New in EuroBeam 1.10: Scripting option
A number of users have asked for the ability to add notes that are applicable to the beam loads rather than the steel or timber calculation that follows. We've implementing this by adding a notes pane on the beam load page of the beam edit dialog as shown here (in yellow). A splitter bar (blue) lets you set the relative sizes of the two areas. The Edit Notes button transfers the editing from this little window (OK for one-liners) to the much larger editor window used for editing text pages
Notes entered here are printed after the loads and max BM/SF/Deflection figures and before any steel or timber calculation (this won't appear if you've left both the Steel and Timber boxes unchecked.
If we had just added the option to enter textual notes as elsewhere it would be a useful enhancement, but not earth-shattering. What we've done is to add a further option. The notes can be entered as plain text as elsewhere, but a new option lets you enter them as a Pascal script - a mini computer program - which can access the key results of the EuroBeam calculation - loads, reactions, max BM/SF/Deflection for starters - and produce output that will vary depending on their values. The output shown here may not look very exciting but demonstrates what is possible
The area in mauve will be familiar and is generated by EuroBeam. The area in green comes from the script: it might be one that we supply, or - if you are computer literate - you will be able to write your own.
Although this script only generates four lines, quite a lot happens behind the scenes. Firstly the script assumes 150mm bearings and that the span has been entered as the distance between the centres of bearings. The required lintel length will be 150mm more than the span but needs to be rounded up to the next 150mm or 300mm.
The script then works through a list of available sections
until it finds one available in the required length that is
capable of taking the applied load. The following small
extract should be easy to follow:
(TotLoadu the unfactored load generated by EuroBeam and
passed to the script, LLength is the actual lintel length and
anything following // is a comment and is skipped over when
the script is processed)
.....
// first try Catnic CN5XA lintels
if (LLength >= 750) and (LLength <= 1500) and (TotLoadu
< 29) then
Output.Add('Use 143mm high Catnic CN5XA lintel, SWL
29kN')
else if (LLength > 1500) and (LLength <= 2100) and
(TotLoadu < 25) then
Output.Add('Use 143mm high Catnic CN5XA lintel, SWL
25kN')
else if (LLength > 2100) and (LLength <= 2700) and
(TotLoadu < 20) then
Output.Add('Use 143mm high Catnic CN5XA lintel, SWL
20kN')
// next try Catnic CN5XC lintels
else if (LLength >= 700) and (LLength <= 1500) and
(TotLoadu < 49) then
Output.Add('Use 143mm high Catnic CN5XC lintel, SWL
49kN')
else if (LLength > 1500) and (LLength <= 1950) and
(TotLoadu < 39) then
Output.Add('Use 143mm high Catnic CN5XC lintel, SWL
39kN')
// next try Catnic CN6XB lintels ....
Suppose you want to calculate the required depth of some proprietary beam - let's call it WonderBeam - 100mm wide, depths available 75mm then increasing in 25mm steps, design bending stress 30N/mm2. The core of your script (skipping shear and deflection checks here for brevity) would look something like this:
B := 100;
D := 50; //initial value will be increased to 75 on first
pass
fy := 30;
repeat
D := D + 25;
Wel := B * D * D/6000; // elastic modulus cm3
Mrd := fy * Wel/1000; // moment resistance kNm
until Mrd >= MaxBM // MaxBM provided by EuroBeam
Output.Add(''); // blank line
Output.Add('Use ' + IntToStr(B)+ 'mm x ' +
IntToStr(D)+'mm WonderBeam')
Output.Add('Moment resistance =
'+FormatFloat('##.#',fy)+' x '
+FormatFloat('####.##'+'/1000 =
')+FormatFloat('####.#',Mrd)+'kNm');
We are including scripts for Catnic 100mm box lintels and 220mm TJI joists with EuroBeam 1.10. Users who feel confident to do so can write their own scripts. The Standard Notes dialog now includes additional buttons to export notes or scripts as disk files or import disk files.
Checking engineers please note: You should pay particular attention to the output produced by such scripts as it may not have been independently verified.
Also in 1.10: Steel beam web opening checking