Reinforced Concrete Column Design#
Introduction#
This tutorial illustrates how to manage and design columns in a reinforced concrete building efficiently based on a building modeled in Revit using SOFiSTiK Analysis + Design and the SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop (SSD). By the end of the tutorial, you should be able to:
Structure your model by identifying member with unique names, which are used in the whole design workflow.
Create 2D overview drawings for all members in a few clicks.
Organize columns in Design Groups and design them accordingly using the nominal curvature method (Task Column Design Assistant).
Generate tables for column overview and design result evaluation.
Export column information to Microsoft Excel for external design.
Let’s get started!
Note
The videos were recorded using SOFiSTiK version 2024. When using a newer software release, you may notice small differences.
Hint
The column design in this tutorial is performed with the SSD Tasks Column Design Assistant (and Column Design later on), NOT with the design workflow within Revit using SOFiSTiK Analysis + Design. Please refer to the tutorial Reinforced Concrete Building in Revit to know more about the workflow within Revit. The column design workflow with SSD’s Column Design Assistant enables the:
Organization and Design of all Columns in one task
Design of Design Elements (internal forces of columns modeled as shell elements)
Design with Nominal Curvature Method
Comparing easily design results with the ones obtained in Result Tables
Modelling Insights and Tips#
Performing column design in SSD is always the same and independent of the pre-processor. Therefore, any modelling platform supported by SOFiSTiK is appropriate. In this tutorial, automatic model organization features available in Revit are described. In case another pre-processor, such as SOFiPLUS(-X), is used, names should be assigned manually to the columns in the project.
Model Organization#
Set Column Names#
In the first step, we want to give our columns individual names to identify them in the design process. To save time, we will use the Set Names functionality. More information can be found in the Set Names manual.
Tip
You can change the order in wich the individual members are listed in the Set Names Dialog. Do a right click on the Member Type (e.g. Columns in this example) and select one of the options under “Sort Sequence”. This comes in handy for naming rules with a sequential number, because the order of the member influences the sequence order.
Tip
You can save your user-defined naming rules for other projects. Click on “Naming Rules” on the left bottom of the task. You can export the naming rules in a .json file and import them again to another project.
Overview#
In the next step, we will create an Overview drawing, showing the columns of one level with names and additional information.
The same kind of overview drawing can also be done manually by using Graphic in the SSD as shown in the example file.
Column Design in SSD#
Design Assistant#
In the SSD there are two design tasks available for column design: The Task Column Design Assistant and the Column Design. This tutorial will concentrate on the Column Design Assistant.
Task Column Design Assistant#
We will now change the control parameters and load combinations for both design groups. The detailed workflow is shown in the video below:
Tip
For more information on the concept behind the automatic load combinations please refer to the Combine Loads and the Determination of Decisive Load Case Combinations with Superposition of Normal Stresses in Cross Section Points .
Design Report#
The following video will give you an overview of the task report:
Regrouping for Further Design#
Now that a first design has been performed, the assignment of columns to design groups is reevaluated based on the design results. This is conducted in the Column Design Assistant. The steps for regrouping are shown in the following video:
Result Tables#
The results of our analysis can be displayed in an overview table in the Result Viewer and exported to Microsoft Excel. The following video shows how.
To Go Further#
Additional Design with General Method#
This chapter gives you a short introdution to the task Column Design. The task can be used to do more detailed analyses on individual columns. In this example, we will compare the design of the most highly loaded column, which was done before with the Nominal Curvature Method, with the General Method. We start the task and select the column, wich we can easily identify by its name “C.002.Level 01.C’-4’”.
Task Column Design - Column Selection#
The rest of the task follows similiar principles as the Column Design Assistant. In the Control Values, select the General Method for the design. We save the design results under a different design case number (2/4, see picture below). This enables to compare design results from the General Method with results generated at previous steps.
Task Column Design - General Method#
The load combinations can be generated automatically, as desribed for the Column Design Assistant. After the design, a detailled report is created. It concludes with the required reinforcement and a reinforcement proposal. As you can see, in this example, the results obtained with the General method are similar to the ones obtained with the Nominal Curvature Method.
Task Column Design - Report and Reinforcement Proposal#
Post-processing tools in Revit#
There are further post-processing tools in Revit, which should be mentioned here briefly.
With Show Results you can display the required column reinforcement directly in Revit.
Result View in Revit#
The Rebar Check can be used to compare the required reinforcement with the column reinforcement defined in Revit.
Rebar Check in Revit - provided and required reinforcement#