2.7 Quick Component Reference

License

License

Returns the program version, license information and can be used to manage the license file.

Params

Karamba3D introduces seven new classes for defining structural models and corresponding containers:

Cross-section

Container for cross section objects

Element

Container for finite elements

Element Set

Container for ordered groups of elements

Joint

Container for connectivity conditions between elements

Load

Container for load objects

Material

Container for materials

Model

Container for models

Support

Container for supports

Model

This subcategory contains components for assembling a model, converting geometry into finite elements and defining support conditions.

Assemble Model

Creates a finite element model by collecting given entities (points, beams, shells, supports, loads, cross sections, materials, . . . ).

Disassemble Model

Decomposes a model into its components.

Modify Model

Changes the model's nodal positions.

Activate Element

Activates the elements of a model according to the activation list. Uses the soft kill approach for inactive elements.

Create Linear Element

Multi-component for creates beams and truss elements with default properties from given lines, node indices or connectivity diagrams.

  • Line To Beam

Creates elements from given lines.

  • Line To Truss

Creates a truss element from a given line which carries axial loads only.

  • Index To Beam

Creates beam elements base on the indexes of their end-points.

  • Connectivity to Beam

Uses a connectivity diagram to create beam elements.

Mesh to Shell

Creates shells with default properties from given meshes. Quad faces are split to triangles.

Modify Element

Multi-component for modifying elements. Works either directly on an element or indirectly as an autonomous agent:

  • Modify Beam (default)

Modifies beams only

  • Modify Shell

Modifies shells only

Disassemble Element

Decomposes elements into their components.

Orientate Elem

Decomposes elements into their components:

  • Beam (default)

Sets the local Z-axis of beams according to a given vector and adds a rotation angle DAlpha about the longitudinal axis. Flips beam direction according to a given x-vector.

  • Shell

Sets the local X- and Z-orientation using global coordinates.

Connected Parts

Returns groups of interconnected lines of the model.

Make Beam-Set

Puts beams designated by their beam identifier into a group.

Dispatch Elements

Selects elements according to a given identifier and puts all incoming elements in two groups: selected or rejected. The identifier may be the element index, name or a regular expression.

Select Elements

Selects elements of a model based on their identifier, colour, cross section, material, length or element type.

Point-Mass

Attaches a point mass to a node of given index or position. Does not result in additional weight, only translational inertia.

Support

Creates supports at nodes of given node-indexes or node-coordinates. Lets you select translations/rotations which should be zero and the support orientation with respect to the global or a local coordinate system.

Load

The components in this subcategory let one define and manipulate external actions which impact a structure.

Loads

Multi-component for defining loads:

  • Gravity (default)

Creates gravity from a specified direction vector for given load-cases.

  • Point-Load

Creates point loads at points of given index or position.

  • Initial Strain-Load

Sets initial axial strains on beams.

  • Temperature-Load

Imposes a temperature difference on an element with respect to its initial temperature at construction.

  • MeshLoad Const

Creates approximately equivalent point- and line-loads from a constant surface load on a mesh. The constant surface load is defined by one vector.

  • MeshLoad Var

Creates approximately equivalent point- and line-loads from a variable surface load on a mesh. The variable surface load is defined by one vector for each mesh face. The longest list principle applies when the mesh-faces outnumber the load-vectors.

Beam Load

Multi-component for specifying loads which act on beams and trusses

  • Concentrate Point Load

Places a concentrated force- or moment-load on a point along the element axis.

  • Block Load

Uniformly distributed force- or moment-load within an arbitrarily placed interval along the element axis.

  • Gap Load

Imposes a displacement or rotation discontinuity at a given position along the element.

  • Imperfection-Load

Defines imperfections for beams under normal forces.

  • Polylinear Load

Places a poly linear distributed load on an element.

  • Trapezoidal Load

Sets a trapezoidal distributed load on a given interval of the element axis.

Disassemble Mesh Load

Splits a mesh-load into corresponding line- and point-loads

Prescribed Displacement

Prescribes displacements at nodes of given node-indexes or node-coordinates. Select translations or rotations which should be prescribed. For load-cases with no displacements prescribed this will create a support.

Disassemble Load-Case-Combination

Outputs the formula texts, names and factors of the load-cases a load-case-combination contains.

Load-Case-Combination Settings

Specifies the calculation parameters (e.g. Th.I or Th.II) to be used for analyzing a load-case-combination.

Load-Case-Combinator

Creates load-case-combinations based on existing load-cases and provided combination rules (e.g. "ULS=1.35*G+1.50*Q")

Cross Section

Cross Sections

Multi-component for creating cross sections:

  • Box-Profile (default)

Creates rectangular, trapezoid and triangular hollow cross sections.

  • Circular Hollow Profile

Creates circular hollow cross sections.

  • I-Profile

Creates I-shaped cross sections.

  • Shell Const

Lets you set the height and material of a shell with constant cross section.

  • Shell Var

Lets you set the height and material of each face of a shell.

  • ShellRC Std Const

A standard reinforced concrete cross section consists of four layers of orthogonal reinforcement. This component allows to define such a cross section which is constant throughout a shell.

  • ShellRC Std Var

Same as above, lets one set the reinforced concrete cross section properties for each shell face separately.

  • Spring-Cross Section

Defines the spring stiffness of an element.

  • Trapezoid-Profile

Creates filled rectangular, trapezoid and triangular cross sections.

Disassemble Cross Section

Retrieves properties of a cross section.

Beam-Joint Agent

Crawls around in the model and adds joints to beams on the basis of geometric relations. Is of type cross section.

Beam-Joints

Adds hinges at the end-points of beams. Is of type cross sections.

Eccentricity on Beam

Sets the eccentricity of a cross section relative to the element axis in global coordinates.

Eccentricity on Cross Section

Sets the eccentricity of a cross section relative to the element axis in local beam coordinates.

Modify Cross Section

Multi-component for modifying cross sections. Works either directly on a cross section object or indirectly as an autonomous agent:

  • Modify Beam Cross Section

Modifies beam cross sections only.

  • Modify Shell Cross Section

Modifies shell cross sections only.

Cross Section Range Selector

Lets you select cross sections by country, shape, family or maximum depth or width.

Cross Section Matcher

Returns for a cross section the best fitting cross section contained in a given list. The matched cross section is equal or better in all mechanical aspects at minimum weight.

Cross Section Selector

Lets you select cross sections by name, regular expression or index from a list of cross sections.

Generate Cross Section Table

Converts a list of cross sections into a string which can be streamed as a csv-file and used as a cross section table.

Read Cross Section Table from File

Reads cross section data from a csv-file.

Material

Material Properties

Sets the characteristic parameters of an isotropic or orthotropic material.

Material Selection

Lets you select a material by name, regular expression or index from a list of materials.

Read Material Table from File

Reads a list of materials from a table given in csv-format.

Disassemble Material

Outputs the physical properties of a material.

Algorithms

Analyze

Calculates the deflections of a given model using first order theory.

AnalyzeThII

Calculates the deflections of a given model including the effect of axial or in-plane forces.

Analyze Nonlinear WIP

Handles calculations involving large deformations. Is work in progress: the speed of convergence will be improved in future releases. Currently it works best for beams, but can also handle shell structures.

Large Deformation Analysis

Does an incremental geometrically non-linear analysis for loads in load case zero. Return displacements only, no stresses of cross section forces.

Buckling Modes

Calculates the buckling-modes and buckling load-factors of the given model under normal forces .

Eigen Modes

Calculates the eigenmodes of the given model according to the special eigenvalue problem.

Natural Vibrations

Calculates the natural vibrations of the given model.

Optimize Cross Section

Iteratively selects optimum cross sections for beams, trusses and shells.

BESO for Beams

Optimizes the topology of beams in a structure by using Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization.

BESO for Shells

Optimizes the topology of shells in a structure by using Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization.

Optimize Reinforcement

Performs reinforcement design for shells. It uses linear elastic cross section forces and the assumption of zero tensile concrete strength for determining reinforcement quantities.

Tension/Compression Eliminator

Removes beams or trusses under axial tension or compression. By default compression members will be removed.

Results

Model View

Lets you inspect the general properties of the model.

Deformation-Energy

Retrieves deformation energies of the elements of the model.

Nodal Displacements

Returns nodal displacements: translations in global x-, y-, and z-direction; rotations about the global x-, y- and z-axis.

Principal Strains Approximation

Approximates the principal strain directions from the model deformation at arbitrary points.

Reaction Forces

Returns reaction forces and moments at supports.

Utilization of Elements

Multi-component that returns the utilization of elements. “1” means 100%:

  • Utilization of Beams (default)

The utilization of beams is calculated according to EC3 (see section A.4).

  • Utilization of Shells

Returns the maximum Van Mises stress in each face of the shell.

Beam View

Lets you inspect beam properties: section forces, cross sections, displacement, utilization and stresses. Is to be plugged into the definition after the “ModelView”-component.

Beam Displacements

Returns displacements along elements: translations in global x-, y-, and z-direction; rotations about the global x-, y- and z-axis.

Beam Forces

Retrieves section forces along beams and trusses.

Shell View

Lets you inspect shell properties: displacement, utilization, principal stresses and Van Mises stress. Is to be plugged into the definition after the “ModelView”-component.

Line Results on Shells

Multi-component for generating line results on shells:

  • Force Flow (default)

Computes flow lines for forces in given direction at user defined positions.

  • Isolines

Creates lines that connect points of same value for selected shell results (e.g. principal stresses, displacement, utilization, cross section thickness) at user defined positions. Also returns values and can thus be used for probing the shell state.

  • PrincMoment

Returns the principal moment lines that originate from user defined points on shells.

  • PrincStress

Outputs the principal stress directions in the center of each shell element.

Results Vectors on Shells

Multi-component for generating vector results in each element of a shell:

  • PrincStress (default)

Outputs the values of first and second principal stress on a given layer in the center of each shell element.

  • PrincForces

Outputs the first and second principal normal forces and moments in the center of each shell face as vectors.

Shell forces

Outputs the values of the local or principal normal forces and moments in the center of each shell element.

Export / Import

Export Model to SAV

Exports a model to a Structural Analysis Format (SAF)-file.

Export Model to DStV

Exports a model to RStab5, RStab6, RStab7, RStab8 or Robot by creating a DStV-file.

Export Model to JSON / BSON

Exports to model to a JSON or BSON file.

Import Model from JSON / BSON

Imports a model from a JSON or BSON file.

Export Model to CSV

Exports a model to Comma-Separated Value (CSV)-file

Utilities

Closest Points

Connects each node of one set to a given number of nearest neighbor nodes or neighbors within a specified distance of another set.

Closest Points Multi-dimensional

Performs a multidimensional nearest neighbor search on two sets of vectors.

Cull Curves

Inputs a data tree of straight lines and thins them out so that no lines in different branches are closer than a given limit distance.

Detect Collisions

Counts the number of intersections between the model and a given mesh.

Get Cells from Lines

Creates closed cells from a graph and vertices on a user supplied plane.

Line-Line Intersection

Intersects given lines and returns resulting end-points and pieces.

Local Vector

Transforms a vector from the global to a local coordinate system given by a plane.

Line-Mesh Intersection

Returns the points where given lines intersect given meshes.

Mesh Breps

Takes multiple breps and generates a unified mesh from them. The algorithm takes account of common edges and insertion points. This lets one define positions for supports or point-loads on shells.

Principal States Transformation

Transforms given principal vectors of stresses, moments or in-plane forces to an arbitrary direction.

Remove Duplicate Lines

Eliminates identical lines.

Remove Duplicate Points

Eliminates identical points.

Simplify Model

Changes a model by straightening the connecting elements between nodes that connect to more than two neighbor nodes.

Element Felting

Felts elements of a model by connecting them at their mutual closest points.

Mapper

Applies mappings (like Simple Stitch) to a model.

Interpolate Shapes

Interpolates between a base geometry (0.0) and given shape(s) (1.0).

Stitch

Multi-component for defining modes of connection between sets of beams:

  • Simple Stitch (default)

Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements.

  • Stacked Stitch

Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements that do not intersect each other.

  • Proximity Stitch

Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements whose maximum inclination can be controlled via min/max offset-limits from their starting point.

Surface to Truss

Fills surfaces with different types of trusses.

User Iso-Lines

Creates iso-lines on a model based on user supplied nodal values.

User Stream-Lines

Creates stream-lines on a model based on user supplied vectors at the nodes.

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