cross-sections

To fully determine the behaviour of members, Sfere2 requires they have their material property (see the previous chapter 'materials') and their cross-section property set.


creating cross-sections
The creation and application of cross-sections is almost identical to the creation and application of materials.
Selecting a member's cross-section can be done using the toolbar. But before cross-sections can be applied they have to be created and set appropriatly. This is done using the "Cross-section"-page on the Main Console.

The main feature of the Cross-section-page is the list of existing cross-sections. Selecting one of cross-sections in the list will show it's properties in the "Cross-section Properties"-page.

There are three numerical properties, Area, Ix (Moment of intertia about X-axis) and Iy (Moment of Inertia about Y-axis). All three determine the behaviour of the members the cross-section is applied to.

KNOWN BUG: the Ix and Iy are ignored completely. This will change in future releases.
WORKAROUND: At this time these values are not used by the available calculation engines. So: don't worry about them.


The Shape property is used for visual feedback.
The Color will be used for visual feedback in future releases.


adding a cross-section to the list
To create a new cross-section, simply click on the "New"-button at the top-left. This will add an item to the list. This item is automatically set to "rename" so a more appropriate name can be entered.

KNOWN BUG: Sometimes if "Enter" is not pressed to OK the name, the system has problems setting the focus to other interface items. (see KNOWN BUG in materials-chapter)
WORKAROUND: Press "Enter" to avoid the problem. Click in the list to fix the problem.

After entering an appropriate name, edit the material properties so they best reflect the needed material.


applying materials to members
For applying a material to certain members, the "Cross-section Property"-toolbar (  Tools > Toolbars > Properties > Cross-sections  ) can be used.

Simply select the members and then select the cross-section from the toolbar's dropdown list.

This toolbar automatically shows the cross-section applied to the selected members. That is if all selected members share the same cross-section, otherwise it'll be blank.



seeing the cross-sections
Depending on the detail-level of the view (  View > Settings > Detail Level > ...  ) the members are drawn giving feedback on the cross-section that is applied to them.

Detail LevelCross-section Feedback
LowNo, Members are drawn as lines
MediumNo, Members are drawn using the default shape
HighYes, Members are drawn using a simple representation of the shape
Maximum (default)Yes, Members are drawn using a complex representation of the shape

from left to right: detail level: Low, Medium, High and Maximum.


Note: the detail level also has an impact on the visual quality of non-rigid joints.


the default shape
If members have no cross-section applied to them, they will be drawn using the default shape.
Because Sfere2 can work with any dimension-scale in mind, there is the option to set the visual size of all "scaleless" items, this affects the visual size of the joints and the size of the default cross-section shape.

size scaleless
To edit the size of the scaleless items, simply open the "Size Scaleless"-interface by selecting   View > Settings > Size Scaleless...  .

Then enter the new size or drag the spinner-button on the right. The changes will apply themselves immediatly to the view.
the Size Scaleless edit window