Erection Sequencer

1. Purpose and description

This Application allows an Erector or Project Manager to easily pick the Erection
placement order of Assemblies on a project. The advantages of doing this in the 3D
model are that the Erector can clearly visualize the Assemblies, the Erection order can be
done on the project before the Detailer has even made shipping marks or Erection
Drawings, and the Erector can animate the Erection of the building. The other benefit is
this information can then be automatically displayed on Erection drawings.

2. System requirements
NET Framework version: 4.0
Environments: Default
Languages: English

3. Installation
To install the application:
1. Close down Tekla Structures (if running)
2. Download the appropriate MSI Installer (x64 for 64 bit machine and 64bit
installation of Tekla Structures)
3. Install MSI Installer

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

 4. Start up Tekla Structures
5. Drag and dock the new toolbar that appears

4. Introduction and Usage

When you first launch the macro a dialog similar to below should appear.

Make sure the selection button for Assemblies is depressed.

There are 3 ADD METHODS that you can choose from to select the assemblies for
your list.
A.) Normal This method allows you to window select around Assemblies,
individually select them, or hold the CTRL key and individually create a selection
group.
You first select the Assemblies, then press the ADD button. When you press ADD you
will see those assemblies appear in the list in order from smallest ID number to
largest.
B.) Picking Prompt This method is similar to Normal except that you don't
have to hold down the CTRL key to continue to select your Assemblies in a group.
The
order in which the Assemblies appear in the list are based on your selection order.
However, you can't do a window selection of the assemblies. You first press the ADD
button, then start selecting the Assemblies one by one. Once you are done selecting
assemblies, press the MIDDLE mouse button.
C.) Auto This method allows the user to just Window Select a group of
Assemblies and they are added to the list based on their NAME. The names that
appear
on the top of the List on the right hand side of the dialog box will be added to the list
first, and the NAMEs lower in the list on the right hand side of the dialog box will be
added to the main list last. So based on the list shown below, Assemblies with the
name
FOOTING will appear in the list before COLUMNS, BEAMS, etc. you can manually

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

 ADD in new Names and move their order up and down. You can also get the Names
automatically from all the Assemblies in the model by pressing GET ALL.
The TRACK PROGRESS IN MODEL checkbox controls whether you want to
visually see the Assemblies you have already statused.

You may find that as you are adding Assemblies you forgot to add an Assembly at a
particular location or due to revisions on the Project some new Assemblies were added
into the model that you need to insert into a particular spot in the model.

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

If you select one of the rows in the list, then select an assembly or assemblies in the
model, then press Add, those new Assemblies will be inserted at that location as seen in
the example above where item 5 was now added. Once this new item is added, you will
see the Numbers are out of order. Press the REDO PICK NUMBERS button and the
numbers will be reset. You can also use the MOVE UP and MOVE DOWN buttons to
move a selected item in the list.

The UPDATE button looks at all the items in the list and gets the current properties in
model and shows that updated information in the list. Any lines that were changed will
turn blue. To clear the blue lines press the CLEAR UPDATE. The SHOW MODIFIED
checkbox sets whether to show the blue lines or not.

The DELETE button deletes a selected row from the list. The DELETE ALL button
removes all of the items from the list.

The SELECT FROM MODEL option selects an item in the list based on the selected
ASSEMBLY in the model. If you have a long list you may need to scroll through the list
to see the highlighted line.

The SHOW CENTER OF GRAVITY option will run a report showing the weight and
center of gravity dimensions as well as put a Construction point in the model to show the
center of gravity. This can be used along with the measuring tools in the model to figure
out the pick point of an assembly.

The CLEAN MODEL FROM LIST option clears the Erection planning status from
the model based on the items in the list. In case there are Assemblies statused in the
model but don't appear in the list you can use the CLEAN MODEL ALL ASSEMBLIES

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

button. You may want to do this to prevent permanently storing this status in the model
so the detailer/designers can't interfere with or corrupt the data by accident. When you
use the SAVE button this data can be written to file and then loaded whenever needed
when you press the LOAD button. The files you save can also be emailed to another
party that has a copy of the same model and they can bring in these properties and
visualize them. Like the Erector at the jobsite emailing the Project manager back at the
main office the pick lists so the Project manager and shop can plan the truck loads and
delivery.

The PRINT button creates a printable HTML sequence list that can be used out in the
field without your laptop. Remember too the User Defined Attributes for the pick
numbers can be shown on the drawings if you stamp the main parts of the Assembly with
the WRITE PICK NUMBERS TO MAIN PART button.

If you want to manually simulate the Erection order you can Select the first item in
the list then use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to show the Assemblies in
the model.
You can also use the ANIMATE button to watch the application auto select and
colorize the Assemblies in the order in which they will be erected. If you check the
SHOW PICK NUMBER IN MODEL option the pick number will be written to the main
part. This can be beneficial in that you can turn on the part label in the view properties to
show that pick number in the model during the animation.

You can set this in the View Properties dialog box (Double click in the view in the
model), Click on the Display button, then go to the advanced tab. Then check the Part
label checkbox, Select user defined attribute on the left, and press add. Then in the small
dialog box type in USER_FIELD_1. Now press the MODIFY button on the view
properties dialog box and your view is now set.

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

Lastly, again if this data is placed into the main detailing model, these attributes placed in
USER_FIELD_1 can be used on the part mark properties of the Erection Drawings like
shown below.

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011

Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011
Copyright 2011 Tekla Corporation August 2011