SOFiSTiK Project Setup in Rhino#

The SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface links your geometric model in Rhino to an structural analysis project in SOFiSTiK. For this purpose, additional structural information and information regarding the FE analysis is stored within the Rhino project archive (*.3dm files). As soon as such information is stored in the Rhino archive, the SOFiSTiK interface will automatically be activated when opening a file in Rhino (unless explicitly suppressed).

Furthermore, the association between a Rhino project file (*.3dm file) and a SOFiSTiK project for FE and structural analysis is realized by matching names. Meaning, a SOFiSTiK project with the same name is associated with the Rhino project, which contains all additional information and tasks needed for a structural analysis. The corresponding SOFiSTiK project will be created out of Rhino as soon as you trigger the export to SOFiSTiK for the first time (command _sofExportModel). After that this associativity is kept up to date as long as the SOFiSTiK project file exists and matches by name.

img_prjctMatching

On first SOFiSTiK export when the SOFiSTiK project is created, the user has the possibility to choose between two project types to work with SOFiSTiK:

SOFiSTiK project type	Description
SSD project	A SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop project ﬁle (`.sofistik`) is created and associated with the Rhino project. All further tasks required for the structural analysis as well as the deﬁnitions of materials and sections can be carried out on a graphical basis within the SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop.*
Teddy project	A textﬁle (`.dat`) is created and associated with the Rhino project. Materials, sections and further analysis tasks are deﬁned in this ﬁle using the Teddy* - SOFiSTiK input language CADINP.

SOFiSTiK project type

Description

SSD project

A SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop project ﬁle (*.sofistik) is created and associated with the Rhino project.

All further tasks required for the structural analysis as well as the deﬁnitions of materials and sections can be carried out on a graphical basis within the sofistik_large SOFiSTiK Structural Desktop.

Teddy project

A textﬁle (*.dat) is created and associated with the Rhino project.

Materials, sections and further analysis tasks are deﬁned in this ﬁle using the teddy_large Teddy - SOFiSTiK input language CADINP.

In both cases, the associated project ﬁle can be directly opened from Rhino using the SSD or the Teddy Icon in the SOFiSTiK Toolbar. The user is free to edit the corresponding project ﬁles as desired with one exception: The include statement within the dedicated Rhino-task in sofistik_large SSD or the SOFiMSHC-block in Teddy must not be deleted or modiﬁed, as it includes the structural data exported from Rhino.