start with to gain a basic understanding of Tekla Struc-
tures drawings.
Contents This chapter is divided into the following sections:
• Basics (p. 5)
• Screen layout (p. 8)
• Toolbars (p. 9)
• Selecting drawing objects (p. 12)
• Using commands (p. 13)
• Drawing types (p. 16)
• Three levels of editing drawings (p. 20)
• Colors in drawings (p. 21)
1.1 Basics
Some of the drawing commands are located in the Model Editor and some in the
Drawing Editor.
Creating and You will find all the commands for creating and managing drawings in the
managing Model Editor.

Introduction to Drawings
To create different types of drawings with a single command, you can use wiz-
ards. If you want to create one type of drawing at a time, use the commands on
the Drawing menu. See also Drawing types (p. 16) and Creating drawings
(p. 28).
To view and manage all existing drawings, click Drawing > List... to open the
drawing list. See also Drawing list (p. 24).
Editing and To view or edit a drawing, use the Drawing Editor. For more information, see
viewing Opening drawings (p. 24).
Drawings integrated into the model

Tekla Structures integrates the drawings and reports with the model. This means
that, for example, dimensions and marks in drawings are always correct. It also
makes it impossible to delete parts and bolts from drawings. However, you can
filter out parts and bolts in drawings, or make them invisible.
You can create drawings and reports at any stage of the project. If the model
changes, Tekla Structures asks you to update the related drawings.
You can only open up-to-date drawings. Tekla Structures indicates which draw-
ings you need to update in the Drawings dialog box. See Drawing list (p. 24) and
Drawing status flags (p. 27).
If the drawings are not frozen, updating drawings deletes all drawing level modi-
fications (additional dimensions, text, etc.) from single-part, assembly, and cast-
unit drawings. See Locking and freezing drawings (p. 35)). In most other cases
drawing modifications are permanent and are updated automatically.

Capabilities
You can create several types of output, from general arrangement drawings to
material reports. All the information comes directly from the model, which mini-
mizes the work you have to do. In most cases all you have to do is check the pre-
defined settings or do some minor editing.
The following table describes some of the main features of Tekla Structures
drawings and reports:
Feature Description See also

Automatic Automatically create single-part Creating single-part
workshop draw- and assembly drawings, using or assembly draw-
ings predefined settings for layout, ings (p. 31)
dimensions, marks, etc. Create
drawings of selected parts with a
single command.
Wizards The most effective way to create Using drawing wiz-
drawings is to use wizards. They ards (p. 30)
automatically produce different
types of drawings of different
parts, such as beams, columns,
and braces.
Up-to-date The drawings are actually part of Working with
drawings the model. If you revise the drawings (p. 35)
model, Tekla Structures also
updates the associated draw-
ings, so they are always up to
date.
Reports Tekla Structures creates reports Printing reports
directly from the model, so the (p. 209)
information is always accurate.
You can generate a wide variety
of reports at any time during a
project, including pre-bill of
material lists at quotation stage,
cut lists, bolt lists, and weld lists.
Revision control Tekla Structures recognizes the Defining drawing
changes in the model and auto- revisions (p. 39)
matically adjusts the relevant
drawings and material lists.
Cloning You can save time by cloning Cloning drawings
complex drawing styles. (p. 38)

Feature Description See also
Drawing Editor The Drawing Editor includes Manual dimension-
fully interactive editing tools for ing (p. 66)
adding dimensions, lines, text,
etc. into the drawings.
Customized Tekla Structures includes many What are tem-
reports and ready-to-use standard reports plates?
drawings and drawings. You can also cre-
ate your own templates.
1.2 Screen layout

When you start the Tekla Structures Drawing Editor, the menus and icons for
modeling disappear and several new toolbars are displayed. The model views
remain on the screen. The following illustration identifies the various areas of the
Tekla Structures Drawing Editor window:
Snap settings con-

trol which points
you can snap to and Select switches
pick. determine select-
able objects.
Commands for creating
dimensions and objects.

Switches Select switches and Snap settings are special toolbars containing switches which
you can use to control which objects can be selected, and how Tekla Structures
snaps to points.
Use select switches to limit which object types can be selected. For example, if
only the Select marks switch is active, Tekla Structures only selects marks, even
if you select the entire drawing area. For more information, see Selecting draw-
ing objects (p. 12).
You need to activate snap switches to be able to pick different positions and
points, e.g. line ends and intersections.
To snap to and pick points in the Drawing Editor you use similar techniques to
those in the Model Editor. See Specifying points in the Modeling Manual.
Numeric location In the Enter a numeric location toolbar, you can enter exact coordinates to place
objects. See Numeric snap (p. 201).
1.3 Toolbars
The toolbars contain icons giving easy access to some of the most frequently-
used commands.
Using icons Most Tekla Structures icons work as follows:
• A single-click initiates the command.
• A double-click displays the properties dialog box of that object type,
and initiates the command.
For more information on toolbars, and how to customize them, see Managing
toolbars in the Modeling Manual and Customizing the user interface in the
online help.

Basic toolbars
This section describes the most important toolbars and their icons in the Tekla
Structures Drawing Editor.
Standard The Standard toolbar is visible by default. It contains basic commands for saving,
printing, and working with drawings. All commands are listed from left to right
of the toolbar.
The commands on the Standard toolbar are:

• Save the current drawing
• Plot
• Open the drawing list
Edit The Edit toolbar contains commands for trimming and cutting drawing objects.
The commands on the Edit toolbar are:

• Trim
• Split
• Divide
View The View toolbar contains commands for creating views and zooming.
The commands on the View toolbar are:

• Create a view from a model view
• Create a view from a model by area
• Create a view from a view
• Create a section view
• Zoom in
• Zoom out
• Create a zoom window

Dimension Use the Dimension toolbar to edit dimensions.
The commands on the Dimension toolbar are:

• Create a parallel dimension
• Create a perpendicular dimension
• Create an x dimension
• Create a y dimension
• Create an orthogonal dimension
• Create a free dimension
• Create a curved radial dimension
• Create an angular dimension
• Create a radius dimension
• Add a dimension point
• Remove a dimension point
• Combine dimension lines
• Remove dimension point circle.
• Remove all dimension point circles.
Text Add text and symbols to drawings using the Text toolbar.
The commands on the Text toolbar are:

• Create text with a leader line
• Create text
• Create text along a line
• Create text along start point arrow line
• Create a symbol
• Create a level mark
• Create a weld symbol

Drawing Use the Drawing toolbar to create additional drawing objects.
The commands on the Drawing toolbar are:

• Create a line
• Create a rectangle
• Create an arc using three points
• Create a circle
• Create a polyline
• Create a polygon
• Create a cloud
For information on modifying the toolbars, see Customizing

the interface in the System Manual.
1.4 Selecting drawing objects

To use Tekla Structures effectively, you need to know how to select objects and
use select switches. For more information, see How to select objects in the Mod-
eling Manual.
Select filter settings also affect which objects you can select. See Select filter in
the Modeling Manual.

Select switches Select switches control which object types can be selected. The select switches in
the Drawing Editor work in the same way as the ones in the Model Editor, but the
actual switches differ. The following select switches are available in the Drawing
Editor:
Icon Object Description

Any objects Turns all switches on. You can select all
object types, except for single bolts.
Lines etc. You can select additional drawing objects,

i.e. lines, arcs, circles, rectangles, polylines,
and polygons.
Text You can select any text in drawings.
Marks You can select part, bolt, and connection

marks.
Drawing parts You can select parts in drawings, i.e. col-

umns, beams, plates, etc.
Section symbols You can select section symbols.
Welds You can select welds.
Views You can select drawing views.
Dimensions You can select an entire group of dimensions

by selecting one dimension in the group.
Single dimensions You can select single dimensions.
1.5 Using commands

As you become familiar with Tekla Structures, you will find that there are several
ways to do some operations. Most of the ways are introduced in this section.
Later in this manual, we refer to this section or present only the way(s) most use-
ful for a first-time user. After some practice, you may choose a different way.

Executing commands
There are several ways to execute commands in Tekla Structures.
Icon You can use icons:
• Single-click an icon just to execute the command.
• Double-click an icon to display the properties of the object type, and
to execute the command.
Pull-down menu You can execute commands using pull-down menus. Tekla Structures contains
two types of menus for basic objects:
• The commands on the Properties menu set the properties of different
object types.
• The commands on the Points, Parts, and Create menus, for example,
create objects using the properties of each object type.
Pop-up menu A pop-up menu appears when you click the right mouse button. If you have an
object selected, the commands on the pop-up menu relate to that object.
Creating objects
Most of the commands you run in Tekla Structures create objects. To create an
object, or multiple objects:
• Open the object type’s properties dialog box and set the object prop-
erties.
• Place the object(s) in the model.
You can carry out these steps in any order.
For example To create objects:
1. Double-click the icon of the object type you want to create. Tekla Structures
displays the properties dialog box.
2. Enter or modify the object properties.
3. Click Apply or OK. See also Common buttons in the Modeling Manual.
4. Pick points to place the object(s).
To position objects without defining their properties:
1. Single-click an icon, or a menu command.
2. Pick points to place the object(s). Tekla Structures creates the object using
the current properties for that object type. See also Modifying objects
(p. 15).

To create several objects with the same properties, pick multiple
points. The object commands in Tekla Structures run until you
end them or use another command. See also Ending com-
mands (p. 15).
Modifying objects
To modify the properties of an object, or multiple objects:
• Select the object(s) to modify.
• Open the properties dialog box and modify the object properties.
You can carry out these steps in any order.
For example To modify objects:
1. Double-click one of the objects you want to modify to open the object prop-
erties dialog box.
2. Modify the properties. See also Modify filter checkboxes in the Modeling
Manual.
3. Select the remaining object(s) to modify. See also How to select objects in
the Modeling Manual.
4. Click Modify.
For information on how to resize and move objects, see Manipulating drawing
objects (p. 202) and Copying and moving drawing objects (p. 204).
Using commands simultaneously

Transparency You can use some Tekla Structures commands transparently. This means that
you can execute these commands while another command is still running. For
example, the commands on the Window and Setup menus are transparent.
Ending commands
To cancel or end commands, do one of the following:
• Click the Interrupt icon (next to the Undo and Redo icons).
• Right-click and select Interrupt from the pop-up menu.
• Press the Esc key.

• On the Edit menu, click Interrupt.
1.6 Drawing types

This section explains the different drawing types available in Tekla Structures.
The drawing types are:
• Single-part drawing (p. 16)
• Assembly drawing (p. 17)
• Cast-unit drawing (p. 17)
• General arrangement drawing (p. 19)
• Multi-drawing (p. 19)
See also Creating drawings (p. 28).
Single-part drawing
Single-part drawings are workshop drawings which show the fabrication infor-
mation for one part (usually without welds).
Single-part drawing usually use small sheet sizes, for example A4 or imperial
standard size 8.5" x 11.5".
See also Creating single-part or assembly drawings (p. 31).

Assembly drawing
Assembly drawings are typically workshop drawings showing fabrication infor-
mation for one assembly. In most cases, an assembly consists of single parts that
are either bolted or welded to a main part.
Assembly drawings usually use larger sheet sizes than single-part drawings, for
example A3 or imperial standard size 11" x 17".
See also Creating single-part or assembly drawings (p. 31).
Cast-unit drawing
Cast-unit drawings are dimensional, formwork, or reinforcement drawings used
in concrete design and construction.

Cast-unit drawings that show cast-in-place concrete structures usually use large
sheet sizes, for example A1 or imperial standard size 24" x 36". Drawings that
show precast structures usually use smaller sheet sizes, for example A3 or impe-
rial standard size 11" x 17".
See also Creating cast-unit drawings (p. 32).

General arrangement drawing
Create general arrangement (GA) drawings when you need:
• Several views on one drawing, including the entire model or a part of it
• Erection, marking, or foundation plans
• Information from model views, including 3D views
See also Creating general arrangement drawings (p. 33).
Multi-drawing
Multi-drawings are workshop drawings which gather together several single-part
or assembly drawings on one sheet.
Create multi-drawings when you want to:
• Have more than one assembly on a sheet
• Collect multiple single-part drawings on a large sheet

Multi-drawings usually demand large sheet sizes such as A1 or imperial standard
size 24" x 36".
See also Creating multi-drawings (p. 34).
1.7 Three levels of editing drawings

You can edit drawings on three levels.
Drawing On the highest level you can change the drawing properties, which changes all
properties the objects in the drawing. You can change the drawing properties for more than
one drawing using the drawing list and drawing properties dialog boxes. You can
also change the properties of a single drawing using the Drawing Editor. See
Drawing Properties (p. 113).
Whenever possible, you should modify drawings by changing

the drawing properties. These modifications also remain when
the drawing is recreated due to a model change, for example.
View properties The second level is to edit on the view level, where you modify selected drawing
views. You can change the view properties in the Model Editor before you create
drawings, or by modifying existing views in the Drawing Editor. See Drawing
view properties (p. 119).

Object properties The third and lowest level is to edit on the object level, where you change indi-
vidual objects in a drawing. Use the Drawing Editor commands to modify draw-
ing objects. See Editing Drawings (p. 179).
If you do not freeze a drawing you lose view and object level
modifications when the drawing is recreated. See Updating
drawings when the model changes (p. 36) and Locking and
freezing drawings (p. 35).
1.8 Colors in drawings

You have the following basic options for background and line colors in drawings:
Example Description
White background, col-
ored lines.
Does not show different
line thicknesses.
(Default)

Example Description
White background, black
lines.
To use, check the Black
and white drawing switch
in the Setup menu.
Tekla Structures shows
different line thicknesses
using the Pen number in
the color table in plotter
catalog. See also Color
(p. 228).
Black backgound, col-
ored lines.
To use, set the environ-
ment variable
XS_BLACK_DRAWING_BA
CKGROUND to TRUE in
user.bat file and restart
Tekla Structures.
You can define different line colors for different objects in each object’s proper-
ties. See also Drawing Properties (p. 113).
The drawing classifier may also affect the line color of objects.
See The Drawing Classifier (p. 172).

2 Getting Started with
Drawings
Introduction This chapter explains how to create drawings and work with them in Tekla Struc-
tures. First we introduce you to the drawing list, which is an important tool for
managing drawings. Then we explain how to create drawings using the different
tools available. The third section contains advice on handling updates, revisions,
issuing and other changes to drawings.
Assumed If you are new to Tekla Structures, we recommend that you read Chapter 1,
background Introduction to Drawings, first, to gain a basic understanding of Tekla Struc-
tures drawings.
• Opening drawings (p. 24)
• Creating drawings (p. 28)
• Working with drawings (p. 35)
• Saving and closing drawings (p. 41)
• Drawing reference (p. 41)

Getting Started with Drawings
2.1 Opening drawings
You can only have one drawing open at a time. If you already have a drawing
open, Tekla Structures prompts you to save that drawing before opening the next
one.
To open a Tekla Structures drawing:
1. In the Model Editor, click Drawing > List... or .

2. Select a drawing from the list in the Drawings dialog box.
3. Click Open, or double-click the drawing to open it.
Drawing list
All drawings from the Tekla Structures model appear on the list in the Drawings
dialog box. This list displays the following information about each drawing:
Column Description
Flags Flags are characters (I, L, F, n, *, etc.) at the beginning of
each row. They indicate the drawing status. See Drawing
status flags (p. 27).
Dates The creation and modification dates of the drawing.
Revision The revision number or mark of the drawing. See also
Defining drawing revisions (p. 39).

Column Description
Size The paper size the drawing uses. See Drawing size (p. 57).
Type The drawing types are identified by the following letters:
• W for single-part drawings.
• A for assembly drawings.
• C for cast-unit drawings.
• G for general arrangement drawings.
• M for multi-drawings.
See also Drawing types (p. 16).
If a U (unknown) drawing appears in the drawing list, delete
it, then recreate it. You can also check the database.
Name The drawing name is the number of the part from which the
drawing was created. You cannot change this drawing
name.
You can choose to have Tekla Structures base the name of
cast-unit drawings on the position number or the ID of the
cast-unit. See also Creating cast-unit drawings (p. 32).
Title You can add a drawing title using the Name field in the
drawing properties dialog box. See Common drawing
properties (p. 114).
You can choose whether Tekla Structures shows either revision

numbers or revision marks on the drawing list. By default, it
shows revision numbers. To see revision marks instead, set the
environment variable
XS_SHOW_REVISION_MARK_ON_DRAWING_LIST=T
RUE.
Using the drawing list

You can control which drawings appear in the Drawings dialog box using various
commands.
The following tables explain what the buttons in the Drawings dialog box do. The
buttons on the right of the dialog box are:
Button Description
Display – All Lists all existing drawings.
Display – Invert Inverts the contents of the current list.
Filter – Selected Lists selected drawings.

Button Description
Filter – Up to date Lists only up-to-date drawings. To see a list of draw-
ings that need updating, click the Invert button after
using this button.
Filter – Select parts When you select a drawing and then click Select parts,
Tekla Structures selects and highlights the correspond-
ing part(s) in the model.
Filter – By parts Only lists the drawings associated with the parts you
have selected in the model. Use this button to identify
the drawings associated with a specific part.
Lock – On Prevents the selected drawings from being opened,
modified, or deleted. Tekla Structures still displays the
update flags (P and N) for locked drawings. See also
Locking and freezing drawings (p. 35).
Lock – Off Unlocks the selected drawings and allows you to open,
modify, and deleted them.
Freeze – On Freezes the selected drawings, so changes in the model
or updating drawings do not remove manual modifica-
tions in drawings. See also Locking and freezing
drawings (p. 35).
Freeze – Off Unfreezes the selected drawings, so changes in the
model or updating drawings override manual modifi-
cations.in drawings.
Issue – On Flags the selected drawings as issued (flag I). See also
Issuing drawings (p. 39).
Issue – Off Removes the issue flags (I) from selected drawings.
Revision... See Defining drawing revisions (p. 39).
The buttons at the bottom of the Drawings dialog box are:
Button Description
Open Opens the selected drawing in the Drawing Editor.
You can only select one drawing from the list at a time.
If the Open button is grayed, you have more than one
drawing selected.
You can also double-click a drawing on the list to open
it. See also Opening drawings (p. 24).
Update Updates selected drawings, except drawings that are
locked. Also updates parts and bolts in frozen draw-
ings. See also Updating drawings when the model
changes (p. 36).

Button Description
Update marks Updates marks in selected drawings.
Clone... Clones the selected drawing for a similar part. See
Cloning drawings (p. 38).
Delete Deletes selected drawings. You cannot delete locked
drawings.
Cancel Closes the dialog box.
Drawing status flags

Tekla Structures uses certain characters, “flags”, to indicate the status of the
drawings. Flags appear at the beginning of each row in the Drawings dialog box.
If a drawing does not have any flag, it is up to date.
Flag Description More information

P The parts in the drawing have changed, e.g. Updating draw-
parts have been added or deleted, or part ings when the
properties have changed. model changes
N The actual drawing is up to date, but the (p. 36)
number of identical parts has changed.
n The part from which the drawing was origi-
nally created has been deleted.
X All the parts related to the drawing have
been deleted.
L The drawing is locked. Locking and freez-
F The drawing is frozen. ing drawings
(p. 35)
D A linked drawing has been modified.

Flag Description More information
* A drawing gets an * flag in four cases: Cloning drawings
(p. 38)
• A copied drawing has been modified.
• The drawing is a cloned drawing.
• A frozen drawing has been updated.
• A drawing flagged n has been updated,
and there are still other parts relevant to
the drawing in the model.
I The drawing has been issued. For example, Issuing drawings
you might re-issue drawings that have been (p. 39)
sent to site.
M The issued drawing has been edited or other-
wise changed.
2.2 Creating drawings

Once you complete a model, you can start creating drawings to issue. You should
also create drawings (and reports) periodically while modeling to check if:
• The predefined drawing properties and filters suit your needs, or should you
modify them
• The details, dimensions, etc. in the model are correct.
Prior to creating or editing assembly, single-part, cast-unit, or

multi-drawings, you need to number the model. This is so that
Tekla Structures connects the right objects to the right draw-
ings. Tekla Structures warns you that numbering must be up to
date.
In this section This section explains, in general terms, how to create different types of drawings.
For more detailed instructions, see the online help.

Before creating drawings
Prior to creating assembly, single-part, cast-unit, or multi-drawings in Tekla
Structures:
1. Update the numbering of model objects. See Numbering parts and Num-
bering settings in the Modeling Manual.
2. Create test drawings of different types of parts to see how well the pre-
defined drawing properties and layouts suit your needs.
3. Modify drawing properties and layouts if necessary and save them. Enter a
name for the properties file and click Save as.
Setting drawing properties

Tekla Structures creates drawings using the properties defined for each type of
drawing. To view or modify drawing properties, select a drawing type from the
Properties menu in the Model Editor. You can also change drawing layout using
the Properties menu.
The layout and drawing views in a drawing affect drawing size.

For more information, see Drawing Layout (p. 43) and Draw-
ing Properties (p. 113).
Using the Model Editor to create drawings

You create drawings in the Model Editor. To create drawings:
1. Select a drawing type from the Properties menu.
2. Use the drawing properties dialog box to select the appropriate predefined
properties, and then click Load.
Select pre-defined
properties
3. Click Apply or OK.

4. Click Setup > Select filter and find an appropriate filter to select the parts
from which you want to create drawings. See Select filter.

Only activate Select parts on the Select switches toolbar when
selecting parts. Otherwise selection could take a long time in
large models. See Controlling the selection in the Modeling
Manual.
5. Select the entire model.

6. On the Drawing menu, select the drawing type.
7. Tekla Structures creates the drawings, and they appear on the drawing list in
the Drawings dialog box. See also Opening drawings (p. 24) and Working
with drawings (p. 35).
If you want to create drawings of individual parts, assemblies, model views, or
existing drawings, select those objects, then use the right-click pop up menu to
create the drawings.
Using drawing wizards

A wizard combines a series of actions so that you can create drawings using a
single command. You can use wizards to create single-part drawings, assembly
drawings, and multi-drawings.
Wizards contain instructions telling Tekla Structures which drawing type, select
filter, and drawing properties to use. You can edit wizard files or create your
own. See Creating wizard files in the online help.

To see which wizards are available, click File > Wizard... in the Model Editor. For
detailed instructions on how to use drawing wizards, see the online help.
Wizard log By default, Tekla Structures writes a log file when you run a wizard. The log
files contain information such as errors, number of drawings created, commands
used, etc. For more information, see Wizard log in the online help.
Creating single-part or assembly drawings

You can create all single-part or assembly drawings for a certain part type at the
same time, instead of selecting the parts one by one. In this case, you probably
want the drawings to look similar and have the same properties.
To create single-part or assembly drawings of one type of part:
1. Use the Select filter to select the part type, e.g. columns. Select the whole
model. See Select filter.
2. Click Properties > Single-part drawing... (or Properties > Assembly drawing...)
to display the drawing properties dialog box.
3. Select the predefined properties from the list box and click the Load button.
5. To create drawings, click Drawing > Single-part drawing (or
Drawing > Assembly drawing).
For detailed instructions on how to create drawings, see the online help.

Creating cast-unit drawings
Create cast-unit drawings when you need several drawings of one cast unit to
show information about:
• Dimensions
• Formwork
• Reinforcement
• Cast-in fittings
Cast-unit drawings do not show bolts and welds, or bolt marks and weld marks,
unless you add them manually.
Method Create cast-unit drawings:
• By cast unit position
Tekla Structures associates the drawing with the position number of the cast
unit and all cast units that have the same position number.
• By cast unit ID
Tekla Structures associates the drawing with a specific cast unit, using its
unique ID.
Sheet number You can define sheet numbers for cast-unit drawings.
Steps To create cast-unit drawings:
1. Select the cast units. Or use an appropriate Select filter and select the whole
model. See Select filter.
2. Click Properties > Cast-unit drawing... to open the drawing properties dialog
box.
3. Select the predefined properties you want to use from the list box, and then
click the Load button.
4. Select the cast unit definition method: By position or By ID.
6. Click Drawing > Cast-unit drawing.
7. Tekla Structures creates the cast-unit drawings.
For detailed instructions on how to create drawings, see the online help.

Creating general arrangement drawings
To create a general arrangement drawing, click Drawing > General arrangement
drawing... in the Model Editor. For more detailed instructions on how to create
this type of drawing, see the online help.
You do not need to update numbering to create or open general

arrangement drawings.
You can create general arrangement drawings from a named model view without
opening the view. You have the option to:
• Create one drawing for each selected view
• Add all selected views to one drawing
As an alternative, you can create an empty drawing, and then add model views to
it using the Drawing Editor. For detailed instructions on how to create drawing
views, see the online help.

Creating multi-drawings
Create multi-drawings when you need to:
• Include more than one assembly on a sheet
• Place several single-part drawings on one sheet
Of what You can include several types of objects in multi-drawings:
• Existing drawings
• Model and drawing views
• Selected parts and assemblies
With or without If you create multi-drawings from existing drawings, you can choose to include
layout their individual layouts. If you want to have separate lists, tables, and call-offs
for each part or assembly, you should include the individual drawing layouts.
You can also include lists and tables for all parts or assemblies in the multi-draw-
ing.
For detailed instructions on how to create this type of drawing, see the online
help.
Adding views to drawings

Before you create drawings, you can define which views Tekla Structures should
create automatically. See Defining which drawing views to create (p. 120) and
Adding section views to drawings (p. 132).
Once you have created drawings, you can still add views to them manually. You
can create drawing views of:
• Views in the model. See Create > View > From model > View in
the online help.
• Areas of the model. See Create > View > From model > Area in the
online help.
• Views in the same drawing. See Create > View > From view in the
online help.
• Single parts in an assembly. See Single-part views in assembly
drawings (p. 124).
You can also create new views of a part from another direction in single-part or
assembly drawings. See Create > View > Basic in the online help.
To switch from a drawing to a model view, use the list at the

end of the Drawing Editor Window menu.

2.3 Working with drawings
Use the Drawings dialog box to work with and manage drawings.
To open the Drawings dialog box, do one of the following:
• Click the Open drawing list icon.

• In the Model Editor, click Drawing > List....
• In the Drawing Editor, click File > Open....
There you can open, update, edit, freeze, lock, clone, and delete drawings. You
can also sort, select, and display drawings according to different criteria, and
print lists of certain drawings, for example. You can also use the drawing list to
find the connections between the drawings and the parts in the model.
See also Drawing list (p. 24)
Using the drawing list (p. 25)
Drawing status flags (p. 27)
Producing reports on selected drawings (p. 212)
Exporting drawings in the online help
Locking and freezing drawings

You can lock and freeze them so that they are not accidentally modified.
Locking Locking prevents the drawings from being opened, updated, cloned, deleted, or
modified, even if the model changes. Tekla Structures flags locked drawings for
update (P or N) if the model changes. See also Drawing status flags (p. 27).
Freezing Freeze a drawing when you want to keep manual editing (such as additional
marks and dimensions) in the drawing even if the model changes. When Tekla
Structures updates a frozen drawing, it updates only the image of the member.
Nothing else (dimensions, part marks, etc.) is changed.
If you freeze drawings and then change the model, the frozen
drawings will be out of date. Remember to check these draw-
ings carefully.

Updating drawings when the model changes
This section explains how to create or update drawings of parts that have
changed after numbering. This section does not apply to general arrangement
drawings.
Renumbering model objects after creating drawings may generate flags. See
Drawing status flags (p. 27).
After changing a model:
1. Check the numbering settings. Click Setup > Numbering... and use the Com-
pare to old settings in the Numbering setup dialog box for both the new and
modified parts.
2. Renumber modified model objects (Tools > Numbering > Modified).
3. Check the drawing list for status flags. See Drawing list (p. 24) and Draw-
ing status flags (p. 27).
4. To find out which drawings have been affected, select each drawing on the
drawing list with a P or N flag and click the Select parts button. Tekla Struc-
tures highlights the affected parts in the model.
5. Check the numbering history log for renumbered parts. Click
Tools > Display log file > Numbering history log.... Part or Assembly at the
beginning of a line in the numbering history log indicates that Tekla Struc-
tures has renumbered parts or assemblies, as in the following example:
6. Select the affected drawings on the drawing list and click Update.
7. Create drawings of new parts. See Finding parts without drawings (p. 37).

To find which parts have been renumbered, select the relevant
entries from the numbering history log. Tekla Structures high-
lights the corresponding part(s) in the model.
To view the properties of renumbered parts, right-click an entry
in the numbering history log and select Properties... from the
pop-up menu.
Finding parts without drawings

To identify and select parts which do not have drawings:
1. Open a model view where all parts are visible.
2. Click Drawing > List... to open the Drawing list dialog box.
3. Select all the drawings.
4. Click Select parts. Tekla Structures highlights the parts which have draw-
ings.
5. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the entire model. Tekla Structures high-
lights the parts which do not have drawings.
Only activate Select parts on the Select switches toolbar when

selecting parts. Otherwise selecting objects can take a long time
in large models. See Controlling the selection in the Modeling
Manual.
Modifying multiple drawings

To modify several drawings at the same time:
1. Select the drawings to modify from the list in the Drawings dialog box.
2. Right-click and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. Modify the drawing properties.
4. Click OK in each of the subdialog boxes where you changed the properties.
5. Click Modify in the drawing properties dialog box.
See also Editing Drawings (p. 179).

Cloning drawings
You should consider cloning drawings when:
• There are several similar parts, assemblies, or cast units in the model
• You need to produce single-part, assembly, or cast-unit drawings of similar
parts, assemblies, or cast units
• The drawings need a lot of manual editing
For example, you can create a drawing for one truss, edit the drawing, and then
clone it for similar trusses. Then you only need to modify the cloned drawings
where the trusses differ.
When you clone drawings of assemblies or cast units, they must

have the same type of main part as the assembly or cast unit
from which the original drawing was created. For example, the
upper chords of the original and the cloned truss could be main
parts.
For more information on how to clone drawings, see the online help.
Included single When you clone an assembly drawing that includes single-part drawings, Tekla
parts Structures does not include the single-part drawings in the cloned assembly
drawing.
Checking After cloning a drawing, you should always check it to ensure the dimensions
dimensions and and view sizes are correct.
views
Tekla Structures circles in red the dimensions for which it cannot find a reference
point on a part.
In order to add and remove dimension points and to remove

dimension point circles, you may have to adjust the drawing
view size so that the dimension points are inside the view.
To remove the red circles in cloned drawings, do one of the following:

• In the Drawing Editor, click Edit > Remove dimension point
circle > Single circle and select the circle to remove.
Or to remove all circles, click Edit > Remove dimension point circle > All.
• Create a new dimension point (Edit > Add/Remove dimension point) at
the correct position and delete the existing dimension point
(Edit > Remove dimension point).
• When you delete incorrect dimensions the red circles will also disap-
pear. You can then recreate the dimensions.

Issuing drawings
Use the drawing list to mark issued drawings. Select the drawings and click the
Issue – On button. Tekla Structures adds an I flag to the selected drawings in the
drawing list. Tekla Structures also saves the issue date in the model database, so
you can use it in reports and drawings.
To show the issue date in a report, add the template field

DRAWING_ISSUE_DATE in a report template.
To remove issue flags, select the drawings on the drawing list and click Issue –
Off.
Defining drawing revisions

When you revise drawings, you can attach information to them about the
changes you have made. Tekla Structures displays this information alongside the
revision number or mark. The revision date also appears in the revision table
within drawings. The revision number or mark is also shown on the drawing list.
The report drawing_issue_rev.xsr shows the most recent revision dates of draw-
ings. For information on creating reports, see Producing reports on selected
drawings (p. 212).
Each drawing has its own unique revision number, but several
drawings can share the same revision mark, date, and informa-
tion. To attach the same revision information to several draw-
ings simultaneously, select multiple drawings from the drawing
list.
You can choose whether Tekla Structures shows the revision

numbers or the revision marks on the drawing list. By default, it
shows the revision numbers. To see the revision marks on the
list, set the environment variable
XS_SHOW_REVISION_MARK_ON_DRAWING_LIST=T
RUE.

Creating revisions
To create a revision:
1. In the Drawings dialog box, select the drawing(s) to revise.
2. Click Revision.... The Revision handling dialog box appears.
3. You must enter a mark and can choose to enter a date for the revision. You
can also add 3 lines of Text about the changes.
4. Click Create.
Changing revisions
To modify an existing revision:
1. In the Drawings dialog box, select the drawing(s) to revise.
2. Click Revision....
3. In the Revision handling dialog box, select the number of the revision in the
list box next to the Mark field.
4. Change the revision information.
5. Click Modify.

Deleting revisions
To delete a revision:
1. In the Revision handling dialog box, select the revision number in the list box
next to the Mark field.
2. Click Delete. When you delete a revision, Tekla Structures automatically
adjusts the remaining revision numbers for that drawing. The revision marks
do not change.
2.4 Saving and closing drawings
To save a drawing, click File > Save, or .

Autosave Tekla Structures automatically saves drawings at set intervals. For information
on how to define the location of autosave files and set their location see
Autosave in the online help.
Close drawing To close a drawing, close the drawing window, or click File > Close drawing. A
confirmation dialog box appears Tekla Structures prompts you save the drawing.
2.5 Drawing reference

To create drawings, select a command on the Drawing menu, or use the icons on
the Standard toolbar in the Model Editor. The following table lists the drawing
commands and gives a short description of each one. For more information, see
the online help.
Command Icon Description

Single-part drawing Creates single-part drawings of selected
parts.
Assembly drawing Creates assembly drawings of selected

assemblies.
Cast-unit drawing Creates cast-unit drawings of selected

cast units.
General arrangement Creates general arrangement drawings
drawing... of selected model views.

Multi-drawing Creates multi-drawings of selected
drawings, parts, or views. See Multi-
drawing in the online help for more
options.
File > Wizard... Displays the Wizard dialog box and
automatically creates drawings of
selected parts.
Drawing > Clone drawing... Displays the Drawing cloning dialog box
and clones selected drawings for similar
parts.
To add views to drawings, use the icons on the View toolbar, or select a command
on the Create menu in the Drawing Editor.

Create > View > From Creates a drawing view of a model view
model > View within a drawing.
Create > View > From Creates a drawing view of a selected

model > Area area in the model.
Create > View > From View Creates a new drawing view from exist-
ing drawing view within a drawing.
Create > View > Basic Creates another front view of a part
within a single-part, assembly, or cast-
unit drawing.

3 Drawing Layout
Introduction This chapter describes drawing layout and explains how to define it in Tekla
Structures.
To produce finalized drawings, you usually need to include a lot of other infor-
mation, such as lists and tables, for example. You also need to specify paper size,
scale, and perhaps the types of frames you want to use. This is what the layout is
all about.
Audience The sections Table layouts (p. 45) and Working with tables (p. 47) are prima-
rily aimed at administrators who define drawing templates. They also contain
introductory information that general users might find very useful.
• Introducing layouts (p. 43)
• Table layouts (p. 45)
• Working with tables (p. 47)
• Key plan (p. 51)
• Scale and location of drawing views (p. 53)
• Drawing size (p. 57)
How to use this If you are using predefined layouts, and they suit your purposes, you might
chapter choose to read Introducing layouts (p. 43), and then from Key plan (p. 51)
onwards.
3.1 Introducing layouts

A Tekla Structures drawing consists of the layout and drawing views, e.g. plans,
side views, and section views.

Drawing Layout
Layout A layout connects a set of table layouts and a set of drawing sizes. Before you
create a drawing, you must select a layout. Tekla Structures then selects the
smallest defined drawing size which will fit the drawing views and the connected
table layout. This tells Tekla Structures which elements to automatically include
in your drawings.
Tables and A layout defines which drawing tables to include and sets the rules for increasing
drawing sizes the drawing size. Each layout has its own:
• Table layouts
• Fixed drawing sizes
• Calculated drawing sizes
To define layouts, click Properties > Layout... in the Model Editor. Tekla Struc-
tures displays the Layout dialog box. For more information, see Working with
tables (p. 47).
Tekla Structures includes several predefined layouts, which are connected to

drawing types. Each drawing type, assembly, single-part, cast-unit, general
arrangement, and multi-drawing, has its own layout. You can also define your
own layouts.

Drawing Layout
Example Using different layouts you can set assembly drawings to use A1 and A3 size
drawing sheets, and single-part drawings to use A3 and A4 sheets. You can also
use layouts to include a material list in assembly drawings, and not in general
arrangement drawings.
Using layouts To use layouts in drawings, open the drawing properties dialog box. Click Lay-
out... and select an option in the Layout list box.
Saved layouts Tekla Structures saves the new layouts in separate files with the filename exten-
sion lay. Layout files are located in the model folder. You can copy them to other
projects.
To create drawings without a layout, create and use a layout

with an empty table layout.
3.2 Table layouts

Tables and In Tekla Structures, we use the term tables to refer to various elements of the
templates drawing layout, such as:
• Tables (e.g. revision table)
• Title blocks
• Lists (e.g. part and bolt lists)
• General notes
• Key plans
• DWG/DXF files
Tables include information on drawing objects. If you change the model, Tekla
Structures updates the contents of the affected drawings and tables.
Table layout A table layout is a group of tables which appear together in a drawing of certain
type and size. Table layouts define:
• Which tables appear
• Where the tables are located
• How much space Tekla Structures leaves between the drawing frame
and views

Drawing Layout
The example below illustrates the relationship between the table layout and
drawing views.
margin
Frames
top view
Fold-
space
mark
front view
key plan
revision table Table

section section layout
margin
space
view view
A–A B–B material list drawing title
Drawing views Table layouts only define the background, not the number or location of the
and sizes drawing views to include. You can use the same table layout with different draw-
ing sizes, or give each drawing size its own table layout.
For example, if the number of views changes in a drawing and Tekla Structures
chooses a new drawing size, Tekla Structures may also choose another table lay-
out.
For more information, see Scale and location of drawing views (p. 53) and
Drawing size (p. 57).
Drawing frames and foldmarks are not included in table layout.

You define them when you print drawings. See Drawing
frames and foldmarks (p. 214).
Margins and spaces in drawings

Table layouts define the margins between the drawing views and the frame, and
the space between two drawing views.
A margin is the width or height from the outermost drawing views to the draw-
ing frame. A space is the horizontal or vertical distance between two drawing
views.
Use the Table layouts dialog box to define margins and spaces for table layouts:
1. In the Model Editor, click Properties > Layout....
2. Select a layout and click Table layout....

Drawing Layout
3. Select the table layout on the list. To create a new table layout, enter its
name and click Add.
4. Enter margins and spaces.
5. Click Update.
6. Repeat step 3–5 for each table layout.
3.3 Working with tables

Use the Tables dialog box to work with tables and define table layouts.
To open the Tables dialog box:
2. Select a layout and click Table layout....
3. Select the table layout and click Tables....

Drawing Layout
To define a table layout for drawings:
• Select the tables you want to include.
• Define the location of each table in the table layout.
• Set the scale and transparency of each table.
• Define the distances between the tables.
Template Editor Tekla Structures includes many predefined tables. You can also create your own
tables and modify existing ones using the Template Editor (TplEd). To open the
Template Editor, click Tools > Templates... in the Model or Drawing Editor. See
also Table parts and Graphic template in the online help.

Drawing Layout
Selecting tables to table layout
To select the tables to include in a table layout:
1. Open the Tables dialog box.
2. On the Available tables list, double-click each table you want to include in
the table layout. You can also use the arrow buttons to add and remove
tables.
3. Set the table properties as required. See Location of tables in table layout
(p. 49) and Setting table scales and transparency (p. 50).
4. Click Update.
Location of tables in table layout

You define the location of each individual table in a table layout by binding it to
the drawing frame, or to an other table.
Example In the illustration below, the lower right corner of the drawing title (the table) is
bound to the lower right corner of the drawing frame (the reference object).
To define the location of tables in a table layout:

1. Open the Tables dialog box.
2. Select a table from the Chosen tables list.
3. Choose one of the table corners as its reference point, and select the check-
box in that corner.
4. In the Reference list box, select the reference object (i.e. another table or the
drawing frame).

Drawing Layout
5. Choose the reference point of the reference object, and select the checkbox
in the appropriate corner.
6. In the Vector between corners fields, define the horizontal and vertical dis-
tances of the table from the reference object.
7. Click Update.
8. Repeat steps 2–7 for all the tables on the Chosen tables list.
9. Click Apply or OK to save the table layout.
Two reference You can also position a table to the midpoint of a frame or table boundary by
points selecting two reference points, for example, the lower left and right corners.
If you do not use the right combinations of reference points for

tables and binding objects, Tekla Structures may position draw-
ing tables outside the drawing.
Distances By default, Tekla Structures places tables side by side. If you need a space
between tables between tables, you can define a vector between the table reference point and the
binding object reference point. Use the x and y fields to enter the distances.
For information on drawing frames, see Drawing frames and foldmarks
(p. 214).
Setting table scales and transparency

Scale You can scale tables created with the Template Editor and DWG/DXF files to
different sizes. Each table and DWG/DXF file in a table layout can have its own
scale. The values you enter determine the size of the scaled object relative to the
original.
Transparency You can also define whether tables in drawings are transparent or not. A trans-
parent table can overlap with another table, view, or drawing object. For exam-
ple, if you use DWG/DXF drawing frames, you should make them transparent.
Otherwise you will not be able to locate any other objects inside the frames.
To make a table transparent, select the Transparent checkbox in the Tables dialog
box.
Modifying table layouts

Changing tables When you delete a table from a table layout and replace it with a new one, you
will need to define the location of the new table relative to the remaining tables.
The new table does not automatically inherit the location of the deleted table. See
Location of tables in table layout (p. 49).

Drawing Layout
Checking You should also check that the remaining tables do not use the deleted table as
references their reference. If they do and you delete the table, you cannot see any tables at
all in the layout.
3.4 Key plan

A key plan is a small “map” in a drawing that locates an assembly, a cast unit, or
a part in the model. The key plan includes the model grid and the assembly, cast
unit, or part shown in the drawing.
key plan
Key plans are Tekla Structures drawings, or key plan drawings, which contain a
drawing view or a DWG/DXF file.
Drawing view as a key plan

When you use a drawing view as a key plan, Tekla Structures automatically
includes the right part in it.
To create a key plan, you need to use a drawing that contains only one view (of
the right scale and size). Tekla Structures only uses the view from the drawing.
The view position, drawing size, and templates are not relevant to a key plan
drawing.

Drawing Layout
Set the view properties as follows:
• Tekla Structures uses the scale of the key plan view in every drawing
using it.
• In the drawing view properties, set the drawing view boundaries
(Extrema) so that all parts are visible.
• Other drawing view properties also affect the key plan. If you set part
and bolt marks to visible in the key plan view, they will also be visi-
ble in the small key plan included in the drawing.
• Tekla Structures automatically includes the right part when you insert
the small key plan into the drawing.
To insert a key plan into a drawing layout, follow the instructions in Adding a
key plan to a drawing layout (p. 53).
DWG/DXF as a key plan

You can also include a DWG or DXF file in a key plan drawing. Using this
method means you can also include other Tekla Structures drawing objects in the
key plan.
To create the key plan drawing:
1. In the Model Editor, click Drawing > General arrangement....
2. In the Options list box, select Empty drawing. Select the Open drawing check-
box. Click Create. Tekla Structures opens the Drawing Editor.
3. Click Properties > DWG/DXF, and then locate the DWG/DXF file you want to
use as the key plan. Click Apply or OK.
4. Click Create > DWG/DXF.
5. Pick the top left corner point of the rectangle.
6. Add text, lines, or other drawing objects as required.
7. Click File > Save to save the drawing.
To add the key plan to a drawing layout, follow the instructions in Adding a key
plan to a drawing layout (p. 53).
Do not create views in the key plan drawing if it already con-

tains a DWG/DXF object.

Drawing Layout
Adding a key plan to a drawing layout
First you need to add the key plan drawing to table layout(s). Then you need to
check the drawing properties to ensure that the drawings are using the right lay-
out.
To add the key plan to a table layout:
1. In the Model Editor, click Properties > Layout.
2. Select the layout you want to modify. Click Table layout....
3. Select the table layout you want to modify. Click Tables....
4. From the Available tables list, double-click Key plan. The drawing list
appears.
5. Select the key plan drawing and click OK.
6. From the Chosen tables list, select Key plan and set the key plan location.
See Location of tables in table layout (p. 49).
You cannot scale the key plan in the Tables dialog box. The
properties of the key plan drawing view define the key plan
scale and size.
7. Click Update.
8. Quit with OK.
3.5 Scale and location of drawing views

This section explains how to set the scale and location of drawing views, using
the drawing properties dialog box.
See also Drawing Properties (p. 113)
Drawing view properties (p. 119)
Drawing section view properties (p. 132)
Defining which drawing views to create (p. 120)
Adding section views to drawings (p. 132)

Drawing Layout
Automatically scaling drawing views
You have the following options for setting the scale of drawing views:
• Specify exact scales for views.
• Let Tekla Structures automatically determine the appropriate scales
(using the layout, included tables, and drawing size).
This section explains how to automatically scale drawing views. See also Speci-
fying drawing size (p. 57).
If you prefer certain drawing view scales for certain drawing sizes, see Defining
exact drawing view scales (p. 120).
Autoscale
Having Tekla Structures automatically scale drawing views limits the size of the
drawing. When you use Autoscale, Tekla Structures first tries to use the preferred
scale, then the alternative scales. You define these in the drawing properties dia-
log box.
Preferred scale You can define different preferred scales for main and section views. In the
drawing properties dialog box, click View... (or Section
view...) > Attributes > Scale and enter the scale.
Alternative scales If you are using Autoscale and drawing views do not fit into a drawing using the
preferred scale, Tekla Structures tries the alternative scales.
You can define different scales for main and section views. In the drawing prop-
erties dialog box, click Layout... > Scale > Main views scales (or Section view
scales) and enter the scales.
To list the alternative scales, enter the denominators of scales

and separate them with spaces. For example, enter "5 10 15 20"
for the scales 1/5, 1/10, 1/15, and 1/20.
Scale change mode

To define the relationship between the scales of main and section views within a
drawing, click Layout... > Scale > Scale change mode in the drawing properties
dialog box. The following options are available:
• main = section
The scales of main and section view are equal.
• main < section
Main view scales are smaller than section view scales.
• main <= section
Main view scales are smaller than or equal to section view scales.

Drawing Layout
Preferred size
Tekla Structures tries to use the preferred size as the maximum drawing size
when it automatically scales drawing views. See also Both autoscaling and
autosizing drawings (p. 61).
Location of views in drawings

The following settings tell Tekla Structures how to place views in drawings. You
set them in the drawing properties dialog box. Click the Layout... button, and then
the Other tab. To define which views Tekla Structures creates, see Defining
which drawing views to create (p. 120).
Projection type
Projection type defines how Tekla Structures places the projections of a part in
cast-unit, single-part, and assembly drawings. You can select:
• First angle (also referred to as European projection)
• Third angle (also referred to as American projection).
Third-angle
projection
First-angle
projection

Drawing Layout
Section view location
You can set Tekla Structures to always locate end section views next to the main
view in a single-part, assembly, or cast-unit drawing, or in any empty location in
the drawing.
End section views in any location End section views beside the main view
Including single parts

In assembly drawings, you can include single-part drawings of the assembly
parts. See Single-part views in assembly drawings (p. 124).
Expanding shortened parts

After Tekla Structures has scaled drawing views and selected the drawing size, it
may stretch shortened views to fill up empty areas of the drawing. You can con-
trol this in the drawing properties dialog box (Layout... > Other > Expand short-
ened parts to fit (Yes)). See also Shortening parts in drawings (p. 131).
For information on placing, moving, rotating, copying, and linking drawing

views, see Working with drawing views (p. 205).

Drawing Layout
3.6 Drawing size
In Tekla Structures, you have two options how to set the drawing size. You can
either:
• Specify exact sizes for drawings.
• Let Tekla Structures find appropriate drawing sizes (according to the
layout, tables in it, and the drawing view scales).
If you prefer to use a specific drawing size rather than specific drawing view
scales, read Specifying drawing size (p. 57). If you prefer to use specific draw-
ing view scales rather than a specific drawing size, read Automatically sizing
drawings (p. 58).
See also Both autoscaling and autosizing drawings (p. 61).
The drawing size should always be smaller than the actual paper
size to accommodate printer margins. For more information on
paper sizes and print areas, see The plotter catalog (p. 224).
Specifying drawing size

If you prefer to use a specific drawing size rather than specific drawing view
scales, do the following before creating the drawings.
In the drawing properties dialog box:
1. To specify the drawing size, click Layout... > Drawing size > Size definition
mode (Specified size).
2. Enter the specified drawing size.

3. Select the table layout.
4. To let Tekla Structures automatically scale the drawing views, click the
Scale tab and select Autoscale (Yes).
5. Enter the scales you want Tekla Structures to use in main and section views.
See Autoscale (p. 54).
6. Select the scale change mode. See Scale change mode (p. 54).
7. Enter the preferred size.
The Drawing size and Scale tabs and steps 4–7 above only relate
to single-part, assembly, and cast-unit drawings.

Drawing Layout
You can also have Tekla Structures find appropriate sizes for drawings, when the
number, size, or location of drawing views may change and affect the drawing
size. See Automatically sizing drawings (p. 58).
Automatically sizing drawings

You can let Tekla Structures find appropriate sizes and table layouts for draw-
ings. This is very useful if, for example, the number, size, or location of drawing
views might change. Tekla Structures automatically updates drawings to adapt to
these changes by using different drawing sizes and table layouts.
If you prefer to use specific drawing view scales rather than a specific drawing
size, do the following before creating the drawings.
1. Click Layout... > Drawing size > Size definition mode (Autosize).
2. Select the set of drawing sizes for Tekla Structures to use. You have the
options:
• Calculated sizes
• Fixed sizes
• Calculated/fixed sizes
3. To fix the scales of drawing views, click the Scale tab and select Autoscale
(No). Tekla Structures will use the preferred scales of the main and section
views. See also Defining exact drawing view scales (p. 120).
The Drawing size and Scale tabs and step 3 above only relate to
single-part, assembly, and cast-unit drawings.
Drawing sizes
For more information on the drawing sizes, see:
• Defining fixed drawing sizes (p. 59)
• Defining calculated drawing sizes (p. 59).
If you decide to use both calculated and fixed sizes, Tekla Structures selects the
smallest of the suitable drawing sizes.
See also Both autoscaling and autosizing drawings (p. 61).

Drawing Layout
Table layout
If Tekla Structures changes the size of the drawing, it may also need to change
the table layout to adapt to the new drawing size. It will then use another appro-
priate table layout within the same layout specified in the drawing properties dia-
log box. See also Table layouts (p. 45).
Defining fixed drawing sizes

The fixed drawing sizes are included in specific layouts and have a specific size
(width and height), and table layout.
To define the fixed drawing sizes included in a layout:
2. Select the layout and click Fixed sizes....
3. Select a fixed size on the list. To create a new size, enter its name and click
Add.
4. Enter the width and height.
5. Select the table layout.
6. Click Update.
7. Repeat steps 3–6 for each fixed size.
Use fixed sizes when you plot drawings to small (A4 and A3)
print devices.
Single-part and assembly drawings also typically use fixed
drawing sizes.
Defining calculated drawing sizes

You use calculated drawing sizes to define the rules Tekla Structures follows
when it automatically adjusts drawing size. You can also connect layouts to
drawing sizes which meet certain criteria.
To set the rules and connect layouts:
2. Select the layout and click Calculated sizes....

Drawing Layout
Size calculation Using Increasing step to define the interval by which Tekla Structures increases
the drawing size when it needs to. This can be set individually for drawing width
and height. You can also define the maximum size of the drawing. If the drawing
exceeds the width or height limit you set here, Tekla Structures uses an oversize
sheet with no table layout.
Connected table You can connect a layout to drawings which meet one of the following size crite-
layouts ria:
• Size A4 for drawings exactly this size
• Size A3 for drawings exactly this size
• Height = A3 for drawings the same height as an A3 sheet (=297 mm)
• Height > A3 for drawings with a larger height than A3.
For each size, Tekla Structures makes the table layouts available depending on
the layout you select.

Drawing Layout
Both autoscaling and autosizing drawings
If you are not bound to any specific drawing sizes or drawing view scales, it is a
good idea to let Tekla Structures take care of both. When you use both autoscal-
ing and autosizing at the same time, Tekla Structures follows the steps below:
1. Find a drawing size into which drawing contents fit.
Use preferred scale and

smallest drawing size
Yes
Fit?
No
Enlarge drawing size
until preferred size
Yes Drawing size Try alternative

Fit?
fixed scales
No
Use preferred size
and smallest scale
Yes
Fit?
No
Enlarge drawing size
until contents fit
2. Fix the drawing size.

3. Scale up drawing views as far as drawing contents fit. Use alternative scales
for main and section views, and the drawing size fixed in step 2.
Preferred size should be equal to one of the fixed drawing sizes

of the layout.

Drawing Layout
Drawing Layout
4 Dimensioning
Introduction There is a multitude of options for creating and controlling dimensions in Tekla
Structures. Very often modifying one dimension setting affects how other set-
tings work. You may want to experiment with these settings.
In this chapter This chapter describes how to create automatic and manual dimensions in Tekla
Structures drawings. We will begin with a general description of dimension
basics. In the following sections we will cover each of the different types of
dimensions available and how to set the options.
Assumed We recommend that you read chapters 1, 2 and 3 first, to get some background
background on working with drawings.
• Dimension basics (p. 64)
• Part dimensions (p. 69)
• Bolt dimensions (p. 76)
• Position dimensions (p. 78)
• Check dimensions (p. 88)
• Controlling dimensions (p. 90)
• Dimension appearance and location (p. 101)
• Dimension reference (p. 111)
How to use this You can read through the entire chapter to familiarize yourself with Tekla Struc-
chapter tures dimensioning. You can also use the chapter as a reference for specific top-
ics.

Dimensioning
4.1 Dimension basics
In this section we will cover the types of dimensions you can produce in Tekla
Structures. Then we will go over the basics of producing dimensions automati-
cally and manually in drawings.
To define the dimension properties for single-part, assembly, or cast-unit draw-
ings:
1. Select the drawing type on the Properties menu to open the drawing proper-
ties dialog box.
2. Click the Dimensioning... button to define which dimensions Tekla Structures
creates automatically.
3. Click the Dimension... button to define how Tekla Structures shows dimen-
sions in drawings.
Dimension types
Tekla Structures includes the following dimension types:
Image Name Description

Relative Point to point dimensions.
Absolute Dimensions from a common start-

ing point.
Relative and Combination of point to point and
absolute common start point.
US absolute Dimensions from a common start-
ing point, which include a running
dimension mark (RD).
US absolute 2 Similar to US absolute, but it
changes short dimensions to rela-
tive.
Absolute plus Similar to Absolute, but it changes
short relatives short dimensions to relative.

Dimensioning
Image Name Description
Absolute plus Similar to Relative and absolute, but
all relatives it places the relative dimensions
above the above the absolute.
absolutes
Elevation Creates an elevation dimension at a
picked point. Only available for
manual dimensions in the Drawing
Editor.
Internal and shape dimensions are always relative.
US absolute 2 changes the dimension line type to relative if the

dimension text is too long to fit the dimension line. The vari-
ables XS_USABSOLUTE_TO_RELATIVE_LIMIT and
XS_USABSOLUTE2_TO_RELATIVE_LENGTH_FACTO
R control the limit when the dimension type is changed.
Automatic dimensioning
Use the drawing properties dialog box to set up dimensions for cast-unit, assem-
bly, and single-part drawings. Two buttons open the dialog boxes for Dimension
properties and Dimensioning properties.
• Dimensioning properties controls which dimensions Tekla Structures

creates.
• Dimension properties controls how Tekla Structures presents the
dimensions in the drawing. For more information, see Dimension
appearance and location (p. 101).

Dimensioning
Pre-defined dimension defaults
The Load list box in the drawing properties dialog box, contains several pre-
defined default settings that affect how Tekla Structures automatically generates
appropriate dimensions.
Manual dimensioning
You can use several tools to modify automatically generated dimensions and add
new dimensions to them. All these commands are available on the Edit or Create
menus in the Drawing Editor.

Add/Remove dimension Lets you to add a new or remove an
point existing dimension point.
Remove dimension point Deletes red circles without deleting the
circle dimension line.
Set dimension point zero You can pick a new start point for run-
ning dimensions.
Combine dimension lines Combines a group of two or more paral-
lel dimension lines into one line.
Create x dimension Creates a dimension in the x direction.
Create y dimension Creates a dimension in the y direction.
Create ortho dimension Creates an orthogonal dimension in the

y or x direction.

Dimensioning
Create parallel dimension Creates a dimension parallel to a line
defined using two points.
Create perpendicular Creates a dimension perpendicular to a

dimension line defined using two points.
Create free dimension Creates a dimension parallel to the line

between any two picked points.
Create curved dimension Creates a curved dimension line

between two picked points.
Create curved radial Creates curved dimensions with radial
dimension reference lines.
Create radius dimension Creates a radius dimension.
Create angle dimension Creates an angle dimension.
Dimension planes
You can define how Tekla Structures dimensions different profiles in drawings.
For example, you can have Tekla Structures always dimension round bars to the
middle of the profile and large I profiles to the top.
To define dimension settings, you need to use a dimension planes table. This is a
text file (dim_planes_table.txt) that you can edit using any text editor, for exam-
ple Notepad. It is located in the \environments\*environment*\profil folder.
To use the table, set the following variable in your start up batch file:
XS_PART_DIMENSION_PLANES_TABLE=%XS_PROFDB%\dim_planes_table.txt
This variable defines the path to the part dimension planes table.
To use the new settings in drawings, you need to restart Tekla Structures and rec-
reate the drawings. Changing the file does not automatically update existing
drawings.

Dimensioning
Dim planes table Here is an example of a dimension planes table:
dim_planes_table.txt
FLANGE WEB
ProfType,MaxSize, middle,right, left, middle, right, left
========================================================
1, 300.0, TRUE*, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE*, TRUE
7, -1.0, TRUE*, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE*, FALSE, FALSE
The line beginning with 1 means that Tekla Structures always dimensions I-pro-
files (ProfTyp = 1) smaller than 300 mm (MaxSize = 300) to the middle of the
flange and to the right edge of the web, no matter how the part was created.
The line beginning with 7 means that Tekla Structures always dimensions round
tubes (ProfTyp = 7) to the middle of the profile
The ProfTyp numbers run in the same order as the profiles in the Profile catalog:
• 1 = I-profile
• 2 = L-profile
• 3 = Z-profile
• 4 = U-profile
• 5 = plate
• 6 = round bar
• 7 = round tube
• 8 = square pipe
• 9 = C-profile
• 10 = T-profile
• 15 = ZZ-profile
• 16 = CC-profile
• 17 = CW-profile
• 51 = polygon_plate etc.
Use a value of -1.0 in the MaxSize column to indicate that there is no size limit for
the profile.
The asterisk after TRUE indicates it is the default value.
The environment variable XS_I_PROFILE_CENTER also

affects how Tekla Structures dimensions the I profiles.

Dimensioning
4.2 Part dimensions
The Dimensioning properties dialog boxes contain the options that control what
gets dimensioned in a drawing. Combinations of options create different dimen-
sioning effects. You can experiment with these to achieve different effects.
The Part dimensions tab contains the options for dimensioning main parts and
assembly parts.

Dimensioning
Overall dimensions
Main part overall

You can create a main part overall dimension for one or all views, or omit it. In
cast-unit, assembly, or single-part drawing properties, click Dimensioning... > Part
dimensions > Main part overall dimensions and select one of the following
options:
• None
Creates no overall dimensions for the main part
• Once
Creates one overall dimension for the main part
• All
Creates overall dimensions in all views (The Assembly part overall dimension
settings have some effect on these options)
Assembly part overall

To create overall dimensions for an entire assembly or cast unit, in the assembly
or cast-unit drawing properties, click Dimensioning... > Part dimensions > Assem-
bly part overall dimension (On).
Part mark to dimension line

To define on which dimension line Tekla Structures writes the part information,
in the cast-unit, assembly, or single-part drawing properties, click Dimensioning...
> General > Part mark to dimension line and select one of the options:
• None
Creates no part mark on the dimension line
• Assembly overall dimensions
Creates the part mark on the assembly overall dimension line
• Extreme bolts
Creates the part mark on the dimension line between the outermost bolts

Dimensioning
To define the contents of the part mark separately for assembly and single part
drawings, set the following variables:
• XS_DIMENSION_PART_MARK_CONTENT_IN_ASSEMBLY
• XS_DIMENSION_PART_MARK_CONTENT_IN_SINGLE

Dimensioning
Internal dimensions
To dimension the secondary parts connected to the main part using internal
dimensioning, in the assembly or cast-unit drawing properties dialog box, click
Dimensioning... > Part dimensions > Internal and select one of the options:
• None
Does not dimension secondary parts
Internal dimensions None
• Necessary
Creates only the dimensions necessary for assembling the parts. See also
Recognizable distance (p. 99).
• All
Creates all dimensions for the secondary part
¾
Internal dimensions All
1’-5
1’-1
1’-7

Dimensioning
Shape dimensions
Use shape dimensions to dimension notches and other cuts in the main part.
• In the assembly or cast-unit drawing properties dialog box, click
Dimensioning... > Part dimensions > Main part shape (On).
• In the single-part drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning...
> Part dimensions > Shape dimensions (On).
8’-11
8
6
2
By default, Tekla Structures automatically draws shape dimensions on both ends

of a beam, even if the ends are symmetrical.
To indicate when to leave out one of the symmetrical shape

dimensions, set the environment variable
XS_EQUAL_SHAPE_DIMENSIONS_TO_BOTH_ENDS_
LIMIT to the desired part length.
Single part You can switch shape dimensions of single part views on or off using these envi-
ronment variables:
On (default): set XS_SINGLE_PART_SHAPE=1
Off: set XS_SINGLE_PART_SHAPE=0
Tekla Structures automatically creates radius dimensions for curved chamfers in
single-part drawings when you use shape dimensions.

Dimensioning
Radius and bevel dimensions
Main part radius To create radius dimensions for curved chamfers and round holes in the main
dimensions part, click Dimensioning... > Part dimensions > Main part radius dimensions (On).
This option is available only the Main part shape dimensions switch is on.
To dimension the round hole center point, set the environment

variable XS_CREATE_ROUND_HOLE_DIMENSIONS to TRUE.
Bevel dimension To create linear dimensions of a bevel, click Dimensioning... > Part dimensions >
Bevel dimension (On).
1¾ 4¾
2¾ ¾ 1¾
Bevel angle To define which side of a bevel to dimension, click Dimensioning... > Part dimen-
sions > Bevel angle and select an option.
Angle of beam
Angle of cut

Dimensioning
See also Angle (p. 103).
Unfolding dimensions
In single-part drawings, you can unfold polybeams and bent plates created using
the Create polybeam command. To do this, open the single-part drawing proper-
ties dialog box, and click View... > Attributes > Unfolded (Yes).
1’-5
6 7 4
R1
A=-116.6° ¾
A=-63.4°
R=1¾
6 3.
4°
°
6.6
11
To control the dimensions Tekla Structures produces using this option, set the
following environment variables in the Tekla Structures batch file:
• XS_DRAW_BENDING_LINE_DIMENSIONS_IN_UNFOLDING=TRUE
Creates bending line dimensions for unfolded parts
• XS_DRAW_ANGLE_AND_RADIUS_INFO_IN_UNFOLDING=TRUE
Creates angle and radius dimensions for unfolded parts
• XS_ANGLE_TEXT_IN_UNFOLDING_BENDING_LINE_DIMENSIONING=A=
Sets a prefix text for an angle dimension
• XS_RADIUS_TEXT_IN_UNFOLDING_BENDING_LINE_DIMENSIONING=R=
Sets a prefix text for a radius dimension
• XS_DRAW_INSIDE_ANGLE_IN_UNFOLDING=TRUE
For angle text dimensions, shows the interior angle instead of the exterior
angle
• XS_UNFOLDING_ANGLE_DIM_FORMAT=1
Sets the format for angle text. These are the same values as on the General
tab of the dimension properties dialog box. See also Format (p. 104).
• XS_UNFOLDING_ANGLE_DIM_PRECISION=10
Accuracy of the angle text. These are the same values as on the General tab
of the dimension properties dialog box. See also Precision (p. 104).

Dimensioning
4.3 Bolt dimensions
The options on the Bolt dimensions tab determine how Tekla Structures dimen-
sions bolts in drawings. The options include locating the bolts on the main and
secondary parts, and in relation to the work points.
Bolt internal dimensions

You can dimension bolt goups in main and secondary parts separately. For
skewed bolt groups you can also indicate whether the dimensions are parallel to
the part or the bolt group.
Main and secondary part bolt internal dimensions

You can select how much of the internal dimensioning for bolt groups and holes
appears in main and secondary parts. In the drawing properties dialog box, click
Dimensioning... > Bolt dimensions > Main, or Secondary part bolt internal
dimensions, and select one of the options:
• Internal
Creates bolt group internal dimensions (distances between bolts).
• All
Creates edge distance and bolt group internal dimensions.
• None
Creates none of the internal bolt dimensions.

Dimensioning
2’-0
PLT3/8X24X2’-0
3
3
3@6=1’-6
Main part bolts
1’-6
2’-0
internal dimensions
All
3
3
4 4@4=1’-4
4 1’-4 4
Skewed bolt groups

The following directions are available for dimensions of skewed bolt groups:
• No dimensions
• In part direction
• In bolt group direction
GOL, C/C, GAGE

You can show all bolt or hole dimensions in the front view of the main assembly.

Dimensioning
To create the dimensions, you have to add certain elements to a bolt or hole
mark. In drawing properties dialog box, click Bolt mark... > Content > Available
elements and select one of the elements:
• Gage of outstanding leg (GOL)

• Center-to-center distance (C/C or Gage)
The following environment variables control the names and format of the mark
elements:
• XS_GAGE_OF_OUTSTANDING_LEG_STRING=GOL%%VALUE%%
Sets the format of the element Gage of outstanding leg.
• XS_CENTER_TO_CENTER_DISTANCE_IN_ONE_PART_STRING=GAGE =
%%VALUE%%=GAGE = %%VALUE%%
Sets the format of the element Center-to-center distance, when the bolts are
in the same part (e.g. in a column or beam flange).
• XS_CENTER_TO_CENTER_DISTANCE_IN_TWO_PARTS_STRING=C/C =
%%VALUE%%
Sets the format of the element Center-to-center distance, when the bolts are
in different parts (e.g. in a pair of clip angles).
4.4 Position dimensions

Position dimensions locate the position of secondary parts relative to the main
part.

Dimensioning
Position to
You can indicate from where Tekla Structures creates part position dimensions.
In the assembly or cast-unit drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning...
> Position dimensions > Position to and select one of the options:
• None
Creates no position dimensions.
• Main part
Creates the dimensions from the main part reference line.
10¾ 3½
3½
10¾
• Working points
Creates the dimensions between the work points, such as the intersections of
main and neighbor part reference lines. See also Check dimensions (p. 88)
and XS_WORKING_POINTS_VALID_ALSO_OUTSIDE_PART.
• Both
Uses the main part and working points to create the dimensions.

Dimensioning
Secondary part
You can create position dimensions for locating the secondary part. With posi-
tion dimensions you can represent the bolt hole location or the edge of the sec-
ondary part.
In assembly drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > Position
dimensions > Secondary part and select one of the options:
• None
No position dimensions
• By bolts
Dimensions bolt hole locations in the secondary parts
• By parts
Dimensions edges of secondary parts
• By both
Dimensions bolt hole locations and edges of the secondary part

Dimensioning
Skew secondary parts
You have two options Secondary part dimension direction and Position from to
dimension secondary parts that are skew to the main part, for example, sloped
beams with a clip angle connection at the end of a beam. You can only use them
for clip angles and shear plates that are bolted to a neighboring part.
RD
Running dimensions start
from the intersection of
3
the main and secondary
part (=work point).
4½
3 3
Dimensions
aligned with the
12
neighboring part
2¼
To create the dimensions in the picture above, select the following options in the
assembly drawing properties dialog box:
1. Secondary part (By bolt)
2. Secondary part dimension direction (Neighbor part)
3. Position from (Work points)

Dimensioning
Main part bolt position
To dimension bolt hole locations in the main part, in the assembly drawing prop-
erties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > Position dimensions > Main part bolt
position and select one of the options:
• Off (bolt internal dimensions on)

5¾ 5¾
3 3 3 3
3 33 3
• On (bolt internal dimensions on)

1’-8¾ 5¾ 4’-6½ 5¾
33 3 3
3 33 3
Additional bolt position dimensions

To create minimum and maximum position dimensions for bolts, set the follow-
ing environment variable:
XS_BOLT_POSITION_TO_MIN_AND_MAX_POINT=TRUE
By default, Tekla Structures does not create these dimensions. The example
below shows a maximum bolt dimension of 40:
Before setting the envi- After setting the envi-

ronment variable: ronment variable:
See also Bolt internal dimensions (p. 76)

Dimensioning
Main part skew position
You can create check dimensions to show the skew position of the main part.
This dimensioning type is created specifically for vertical and horizontal braces.
> Position dimensions > Main part skew position (Yes) to create the skew check
dimensions.
Tekla Structures creates horizontal and vertical dimensions between the work
points of the main part. These dimensions are located in the front view. Their
location depends on the Main dimension side option you select on the General tab.
When the main dimensions are above the part, the skew dimensions are below,
and vice versa.
10
’-0
’-0
10
See also Check dimensions (p. 88)

Dimensioning
Skew position
The skew position defines how Tekla Structures dimensions skewed secondary
part positions.
> Position dimensions > Skew position and select an options:
• None
No dimensions
• Angle
Creates an angle dimension for the secondary part. For more information on
appearance, see Angle (p. 103).
12
12
1¾
1¾
• Dimensions
Creates dimensions for the skewed position of the secondary part.
• Both
Creates both the angle and the dimensions.

Dimensioning
Centered parts and bolts
To control the dimensions of centrally placed parts and bolts, open the drawing
properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > Position dimensions, and select one
of the options:
Centered part Defines how Tekla Structures dimensions centered parts. The options are:
• Internal dimensions the cen- • Position dimensions the part to
tered parts overall size. the main part center-lines.
1’-7 9½
9½
1’-7
• None creates no centered part dimensions

Centered bolt Defines how Tekla Structures dimensions centered bolt groups. Centered bolt
overrides the Secondary part bolt internal option for centered bolts. This only
applies to bolts located centrally on the part. The options are:
• Internal dimensions the cen- • Position dimensions the bolts
tered bolts spread. to the main part center-lines.
1’-4 9½
9½
1’-4
• None creates no centered bolt dimensions. Using this option, you can
omit the dimensions of symmetrically placed bolt groups, even if all
the other bolt groups are dimensioned.

Dimensioning
Elevation dimensions
To create elevation dimensions of the work points (points between which the
main part has been created), in the assembly drawing properties dialog box, click
Dimensioning... > Position dimensions > Elevation dimensions (On), and select
an option:
Skew parts Tekla Structures creates elevation dimensions for skew parts if the parts are in
the same position in the drawing as they are in the model (the coordinate system
must be set to the model). For more information on the coordinate system, see
Defining part orientation in drawing views (p. 125).
If you are using local, oriented, or brace coordinate systems, Tekla Structures
does not draw the elevation dimensions for skewed parts by default. If you want
to create an elevation dimension, you must set the following environment vari-
able in the batch file.
set XS_DRAW_SKEWED_ELEVATIONS=TRUE
Mark prefix Tekla Structures uses a language dependent environment variable in elevation
dimensions. In the English version the default is EL. You can change the default
by editing the following line in the file TeklaStructures/10.0/languages/
your_language/messages/dim_operation.mdl:
_MESSAGE dim_operation dim_elevation_prefixEL
Enter the the prefix you want to use in place of EL.

Dimensioning
Leading or trailing edge
Leading To dimension all plates to the leading edge (see the illustration below):
1. Switch off the variable XS_USE_PLATE_SIDE_POSITIONING in the startup
batch file (rem set XS_USE_PLATE_SIDE_POSITIONING=1).
2. To dimension plates to the leading edge of beams, set the environment vari-
able XS_PART_POSITION_TO_LEADING_EDGE=TRUE.
3. Plates for columns are dimensioned to the top of the part by default. To
dimension plates to the leading edge of columns, add the following lines to
the dim_planes_table.txt:
51, -1.0, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE
See also Dimension planes (p. 67).
Trailing To dimension all plates to the trailing edge:
1. Switch off the variable XS_USE_PLATE_SIDE_POSITIONING in the startup
batch file (rem set XS_USE_PLATE_SIDE_POSITIONING=1).
2. Switch off the variable XS_PART_POSITION_TO_LEADING_EDGE=TRUE.
Model To dimension plates using their original reference points, switch on the variable
XS_USE_PLATE_SIDE_POSITIONING.
Tekla Structures dimensions plates using their original refer-

ence points. So, if you have created one plate from left to right
and another from right to left, Tekla Structures dimensions them
differently in drawings.
RD
3’-6
1’-6

Dimensioning
4.5 Check dimensions
Check dimensions are additional dimensions you can use for checking. They are
not required for fabrication or erection. They are only used to check detailing,
not to assemble parts.
Work points Tekla Structures uses work points to create check dimensions. Work points can
be:
1. The points between which the part was originally created
2. The intersection point of the parts’reference lines
Reference line location depends on part position depth (set in

the part properties dialog box). If it is middle, the reference line
is the center line, if front the line is located in part front edge,
etc.
Appearance Check dimensions usually in finer text than other dimensions. To define their
appearance, click the Dimension… button in the drawing properties dialog box
and go to the Advanced tab.

Dimensioning
This is an illustration of check dimensions:
14’-2
8 D 13’-1 8 D
(-6½) C 12’-10 (L4X4X1/4X13’-1) (-6½)
2"1/2
2½
1½ 1½
B 13’-1
RD
12’-7½ 4
5½
¼
’-0
10
10
’-0
F
¼
F
Mark Dimension Dialog box -Tab Field; Value

A Between outer- Dimensioning - Main part work points;
most work points Part dimensions Yes
B Between outer- Dimensioning - Extreme bolts;
most bolts Bolt dimensions -Assembly
-Main part
C A part mark on Dimensioning - Part mark to dimension line;
dimension line General Extreme bolts
D From outermost Dimensioning - Extreme bolts;
work point to first Bolt dimensions Assembly or Main part
bolt
Extreme bolts to work
points; Yes
F Horizontal and Dimensioning - Main part skew position;
vertical dimen- Position dimen- Yes
sions between the sions
work points in a
skewed brace

Dimensioning
Knock off dimensions
Knock off dimensions display the distance from work points to the end of the
part.
• To create knock off dimensions, click Dimensioning... > Part dimen-
sions > Knock-off dimension (On).
• To set the style of knock off dimensions, click Dimension... >

Advanced and select a Knock off dimension type. See also Knock off
dimension types (p. 111).
(-6½) W12X22 X 9’-0 (-6½)
4.6 Controlling dimensions

You can control dimensions by combining short dimensions into a longer dimen-
sion line. Combining dimensions make drawings clearer and easier to under-
stand.

Dimensioning
Combining dimensions
You can combine separate dimensions into a longer dimension line.
Automatic In the drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > General > Combine
dimensioning dimensions and select the level of combination.
The larger the num-

ber, the more Tekla
Structures combines
the dimensions.
Examples The first figure below shows the part position and internal dimensions not com-
bined. The second figure shows the internal and the position dimension com-
bined, using the Combine dim lines option.
3¼ Position dimension 6¾ 3¼
10" Internal combined with

Internal dimension position dimension

Dimensioning
1¾
3½
3 3 3
9
1¾ Bolt group internal dimensions and edge
distance dimensions not combined
2¼
1½ 7 1½
No option
The No option prevents dimensions from being combined.
1¾
3"½
Combination Type No
3 3 3
9
1¾
1½ 7 1½
2¼
10

Dimensioning
First option
The first option (1) combines the position dimensions of parts with the internal
dimensions of parts, and the bolt group internal dimensions with bolt edge dis-
tances. Bolt position dimensions are not combined with bolt internal dimensions.
1¾
3½
Combination Type 1
3 3 3
1¾
2¼
1½ 7 1½
10
Second option
The second option (2) combines the position dimensions of parts with part inter-
nal dimensions and the bolt group internal dimensions. Bolt internal dimensions
are combined with bolt position dimensions. Edge distances are shown sepa-
rately.
1¾
3 3 3 3½
Combination Type 2
9
1¾
1½ 7 1½
4¾ 2¼
10

Dimensioning
Third option
The third option (3) combines the bolt internal dimensions and position dimen-
sions in the same dimension line.
1¾
1¾
Combination Type 3
3 3 3
1¾
1½ 4¾ 2¼ 1½
Fourth option
The fourth option (4) combines bolt group position dimensions with part position
dimensions. Part and bolt internal dimensions are not combined with this option,
but bolt internal dimensions are combined with bolt edge distances.
1¾
3½
Combination Type 4
33 3
1¾
2¼
1½ 4¾ 1½
10

Dimensioning
Fifth option
The fifth option (5) combines internal dimensions and the position dimension of
bolt groups where there are several bolt groups.
7’-7¾ 7 8¼
11½ 6’-11½
1’-8¾ 5½ 2’-0½ 5½ 2’-0½ 5½
3 3 3 33
3 3 33 3
Combination Type 5
8¼ 7 6’-4½ 7
4.5 option
The combine option type 4.5 for dimensions uses combination type 5 for main
part and combination type 4 for secondary parts.
Combination distances
To define the distance for combining dimensions, open the drawing properties
dialog box and click Dimensioning... > General and set the distance values for the
following fields:
Distance The distance within which Tekla Structures combines internal dimensions.
3 3 3 3 3
Distance field = 5’-0

Dimensioning
3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3
Distance field = 1’-0
Min distance Another criterion for combining internal dimensions. If the distance between two
details is less than the minimum distance, Tekla Structures combines the dimen-
sions.
3 3 3 3 3
Min distance field = 5’-0

3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3
Min distance field = 5"

Dimensioning
Combining bolt groups
For dimensioning and marking purposes, Tekla Structures treates bolt groups
located close together as one group, as illustrated below:
3 3
Bolt group 1
5½
2¾
Bolt group 2
Combine bolt You can combine bolt group internal dimensions, 3@60, 3@60=180 or have single
dimensions dimensions (60,60,60).
Open the drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > Bolt
dimensions > Combine bolt dimensions and select a format.
You can change the @ character using the environment variable

XS_COMBINED_BOLT_DIM_CHARACTER.
Forward offset
You can change the location of a dimension line by using forward offset. The
Forward offset defines the search distance for the base point of a dimension. If
Tekla Structures does not find a base point (corner) within the Forward offset
search distance, it uses an edge point.
To set the forward offset, open the drawing properties dialog box, click
Dimensioning... > General > Forward offset and enter a value for the search dis-
tance.
You will find that the setting

Dimensioning... > Position > Centered bolt will have an effect on
how the dimension is displayed.

Dimensioning
1’-8 6
3 3 3 3 3
Forward offset greater than the

1’-8 dimension to the hole group.
1’-8 6
3 3 3 3 3
Forward offset distance set to a

smaller value.

Dimensioning
Recognizable distance
In some cases it is important to look at the asymmetrical relationship of parts, so
that an asymmetric secondary part is correctly connected to a main part. In part
dimensioning or bolt internal dimensioning, you can use Recognizable distance to
to have asymmetry reflected in dimensioning. If the asymmetry is smaller than
the distance you enter here, Tekla Structures represents it using a dimension.
Setting the In the drawing properties dialog box, click
distance Dimensioning... > General > Recognizable distance and then enter a distance.
¼ 1’-1
12’-6
Closing dimensions
You can close dimension lines using dimensioning settings.
3
3
3
3
3
1’-5¼
1’-5¼
3
3
3
3
3
3
2¼
Open dimensioning Closed dimensioning

Dimensioning
Close dimension In the drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > General > Close
dimension, and select an option:
• No does not close dimensions
• In X only closes dimensions in the x direction and leaves others open
• All closes all dimensions
This setting is part-specific and is not relevant to profile shape

dimensions. See also Shape dimensions (p. 73).
Close short To manage how Tekla Structures closes short dimensions, click
dimensions Dimensioning... > General > Close short dimensions. With the Yes option Tekla
Structures closes short dimension(s). With the No option the open dimension is
the middle one rather than the short end dimension. See the illustration below.
1½
Close short dimen-

sions = No
6
1½
When you leave short dimensions open, Tekla Structures leaves out the longer
dimension line in dimension lines that contain two dimensions. If dimension
lines contain three dimensions, Tekla Structures leaves out the middle one. This
option does not affect dimension lines with more than three dimensions.

Dimensioning
4.7 Dimension appearance and location
Use the Dimension properties dialog box to set dimension properties.
Save, Save as, Use Save to save your settings as the standard ones.
Load
If you need to vary your standard settings for a particular project, make the
changes and use Save as. Use a unique name for these settings.
Select the name of a saved set of properties from the list box and click Load to
use those settings.
Topics Dimension options (p. 102)
Dimension format (p. 103)
Placing (p. 105)
Preferred dim side (p. 107)
Aligning sloped dimension text (p. 108)
Appearance (p. 109)

Dimensioning
Advanced (p. 110)
Dimension options
To access automatic dimension settings, open the drawing properties dialog box,
then click Dimension....
To access the settings for manual dimensions, in the Drawing Editor, click
Properties > Dimension to open the Dimension properties dialog box.
Dimension types
You can select dimension types for straight dimensions (common setting) and for
dimensions in the x direction (special setting). For more information on all the
available types of dimensions, see Dimension types (p. 64). There are two basic
types, all the others are combinations of these basic types:
• Relative
Shows linear distances or length
• Absolute
Shows the perpendicular distance from an origin point to the dimensioned
edge, hole, etc.
Create short extension lines

Use the Yes option to create extension lines all the same length:
No Yes
To adjust the extension line length, use the following environment variables:
• set XS_DIMENSION_EXTENSION_LINE_TOWARD_FACTOR=1.5
• set XS_DIMENSION_EXTENSION_LINE_AWAY_FACTOR=1.0

Dimensioning
Text height * 1.0
Text height * 1.5
Angle
Angle defines the type of angle measurement Tekla Structures displays. The
options are:
Image Description More information

Shows the angle
dimensions in degrees
Shows the angle You can also set the Tri-
dimensions using a triangle base length. This
angle controls the base dimen-
sion shown for bevel
dimensions.
Angle options affect the appearance of the following dimensions:

• Bevel dimensions (Radius and bevel dimensions (p. 74))
• Skew position (Skew position (p. 84))
• Skewed bolt groups (unless XS_NO_BOLT_ANGLE_DIMENSIONS is
set), see Bolt internal dimensions (p. 76)
Radial dimensions
Adding dimensions using the Drawing Editor gives you additional options for
radial dimensions:
Radius You have only one option for radius type.
Curved radial Select the type of radial dimension required from the list box:
• To display the length of the arc, select Distance
• To display the angle in degrees, select Angle
Dimension format
To set the format to use for dimensioning, open the drawing properties dialog
box, and then click Dimension... > General. Set the precision, format and units
options.

Dimensioning
Precision Select the level of precision for dimensions using the Precision list box. The for-
mat you use also affects dimension precision. For example, if you set the format
to ###.# you get 1/10 precision not 1/1000 precision.
You need to enter values as integers when setting environment variables for
unfolding. See Unfolding dimensions (p. 75).
Field Integer Description

value
0.00 1 For defining precision with
0.50 2 rounding. For example, with
precision 0.33 the actual dimen-
0.33 3 sion 50.40 is shown as 50.33.
0.25 4
1/8 5 For imperial units
1/16 6
1/32 7
1/10 8 For defining precision without
1/100 9 rounding
1/1000 10
Format Use the Format list box to select a format for displaying dimensions. Tekla Struc-
tures only uses the information in brackets when necessary and it is optional. For
example, the dimension 500.00 is shown as 500 if you use the format ###.[#] and
as 500.0 if you use the format ###.#.
Field Integer
value
### 1
###[.#] 2
###.# 3
###[.##] 4
###.## 5
###[.###] 6
###.### 7
### #/# 8

Dimensioning
Units Select the units to use from the options in the list box, as shown below:
Field Description
automatic Uses the units defined in model
mm millimeters
cm centimeters
m meters
inch inches
Placing
Use the Placing options to control how dimensions appear relative to the object
they dimension.
Short dimensions The short dimension options allow you to choose whether to place short dimen-
sion text between or outside of the dimension lines.
Inside moves the

dimension text fur-
ther away or closer to
Outside moves the the dimension line.
dimension text out-
side the extension
lines.
Place
To define the location of automatic dimensions, open the drawing properties
dialog box, click Dimension..., and then click Place.
To manually edit dimension locations, you need to set the dimension placing
properties in the Drawing Editor. Click Properties > Dimension to open the
Dimension properties dialog box and then click the Place button.
The Dimension placing dialog box appears.

Dimensioning
Placing and Direction are only
available for manual dimen-
sions in the Drawing Editor
Field Description More information

Placing Method used to place Only available for manual
dimension: dimensions.
• free
Tekla Structures
decides the location
and direction of the
dimension based on
the Direction settings.
• fixed
You can place the
dimension at any
point.
Search mar- The farthest distance
gin Tekla Structures uses
when searching for an
empty space for the
dimension.

Dimensioning
Field Description More information
Minimal dis- The closest distance
tance Tekla Structures uses to
search for an empty space
for a dimension.
Direction The side on which Tekla
Structures places dimen-
sions (relative to the
object being dimen-
sioned).
Positive Negative
Preferred dim side

To indicate whether dimensions should appear on the front or side view for
adjoining parts, in the drawing properties dialog box, click Dimensioning... > Part
dimensions > Preferred dim side, and then select one of the options:
1’-4
1’-4
1’-4 1’-4

Dimensioning
Aligning sloped dimension text
Tekla Structures aligns slightly-sloped dimension text as shown below:
Tekla Structures aligns slightly- If the dimension text is sloped
sloped (<5.74°) dimension text in the more than >5.74°, Tekla Struc-
same way as vertical dimension text: tures flips the text:
The default limit for aligning dimension text is 0.1 (sin 5.74°). To adjust this
limit, use the environment variable:
set XS_DIMENSION_LINE_TEXT_EPS=0.1

Dimensioning
Appearance
These options control the appearance of dimensions in the drawing.
To define the appearance of automatic dimensions, open the drawing properties
dialog box, then click Dimension... > Appearance.
To define the appearance of dimensions in the Drawing Editor, click
Properties > Dimension to open the Dimension properties dialog box, and then
click the Appearance button.
Text options
Field Description
Text color Controls the color of the text. The color
controls the line weight.
Text height Controls the height of the text used in
the dimensions in the drawing.
Font Controls which font is used in the
dimension.

Dimensioning
Field Description
Frame Defines a frame for the dimension mark
Place Defines how the dimension is placed
relative to the dimension line
Line, Arrow options

The Line, Arrow options define the appearance of dimension lines and arrowheads
in the drawing.
Field Description
Color The color of the dimension line. This
controls the line weight in printed draw-
ings.
Arrow shape Controls the type of the mark used with
the dimension line
Arrow size Sets the size of the arrowhead
Advanced
The Advanced tab in the Dimension properties dialog box controls the type and
appearance of some check dimensions.

Dimensioning
Line and text color and text height only apply to position dimensions to work
points and bolt holes in a main part. Use the following options in the Dimension-
ing dialog box to create these dimensions:
• Position tab > Position to (Working points) or (Both)

• Position tab > Main part bolt position (On)
Knock off These are the options for knock off dimension type:
dimension types
• Typical dimension style
• Set-back style
The field for creating the knock off dimensions is located on the Part tab in the
Dimensioning properties dialog box.
See also Check dimensions (p. 88)
Knock off dimensions (p. 90)
4.8 Dimension reference

The following table lists the commands used in dimensioning and gives a short
description of each one. For more information, see the online help.
Command Description
Dimensioning properties Defines which dimensions to create,
how to combine them, etc.
Dimension properties Defines the appearance and location of
dimensions.
Setup > GA dimension- Defines dimension options for general
ing... arrangement drawings.
See also Manual dimensioning (p. 66)

Dimensioning
Dimensioning
5 Drawing Properties
Introduction Tekla Structures generates drawings using the current properties in the appropri-
ate drawing properties dialog box. Drawing properties for different types of
drawings are found in the Properties pull-down menu.
You can also modify the properties of existing drawings using the drawing prop-
erties dialog box. There are two ways to change drawing properties:
• Select drawings from the drawings list and modify them
• Modify open drawings in the Drawing Editor
In this chapter This chapter explains how to use common drawing properties, as well as proper-
ties that only apply to single-part, cast-unit, and general arrangement drawings.
Assumed You should read chapters 1 through 4 before you start defining drawing proper-
background ties. Chapter 3, Drawing Layout explains how to define and check the layout of
different drawing types. Chapter 4, Dimensioning discusses the principles of
dimensioning.
• Common drawing properties (p. 114)
• Drawing view properties (p. 119)
• Drawing section view properties (p. 132)
• Parts and neighbor parts in drawings (p. 138)
• Bolts and welds in drawings (p. 145)
• Reinforcement in drawings (p. 149)
• Marks in drawings (p. 152)
• Merging marks (p. 166)
• Grids in drawings (p. 170)
• The Drawing Classifier (p. 172)
• Drawing properties reference (p. 178)

Drawing Properties
Multi-drawings You can skip the sections Drawing view properties (p. 119) through Grids in
drawings (p. 170) if you are creating multi-drawings. For information on multi-
drawings, see Creating drawings (p. 28).
5.1 Common drawing properties

This section discusses the properties which are common to all drawing types.
Name The drawing name is displayed in the drawing list in the Drawings dialog box and
in drawing templates.
Title The drawing title is user-definable. Tekla Structures uses this text in drawing
headers in drawing templates and editors.
Layout For information on drawing layouts, see Drawing Layout (p. 43).
Dimension... For information on drawing dimensions and dimensioning properties, see
Dimension basics (p. 64).

Drawing Properties
User-defined attributes in drawings
User-defined attributes are text fields you can use to add information to a draw-
ing. See Adding properties in the online help. The text fields must appear in the
drawing template.
Comment You can enter a user-defined Comment for drawings, projects, assemblies, parts
etc. Tekla Structures uses the comment that is included in the drawing template
you select. and a hierarchy, dependant on where the comment has been entered.
User field 1...8 Use these to enter drawing-specific information. Use the Project user fields for
information specific to the entire project.
See also For more information on adding new fields, see Adding properties in online
help.

Drawing Properties
Protection
You can protect areas in drawings to prevent text or dimensions being placed
there. To access the protection properties for assembly drawings, for example,
click Properties > Assembly drawing... > Protection. The options are the same in
GA (General Arrangement) drawings. See the example below:
Marks may overlap with part corners and

edges, but not with part
Dimension text may

not overlap with other
dimensions
In the Assembly - protection properties dialog box shown above, Tekla Structures
may place text, dimensions, or marks on the corners and edges of parts.
If you clear the first two columns of checkboxes, Tekla Struc-

tures does not protect part corners and edges. This increases
drawing speed and decreases the memory requirement. You can
still protect these areas by using the third column of checkboxes
for part protection.
Save, Save as, The default settings are saved with the filename extension adr.
Load

Drawing Properties
Drawn The columns define the regions to be protected, as illustrated below:
Drawn
Weld text
Weld arrow
Cut name
Cut symbol
Dimension value
Dimension line
Dimension arrowhead
Text or mark
Part
Part edges
Part corners
New The rows define which objects, or object components, Tekla Structures cannot
place in the protected areas.
Text, mark or weld
Dimension line ends
Dimension line
Dimension value
Placing
Use the options in the Placing dialog box to control the placement of marks,
dimensions and welds.
For example, to access the part mark placing settings for general arrangement
drawings, click Properties > General arrangement drawing... > Part mark... > Gen-
eral > Place.
Drawing Properties
Marks Click the Place button to display the placing dialog box, which contains the
options shown below:
• Search margin
Defines the boundary within which Tekla Structures searches for a space to
place a mark.
• Minimal distance
Defines the minimum distance of the mark from the part.
• Quarter
Checkboxes define the areas Tekla Structures searches for a space to place
the mark.
To move marks away from each other, use Search margin, not
Minimal distance. Keep the minimal distance setting as small as
possible to reduce the possibility of marks overlapping.
Welds Use the options in the weld placing dialog box to control the position of welds in
drawings.
For example, to access the weld placing settings for assembly drawings, click
Properties > Assembly drawing... > Weld... > General > Place. Tekla Structures dis-
plays the following dialog box:

Drawing Properties
Weld placement depends on the welding direction. Welds can only be placed in
certain sectors, so the Quarter checkboxes are grayed out. You have the follow-
ing options:
• Search margin
Defines the boundary within which Tekla Structures searches for a space to
place a weld.
• Minimal distance
Defines the minimum distance of the weld symbol from the weld.
5.2 Drawing view properties

You can have different types of views in Tekla Structures drawings:
• Main views: front, top, back and bottom views
• Section views
• Single-part views
In this section This section describes the drawing view properties. You define drawing view
properties before creating drawings. All views of a view type share the same
properties.
You can edit drawing view properties on both the drawing properties and view
modification levels, which are the two highest levels at which you edit drawings
(see Three levels of editing drawings (p. 20)). You can fine tune some view-
specific properties once you have created drawings. For more information, see
Editing Drawings (p. 179).
Most of the drawing view properties you define before creating drawings are
common to all view types and drawing types. There are some exceptions, for
example, section views have some additional properties. See Adding section
views to drawings (p. 132).

Drawing Properties
Defining which drawing views to create
To define which views Tekla Structures should create before you create draw-
ings, in the drawing properties dialog box, click View....
Views tab You have the following options for each of the four main views and section
views:
• off
Tekla Structures does not create the view, but dimensions the parts in the
available views. If you set all four main views off, Tekla Structures will still
create a front view.
• on
Tekla Structures always creates the view, even if it was not necessary in
order to show the dimensions.
• auto
Tekla Structures creates the view if it is necessary in order to show the
dimensions.
You can also add views to existing drawings. See Adding views to drawings
(p. 34).
Defining exact drawing view scales

Use the Attributes tab to set drawing view scale options.
Selecting scale You can dictate the exact scale of drawing views, or you can let Tekla Structures
set an appropriate scale. You can define different scales for main views and sec-
tion views.
All main views in a drawing automatically use the same scale

unless you fine-tune individual views manually.
Exact scale If you want drawing views to use an exact scale, you must define the scale in the
drawing properties, and switch off automatic scaling when defining the layout.
1. To switch off automatic scaling: in the drawing properties dialog box, click
Layout... > Scale > Autoscale (No).
2. To define the exact scale of a view or section view: in the drawing properties
dialog box, click View... (or Section view...) > Attributes.
3. Enter the scale in the Scale field.
4. Recreate the drawing.

Drawing Properties
Autoscale If you prefer to use specific drawing sizes rather than specific scales of drawing
views, use automatic scaling:
1. In the drawing properties dialog box, select Layout... > Scale > Autoscale
(Yes).
2. Recreate the drawing.
Tekla Structures scales the drawing views so that they fit in a drawing of a spe-
cific size.
Summary Tekla Structures uses the scale information for views in the following order:
1. Scale in the view properties or section view properties dialog box, and for
GA drawings, the scale in the View properties dialog box.
2. Alternative scales for main and section views in the layout properties dialog
box, if you have set autoscale to Yes.
3. You set individual scales manually, for example, for different main views.
Displaying neighbor parts in drawing views

To control which neighboring parts can be seen in a drawing, in the drawing
properties dialog box, click Neighbor part... > Visibility.
Neighbor parts The neighbor parts list box contains the following options:
Option Description
None Do not show neighboring parts.
Connected parts Show all parts connected to the drawing
object.

Drawing Properties
Option Description
Connecting parts Only shows the parts the drawing object is
connected to.
All connections Combines the Connected parts and the
Connecting parts options.
By extreme Show all parts within the boundaries of the
main and secondary part, connected by a
workshop weld. For more information, see
Properties of individual views (p. 123).
Main/Secondary The main/secondary parts list box contains the following options:
parts
Option Description
Main parts Only shows neighboring parts that form
the main part of an assembly or a cast unit.
Secondary parts Only shows neighboring parts that are sec-
ondary parts of an assembly or a cast unit.
Both Shows both main and secondary parts.
Skew parts Select Yes to show as neighbor parts in the drawing, No not to show them.
Extension To change the boundaries of the view in main and section views:
• In the drawing properties dialog box, click View... (or Section view...)
> Attributes.
• Enter a value by which to extend the view in the View extension for
neighbor parts field.
For example, you can make the entire neighboring part visible in the view, by
increasing the boundaries of the view using this value. For more information on
neighbor parts, see Marks in drawings (p. 152).

Drawing Properties
Properties of individual views
To open the View properties dialog box, double-click the blue border around a
drawing view.
You can modify the properties of individual views and section views indepen-
dently of the drawing properties of the entire drawing. See also Three levels of
editing drawings (p. 20).
Scale For information on setting the scale, see Exact scale (p. 120).

Drawing Properties
Size You can either define a specific size for a view (by extreme) or let Tekla Struc-
tures control the size (fitted):
• by extreme
Use the Extrema fields to define the view size: the x and y fields define the
view size along the x and y axes of the view. The depth fields define the
depth of the view relative to, and perpendicular to the view plane.
• fitted
Tekla Structures fits the view contents into the drawing view frame without
leaving any unnecessary space.
Editing the label To change the view label text in general arrangement drawing views:
1. Open the view properties.
2. Click the Label tab and change the Text field.
3. Click Modify.
See also Extension (p. 122)
Unfolded (p. 129)
Single-part views in assembly drawings

Including all In assembly drawings, you can include single-part views of the individual part
views components that form the assembly. To include single-part views:
1. In the Assembly drawing properties dialog box, click Layout... > Other.
2. Set Include single parts to Yes. This activates the Single part attributes field.
3. From the Single part attributes list box, select the correct drawing properties.
4. Click OK in each dialog box to close it.
5. Create the drawing. See Using the Model Editor to create drawings
(p. 29).
Including Once you have created a drawing, you can also specify which parts to show in
selected views single-part view(s):
1. Open the assembly drawing.
2. In the drawing view, select the part to create the single-part view from.
3. Right-click and select Create single-part views.
Tekla Structures adds the single-part view(s) to the assembly drawing. The view
properties are the same as those in the single-part drawing that you used to create
the single-part view.

Drawing Properties
Defining part orientation in drawing views
In single-part, assembly, and cast-unit drawings, you can set the coordinate sys-
tem of each drawing view. The coordinate system defines:
• The angle of vision from which the part, assembly, or cast unit is shown
• How the part, assembly, or cast unit is rotated
• The orientation of dimensions in the drawing view
Coordinate system
To set the coordinate system, open the drawing properties dialog box, and click
View... > Attributes > Coordinate system and select one of the options:
• local
Tekla Structures uses the local coordinate system of the main part. The
part’s x axis is parallel to the drawing’s x axis, and the starting point(the end
point created first) of the part is on the left.
• model
Tekla Structures uses the global coordinate system. The part has the same
position in the drawing as it has in the model. This is one option when you
want to show columns vertically.

Drawing Properties
You can use the model option to display sloping parts in posi-
tion. Tekla Structures cannot display horizontally skewed parts.
• oriented
Tekla Structures uses the local coordinate system of the main part, but the
coordinate system is oriented so that the part’s x axis points to the right even
if the part was created from right to left.
Skew braces For skewed braces, there are two options which automatically rotate the front
view around the x axis:
• horizontal brace
Tekla Structures automatically rotates the drawing views so that the front
view is from the top of the model.
• vertical brace
Tekla Structures automatically rotates the drawing views so that the front
view is in the same plane as the brace in the model.
See the illustration below:

Drawing Properties
Drawing Properties
Part rotation in drawing views
In addition to setting the coordinate system, you can also rotate the part, assem-
bly, or cast unit in the drawing view around its local axes.
X axis Rotate around the x axis in steps of 90 degrees.
0 degrees
90 degrees
180 degrees
270 degrees
Y axis Rotate around the y axis in steps of 180 degrees.
180 degrees around y

axis

Drawing Properties
Z axis Rotate around the z axis in specific angles.
Rotated 30 degrees
around z axis
Projection type in the layout properties affects the order of the views in the draw-
ing. See Scale and location of drawing views (p. 53).
See also Orientation marks (p. 141)
Unfolding in single-part drawings

You can unfold polybeams in single-part drawings. Tekla Structures also unfolds
polybeams when creating NC files.
Unfolded To unfold polybeams in single-part drawings:

1. On the menu bar, click Properties > Single-part drawing... > View... >
Attributes.
2. Set the Unfolded switch to Yes. Tekla Structures shows and dimensions the
bend lines in the drawing.
Drawing Properties
3. Click OK or Apply.
4. Create the single-part drawing.
Limitations The unfolding feature only affects plates created using the Polybeam command.
You cannot unfold plates created using the Curved beam and Folded plate com-
mands. You can only unfold a polybeam in one plane.
See also For information on unfolding parameters, see Unfolding dimensions (p. 75).

Drawing Properties
Shortening parts in drawings
If parts are very long and do not include any details, you can shorten them in
drawings.
10’-6"
1’-4" 3/8"
10’-6"
For drawings To control the shortening of parts on the drawing level:

1. Open the drawing properties.
2. Click View... (or Section view...) > Shortening.
The fields Minimum cut part length and Space between cut parts define how Tekla
Structures cuts the middle regions of the parts in drawing views. The Cut skew
parts list box defines whether skew parts in views are cut.

Drawing Properties
For views To control the shortening for each drawing view separately:
1. Open a drawing.
2. Double-click the blue border around a view. The View properties dialog box
appears.
3. Click the Shortening tab.
Cut parts defines if empty areas are shortened in drawing views. You can set this
differently for individual drawing views.
Expanding cut To stretch shortened parts to fill up the empty areas of a drawing, click Layout >
parts Other (Expand shortened parts to fit). Tekla Structures stretches the parts after
scaling and selecting a paper size.
5.3 Drawing section view properties

To add cut views or section views to the drawing, use the options in the section
view properties dialog box.
Adding section views to drawings

To include section views in single-part, assembly, or cast-unit drawings:
1. To set section views on, in the drawing properties dialog box, click View... >
Views... and then:
• Section views (auto)

• End views (on or auto)
See also Defining which drawing views to create (p. 120).
2. Set the scale. See Defining exact drawing view scales (p. 120).
3. Set the section view properties. See Section view properties (p. 133).

Drawing Properties
4. Set the section symbol properties. See Section view label and symbol
(p. 136).
5. Create the drawing(s) or modify existing drawings.
Section view properties

Section views have some additional properties to main views (see Drawing view
properties (p. 119)).
To define section view properties, click Section view... in the drawing properties
dialog box.

Drawing Properties
Section depth Use the depth field to define the depth values of the section view. The Section
depth defines the positive and negative depth of the section view when sections
are not combined.
Distance To combine section views, you need to define a distance to use. If two sections
are within this distance, Tekla Structures combines the section views if the com-
bined view will show all the dimensions clearly.
Distance = 1’-4"
for combining
Section depth = 4"
Combined sections
Extension for Use to extend the boundaries of the view to include neighboring parts. For more
neighbor parts information, see Displaying neighbor parts in drawing views (p. 121).

Drawing Properties
Section view direction
You can define the direction of section views independently for left, middle, and
right section views. The arrow in the section view symbolpoints shows the direc-
tion of the section view, as shown below:
Left section, Middle section, Right section,
right direction right direction left direction
C A C
C A C
The left and right section views are also referred to as side
views in the layout properties (Layout... > Other > Side views
beside main).

Drawing Properties
Section view label and symbol
You can define the section view label and section symbol independently.
Section view
symbol
Section
view label
Section symbol
The options in the section symbol properties dialog box define how section sym-
bols appear in drawings. In the drawing properties dialog box, click Section sym-
bol....
• Arrow length defines the length of the section arrow.

• offset defines the distance of the symbol from the object.
Arrow length
Offset

Drawing Properties
Section view label
Define the settings of section view labels in the section view properties dialog
box (Section view... > Label). The options on the Label tab define the position and
appearance of the section view label.
You can place the label either Above or Below the section view.
Hatching in section views

You can use hatching in section views to show different materials.
Schema files Define the hatch patterns for material types and names in a hatch schema file
(file name extension .htc). Different drawing types (GA, single-part, assembly,
cast-unit) have their own schema files.
To indicate the name of the schema file Tekla Structures uses for each drawing
type, use the following environment variables in the user.bat file:
• set XS_DRAWING_GA_HATCH_SCHEMA=general.htc
• set XS_DRAWING_ASSEMBLY_HATCH_SCHEMA=assembly.htc
• set XS_DRAWING_SINGLE_PART_HATCH_SCHEMA=single.htc
• set XS_DRAWING_CAST_UNIT_HATCH_SCHEMA=cast_unit.htc
The default schema files are located in the ...environ-
ments\*your_environment*\system folder.
The syntax of the schema file is:

Material type, Material name, Hatch pattern name, Extra scale, Color
Example hatch file (.htc)

CONCRETE,C25/30,CONCRE,0.1 /*C25/30 is extra scaled with 0.1*/
CONCRETE,C35/45, /*C35/45 is not hatched*/
CONCRETE,,CONC /*all other concrete is hatched*/
/*with CONC*/
STEEL,,ANSI31,0.1 /*all steel is hatched with ANSI31*/
/*and scaled with 0.1*/
Extra scale Extra scale is a numeric value that Tekla Structures uses to scale hatches.

Drawing Properties
Color Hatch color also defines line width for the plotter. If you do not define a color for
a hatch in the schema file, Tekla Structures uses the default color WHITE (1).
No hatching To use no hatch pattern for a material, leave the hatch pattern name field blank in
the schema file.
When you edit a schema file, you do not need to re-open the
model for the changes to take effect. Just open a different type
of drawing. Then open the original drawing and hatches are
updated. Tekla Structures always reads the current schema file
when the drawing type changes.
5.4 Parts and neighbor parts in drawings

This section introduces the presentation options for showing parts and neighbor-
ing parts in drawing views.
Part representation
You can control the appearance of ordinary and neighboring parts independently:
• To control the appearance of parts, click Part... in the drawing proper-
ties dialog box.
• To control the appearance of neighboring parts, click Neighbor part...
in the drawing properties dialog box.

Drawing Properties
The options on the Content tab define the appearance of parts in drawings.
Part The Part representation list box gives you the following options:
representation
• Outline
Parts appear as solid objects in drawings
• Exact
Parts appear as solid objects, Tekla Structures also draws the chamfers in
profile cross sections
• Workshop form
Tekla Structures draws round tube profiles as wrap-around templates
• Bounding box
Parts appear as boxes which surround the actual profiles
• Base box
Tekla Structures shows parts as boxes and uses the h and b values from the
profile catalog as box dimensions
Symbol offset Defines the distance of the endpoints of reference lines and centerlines from the
endpoints of the object.

Drawing Properties
Hidden lines Defines the appearance of hidden lines in drawing parts.
• Hidden lines
Shows hidden lines in secondary and neighboring parts
• Own hidden lines
Shows hidden lines in main parts
Other part hidden lines
Hidden lines on
Own hidden lines
Hidden lines off
Centerlines Use to switch the centerlines of parts on or off. You have the following options:
• Centerline
Select checkbox to show centerlines
• Main part
Select checkbox to show centerlines in main parts (Beam, Plate or Polygon)
• Secondary part
Select checkbox to show centerlines in secondary parts (Beam, Plate or Poly-
gon)
Reference lines The reference line is a line between the points from which a part is created. You
can switch part reference lines on or off. You have the following options:
• Reference lines
Select checkbox to show reference lines
• Main part
Select checkbox to show reference lines in main parts (Beam, Plate or Poly-
gon)
• Secondary part
Select checkbox to show reference lines in secondary parts (Beam, Plate or
Polygon)
Appearance For information on how to control the appearance of objects, see Common
drawing object properties (p. 181).

Drawing Properties
Orientation marks
Orientation marks indicate the erection direction of assemblies. You can indicate
orientation using:
• Mark location
• Compass direction (only for columns)
• Orientation symbol
Mark location
In general arrangement drawings part marks appear at the same end as in assem-
bly and cast-unit drawings. Parts with the same assembly or cast-unit position are
always marked at the same end.
To indicate orientation using mark location:
1. In the assembly or cast-unit drawing properties, click View... > Attributes and
set the Coordinate system to oriented or model.
2. In the Model Editor, click Setup > Numbering... and clear the Beam orienta-
tion checkbox.
3. Create assembly and single-part drawings, or cast-unit drawings.

4. Create general arrangement drawings.
When you update an assembly drawing or a cast-unit drawing,

remember to update the marks in the corresponding general
arrangement drawing. Tekla Structures does not do this auto-
matically.

Drawing Properties
Compass direction
Part marks include the face direction. Tekla Structures only indicates the face
direction if it is the same for all assemblies or cast units with the same assembly
or cast-unit position number.
Face direction indi-

cates the compass
direction (North,
East, South, West) of
the face where the
mark appears.
To indicate orientation using compass direction:

1. First check the orientation marking settings (project north etc.) in the Model
Editor. To do this, click Setup > Options... and the Orientation marking tab.
See Setting up orientation marking (p. 144).
2. In the Model Editor, click Setup > Numbering... and select the Column orienta-
tion checkbox. This forces Tekla Structures to show the face direction in the
part mark for two similar columns with different orientation.
3. In the assembly or cast-unit drawing properties, click Part mark... and include
the Face direction element in the part mark.
4. Create assembly or cast-unit drawings.

Drawing Properties
Orientation symbol
Orientation symbols indicate the erection direction of assemblies. The default
orientation symbol is a triangle inside a circle.
B
1
4
A
3
2
30°
To add orientation symbols to a main part:

1. In the assembly drawing properties, click Part... > Content and select the Ori-
entation marks checkbox.
2. For different parts, Tekla Structures draws orientation symbols:

• To the top flange of beams, at the end which points closest to
North* (see part 1 in the illustration above)
• To the lower end of columns, on the flange which points closest
to North* (see part 4 in the illustration above)
• To the flange of bracing, at the end which points to closest
North* (see part 3 A in the illustration above)
* or to another designated point of the compass.
Connecting side marks

You can add a user-defined symbol to mark the side of a part to which a connect-
ing part is attached. In the assembly drawing properties, click Part... > Content
and select the Connecting side marks checkbox.

Drawing Properties
Setting up orientation marking
To set up orientation marking in the Model Editor, click Setup > Options... and
then the Orientation marking tab.
Field Description
Project north Defines which direction is North in the model.
Enter the value in degrees counter-clockwise from
global x axis.
NORTH
Part viewing direction Defines from which direction parts are viewed in
drawings.
Beam skew limit Tekla Structures uses limit angles to determine
Column skew limit whether a part is a beam or a column when creating
orientation marks. Tekla Structures treats parts out-
side these limits as braces.
Parts skewed
more than
80° are col-
umns
Parts skewed less than

10° are beams
Preferred location for Defines the location of part marks in drawings, to

mark the left or right end of the part.
Mark always to center This setting only affects columns.
of column
Yes places part marks in the center of columns in
plan views. To indicate part orientation, use com-
pass direction in the part mark instead. See Com-
pass direction (p. 142).
No places part marks on the same flange in GA
drawings and assembly drawings.

Drawing Properties
See also Orientation marks (p. 141)
5.5 Bolts and welds in drawings

This section explains how Tekla Structures displays bolts and welds in drawings.
Bolts
Content To access the bolt properties dialog box, click Bolt... in the drawing properties
dialog box. The options on the Content tab define the appearance of bolts in
drawings.
Solid/Symbol There are several ways to display bolts in drawings. You can select the options
from the Solid/symbol list box. See the examples below.
Solid Exact Solid

Drawing Properties
Symbol Symbol 2 Symbol 3
The options also include the DIN symbol option which corresponds to German
standards (DIN).
Symbol content Use to indicate whether to include the Hole and Axis symbols in the drawing.
Visibility Use to control the visibility options for main parts and secondary parts. The
options are:
• Visible
Displays holes in the drawing
• Not visible
Does not display holes in the drawing
Appearance For more information on the appearance of objects, see Common drawing
object properties (p. 181)
User-defined bolt symbols

You can create your own bolt symbols and use them in drawings.
This is an additional feature that you can use if you need differ-
ent bolt symbols to the ones Tekla Structures includes.
To create bolt symbols in the Symbol Editor:

1. Save the symbol file ud_bolts.sym in the symbol folder (usually the folder
\environments\country-independent\symbols\).
2. Open Notepad, or any text editor.

Drawing Properties
3. Create the a text file, consisting of lines, in three columns:
• The first column contains the bolt assembly standard
• The second contains the bolt diameter
• The third column contains the name of the symbol file and the
symbol number, separated with the @-character
Sample lines from this text file:
7990 24 ud_bolts@1
7990 25 ud_bolts@2
Tekla Structures uses the user-defined symbol for bolts in the drawing that
have the standard and diameter you define in this text file
4. Save the file with the name bolt_symbol_table.txt.
5. Set the environment variable in the batch file:
set XS_USER_DEFINED_BOLT_SYMBOL_TABLE=
bolt_symbol_table.txt
You can also write a full path to the definition file. Without the path Tekla
Structures searches for the file in the model, firm, project, and system direc-
tories.
6. To use your own bolt symbol, select it in the drawing properties dialog box,
by clicking, Bolt... > Content > Solid/Symbol (User-defined symbol).
Welds
Content tab To access the weld properties dialog box, click Weld... in the drawing properties
dialog box. The options on the Content tab define the how Tekla Structures dis-
plays welds in drawings.

Drawing Properties
Weld number Tekla Structures assigns a number to each weld as it is created.
• No
The weld number is not displayed in the drawing.
• Yes
The weld number is displayed in the drawing.
Visibility The visibility options define which welds are visible in drawings.
Site/Workshop You can set the visibility options for welds using one of the following options:
• Not visible
Display none of the welds in the drawing.
• Site weld visible
Only display field welds in the drawing.
• Workshop weld visible
Only display shop welds in the drawing.
• Both visible
Both field welds and shop welds are displayed in the drawing.
Weld size limit Enter a weld size to filter that size welds out of the drawing. This is useful when
you only want to show non-typical welds in a drawing.
To set whether the weld size is an exact or minimum value, use the environment
variable XS_WELD_FILTER_TYPE.
Use the environment variable XS_OMITTED_WELD_TYPE

to specify the standard weld type to filter out from drawings.
For example, you can define the standard weld to be 8 mm sin-
gle-V butt weld:
set XS_OMITTED_WELD_TYPE=3
For information on weld types, see Weld types in the Modeling
Manual.
See also Placing (p. 117)
Merging weld symbols

You can force Tekla Structures to use the same symbol for identical welds in a
drawing, as shown below:

Drawing Properties
Original drawing With weld symbols merged
Steps 1. Open a drawing.

2. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the weld symbols.
3. Right-click and select Merge from the pop-up menu. Tekla Structures com-
bines the symbols.
4. To change the leader line position, drag its handles.
Splitting symbols To split merged weld symbols, right-click the symbol and select Split from the
pop-up menu.
5.6 Reinforcement in drawings

This section explains how Tekla Structures displays reinforcing bars and meshes
in drawings.
To open the reinforcement properties dialog box, click the Reinforcement... but-
ton in the drawing properties dialog box.
Content tabs Use the options on the Bar content tab to define how single reinforcing bars and
bar groups appear in drawings. Use the options on the Mesh content tab to define
how reinforcement meshes appear:

Drawing Properties
Displaying reinforcement in drawings
To define whether Tekla Structures shows reinforcement in drawings, and which
bars to show, click the Reinforcement... button in the drawing properties dialog
box.
To have reinforcement visible in drawings, select Visible in the Visibility of all
reinforcing bars and Visibility of all meshes list boxes.
Bars in groups Use the options in the following list boxes in the reinforcement properties dialog
and meshes box to define which bars in the group or mesh appear in drawings. Notice that
you can define the visibility of longitudinal and crossing bars in meshes sepa-
rately:
• Visibility of reinforcing bars in group
• Visibility of longitudinal bars
• Visibility of crossing bars
The options are:
Option Description
all Shows all bars in a group or mesh.
first bar Only shows the first bar in the group or mesh.
last bar Only shows the last bar in the group or mesh.
first and last bar Shows the first and last bar in the group or mesh.
bar in the middle of Shows one bar in the middle of the group or mesh.
group
two bars in the middle Shows two bars in the middle of the group or
of group mesh.
Customized Only applies to bar groups and meshes.
Indicates that you have specified the location of
the only visible reinforcing bar. See Customized
rebar location (p. 150) below.
Customized rebar location

To have Tekla Structures only show a single reinforcing bar from a group or
mesh in a specific position:
1. Select the reinforcing bar group or mesh.
2. Right-click and select Customized rebar location from the pop-up menu.
3. Click to indicate the location of the bar.

Drawing Properties
When you use the Customized rebar location command to place
reinforcing bars in the drawing, Tekla Structures shows the Cus-
tomized option in the reinforcement properties dialog box when
you double-click the bar in the drawing. You cannot select the
Customized option when you create drawings.
Reinforcement appearance
To define how reinforcement appears in drawings, click the Reinforcement... but-
ton in the drawing properties dialog box and use the options in the Representation
list boxes. The options are:
Option Example Description

single line A single line with radiused
bends.
double line Outline of bar with radiused

bends.
filled line Solid bar with radiused

bends.
stick A single line without radi-

used bends.
outline Only applies to reinforce-

ment meshes.
Shows the shape of the mesh
using an outline rectangle or
polygon, and a diagonal line.
Bar ends Use the following options to define how Tekla Structures displays the ends of
reinforcing bars for single bars and bar groups:

Drawing Properties
Use the following options for hooked ends:
Mesh symbol Use the outline options to define the type and size of symbol to use for reinforce-
ment meshes. The mesh symbol appears in the middle of the diagonal line.
Tekla Structures includes the following predefined mesh symbols:
Symbol 1 Symbol 2 Symbol 3
To add mesh symbols, edit the mesh.sym file using the Symbol
Editor.
See also For information on how to show the shape and dimensions of reinforcing bars,
see Reinforcement pull-outs (p. 164).
5.7 Marks in drawings

You can automatically generate marks for many objects in Tekla Structures
drawings.

Drawing Properties
Example This is an example of some of the elements available to show part marks in draw-
ings.
Assembly position Size Mark frame
Profile Length
Element frame
The following automatic marks are available in Tekla Structures:

• Part mark
• Bolt mark
• Neighbor part mark
• Connection mark
• Reinforcement mark
• Component mark
You can also create additional marks in existing drawings. See Additional
marks (p. 187).

Drawing Properties
Mark properties
The options in the mark properties dialog box define how Tekla Structures shows
marks in drawings. Mark properties are generally the same for each of the avail-
able mark types (part marks, bolt marks, neighbor part marks, connection marks,
reinforcement marks, component marks).
Adds a frame
around the
selected elements
Appearance of
the element
Move elements
frame
between the
lists
Line feed for

multi-row marks
Moves the selected

Removes a space
element up or down
between elements
on the list
See also Mark content (p. 155)

Mark appearance (p. 159)
Mark location (p. 161)

Drawing Properties
Mark content
Use the options on the mark properties Content tab to define how Tekla Struc-
tures displays marks in drawings. You have the following options:
• Marks can consist of more than one row
• You can determine the order in which the different elements appear
• Frames can be nested
• You can change the font properties separately for each element
• Symbols can be added to a mark
• Text can be added to a mark
• User-defined attributes and template fields can be shown in a mark
• Shapes and dimensions of reinforcing bars can be shown as pull-outs
in reinforcement marks
Common elements in marks

The following is a description of elements common to all marks.
Element Description
User-defined Adds a user-defined attribute to the mark. You can
attributes also use template fields for user-defined attributes.
For a list of available template fields, see Appendix F,
Template fields in the online help.
Text Opens a dialog box where you can add user-defined
text to the mark.
Symbol Opens a dialog box where you can add a symbol from
the Tekla Structures symbol library to the mark.
<--’ Adds a line feed between the desired elements to cre-
ate multi-row marks. The default space between the
lines depends on the text height and can be changed
with the environmental variable
XS_MARK_ELEMENT_SPACE_FACTOR.
<-- Adds a backspace between the desired elements to
remove the default space between them. The default
space between the elements depends on the text height
and can be changed with the environmental variable
XS_MARK_ELEMENT_SPACE_FACTOR.

Drawing Properties
Part mark elements
This section describes the elements specific to part marks and neighbor part
marks. You can define part mark options independently for main and secondary
parts.
Element Description
Assembly position Prefix and position number of the assembly
Part position Prefix and position number of the part
Profile Profile name of part, assembly, or cast unit main part
Material Material of part, assembly, or cast unit main part
Name Name of part, assembly, or cast unit main part
Size Size of the part or the assembly or cast unit main part
Length Length of part or assembly or cast unit main part
Camber Camber of the part or the assembly or cast unit main
part (if this user-defined part attribute is set).
Fittings (NS/FS) Displays the near side/far side marks in the part mark.
(only available in front views)
Face direction Displays main compass direction (North, East, South,
West) of the face, where the mark is added. The direc-
tion can only be shown if
• the face is vertical
• the direction is the same for all assemblies
with the same assembly position number
In other case the element produces no text to mark.
See also Orientation marks (p. 141).
Bolt mark elements

This section describes the elements specific to bolt marks. You can define bolt
mark options independently for site and shop bolts.
Element Description
Bolt length Adds the length of the bolt to the mark.
Bolt diameter Adds the bolt diameter to the mark.
Hole diameter Adds the hole diameter to the mark.
Material Adds the bolt grade to the mark.
Standard Adds the bolt standard to the mark.
Short name Adds the bolt’s short name to the mark (e.g., commer-
cial name of a specific bolt).

Drawing Properties
Element Description
Full name Adds the complete name of the bolt to the mark. This
name is visible in the dialog box list.
Assembly type Adds the bolt’s assembly type to the mark.
Number of bolts Adds the number of bolts to the mark.
Slot length (x, y) Adds the slot’s length in the x or y direction to the
mark.
Size Adds the hole size to the mark. See also Size element
in bolt marks (p. 166).
Countersunk Adds countersink to countersunk bolt mark.
Gage of outstand- Adds hole gage to mark.
ing leg
Center-to-center Adds center-to-center distance to mark.
distance
Connection mark elements

This section describes the elements specific to bolt marks.
Element Description
Code Adds the connection code to the mark. This is a user-
defined code you give for the connection in the con-
nection dialog box. The code can be either a text
string or a number.
Name Adds the connection name to the mark (e.g.,
Tube_splice).
DSTV code Adds the DSTV code to the mark.
Connection run- Adds the connection running number to the mark. All
ning number connections are automatically numbered with a run-
ning number (e.g. 85).
Group Adds the connection group to the mark.
Connection error Adds the connection error to the mark.
Reinforcement mark elements

This section describes the elements you can include in all reinforcement marks.
You can define mark options separately for single reinforcing bars, bar groups,
and reinforcement meshes:
Element Description
Name Name of the bar or mesh
Grade Material grade of the bar or mesh
Drawing Properties
Element Description
Diameter Nominal diameter of the bar
Class Class of the bar or mesh
Length Total length of the bar
Number Quantity of bars
Position Reinforcement position number
Shape Shape of the bar or mesh
Weight Weight of the bar or mesh
cc Includes the center-to-center spacing of the bars in the
mark. The options are:
• cc adds the spacing value if spacing does not vary
• cc min adds the smallest spacing value of the bar
group if spacing varies
• cc max adds the largest spacing value of the bar
group if spacing varies
• cc exact lists all spacing values of the bar group
Pull-out picture Adds a pull-out of a bar to the mark. See Reinforce-
ment pull-outs (p. 164).
Reinforcement These mark elements are specific to reinforcement meshes:

meshes
Element Description
Size Nominal diameters of the mesh bars, dimensions of
the mesh, and the spacings of the bars in the longitudi-
nal and crossing directions
Mesh length Length of the reinforcement mesh
Mesh width Width of the reinforcement mesh
cc Use the same center-to-center options as for single
bars. You can define this element individually for the
longitudinal and crossing bars in the mesh.
For information on merged reinforcement marks, see Merging marks (p. 166).

Drawing Properties
Component mark elements
The component mark elements are:
• Name
• Material
• Class
• Finish
• Type
• Label
Mark appearance
Define mark appearance settings using the Content and the General tabs.
Content The Content tab (Single mark and Merged mark tabs for reinforcement marks)
defines font settings and the frames around individual elements.
Option Action
Frame around ele- Use to create frames for selected elements.You can
ments nest frames in marks.
Add frame To add a frame to an element, select the element in the
Elements in mark box and click Add frame.
Type/ Color Sets or modifies the frame type and color indepen-
dently for each frame. Different frame colors print out
in different line weights.
Font Defines the font, color and height of text in marks.
The changes you make to the frame type and the font are not
visible in the mark contents list but you can check them in the
font and frame fields and the drawing.
General The General tab defines mark visibility (for part, bolt, and reinforcement marks),
the mark frames, leader lines, and location. For further information on leader
lines and location, see Mark location (p. 161).
Visibility
Indicates the views where marks appear. You have different options depending
on whether you modify marks on a drawing or view level.
On drawing level On the drawing level the Visibility of mark field defines whether the marks are
created in all views or only one.

Drawing Properties
On view level The following options are available for visibility of marks on a view level:
• distributed
Marks are distributed in the view. Tekla Structures only creates marks that
are not visible in the other views.
• always
The view always receives marks, irrespective the settings in other views.
• preferred
As for distributed, but the preferred view has a higher priority.
• none
No marks
Out of view plane The Parts out of view plane visibility options define whether Tekla Structures dis-
plays marks outside of the view in the drawing.
Main/Sec bolts Use the main and secondary bolts options in the bolt mark properties dialog box
to define how Tekla Structures displays bolts drawing views.
• Main part bolts
Only displays main part bolts
• Sec part bolts
Only displays secondary part bolts
• Both visible
Displays both main part and secondary part bolts
Bolt size limit Filters standard-sized bolt marks out of drawings. Tekla Structures does not dis-
play bolt marks of the size you enter here in the drawing view.
The following environment variables affect Bolt size limit:

XS_OMITTED_DIAMETER_TYPE specifies whether the
filtered marks are bolts or holes.
XS_OMITTED_BOLT_TYPE specifies the standard of the
filtered marks.
XS_OMITTED_BOLT_ASSEMBLY_TYPE specifies
whether the filtered marks are site, shop, or both bolts.
Frame around mark

Defines the appearance of frame for entire marks. Choose the type and color for
the frame.
Tekla Structures shows the mark frames and leader lines as continuous or dashed
lines in drawings. Dashed mark frame and leader line indicate that the object is
behind another object in the drawing.

Drawing Properties
The following environment variable affects the marks of hidden
objects in drawings:
XS_OMIT_MARKS_OF_HIDDEN_PARTS_IN_GA_DRA
WINGS prevents Tekla Structures from displaying the marks of
hidden parts in general arrangement drawings.
Mark location
The following properties affect mark location in drawings:
• Selected leader line
• Orientation marks (p. 141)
• Protection (p. 116)
• Placing (p. 117).

Drawing Properties
Part mark leader line
You have the following options for leader lines in part marks:
Option Action Description

Use leader line Always use a leader line.
Try along part Tries to find a space along the part

for the mark. If impossible, Tekla
Structures uses a leader line.
Always along part The mark is always along the part.
Lack of space might cause the mark
to overlap other elements.
Always inside the part The mark is always inside the part.
Always inside and The mark is always inside the part

aligned to the part and parallel to the part axis.
Inside the part if pos- Tries to find a space the mark inside
sible the part. If impossible, Tekla Struc-
tures places the mark along the part
with a leader line.
Inside and aligned to Tries to find a space inside the part
the part if possible for the mark and align it parallel to
the part axis. If impossible, Tekla
Structures places the mark along the
part with a leader line.
Reinforcement mark leader line

Use the following options to define leader lines in reinforcement marks:
Option Description
Always creates a leader line.
Tries to find a space along the bar for the mark. If impossible,
creates a leader line.
The mark is always along the bar. The mark may overlap other
elements if there is not enough space.

Drawing Properties
Tekla Structures tries to place the mark close to the midpoint on straight bars, or
to the midpoint of the longest bar segment.
In reinforcing bar groups, Tekla Structures first tries to place the mark on the
middle bar if it is visible. If that is not possible, Tekla Structures tries the next
visible bar.
Tekla Structures shows the mark frames and leader lines as con-
tinuous or dashed lines in drawings. Dashed mark frame and
leader line indicate that the object is behind another object in
the drawing.
Reinforcement marks on a dimension line

You can show reinforcement marks on a dimension line. Each reinforcement
group with identical spacing has a mark and dimension line.
11 Y1 D 8 c/c 100 16 Y1 D 8 c/c 200 11 Y1 D 8 c/c 100
To create a dimension line:

1. Open a drawing.
2. Right-click a reinforcing bar and select Create dimension marks from the
pop-up menu. Tekla Structures creates the dimension line.
3. To change the appearance of the dimension line, double-click it to display
the Dimension properties dialog box. Change the properties, and then save
them as RebarMarkAttr. Tekla Structures uses these properties when it cre-
ates dimension lines with reinforcement marks.
To change the contents of the reinforcement mark, edit the line

GroupBarMark in the ..\environments\*your_environment*\sys-
tem\rebar_config.inp file.

Drawing Properties
Reinforcement pull-outs
To illustrate the shape and dimensions of a reinforcing bar in a drawing, add a
pull-out of the bar to the reinforcement mark:
1. Open the drawing properties dialog box and click Reinforcement mark....
2. In the reinforcement mark properties dialog box, double-click the Pull-out
picture element to add it to the reinforcement mark.
3. In the Pull-out picture dialog box, define the pull-out properties.
Property Description
Scaling The scale of the pull-out relative to the scale of the
drawing view.
For example, if the drawing view scale is 1/10 and
the pull-out scaling is 2, the actual scale of the pull-
out in the drawing view is 1/5.
End marks The shape of bar ends in the pull-out. The options
are:
Dimensions Select this checkbox to show bar dimensions in the

pull-out.
Bending angle Select this checkbox to show bar bending angles in
the pull-out.

Drawing Properties
To change the color, line type, and representation of pull-out,
open the rebar_config.inp file in ..\environ-
ments\*your_environment*\system and edit the following lines:
PulloutColor
PulloutVisibleLinetype
PulloutRepresentation
Advanced bolt marks

You can define most of the bolt mark contents in the Bolt mark properties dialog
box. For more advanced marks, you can use the following environment vari-
ables, located in the startup batch file:
• XS_HOLE_MARK_STRING
• XS_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING
• XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING
• XS_SITE_BOLT_MARK_STRING
(same as XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING, but only for bolt marks of site bolts)
• XS_SHOP_BOLT_MARK_STRING
(same as XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING, but only for bolt marks of workshop
bolts)
Usage These environment variables override the settings in the Bolt mark properties dia-
log box. You can use environment variables and dialog box settings together by
selectively defining some properties using each one. For example, you could
define the marks for holes in the dialog box, and marks for bolts using the vari-
able XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING.
Mark contents You define the mark contents using a format string which has a specific syntax:
• Variables are surrounded by double % characters (%%) (not used
between a variable and an operator)
• Write text without quotation marks
• To use special characters enter a backslash (\) followed by an ASCII
number (e.g. \216 for Ø in the examples below).
• You can edit marks: change the order of the variables, add your own
text, and make calculations
Examples Here are some examples of environmental variable strings:
set XS_HOLE_MARK_STRING=%%HOLE_DIAMETER%%\216
set XS_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING=%%HOLE_DIAMETER%%\216(%%HOLE_DI
AMETER+LONGHOLE_X%%x%%HOLE_DIAMETER+LONGHOLE_Y%%)

Drawing Properties
set XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING=%%HOLE_DIAMETER%%\216
Switches You can use the following switches in the string:
• BOLT_NUMBER
• BOLT_DIAMETER
• BOLT_LENGTH
• HOLE_DIAMETER
• LONGHOLE_X
• LONGHOLE_Y
• LONGHOLE_MIN (the shorter of the slotted hole dimensions)
• LONGHOLE_MAX (the longer of the slotted hole dimensions)
• BOLT_STANDARD
• BOLT_MATERIAL
• BOLT_ASSEMBLY_TYPE
• BOLT_COUNTERSUNK
• BOLT_SHORT_NAME
• BOLT_FULL_NAME
Size element in bolt marks

Use to create marks that depend on the object type (bolt, hole, slotted hole). Use
the following environment variables to define the contents of the size element:
• XS_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SITE_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SHOP_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_HOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SITE_HOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SHOP_HOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SITE_BOLT_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
• XS_SHOP_BOLT_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE
Examples set XS_LONGHOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE=D%%HOLE_DIAMETER%%(%%H
OLE_DIAMETER+LONGHOLE_X%%x%%HOLE_DIAMETER+LONGHOLE_Y%%)
set XS_SITE_HOLE_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE=D%%HOLE_DIAMETER%%
5.8 Merging marks

This section explains how to combine marks.

Drawing Properties
You can force Tekla Structures to automatically merge similar reinforcement
marks for bars that belong to the same concrete part or cast unit.
Tekla Structures always merges reinforcement or component

marks that will appear in the same position in the drawing.
Merging part marks

Merge marks to reduce the number of part marks. Merged marks contain the
usual part mark information, plus the number of parts and near side and far side
information.
To merge marks, go to the Part mark... > General tab in the drawing properties dia-
log box and set Merge marks to On.
Example Option Description

Off Shows one mark for each part.
On Merges marks for identical sec-

ondary parts on both faces of
main parts.
Settings To modify merged marks, use the following environment variables:

• XS_MULTIPLIER_SEPARATOR_FOR_MERGED_PART_MARK
• XS_NSFS_POSTFIX_FOR_MERGED_PART_MARK
• XS_NS_POSTFIX_FOR_MERGED_PART_MARK
• XS_FS_POSTFIX_FOR_MERGED_PART_MARK
• XS_PART_MERGE_MAX_DISTANCE
• XS_MIN_MERGE_PART_COUNT
Limitations Tekla Structures does not merge neighbor part marks. A merged mark has a sin-
gle leader line.

Drawing Properties
Automatically merging reinforcement marks
Tekla Structures automatically merges marks for visible reinforcing bars in draw-
ings if:
• The bars belong to the same concrete part or cast unit
• The direction of the bars is the same
• The bar marks are identical
• The bars are close to each other
• A straight line can be drawn through all the bars
To have Tekla Structures automatically merge reinforcement

marks in drawings, the reinforcement must be attached to a part
or cast unit in the model. See Attaching reinforcement to a
part in the Detailing Manual.
To define the distance within which to automatically merge marks for visible
reinforcing bars, use the environment variables
XS_MAX_MERGE_DISTANCE_IN_HORIZONTAL and
XS_MAX_MERGE_DISTANCE_IN_VERTICAL. See the Appendix C,
Environment variables, in the online help.
Merging within a cast unit

To define how to merge reinforcement marks for cast units in drawings, open the
drawing properties dialog box and click Reinforcement mark... > Merged mark.
Select an option from the Identical marks in same cast unit list box:
Option Description
One leader line Merges the marks and creates one
per row leader line for a row of reinforcing bars.
Parallel leader Merges the marks and creates parallel
lines leader lines.
Leader lines to Merges the marks and draws all leader
one point lines to one point.
No merge Does not merge marks. Tekla Structures
creates an individual leader line for
each mark.
If you select No merge, you still need to define the mark content
for the marks that Tekla Structures automatically merges on the
Merged mark tab.

Drawing Properties
Preferred merge direction
If there are several possible merge directions, you can select a direction:
Option Description
Merge vertically Merges the marks in the vertical direc-
tion of the drawing.
Merge horizontally Merges the marks in the horizontal

direction of the drawing.
Merged mark content

Merged marks may include several blocks, and additional information. Blocks
combine similar single marks.
Example For example, you can merge three A φ12 L2000 marks to a block and six V φ8
L650 marks to another block, and then merge them in the following way:
Single mark content Symbol separating the blocks

Block prefix Distance between
groups
3 A φ12 L2000 c/c150 & 6 V φ8 L650 c/c50
Block 1 Block 2
Merged marks can contain the following elements:
Element Description
Block prefix Adds text or a value to the beginning of each repeated
block, for example, the number of single marks
merged. Opens a dialog box where you can enter the
prefix.
Single mark Adds the content of the single mark indicated on the
content Single mark tab to the mark. See Mark content
(p. 155) and Reinforcement mark elements (p. 157).
Distance between Adds the center-to-center distances between reinforc-
groups ing bars or bar groups included in a merged mark.
Symbol separating Adds a symbol between the blocks in the mark. Opens
blocks in mark a dialog box where you can enter the symbol. The ele-
ments that appear before this element on the mark con-
tent list form a block.
Other elements See Common elements in marks (p. 155).

Drawing Properties
To ensure that merged reinforcement marks appear in the draw-
ing, always include Symbol separating blocks in mark as the last
element in the reinforcement mark. To omit the separating sym-
bol, leave this field blank, but still include the element in the
mark.
You can use the following variables as block prefixes. Remember to add the %
character before and after the variable name.
Variable Description
%NUMBER% Includes the number of marks merged
to the mark.
%NUMBER_IN_PLANE% Includes the number of marks merged
in the plane of the drawing to the
mark.
%NUMBER_OUT_OF_PLANE% Includes the number of marks merged
in the depth direction of the drawing
to the mark.
Manually merging and splitting reinforcement marks

Merging To manually merge marks in a drawing:
1. Click Properties > Merged reinforcement mark....
2. Set the mark properties. See Automatically merging reinforcement marks
(p. 168) for the options.
3. Select the marks to merge in the drawing.
4. Right-click and select Merge marks from the pop-up menu.
Splitting To split merged marks:
1. Select the marks to split in the drawing.
2. Right-click and select Split marks from the pop-up menu.
5.9 Grids in drawings

You can also use grid lines and grid line labels in cast-unit, assembly, and single-
part drawings.

Drawing Properties
Grid properties
The options in the grid properties dialog box define how Tekla Structures dis-
plays grid lines in drawings. The options are the same for the different types of
drawings (GA, assembly, single-part, cast-unit). To manage grid settings, in the
drawing properties dialog box, click Grid....
Grid You have the following options:

• Not visible
No visible grid lines
• Visible
Grid lines visible in the selected view
• Visible in all views
Grid lines visible in all of the views
Text placing Select the checkboxes to indicate the direction of grid line labels.
Appearance You can select colors for grid lines and their labels (grid line texts) indepen-
dently. You can also select text height, font and text frame style. Offset defines
the distance between the end of the grid line and the text.

Drawing Properties
5.10 The Drawing Classifier
Use the Drawing Classifier to control the drawing properties for different types
of model objects. You can apply it to:
• Appearance
• Dimensioning
• Marks
This enables you to create different drawing styles. For example, you might cre-
ate a drawing style for assembly drawings that shows different position dimen-
sions for end plates, cleats, and haunches.
End plate is dimen- Cleat is dimen-

sioned by bolts sioned by part
Haunch is not
dimensioned at all.
Classifier uses drawing filters to select model objects, suchs as parts, bolts,
welds, etc.

Drawing Properties
How the Classifier works
The Classifier uses existing drawing dialog boxes. In this first release there is no
special user interface. The Classifier works with single-part, assembly, and gen-
eral arrangement drawings.
The Classifier works by using a specific naming convention for saved properties.
You save drawing and filter properties with any name for, but you must use the
same name, prefixed by "filter_", when you save the drawing object properties,
as shown below:
Drawing object
properties must
always begin with
"filter_"
The Classifier uses the following properties:

• Drawing or drawing view properties
• The view filter in the Drawing Editor, or general arrangement draw-
ing filter.
• Drawing object properties (for example part, bolt, weld, reinforce-
ment, mark, or dimension properties) from drawing or view sub-dia-
log boxes.

Drawing Properties
Using the classifier
This is a simple example showing how to use the Drawing Classifier.
The drawing before

we used the Classifier.
All parts appear in the
same color.
The drawing after we

used the Classifer.
Beams and columns
now appear in differ-
ent colors.
To use the Drawing Classifier:

1. Define and save the drawing properties for the drawing type you want to
use. See Creating drawing property files (p. 175)
2. Create a view filter to define specific groups of model objects. You can cre-
ate view filters at the drawing view level or the general arrangement drawing
level. See Creating view filters (p. 175)
3. Create filter-specific property files for groups of model objects, to define
how they appear in the drawings. See Creating drawing object property
files (p. 176)
4. Create drawings manually or use drawing wizards. See Creating drawings
(p. 177).
You need to understand how to edit drawings at different levels

to use the classifier effectively.

Drawing Properties
Creating drawing property files
Create drawing property files to define the properties of each type of drawing
you want to create. To create a drawing property file (named "test") for a general
arrangement drawing::
1. In the Model Editor, click Properties > General arrangement drawing. Tekla
Structures opens the drawing properties dialog box.
2. Set the drawing properties. Verify the properties on sub dialog boxes. Click
Apply to close each sub dialog box. Tekla Structures will use these as the
default drawing properties for objects that do not match any classifier filters.
3. Name and save the drawing properties. Enter the name "test" in the text box
next to the Save as button. Click Save as.
4. Click Apply.
You can also create and save properties on the drawing view
level using the Drawing Editor. If you want to use drawing wiz-
ards to automatically create drawings, always give drawing
properties the same name as the view property files.
Creating view filters

Create view filters to define the specific groups of model objects, whose appear-
ance you want to change. In this example we create one view filter for beams,
and another for columns:
1. In the General arrangement drawing properties dialog box, click the Filter...
button to open the General - filter properties dialog box.
2. Click the Parts tab, and in the Filter String text box next to Part Name, enter
"BEAM".
3. In the text box next to the Save as button, enter "beam". Click Save as to
save the view filter.

Drawing Properties
4. Repeat the steps 2 and 3 for columns: on the Parts tab, enter "COLUMN"
and save properties as "column".
Now you should have two filters, beam and column.
5. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Do not click Apply, as this will apply
the current filter to the entire drawing and the Classifier will not work.
Always use view filters when you use the Drawing Classifier.
The Drawing Classifier does not recognize select filters.
Creating drawing object property files

Create different part properties for the groups of model objects for which you
have defined view filters. This example draws columns in turquoise, and beams
in magenta.
1. In the General arrangement drawing properties... dialog box, click the Part...
button.
2. Modify the drawing object properties. Click the Apperance tab and change
the Color to turquoise.
3. Enter the name "filter_test_column" in the text box next to the Save as but-
ton, then click Save as to save the drawing object property file for columns
Repeat steps 2 and 3 to create a drawing object property file for beams, set-
ting the Color to magenta. Save the drawing object property filter for beams
as "filter_test_beam".
4. Click Cancel to close the object properties dialog box.

Drawing Properties
Creating drawings
To create a general arrangement drawing using the Classifier and the "test" prop-
erties we used in our example:
1. In the Model Editor, click Drawing > General arrangement drawing...
2. Click Drawing properties.... Tekla Structures opens the drawing properties
dialog box. Click the down arrow in the Load text box, then select the "test"
drawing properties you created.
3. Click Load.
4. Click OK to apply the Classifier properties and to close the drawing proper-
ties dialog box.
5. Select view(s) to include in the drawing and click Create.
Open the drawing and check that beams and columns appear in the colors you
defined previously.
You can also use the Classifier together with drawing wizards
to create drawings. To do this:
• Be sure to include the saved drawing properties in the wiz-
ard file.
• Use the same values in the select filter in the wizard
as you used in the drawing filter. This ensures that
both filters select the same objects. You may need to
create new select filters and edit the drawing wizard
file.
Troubleshooting
• All dimensioning options in the drawing (part, bolt and position
dimensions) are associated with parts. So, to define the properties of
bolt dimensions using the Classifier, you need to create a view filter
for the bolted parts (for example end plates), not for the bolts them-
selves.
• If the view properties and drawing properties files have the same
name, the Classifier uses the view properties file.
• The Classifier filters only objects once. If you create several view fil-
ters that use different criteria for the same part, the Classifier only
uses the first view filter it finds (in alphabetical order).

Drawing Properties
• The Classifier ignores the following drawing properties in sub-dialog
boxes:
• Part marks > General tab > Visible . To not create part marks,
leave the Elements in mark column empty on the Content tab
• Part marks > General tab > Merge marks
• Bolt marks > General tab > Visible. To not create bolt marks,
leave the Elements in mark column empty on the Content tab
• Bolt marks > General tab > Bolt size limit
• Neighbour parts > Visibility tab: all options
• Weld > General tab > Size limit and Site/workshop options
If you have problems using the Classifier (for example, parts disappear from the
drawing), you may have applied the view filter or drawing object properties to
the entire drawing. (You may have clicked Apply or OK to close one or more
sub-dialog boxes when you were creating the view filter). To fix this:
1. Load the drawing properties you defined to use with the Classifier.
2. In all sub dialog boxes, check that the Classifier settings are not loaded.
Click OK to close the sub dialog box.
3. Save the drawing properties.
5.11 Drawing properties reference

To define drawing properties, select a drawing command from the Properties
menu in the Tekla Structures Model Editor. The commands are similar for single-
part, assembly, cast-unit, and general arrangement drawings.

Drawing Properties
6 Editing Drawings
In this chapter This chapter explains how to edit drawings and their graphical objects in Tekla
Structures. It also covers how to create and edit additional drawing objects (i.e.
lines, text, symbols, and marks) in Tekla Structures drawings.
Assumed You should also be familiar with the following chapters:
background
• Introduction to Drawings (p. 5)
• Getting Started with Drawings (p. 23)
• Dimensioning (p. 63)
• Drawing Properties (p. 113)
• Additional drawing objects (p. 180)
• Additional marks (p. 187)
• Symbols in drawings (p. 188)
• Adding text and links to drawings (p. 190)
• DWG and DXF files in drawings (p. 195)
• Working with drawing objects (p. 197)
• Working with drawing views (p. 205)

Editing Drawings
6.1 Additional drawing objects
In Tekla Structures, we use the term drawing object to refer to:
• Lines
• Arcs
• Circles
• Polylines
• Polygons
• Rectangles
• Clouds
• Symbols
• Text
• DWG/DXF files
• Marks
• Dimensions.
In addition to the automatic dimensions and marks Tekla Structures creates, you
can include additional objects in Tekla Structures drawings. These are typically
used for temporary, revision-related, or other similar types of information.
Do not use additional objects to indicate something permanent

in drawings. Tekla Structures does not update additional objects
when you update or change a drawing.
Basic drawing This section describes the basic types of additional objects you can create in
objects Tekla Structures drawings.
To create objects in drawings, use the icons on the Drawings: Drawing toolbar, or
select a command from the Create menu. The following table lists the commands
you use to create drawing objects and gives a short description of each one. For
detailed instructions, see the online help.

Line Creates a line between two picked
points.
Rectangle Creates a rectangle according to two

picked points.
Arc by end points and cen- Creates a circular arc according to the
ter picked end points and center point.
Arc by three points Creates a circular arc according to three
picked points.

Editing Drawings
Circle Creates a circle according to the picked
center point.
Circle by three points Creates a circle according to three

picked points.
Polyline Creates a polyline that traverses the
picked points.
Polygon Creates a polygon according to the

picked points.
Cloud Creates a cloud according to the picked

points.
See also Symbols in drawings (p. 188)

Adding text and links to drawings (p. 190)
DWG and DXF files in drawings (p. 195)
Additional marks (p. 187)
Manual dimensioning (p. 66)
Common drawing object properties

Each additional drawing object has properties that define its appearance. The
options you have vary depending on the object type. This section describes the
object properties that are common to many types of additional objects. Some
objects may not have all the options listed below.

Editing Drawings
Line properties
The following are the properties of lines Tekla Structures uses to draw objects
(such as lines, rectangles, arcs, circles, polylines, and polygons):
Property Options Additional information

Line type The weld symbols have the following
line types:
Line color See Color (p. 184).

Bulge Values The bulge factor defines the curvature
from 0 to 1 of the curved segments of objects
using the calculation:
Arc height =
Line length * Bulge factor
Changing the bulge factor of a
polyline or polygon modifies all the
segments of that object. To modify an
individual segment, use handles. See
Manipulating drawing objects
(p. 202).
Arrow See Arrow properties (p. 182).
Arrow properties
The following are the properties Tekla Structures uses to draw arrows:

Arrow position
Arrow type

Editing Drawings
Arrow height Arrow height and width define the
size of the arrowhead.
Arrow width
Leader line
Using objects with leader lines, you can position an object anywhere in the draw-
ing, and have a leader line pointing to the area of the drawing you want to indi-
cate. You can use leader lines in text, symbols, and marks. You have the
following options for leader lines:
Drawing object Leader line types

Text
Symbols
Level marks
Revision marks
Part marks
For more information on leader lines in part marks, see Mark location (p. 161).

Editing Drawings
Color
You can specify the color of objects, frames, and fill (see also Fill type (p. 185)).
The colors define the line weight when you print monocolor drawings.
You have the following color options:
black
white
brown
forest green
dark blue
dark cyan
olive
dark magenta
red
green
blue
cyan
yellow
magenta
Font
Tekla Structures uses standard Windows fonts. You can use the Select... button to
select the font and style from the list. The value in the Height field defines the
text height in drawings.

Editing Drawings
Fill type
You can fill closed drawing objects (such as rectangles, circles, and polygons)
with a pattern, and color the fill. See also Color (p. 184). You have the following
fill options:
To scale and rotate patterns, see Modifying fill types (p. 203).
To have Tekla Structures show different materials in section views using
hatches, see Hatching in section views (p. 137).

Editing Drawings
Frame type
You can create a frame around marks, symbols, text, and dimensions. You have
the following frame types to choose from:
Radius
You can specify the radius of arcs and circles.
Place
To define how you want Tekla Structures to place additional drawing objects,
click Place.... Tekla Structures opens the placing dialog box for that object.
You have the following options to place drawing objects:

• free
Tekla Structures searches for an empty location to place the object.
• fixed
Pick a position in the drawing to place the object.
Enter a value in the Search margin field to define the limits of the area you want
Tekla Structures to search for empty space.
Enter a value in the Minimal distance field to indicate the minimum distance the
object should be from the relevant part.

Editing Drawings
Use the Quarter checkboxes to further define the area Tekla Structures should
search for empty space. Tekla Structures divides the search area into quarters and
searches only those quarters you select.
6.2 Additional marks

You can include additional marks in Tekla Structures drawings. These are typi-
cally used for temporary, revision-related, or other similar types of information.
You can create the following additional marks in Tekla Structures drawings:
• Part marks
• Bolt marks
• Connection marks
• Level marks
• Revision marks
• Weld symbols.
Do not use additional marks to indicate something permanent in

drawings. Tekla Structures does not update additional marks
when you update or change a drawing.
To create additional marks in drawings, use the icons on the Drawings: Text tool-
bar, or select a command from the Create menu. The following table lists the
commands you use to create additional marks and gives a short description of
each one. For detailed instructions, see the online help.

Create > Part marks Creates marks for all parts, bolts, and
connections, or selected parts, bolts,
and connections.
Create > Level mark Creates a level mark (an elevation
dimension).
Create > Revision mark Creates a revision mark.

Create > Weld symbol Creates a weld symbol.
For information on the automatic marks and mark properties, see Marks in
drawings (p. 152).

Editing Drawings
6.3 Symbols in drawings
You can add symbols created with the Symbol Editor to drawings. Tekla Struc-
tures adds the symbol using the properties in the Symbol properties dialog box.
The filename extension of a saved symbol properties file is sbl.
There are three different styles of symbol you can add to drawings:
• Symbol
• Symbol with leader line
• Symbol along a line.
For instructions on creating symbols, see the SymEd User’s Guide.
For information on section and weld symbols, see Section view label and sym-
bol (p. 136) and Weld symbols in drawings in the Modeling manual.
Adding symbols to drawings

To add a symbol to a drawing:
1. Open the drawing.
2. Click Properties > Symbol to display the Symbol properties dialog box.
3. Modify the symbol properties as required. See Symbol properties (p. 189).
4. Click OK to save the properties and exit the Symbol properties dialog box.
5. Click Create > Symbol and the symbol style you want to use. See Symbol
styles (p. 189).
6. Pick one to three points in the drawing to place the symbol. The symbol
style you choose affects the number of points to pick.
7. Continue picking to add the same symbol elsewhere in the drawing.

Editing Drawings
Symbol styles
You can use the following styles when adding a symbol to a drawing:
Symbol style Icon Description

Symbol Creates the symbol with the center at
the point you pick in the drawing, with-
out a leader line.
Tekla Structures uses all the properties
in the Symbol properties dialog box
except for the placing properties.
Symbol with leader line Creates the symbol outside the part,
with a leader line pointing to the point
you pick. Pick the starting point of the
leader line, and a point to insert the
symbol.
Tekla Structures uses all the properties
in the Symbol properties dialog box.
Symbol along line Creates the symbol along the line you
define by picking two points. Then pick
an insertion point for the symbol.
The symbol will not have a leader line,
even if you define one in the Symbol
properties dialog box.
Symbol properties
Click Properties > Symbol to display the Symbol properties dialog box.
In addition to the common object properties (see Common drawing object
properties (p. 181)), you can modify the following symbol properties:
File Enter the filename of the set of symbols you want
to use. To find the name of a symbol file, browse
the folder /environments/country-independent/sym-
bols/.
Number Click Select to browse the available symbols, or
enter the number of the symbol to use. Single-click
a symbol in the Symbols dialog box to use it.
Symbol height Enter the height of the symbol.

Editing Drawings
Symbol angle Enter the angle of the symbol.
Place... See Place (p. 186).
Modifying To modify the symbol properties, double-click an symbol to modify its proper-
properties ties.
6.4 Adding text and links to drawings

This section describes the types of text you can add to drawings. You can add
several styles of text to Tekla Structures drawings:
• Single lines
• Paragraphs
• Text files
• Hyperlinks
• Links between drawings.

Editing Drawings
To add text to drawings, use the icons on the Drawings: Text toolbar, or select a
command from the Create menu. The following table lists the commands you use
to add text and gives a short description of each one. For detailed instructions,
see the online help.

Text Creates a single line of text.
Text (multi) Creates multiple lines of text (para-

graphs).
Text along line Creates a single line of text along a line
you specify.
Text along line (multi) Creates multiple lines of text (para-

graphs) along a line you specify.
Text with leader line Creates a line of text with a leader line
to a point you specify in the drawing.
Along line, arrow at end Creates a single line of text with a visi-
point ble line which has an arrow at the sec-
ond point picked (or end point).
Along line, arrow at start Creates a single line of text with a visi-
point ble line which has an arrow at the first
point picked (or starting point).
Text file Adds a text file to the drawing.
Hyperlink Inserts a hyperlink into the drawing.
Link drawings Creates a link to another drawing.
See Common drawing object properties (p. 181) for more on additional object
properties.

Editing Drawings
Text files in drawings
You can insert a text file inside a frame in a drawing. Tekla Structures adds the
text file using the properties in the Text file properties dialog box. The filename
extension of a saved properties file is fas.

properties (p. 181)), you can modify the scale Tekla Structures uses when add-
ing text files. See Scaling text files and links (p. 195).
The Text file command creates a link to the text file. If you
change the text in the file, it will change in all drawings using
that text file.
Adding text files

To add a text file to a drawing:
2. Click Properties > Text file... to display the Text file properties dialog box.
3. Click Browse... and locate the text file you want to use.
4. Click OK to close the Browse... dialog box.
5. Modify the other text file properties as required.
6. Click OK to save the properties and close the Text file properties dialog box.
7. Click Create > Text file.

Editing Drawings
8. Pick one or two points in the drawing to indicate the corners of the text file
frame. The scaling type you choose affects the number of points to pick. See
Scaling text files and links (p. 195).
Editing text files

To edit a text file, double-click the text inside the frame. Tekla Structures will
open the original text file.
To modify the text file properties, double-click the frame around the text.
Links in drawings
You can place active links to files, Internet addresses, or Tekla Structures draw-
ings within a frame in a drawing.
Tekla Structures creates hyperlinks using the properties in the Hyperlink proper-
ties dialog box. The filename extension of a saved hyperlink properties file is fhl.
Tekla Structures creates links to drawings using the properties in the Link drawing
properties dialog box. The filename extension of a saved drawing link properties
file is ldr.
properties (p. 181)), you can modify the following link properties:
Property Action Description

File Active link to a Click Browse... to find the file, or enter
file. a filepath and name, for example,
E:\models\new\report.txt.
URL Active link to an Specifies the Internet address for the
Internet address. link.
Drawing Active link to Select the drawing from the list box.
another Tekla The drawings in the list box are the
Structures draw- drawings in the model’s drawing list.
ing.
Link text The text Tekla Use this to have Tekla Structures
Structures dis- show text other than the link or draw-
plays in the drawing name in the drawing.
ing.
Click the link text in the drawing to jump to the file or Internet
address.
Double-click the link text to open the linked drawing.

Editing Drawings
Adding hyperlinks
To insert a hyperlink into a drawing:
2. Click Properties > Hyperlink... to display the Hyperlink properties dialog box.
3. Modify the text style, frame, and scaling as required.
4. In the File or URL field, enter an Internet address or filename and path. If you
need to locate the file, click Browse.... Tekla Structures inserts an active
hyperlink to the location you specify.
5. In the Text field, enter the text you want Tekla Structures to display for the
hyperlink.
6. Click OK to save the properties and close the Hyperlink properties dialog box.
7. Click Create > Hyperlink.
8. Pick one or two points in the drawing to indicate the corners of the hyperlink
frame. The scaling type you choose affects the number of points to pick. See
Scaling text files and links (p. 195).
Creating links between drawings

To link two drawings of a model:
1. Open the drawing to link from.
2. Click Properties > Link drawings... to display the Link drawing properties dia-
log box.
3. Modify the text style, frame, and scaling as required.
4. In the Drawing list box, select the drawing to link to.
5. In the Text field, enter the text you want Tekla Structures to display for the
link.
6. Click OK to save the properties and close the Link drawing properties dialog
box.
7. Click Create > Link drawing.
8. Pick one or two points in the drawing to indicate the corners of the link
frame. The number of points you have to pick depends on the scaling type
you use. See Scaling text files and links (p. 195).
Modifying link properties

To modify the properties of an existing link, double-click the frame around the
link.

Editing Drawings
Scaling text files and links
To scale text files and links in drawings, double-click the frame around an exist-
ing object, or use the appropriate command on the Properties menu. You have the
following options in the Scaling: Type list box:
• No scaling
When you define the frame around the object, you only need pick the upper
left corner of it. Tekla Structures inserts the object in its original size.
• Scale to fit
When you define the object frame, you pick two points to define it. Tekla
Structures adjusts the object size to fit the frame.
6.5 DWG and DXF files in drawings

You can insert a DWG or DXF file inside a frame in a drawing. Tekla Structures
adds the DWG or DXF file using the properties in the DWG/DXF properties dialog
box. The filename extension of a saved DWG/DXF properties file is fdg.
The DWG/DXF command creates a link to the desired DWG or

DXF file. When you modify the file, Tekla Structures also mod-
ifies all linked drawings.
Adding DWG or DXF files to drawings

To insert a DWG or DXF file into a drawing:
2. Click Properties > DWG/DXF... to display the DWG/DXF properties dialog box.
3. Click Browse... and locate the DWG or DXF file you want to use.
4. Click OK to close the Browse dialog box.
5. Use the DWG/DXF properties dialog box to set the properties. See DWG/
DXF file properties (p. 196).
6. Click OK.
7. Click Create > DWG/DXF.

Editing Drawings
8. Tekla Structures creates the DWG or DXF drawing inside a frame in the
drawing. Pick one or two points in the drawing to place the frame. The scal-
ing type you choose affects the number of points to pick. See DWG/DXF
file properties (p. 196).
DWG/DXF file properties

To set the DWG/DXF file properties, click Properties > DWG/DXF to open the
DWG/DXF properties dialog box.

Editing Drawings
properties (p. 181)), you can modify the following properties when adding a
DWG or DXF file to a drawing:
Scaling type Options:
X: Pick the left upper corner of the frame to insert
the file. You can only set the drawing scale in the x
direction.
XY: Pick the left upper corner of the frame to insert
the file. You can set the drawing scale in both x and
y directions.
Scale to fit: Pick the left upper and bottom right cor-
ners of the frame to size and create the frame. Tekla
Structures scales the file to fit the frame.
Best fit: Pick the left upper and bottom right corners
of the frame to size and create the frame. Tekla
Structures scales the file to fit, maintaining its orig-
inal aspect ratio.
Scale in X Check this to scale the file in the x direction. Enter
a coefficient to indicate the scale, e.g. 1.0 for
100%, 1.5 for 150%, etc. The scaling type must be
set to X or XY.
Scale in Y Check this to scale the file in the y direction. Enter
a coefficient to indicate the scale, e.g. 1.0 for
100%, 1.5 for 150%, etc. The scaling type must be
set to XY.
Modifying To modify the DWG/DXF properties, double-click an existing DWG/DXF

properties frame.
6.6 Working with drawing objects

This section explains how to use the user-defined coordinate system and how to
position, modify, copy, and move drawing objects.

Editing Drawings
User-defined coordinate system (UCS)
The UCS is a user-defined local coordinate system you can use in a drawing
view. It makes it easier to place graphical objects, because you place objects rel-
ative to a user-definable point of origin, or base point in the drawing view.
To position an object using the global coordinate system, you

need to calculate the coordinates of the object from the point of
origin of the drawing.
Example Place the UCS at the point where you want Tekla Structures to create one object.
See Defining the UCS (p. 199). The coordinates for this object are 0,0 on the
UCS. Now you have a visible reference point for the UCS. Place other objects
relative to the first object.
UCS Symbol
Tekla Structures shows the UCS symbol in the current drawing view, when you
create, copy, move, or modify graphical objects.

Editing Drawings
Defining the UCS
You can define a different point of origin for the UCS for each drawing view, and
change the UCS point of origin as often as you like.
Example This example shows several views, each with their own UCS.
You have two options when defining or re-defining a UCS:

• Set the point of origin (0,0) for the UCS.
• Set the point of origin (0,0) for the UCS and the direction of the x
axis.

Editing Drawings
UCS commands You can use the following UCS commands and shortcuts:
Command Shortcut Description

Set UCS origin U See Setting the UCS (p. 200).
Set UCS by two points Shift+U See Setting the UCS (with x axis
direction) (p. 201).
Toggle orientation Ctrl+T Using the Toggle orientation com-
mand you can switch between two
USC’s having the same point of ori-
gin:
• the UCS following the axes of
the drawing view (1)
• the oriented UCS you have
defined (2)
Reset current 1 Resets the UCS to its original posi-

tion in the current view.
Reset all 0 Resets the UCS to its original posi-
tions in all views.
Setting the UCS

You can set the UCS using the mouse, or by specifying a new origin point.
To set the point of origin of the UCS using the menu:
1. Open a drawing.
2. Click Setup > UCS > Set UCS origin. Tekla Structures displays the UCS sym-
bol with a crosshair marking the center point.
3. Position the UCS symbol, and then click to set the point of origin of the UCS
in the current drawing.
Pop-up menu To set the point of origin of the UCS using a pop-up menu:
1. Open a drawing.
2. Right-click and select UCS to access the UCS commands. Tekla Structures
displays the UCS symbol with a crosshair marking the center point.
3. Position the UCS symbol, and then click to set the point of origin of the UCS
in the current drawing.

Editing Drawings
Setting the UCS (with x axis direction)
To set the UCS using two points:
1. Click Setup > UCS > Set UCS origin by two points.
2. Pick the point of origin for the UCS.
3. Pick a point to indicate the x direction of the UCS.
Numeric snap
Use the Enter a numeric location toolbar to snap to exact locations by specifying
their coordinates.
Tekla Structures automatically displays the toolbar when you start typing coordi-
nates from keyboard.
For more information, see Snapping in the Modeling Manual.
Positioning drawing objects

Tekla Structures includes several tools to help you manually position drawing
objects. You may also find it useful to read the following:
• Snap switches in the Modeling Manual
• User-defined coordinate system (UCS) (p. 198)
• Numeric snap (p. 201)
Using coordinates
Specify coordinates in the Enter a numeric location toolbar to place objects
exactly.
To place an object using relative coordinates:
1. Open a drawing.
2. Select the object to position.
3. Activate a command to position the object (e.g. click Edit > Move).
4. Pick a point from the object to specify the start point for moving.

Editing Drawings
5. Click Setup > Enter numeric location > Relative (or click shortcut R). Tekla
Structures displays the Enter a numeric location toolbar with relative coordi-
nate symbol @.
6. Then type in relative coordinates to x and y direction, for example @10, 20.
7. Click OK.
Free place
You can also use the Freeplace command to position drawing objects. Tekla
Structures positions the objects using the drawing type protection properties and
the placing properties of each object type.
To position selected drawing objects so that they do not overlap other objects:
1. Open the properties dialog box for each object type, and then click Place... to
set the placing properties. See also Placing (p. 117) (for marks and welds)
and Place (p. 105) (for dimensions).
2. In the drawing, select the drawing objects you want to position.
3. Click Edit > Freeplace.
Manipulating drawing objects

Many graphical drawing objects (such as line, arc, circle, polyline, polygon, rect-
angle, cloud, text file, hyperlink, DWG/DXF) have handles. You use these han-
dles to drag, reshape, and resize objects.

Editing Drawings
Using handles
Click a drawing object to activate its handles. Drag individual handles to move,
shape, and resize the object. Tekla Structures indicates the drag direction with a
line and pointer.
Example 1 To resize a rectangle, or the frame around text file, hyperlink, or DWG/DXF,
drag the handles as indicated below:
increase height
increase width
increase
width and height
Example 2 To change a line, drag the handles as indicated below:
change line to arc
lengthen (left) lengthen (right)
Example 3 To resize or move a circle, drag the handles as indicated below:
To move the circle,

drag in any
direction
Drag to increase
diameter of circle
Modifying fill types

Use the object properties dialog box to modify fill types for closed drawing
objects.
To scale a fill type:
• Use the One factor option to scale the pattern in relation to the original size.
• Use the Two factors option to use different scales in the x and y direc-
tions.

Editing Drawings
To rotate a fill type, enter the angle of rotation in the Angle field.
To preview the scaled and rotated patterns, hold down the Shift key and click the
Select... button.
Copying and moving drawing objects

The following table lists the commands for copying and moving drawing objects.
Pull-down menu Shortcut Pop-up menu

Edit > Copy C Right-click and select Copy.
Edit > Move M Right-click and select Move.
To copy or move drawing objects:

1. Select the object(s) to copy, or move.
2. Use one of the commands in the table above.
3. Pick a point to copy or move from.
4. Pick a point to copy or move to.
Use the UCS and Numeric snap toolbar to position objects

exactly. See also Positioning drawing objects (p. 201).
Drag and drop You can also use drag-and-drop feature to copy and move objects.
To move objects, select the objects and drag them to the new position.
To copy objects, select the objects, hold down the Ctrl button, and drag the
objects to the new position.

Editing Drawings
6.7 Working with drawing views
This section explains how to change the size and location of the views in draw-
ings, and how to copy and link between drawings.
Placing drawing views

You can fit the drawing views so that they include all the connected objects, and
place all the drawing views using the current properties in the drawing’s layout
To place views in a drawing, do one of the following:
• Right-click in the drawing and select Place views from the pop-up menu.
• Click Edit > Place views.
Placing views may change the drawing size if you have used
automatic scaling of drawing views. See Automatically scaling
drawing views (p. 54).
Aligning drawing views

You can have Tekla Structures align one or more drawing views with the main
view, vertically or horizontally.
Example To align views vertically:
1. Select a drawing view, then right-click to display the pop-up menu.
2. On the pop-up menu, select Align vertically.
3. Pick a point in the selected view.
4. Pick a point in another view.
5. Tekla Structures moves the views so that the picked points line up vertically.

Editing Drawings
Moving drawing views
To move a drawing view:
1. Select the blue border.

2. Drag the border.
Dragging the handle resizes the view.
Rotating drawing views

You can rotate the views in drawings.
1. Select the view to rotate.
2. Click Edit > Rotate view....
3. Enter the angle in degrees.
4. Click Rotate.
Resizing drawing views

Click Edit > Fit view extrema to resize drawing views so that there is no unneces-
sary space in the views. You can resize the selected views, or all views.
You can also drag a drawing view corner or side with a mouse to a new location.
To resize the view:

1. Select the blue border.
2. Select a handle.
3. Drag the handle to a new
location.
Handles become visible

when you select the border.

Editing Drawings
Copying and linking drawing views
You can copy and link drawing views from other drawings. Use the commands
in the table below, and the drawing list to select drawings. For more information
on the drawing list, see Working with drawings (p. 35).
You can copy and link:
• Drawings with or without their layouts.
• Between any types of drawings.
Command Description
Create > Copy drawing views Copies the views from the selected
drawings as such to the open drawing.
Tekla Structures does not copy the draw-
ing layout. You cannot update the
changes in the original views to the cop-
ied views.
Create > Link drawing views Shows the views of the selected draw-
ings in the open drawing. Tekla Struc-
tures does not copy the drawing layout.
Tekla Structures shows the changes of
the original views also in the linked
views.
Create > Copy drawing views with Copies the views and layout from the
layout selected drawings as such to the open
drawing. You cannot update the changes
in the original views to the copied views.
Create > Link drawing views with Shows the views and layout of the
layout selected drawings in the open drawing.
Tekla Structures shows the changes in
the original views also in the linked
views.
Copied drawing views do not update when the original views

change. Linked drawing views update.

Editing Drawings
Editing Drawings
7 Printing
Introduction This chapter explains how to generate and print reports and drawings in Tekla
Structures.
We do not cover setting up printers in the Windows environment. It is assumed
that print devices have already been set up and tested in the Windows environ-
ment by an experienced administrator. Refer to your operating system manuals
and help files for further information on setting up printers.
Audience This chapter has been written for Tekla Structures users who are responsible for
setting up and maintaining printing services for themselves and other users.
Assumed You will find it useful to have some experience setting up and managing Win-
background dows printers.
Organization This chapter is divided into the following sections:
• Printing reports (p. 209)
• Printing drawings (p. 214)
• Printing drawings to file (p. 219)
• Creating a PDF file (p. 223)
• The plotter catalog (p. 224)
7.1 Printing reports

Introduction You can output the information contained in models in the form of reports. These
could be lists of drawings, bolts, parts, etc. Reports can contain information from
selected parts or the entire model.

Printing
Tekla Structures includes a large number of standard report templates. Use the
Template Editor to modify existing report templates, or create new ones. See
Report templates in the online help.
Reports can be output both to printers and to file.
You create reports using the Report icon on the Standard toolbar.
Producing reports on entire model

To produce reports on the entire model:
1. Open the model.
2. Click the Report icon on the Standard toolbar to display the Report dialog
box. This is divided into two tabs, Report and Options.
3. Click on a report template on the list.
4. Type in the report title(s). Up to three user-defined titles can be entered here.
All the titles are not used in every standard report. Title1, for example, is
used to show phase information in the material_list report. Check the report
you want to use in the Template Editor to see which title(s) it uses.
5. Enter a name for the report file.
6. Use the Browse... button to select the directory where the report will be cre-
ated. By default the report is created in the current model directory. Reports
have the file extension .xsr.
7. Set the report options on the Options tab. See Report options (p. 213).
8. Click Create from all to run a report on the entire model.
Producing reports on selected parts

To produce reports on selected parts:
1. Open the model.
2. Click the parts in the model you wish to include in the report.

Printing
box. This is divided into two tabs, Report and Options.
4. Click on a report template on the list.

5. Enter the report title(s). You can enter up to three user-defined titles. Every
title is not used in every standard report. Title1, for example, is used to show
phase information in the material_list report. Check the report you want to
use in the Template Editor to see which title(s) it uses.
For a list of fields that can be used in reports, see the Appendix
F, Template fields, in the online help.

Printing
7. Use the Browse... button to locate the destination folder where the report will
be created. If you do not indicate a destination folder, the report is created in
the current model directory. Reports have the file extension .xsr.
8. Set the report options on the Options tab. For more information, see Report
options (p. 213).
9. Click Create from selected to run a report on the selected parts.
10. Click Show to show the report, or Print... to print the report.
Producing reports on selected drawings

To produce reports on the selected drawings:
1. Open the model.
2. Click the parts in the model whose drawings you wish to include in the
report. You can also use select filter to select the parts of a certain phase, for
example.
3. Click the Open drawing list icon to open the Drawings dialog box.
4. Click Filter by parts.
5. Select all the drawings from the list.
box.
7. Click on a report template on the list, e.g. drawing_list or drawing_issue_rev.
8. Enter the report title(s). You can enter up to three user-defined titles. Every
title is not used in every standard report. Title1, for example, is used to show
phase information in the material_list report. Check the report you want to
use in the Template Editor to see which title(s) it uses.
For a list of fields that can be used in reports, see the Appendix
F, Template fields, in the online help.

10. Use the Browse... button to locate the destination folder where the report will
be created. If you do not indicate a destination folder, the report is created in
the current model directory. Reports have the file extension .xsr.
11. Set the report options on the Options tab. For more information, see Report
options (p. 213).
12. Click Create from selected to run a report on the selected parts.

Printing
13. Click Show to show the report, or Print... to print the report.
Report options
Use the settings in the Options tab to specify how Tekla Structures creates and
displays reports.
Show report on To show the report on screen when you click Create from all, or Create from
screen only selected, click Yes in the Show created report list box.
Write report to To write the report to file, click No in the Show created report list box. Once
file Tekla Structures creates the report, you can display it by clicking Show on the
Report tab.
Display report in The Show report option controls whether Tekla Structures displays the report in a
viewer window, or using the associated file viewer, when you click Show.
Print Options
Click Print to display the Print dialog box, where you can enter a file name and
location for the report.
Click Browse... to display the Select file dialog box, where you can indicate the
destination folder and filename. By default Tekla Structures uses the filter *.xsr
to show Tekla Structures reports only.
Click Select... to choose the report font.
Click Printer setup... to use the Windows Printer dialog box to set printer-specific
options such as paper size, orientation, etc.
Click Print to print the report.

Printing
Viewing reports
To view a report you have already created:
1. Click the Report icon.
2. Click Browse... in the Report dialog box to locate the report file you want to
view.
3. Click Show to view the report in the List dialog box.
4. Click OK to exit the List dialog box.
Use the Template Editor to view the design of a report.
7.2 Printing drawings

Introduction Tekla Structures prints drawings to both selected print devices and to file, from
either the Drawing Editor or the drawing list in the Model Editor. You can also
use the print drawing option to output 2D DXF and DWG files. For more on add-
ing print devices to the plotter catalog, read Setting up a print device (p. 225).
You print drawings using the Plot icon on the Standard toolbar.
Drawing frames and foldmarks

To create drawing frames around drawing contents, you have the following
options:
• Use the default drawing frames in Tekla Structures, which you can
define when you print drawings.
• Use DWG/DXF files in the table layouts as drawing frames.
Tekla Structures drawing frames

You can have a frame around drawing contents, or two drawing frames inside
each other. You can create foldmarks, as guides for folding printed drawings.
They are small lines between and perpendicular to the drawing frames.

Printing
Frames
Fold-
mark
You can set colors for drawing frames and foldmarks. If you print monocolor
drawings, the colors define the line weight. See Color (p. 228).
To set drawing frames and foldmarks:
1. In the Model Editor, click File > Plot..., or , to open the Plot dialog box.
2. Click Frames.... The Drawing frame properties dialog appears.
3. Select the checkbox(es) of the frame(s) you want to print.
4. Enter the distances between each frame and the left, right, bottom, and top
edge of the paper (in millimeters).
5. Select a color for each frame.
6. To print the foldmarks, select the Foldmarks checkbox.
7. Enter the horizontal and vertical distances of the first foldmarks from the
lower right corner of the outer frame, and between the other foldmarks (in
millimeters).
8. Select a foldmark color.
See also Printing to DXF/DWG (p. 218).
DWG/DXF file as a frame

You can also use a DWG/DXF file as a drawing frame. You have to include a
DWG/DXF file in the drawing layout in the Model Editor.
1. Click Properties > Layout....
2. Select the layout and click the Table layout... button.
3. Select tha table layout and click the Tables... button.

Printing
4. Select the DWG/DXF option from the Available tables list.
5. Select the file and click OK.
6. Select Transparent.
7. Set the Scale.
Printing single drawings

To print single drawings from the Drawing Editor:
1. Click Drawings > List to display the Drawings dialog box.
2. Click on a drawing and then click Open.
3. Click the Plot icon to display the Plot dialog box:
4. In the Plot dialog box, indicate the print device you want to use. For more
information, see Plot options (p. 218).
Printing multiple drawings

To print multiple drawings, use the drawing list in the Model Editor.

Printing
1. Click Drawing > List to open the Drawings dialog box, which lists all the cur-
rent drawings.
2. Using standard Windows selection methods, select each drawing you want
to print.
3. Click the Plot icon to display the Plot dialog box.
4. In the Plot dialog box, indicate the print device(s) you want to use. If you
select several print devices, Tekla Structures sends each drawing to the
device with the smallest paper size on which the drawing will fit. For
instance, if you have 2 printers selected, one A4 and one A3, Tekla Struc-
tures will send A4 drawings to the A4 print device and A3 to the A3 print
device. For more information, see Plot options (p. 218).

Printing
Plot options
The Plot dialog box contains several options, which are explained below:
Option Comments
Plot to file Printing to file (specific folder) (p. 221)
Include revision mark to Add the latest revision of the plotted drawing
filename in the filename.
Uses revision number by default. However, if
you set the environment variable
XS_SHOW_REVISION_MARK_ON_DRAWING_L
IST to TRUE, then uses the revision mark.
Scaling: Auto Tekla Structures fits the drawing to the paper
size. This is useful when printing preview
drawings on A4.
Scaling: Scale Scales the drawing manually. 1.0 = 100%, 0.9
= 90%, etc.
Orientation: Auto Orientates the drawing to suit the paper.
Orientation: Landscape Prints the drawing horizontally - as it is dis-
played on the screen).
Orientation: Portrait Prints the drawing vertically.
Plot area: Extents Prints the entire drawing.
Plot area: Visible area Prints the area visible in the current drawing
window.
Frames Read Drawing frames and foldmarks
(p. 214).
To force a drawing on to a different size paper:

Open the drawing, click Layout in the drawing properties dialog
box. Turn Autosize off. Input the required sheet size into Draw-
ing size.
Printing to DXF/DWG
Tekla Structures makes it easy to create DXF and DWG files.
1. In the Model Editor, click Drawing > List to open the Drawings dialog box
which lists all the current drawings.
2. Click each drawing you want to print to a DXF or DWG file.

Printing
4. Select the Plot to file checkbox.
5. Use the Browse button to locate the destination folder and filename. If you
do not enter a filename, or you have chosen several drawings, Tekla Struc-
tures uses the drawing name(s) as filenames. If you do not enter a folder,
Tekla Structures creates the file(s) in
• the current model folder
or
• the folder defined by the environment variable
XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_DIRECTORY, if it is set.
6. Click Frames to open the Drawing frame properties dialog box where you can
define position, visibility and color for 2 drawing frames.
7. Select the frames you want to print, Frame 1 and/or Frame 2.
8. Type in the frame offsets (the margins you want to allow from the edge of
the paper to the frame) for Left, Right, Bottom, and Top.
9. Click the down arrow to select a color for each frame.
10. Select the Foldmarks checkbox if you want to print foldmarks on the draw-
ing. These marks help when folding the printed drawing. Foldmark Horizon-
tal and Vertical distances are measured from the lower right corner of the
outer frame.
You can also print a drawing to DXF using the Drawing Editor.
Open the relevant drawing and follow the above steps, starting
at step 3.
See also Drawing frames and foldmarks (p. 214)

Switches for naming plotfiles (p. 222)
Exporting drawings in the System Manual
7.3 Printing drawings to file

You must install the appropriate Windows printer driver and configure it to print
to file before adding the print device to the Tekla Structures plotter catalog. For
more information on installing and configuring Windows printer drivers refer to
your operating system documentation.

Printing
Adding a print-to-file device to the plotter catalog
Firstly, you will need to add a print to file device to your plotter catalog. You will
also find it useful to read Setting up a print device (p. 225).
1. Click File > Catalog > Plotters > Modify... to open the Device catalog dialog
box.
Click Browse to
locate a Windows
printer driver
Print device
name (alias)
2. Click Add.
3. Type in a printer alias (name) for the print device as indicated above, fol-
lowed immediately (no spaces) by @path\folder\ . The folder must already
exist. For example, 11X17@d:\small\ .
4. Click Browse... to access the Select printer dialog box, which shows a list of
the Windows printer drivers currently configured on your PC. Click a printer
driver that is configured to print to file and then OK.
5. Choose By plot area as the Paper size.
6. Input the Plot area h*b. Read Plot area h*b (p. 227).
7. Input a file extension, e.g. plt for a plot file.
8. Use the Color list box to indicate a color or mono print device. Read Color
(p. 228).
9. Click Color table... to map pen size to the on-screen line color. Read Color
table (p. 228).
10. Click Add.
11. Click Update and then OK to exit the Device catalog dialog box.
12. Check Save changes to model folder in the Save confirmation dialog box.

Printing
One way to send different drawing sizes to different folders is to
set up a Windows printer to print to file for each paper size you
will use. Enter a different destination folder for each paper size
in the Printer alias in Tekla Structures.
Printing to file
To print to file, simply follow the instructions in Printing multiple drawings
(p. 216) and choose a printer alias that is set up to print to file. The results will
appear in the folder you designated when defining the printer alias.
Filenames
The file will have the name shown on the drawing list, with the extension you
specified when setting up the print to file device. For customizing the filename,
see Switches for naming plotfiles (p. 222).
Printing to file (specific folder)

You can also send plot files to a different folder to the one you specified when
setting up the print device in the plotter catalog.
1. Click Drawing > List to open the Drawings dialog box which lists all the cur-
rent drawings.
2. Using standard Windows selection methods, select each drawing you want
to print.
4. Click on one of the printer aliases for print devices that are set up to print to
file.
5. Select the Plot to file checkbox.
6. Click Browse... to locate the destination folder in the Browse dialog box.
Double-click a folder, then click OK to exit the Browse dialog box.
If you do not enter a filename, or you have chosen several drawings, Tekla
Structures uses the drawing name(s) as filenames.
If you do not enter a folder, Tekla Structures creates the file(s) in the current
model folder or folder defined by the environment variable
XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_DIRECTORY.
7. Read Switches for naming plotfiles (p. 222) for more on customizing file-
names.

Printing
Switches for naming plotfiles
If you do not enter a filename in the Plot dialog box, or you have chosen several
drawings, Tekla Structures uses the drawing name(s) as filenames.
To customize these filenames, you need to use an environment variable to indi-
cate the drawing type, combined with switches to define the format of the plot
file name.
To indicate the drawing type, use the following environment variables:
Drawing type Environment variable

All XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME
Assembly XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_A
Cast-unit XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_C
General arrangement XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_G
Multi XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_M
Single-part XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_W
Use the following switches to define the format of plot file names:
Switch Result Description

%%NAME%% P_1 Basic drawing name, using the
filename format prefix_number.
%%NAME.-%% P-1 Basic drawing name, using the
filename format prefix-number.
%%NAME.%% P1 Basic drawing name, using the
format prefixnumber.
%%REV%% 2 Drawing revision number, if
Include revision mark to filename is
checked in the Plot dialog box.
%%TITLE%% PLATE Drawing title from the drawing
%%UDA:DRAWING_USERF Painted Value of a user-defined attribute.
IELD_1%%
%%REV? - Rev%% - Rev Adds conditional prefixes. In this
example, if REV exists, Tekla
Structures adds the text between ?
and % to the filename.

Printing
The Result column above shows the filename for an example drawing with these
properties:
Property Value
Name P1
Revision number 2
Title PLATE
User-defined field 1 Painted
You can also string several switches together to create filename. The example
below results in the filename W_P1_PLATE_Revision=2.dxf:
XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_A=E_%%NAME.%%_%%TITLE%%%%REV?_Revisi
on=%%%%REV%%.dxf
You can also type these switches in the file name field in the Plot dialog box.
Remember to enclose the switches in single % characters.
Tekla Structures does not distinguish between upper and lower

case letters. For example, a drawing named A.1 overwrites a
drawing named a.1.
7.4 Creating a PDF file

To create PDF files using Tekla Structures, you must have Adobe Acrobat and
Adobe Distiller installed and configured with the Adobe Postscript Printer
Driver set up to print to file. Consult your Adobe documentation for more infor-
mation.
You also need to add the Adobe postscript printer driver to the Tekla Structures
plotter catalog.
Add Adobe Printer driver to the plotter catalog

Follow these steps to add the Adobe postscript printer driver to the plotter cata-
log. You may also find it useful to read The plotter catalog (p. 224).

Printing
box.
2. Type in a new printer alias (name) followed immediately by @ and the
folder where Adobe Distiller looks for files. For example,
A4_PDF@c:\plots\pdf\in\ .
3. Click Add.
4. Click Browse... to access the Select printer dialog box. Click the Adobe post-
script printer driver and then OK.
5. Set Paper size to By plot area.
6. Input the plot area. Read Plot area h*b (p. 227).
7. Input the file extension as ps.
8. For color, select Black/white.
9. Click Color table to map pen size to the on-screen line color. Read Color
table (p. 228).
Creating PDF files

To create PDF files from drawings, simply follow the instructions in Printing
multiple drawings (p. 216) and choose the printer alias that is set up to print to
the Adobe postscript printer driver. The results will appear in the folder you des-
ignated when defining the printer alias.
Filenames
The file will have the name shown on the drawing list, with the extension ps.
7.5 The plotter catalog

Print device settings are stored in the plotter catalog, which uses the file ..\envi-
ronments\*your_environment*\system\plotdev.bin. You can view, add, modify
and delete print devices. Standard drawing frame properties are stored in the file
standard.fms.

Printing
As a safeguard, backup the plotdev.bin and standard.fms files
once you have configured your plotters. You will then be able to
quickly restore your plotter catalog in the event of a system fail-
ure.
Setting up a print device

Tekla Structures uses Windows drivers to write the print data directly to the Win-
dows print device interface.
There are two stages to setting up a print device in Tekla Structures. Firstly you
need to add printer aliases to the plotter catalog. By default several printer
aliases are already defined. Secondly, you need point these printer aliases to a
specific Windows printer, either attached directly to your system, or available via
a network. You will define the majority of print settings when you set up the
print device.
Adding a print device

box.
Click Browse to
locate a Win-
dows printer
driver.
Type Printer
alias (name)
here.
2. Click an existing printer alias that has similar settings to the one you want to
create. We will use this as a template.
3. Type in a new printer alias (name) for the print device.
4. Click Add.

Printing
5. Click Browse... to access the Select printer dialog box, which shows a list of
the Windows printer drivers currently configured on your PC. Click a print
device and then OK.
6. Choose a paper size. Read Selecting paper size (p. 226).
7. Input the plot area. Read Plot area h*b (p. 227).
8. Use the Color list box to indicate a color or mono print device. Read Color
(p. 228).
9. Click Color table to map pen size to the on screen line color. Read Color
table (p. 228).
Selecting paper size

You can select paper size in several different ways:
• Tekla Structures lists named paper size for most sizes A3 and smaller.
This method is recommended for print devices A3 and smaller.
If you cannot find the paper size you need in named paper sizes
in Tekla Structures, use the By plot area option.
• By plot area: The print device selects the paper size based on the plot
area. This method is recommended for print devices A2 and larger. If
you use a named paper size with a print device larger than A3, draw-
ings larger than the plot area are cropped to the size of the plot area.
• None: No size information is sent to the print device. This option pro-
vides legacy support for Xsteel 5.0 and is not recommended for use
in other circumstances.
To print to different paper sizes, use Windows Print Manager to define sev-
eral printers, each using a different paper size, but all connected to the same
physical device. For more information on setting up print devices in Win-
dows, consult your operating system documentation.
Tekla Structures overrides the paper size defined in Windows

printer setup if the information is entered in the plotter catalog.

Printing
Plot area h*b
This defines the size of the plot area (height and breadth), not the paper size.
Tekla Structures uses this information when printing to multiple print devices, or
when you choose the By plot area option in the Paper size list box.
When setting the plot area, as a minimum you should use the
paper size less the hard clip margins of the printer. Consult your
printer documentation for the hard clip margins of your printer.
When printing to multiple print devices, Tekla Structures prints the drawing to
the print device with the smallest plot area on which the drawing will fit. The
plot area also affects autoscaling and autorotate.
Tekla Structures uses the plot area values to position the plot on the paper. When
defining the plot area, ensure that the values for h and b relate to the paper size
required.
Value Plotter (roll feed) Printer (tray feed)

h roll width direction tray feed direction
b roll feed direction tray width direction

Printing
Color
Use this option to indicate whether the print device will print in color or black/
white (mono). If you choose color, Tekla Structures plots lines with the colors
defined in the drawing properties.
Color table
Click Color table to create a pen map for the print device. The color table maps
different screen colors to different line weights. Note that the color you use for
the drawing background is not printed in drawings.

Printing
Pen number
The pen numbers refer to the line weights used in the printed drawing. By
default, pen 0 has a line weight of 0.1 mm. To obtain higher pen numbers, multi-
ply the default pen thickness by the pen number. Set the default pen thickness
using the environment variable XS_BASE_LINE_WIDTH.
If you create black and white drawings, the pen numbers in the
Color table also affect the line thicknesses displayed on the
screen. See also Colors in drawings (p. 21).
Modifying a print device

To modify an existing print device in Tekla Structures:
box.
2. Modify the print device. Read Setting up a print device (p. 225) for more
information.
Deleting a print device

To delete an existing print device in Tekla Structures:
1. Click File > Catalog > Plotters > Modify to open the Device catalog dialog
box.
2. Click on the Printer alias.
3. Click Delete.
4. Click OK to exit the Device catalog dialog box.
Check Save changes to model folder in the Save confirmation dialog box.

Printing
Printing
Index
...............................................182
A bulge
absolute dimensions ............................. 64

adding views to drawings ....................... 34 C
additional drawing objects .................... 180
additional marks ................................. 187 c/c .....................................................77
Adobe Printer driver ............................ 223 calculated drawing sizes .........................59
aligning cast-unit drawings .................................17
drawing views .............................. 205 creating ........................................32
alternative drawing view scales ................ 54 centered bolt........................................85
American projection .............................. 55 centered part .......................................85
angle check dimensions .................................88
bevel ........................................... 74 cloning drawings ...................................38
dimension type ............................. 103 checking dimensions and views .........38
of skewed parts .............................. 84 including single-part views ................38
unfolding ...................................... 75 close dimensions ..................................99
arrow ............................................... 182 close short dimensions .........................100
assembly drawings ............................... 17 closing
creating ........................................ 31 drawings .......................................41
autoscaling drawing views ...................... 61 color
autosizing drawings ........................ 58, 61 of drawing objects .........................184
printing .......................................228
color table .........................................228
combining dimensions ...........................91
B bolt groups ....................................97
background color .................................. 21 combine distance ............................95
base point min distance ............................96
of UCS ....................................... 198 common properties
bending line dimension .......................... 75 of drawing objects .........................181
bevel controlling dimensions ...........................90
angle ........................................... 74 coordinate system
dimension ..................................... 74 in drawings ..................................125
black and white drawings ....................... 21 copying
bolt dimensions .................................... 76 drawing objects ............................204
bolt internal dimensions ......................... 76 drawing views ..............................207
bolt size element ................................ 166
bolts
bolt size limit................................ 160
in drawings.................................. 145

Index
creating drawing objects
additional drawing objects ...............180 additional ....................................180
assembly drawings..........................31 common properties ........................181
cast-unit drawings ...........................32 copying .......................................204
drawings .......................................28 handles.......................................202
drawings with wizard .......................30 manipulating ................................202
general arrangement drawings ...........33 moving .......................................204
multi-drawings................................34 placing........................................186
single-part drawings ........................31 positioning ...................................201
workshop drawings .........................31 working with .................................197
cut parts, expanding ............................132 drawing properties
overview .....................................113
drawing size ........................................57
D defining calculated sizes ...................59
defining fixed sizes ..........................59
defining definition mode ...............................57
calculated drawing sizes ...................59 preferred .................................55, 61
fixed drawing sizes ..........................59 specifying ......................................57
device catalog ....................................220 drawing status flags ...............................27
dim_planes_table.txt .............................67 drawing views
dimension properties ...........................101 adding ..........................................34
dimensioning aligning .......................................205
automatic ......................................65 as key plan ....................................51
bolts ............................................76 autoscaling ....................................54
combine .......................................91 coordinate system .........................125
manual .........................................66 copying .......................................207
parts ............................................69 creating ......................................120
position ........................................78 exact scale ..................................120
pre-defined settings .........................65 extrema ......................................124
dimensions individual views ............................123
angle .........................................103 linking.........................................207
appearance .................................109 moving .......................................206
curved radial ................................103 neighbor part extension ..................122
format ........................................103 neighbor part visibility.....................121
overall ..........................................70 part orientation .............................125
placing .......................................105 part rotation .................................128
position from ..................................81 placing........................................205
position to .....................................79 properties ....................................119
radius.........................................103 resizing .......................................206
types....................................64, 102 rotating .......................................206
drawing classifier ................................172 working with .................................205
Drawing Editor
basic toolbars ................................10
screen layout ...................................8
select switches ...............................13
drawing frames ..........................214, 218
drawing layout .....................................43
introduction ...................................43
table layouts ..................................45
drawing list ..........................................24
buttons .........................................25
Index
drawings extreme bolts .......................................89
assembly drawing ........................... 17
bolts .......................................... 145
cast-unit drawing ............................ 17 F
cloning ......................................... 38
closing ......................................... 41 fill types ............................................185
common properties ....................... 114 scaling and rotating .......................203
creating ........................................ 28 first angle projection ..............................55
editing ........................................ 179 fixed drawing sizes ................................59
freezing ........................................ 35 flags ..................................................27
general arrangement drawing ............ 19 foldmarks ..........................................214
introduction ..................................... 5 font
issuing ......................................... 39 in drawings ..................................184
list ............................................... 24 forward offset .......................................97
locking ......................................... 35 frames
modifying ................................ 20, 37 around drawing objects ..................186
multi-drawing ................................. 19 in marks ......................................159
opening ........................................ 24 frames in drawings ..............................214
part representation ........................ 138 freezing
printing ............................... 214, 216 drawings .......................................35
protection ................................... 116
reinforcement .............................. 149
revising ........................................ 39 G
saving .......................................... 41
scale............................................ 53 GA, see general arrangement drawings .....19
shortening parts ........................... 131 gage ..................................................77
single-part drawing.......................... 16 general arrangement drawings .................19
size ............................................. 57 creating ........................................33
status flags.................................... 27 GOL ..................................................77
types ........................................... 16 grids
updating ....................................... 36 in drawings ..................................171
user-defined attributes ................... 115
welds ......................................... 147
working with .................................. 35 H
DWG/DXF files
handles
as key plan.................................... 52
of drawing objects .........................202
in drawings.................................. 195
hatch types
printing to file ............................... 218
modifying ....................................203
properties ................................... 196
hatch, see fill types ..............................185
hole marks ........................................165
hyperlinks
E in drawings ..................................190
editing
dimensions.................................... 66
drawings ..................................... 179 I
elevation dimension .............................. 86
include single parts .............................124
erection drawings, see general arrangement draw-
issuing drawings ...................................39
ings ....................... 19
European projection .............................. 55
expanding cut parts ............................. 132
Index
K marks
additional ....................................187
key plan .............................................51 advanced bolt marks ......................165
inserting to drawing layout ................53 appearance .................................159
of drawing view ..............................51 bolt mark .....................................156
of DWG/DXF file .............................52 bolt size element ...........................166
knock off .....................................90, 111 component mark ...........................159
connection mark ...........................157
content .......................................155
L leader line ...........................161, 162
location .......................................161
layout.................................................43 merged content ............................169
introduction ...................................43 merging ......................................166
projection type ...............................55 on dimension line ....................70, 163
leader line overview .....................................152
in drawing objects .........................183 part mark ....................................156
in marks .....................................161 placing........................................117
in part marks................................162 properties ....................................154
in reinforcement marks ...................162 reinforcement mark .......................157
leading edge ........................................87 splitting .......................................170
level marks........................................187 visibility .......................................159
line merge direction ..................................169
properties ...................................182 merging
types..........................................182 part marks ...................................167
linking reinforcement marks ..............168, 170
drawing views ..............................207 weld symbols ...............................148
location modifying
of drawing views .............................55 drawings .................................20, 37
of section views ..............................56 table layouts ..................................50
of tables in table layout ....................49 moving
locking drawing objects ............................204
drawings .......................................35 drawing views ..............................206
log files multi-drawings ......................................19
wizard ..........................................31 creating ........................................34
M N
main part bolt internal dimension ..............76 names
main part bolt position ............................82 of drawings ....................................25
main part skew position ..........................83 neighbor parts in drawing views..............121
manipulating numeric snap .....................................201
drawing objects ............................202
margins ..............................................46
O
opening
drawings .......................................24
orientation .........................................125
orientation marks ................................141
settings .......................................144

Index
overall dimensions ................................ 70
R
radius
P dimension .....................................74
of arcs and circles .........................186
paper size ......................................... 226 recognizable distance ............................99
part mark leader line ........................... 162 reference dimensions, see check dimensions88
part mark to dimension line ..................... 70 reinforcement
parts in drawings ..................................149
representation in drawings .............. 138 reinforcement mark leader line ...............162
PDF ................................................ 223 reinforcement mark on dimension line......163
pen numbers ..................................... 229 relative dimensions ...............................64
placing reports
dimensions.................................. 105 on entire model ............................210
drawing objects ............................ 186 on selected drawings .....................212
drawing views .............................. 205 on selected parts ..........................210
marks ........................................ 117 options .......................................213
welds ......................................... 118 printing .......................................209
plot area ........................................... 227 viewing .......................................214
plotdev.bin ........................................ 224 resizing
plotter catalog .................................... 224 drawing objects ............................202
adding a file printer ....................... 220 drawing views ..............................206
plotting ............................................. 218 revising drawings ..................................39
position dimensions .............................. 78 revision ..............................................39
position to ........................................... 79 revision marks
positioning drawing objects ................... 201 additional ....................................187
preferred dim side............................... 107 rotating
preferred direction of merge .................. 169 drawing views ..............................206
preferred scale ..................................... 54 fill types in drawings ......................203
preferred size ................................ 55, 61
print devices
adding........................................ 225
deleting ...................................... 229
S
modifying .................................... 229 saving
setting up .................................... 225 drawings .......................................41
printing scale
color .......................................... 228 alternative .....................................54
device catalog .............................. 220 change mode .................................54
drawings ..................................... 214 of drawing views .............................54
DWG ......................................... 218 of tables ........................................50
DXF........................................... 218 preferred .......................................54
overview ..................................... 209 scaling
plot options ................................. 218 fill types in drawings ......................203
reports ....................................... 209 links in drawings ...........................195
single drawings ............................ 216 text files in drawings ......................195
to file ......................................... 219 screen layout
projection type ..................................... 55 in Drawing Editor ..............................8
protection in drawings .......................... 116 secondary part bolt internal dimension .......76
pull-outs ........................................... 164 secondary part dimensions .....................80

Index
section views toolbars ................................................9
adding to drawings ........................132 in Drawing Editor ............................10
direction .....................................135 trailing edge .........................................87
label ..........................................136 transparency
properties ...................................133 of tables ........................................50
symbol .......................................136
select switches
in Drawing Editor ............................13 U
selecting
tables to table layout........................49 UCS.................................................198
selecting objects unfolding ...........................................129
in drawings ....................................12 unfolding dimensions .............................75
select switches, in Drawing Editor .......13 updating
shape dimensions .................................73 drawings when the model changes......36
short dimensions ................................105 USabsolute dimensions ..........................64
shortening parts .................................131 user interface
single-part drawings ..............................16 in Drawing Editor ..............................8
creating ........................................31 user-defined bolt symbols .....................146
skew secondary part dimensions ..............81 user-defined coordinate system ..............198
skew secondary position ........................84 user-defined drawing attributes ..............115
spaces ...............................................46
specifying
drawing size ..................................57 V
splitting marks ....................................170
standard.fms .....................................224 viewing
symbols reports ........................................214
along line ....................................189 views
in drawings ..................................188 aligning drawing views ...................205
properties ...................................189 copying drawing views ...................207
styles .........................................189 creating drawing views ...................120
with leader line .............................189 in drawings ..................................119
linking drawing views .....................207
moving drawing views ....................206
placing drawing views ....................205
T resizing drawing views ...................206
table layouts ........................................45 rotating drawing views ....................206
defining ........................................47 section views ...............................132
modifying ......................................50
table scale ..........................................50
table transparency ................................50 W
tables .................................................45
Template Editor ....................................48 weld symbols .....................................187
templates, see tables .............................45 merging ......................................148
text welds
in drawings ..................................190 in drawings ..................................147
text files wizard
in drawings ..................................190 log file ..........................................31
third angle projection .............................55 using drawing wizards ......................30
title block ............................................45 work point .....................................79, 88
toggle orientation ................................200

Index
workshop drawings
see assembly drawings .................... 17
see single-part drawings................... 16

Index

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Tekla Structures

Product version 10.0

Copyright © 2004 Tekla Corporation

1 Introduction to Drawings .......................................................................... 5

2 Getting Started with Drawings ............................................................... 23

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL iii

5 Drawing Properties ................................................................................. 113

iv TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

7 Printing ..................................................................................................... 209

Index ........................................................................................................ 231

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL v

Additional help resources

Area office Email address

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 1

Conventions used in this guide

A tip might introduce a shortcut, or suggest alternative ways of

2 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

You should always read very important notes and warnings,

This symbol indicates advanced or highly technical informa-

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 3

Chapter 1: Introduction to Drawings

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Drawings

Chapter 3: Drawing Layout

Chapter 5: Drawing Properties

Chapter 6: Editing Drawings

4 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 5

Drawings integrated into the model

6 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

Feature Description See also

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 7

1.2 Screen layout

Snap settings con-

8 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 9

The commands on the Standard toolbar are:

The commands on the Edit toolbar are:

The commands on the View toolbar are:

10 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

The commands on the Dimension toolbar are:

The commands on the Text toolbar are:

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 11

The commands on the Drawing toolbar are:

For information on modifying the toolbars, see Customizing

1.4 Selecting drawing objects

12 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

Icon Object Description

Lines etc. You can select additional drawing objects,

Marks You can select part, bolt, and connection

Drawing parts You can select parts in drawings, i.e. col-

Section symbols You can select section symbols.

Welds You can select welds.

Views You can select drawing views.

Dimensions You can select an entire group of dimensions

Single dimensions You can select single dimensions.

1.5 Using commands

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 13

14 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL

Using commands simultaneously

TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL 15

1.6 Drawing types

See also Creating single-part or assembly drawings (p. 31).

16 TEKLA STRUCTURES - DRAWING MANUAL