Pipe Intersections Using STAAD Pro V8i

[rlgrant]

Our firm just purchased STAAD Pro v8i and I'm trying to use it to do a FEA on a fairly complicated steel casting. I've never used STAAD for FEA and am realizing as I'm building the model that it has some serious limitations for what I'm trying to do. I'm finding reasonable work arounds for most modeling issues, but am stuck on one.

I need to connect two hollow cylindrical shapes at 90 deg. to one another. I've contacted STAAD support and there is no direct way of doing this, but I'm supposed to receive a .pdf from them of a work around to make the connection possible. My problem is time, I've no idea when said .pdf is to arrive and I have a deadline approaching. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[RonRoberts]

Where the cylinders intersect is there an opening or does one cylinder abut the other cylinder without a hole being created?

I started the attached model with STAAD, then saved it to a DXF file and moved it over to RISA to complete the model. Is your something like this?

 

[rlgrant]

Yes, there is hole where one cylinder abuts the other. And yes my model is very similar where the cylinders connect. STAAD may be fine for some very simple FEA but for anything complicated its just too limited. I'll be checking out RISA.

Thanks!

 

[RonRoberts]

Actually, I mispoke. I had to use SAP2000 to get the intersectng pipes generated after that I used RISA to finish the model. RISA is much easier to use but it's model generation capabilities are not as sophisticated.

Find a copy of SAP2000 to get the pipe intersection portionm of the model started.

 

[rlgrant]

just an update, got some support from STAAD and was able to get the two cylinders connected, so it can be done it's just all manual input and can take some time.