Cage Ladders – User Profiles

Cage Ladders – User Profiles

With the launch of the New Cage ladder macro from Graitec as part of the PowerPack for Advance Steel Stairs and Railings, there is an included feature to allow the users to generated and link their own user defined profiles to the main ladder stiles and rungs,   in turn these can be linked to the  step of feature to maintain continuity between the two areas of the ladder.

The process to enable this follows the standard Advance Steel methods to create the user profiles using the standard tools of advance steel, following the define methodology for the profile creation,   with that in place the ladder macro has a series of  joint controllers added to allow the linking of the user profiles to the ladder macro itself.

Within this blog we explain that process and outline the required joint controllers and how to enable them with an example  generic user defined profile.

Ladder Elements: User Profiles

Within the ladder, there is an option to add user defined profiles for the Stile and Rungs that form part of the ladder and the Step off areas.

This is done using the GUI allowed Section table within the Astorrules of Advance Steel,   the user may create and add these following the process defined under Advance steel via the Management tools Table editor.

Cage ladder – GUI allowed section references

There is the main joint name required, combined with the joint controller,  used in combination with a section class and the Section typename reference,  these are shown below:

• Joint Name:
  GRTCCageLadder
• Joint controllers:
  For Ladder Stile: Stile
  For Ladder rung: Rung
  For Step off stile: StileStepOff
  For Step off rung: RungStepOff
• Allowed Section Type:
  If a user defined profile shape is used, then set to ‘Section class’.
  If a standard shape code reference is used, then use the ‘Section shape’.
• Allowed Sections:  
  This is the ‘typename ‘text entry from the profilemastertable of the Astorprofiles database,  this links the profile to the GUI allowed sections.

User define profiles following the Standard Advance Steel user define profiles method, define all the co-ordinates and system points within the required profile shape,  adding the range of stiles or profiles as required.

Cage ladder – example user profile drawing reference

Add the profiles and GUI table references to see the profile present within the different dialog pages and sub elements.

Cage Ladder – Stile and Rung user profile selection

Cage Ladder – Step off support and Rung profile selectors.

Functionality with the ladder

The addition of a user profile allows the user to still use all the standard functions related to the definition of the ladder itself. The profiles may be selected under the various dialog pages, subpages, and tabs, as required,   the interactions at the junction between the ladder stile and the ladder rung are the same, allowing for a cut, aligned or penetration operations,  with the penetration generating a contour feature cutout.

Cage ladder – user profile rung reference

The same applies where the ladder has a splayed exit arrangement and step of feature, the options to provide the different  stile to stile jointing are available, and the step off support to the stile is also accommodated.

Cage  Ladder – support profile  user profile reference

Explore the options within the new cage ladder macro from the Graitec PowerPack for Advance Steel Stairs and Railings.

Written by John Bennett – Software Technical Specialist