Setting up ILX Connection: preferences, reports and drawings

Transcript

Setting up ILX Connection: preferences, reports and drawings.

What this video covers

In this video we set up ILX Connection, one screen at a time. Pause at any step, and follow along in your own browser.

First, your own defaults: the title block, the sheets and the design rules. Then what belongs to each connection, and what a project can change. Then we make a drawing sheet and read it line by line. Last, the calculation report, and the outputs for a whole project.

One idea runs through all of it: settings come in layers. Your defaults sit on top of the built-in ones. A project can override any field. And one report can be customized without saving anything. The layer closest to the output wins.

Opening Settings

Here is the workspace, with a demo project open. In the top right corner of the header, select the gear. Settings opens.

It opens on My defaults. These settings belong to your account, not to the whole firm. Along the top is the scope bar: My defaults, and the project of the open connection. Below it are the tabs: Title block, Report, Design rules, and two help pages.

Firm and engineer of record

We start on the Title block tab, with the Firm section.

Type your firm name exactly as it should print. Then the address, on several lines if you need them, the phone and the web address. The firm license is the registration line your state board asks for.

The logo text is a short name, a few letters, printed in the logo box of the title block. It is text, not a picture, so it stays sharp in the PDF and the DXF.

Below that, enter the engineer of record and the license number. They print in the seal block and in the report's sign-off.

Sheets and general notes

Next is the Sheets section. Default sheet size is the paper a sheet is made on unless you pick another: 11 by 17, letter landscape, or letter portrait.

The sheet number prefix builds the sheet numbers. With S-5, the sheets are S-501, S-502, and so on.

Status prints in the seal block, such as preliminary, not for construction. Change it as the job moves on. Drawn by, checked by and approved by are your usual initials. Show border zones prints the numbers and letters around the sheet edge.

Last come the general notes, printed on every sheet. Edit a note in place, reorder with the arrows, or select Add note. Then select Save my defaults. Nothing is saved until you do.

Design rules

Now the Design rules tab. These rules change the design itself.

Turn on pretension required for every bolted joint when the building code requires pretensioned or slip-critical bolts throughout, for example with heavy cranes or running machinery. Every bolted connection then gets a project rule check. Type a short reason; it prints with the check.

The RCSC edition defaults to 2020, the one that AISC 360-22 adopts. Choose 2025 only if your project specifies it. The strengths stay the same; the cited clauses change.

The tightening clearance is the room a wrench needs beside a bolt. Pick the tool your erector uses. Design rules save as soon as you change them.

Units, method, materials and theme

Close Settings. Some preferences live with each connection, because one project can mix methods or units.

At the top of the input panel, one switch sets the design method, LRFD or ASD. The other sets the units, US or metric. Switching units converts every value, so the design does not change.

Further down are the materials, the bolts and the welds: the bolt grade, diameter, threads and hole types, the electrode and the weld sizes.

Once a connection is set up the way your office likes, select Save as project defaults. New connections in this project then start with the same method, units, materials, bolts and welds. For other projects, save the connection as a template.

The theme switch in the header offers system, light and dark. It is saved to your account.

Project information

Each project has its own information. Select Project info in the header.

Enter the project name, number, client, address, architect and contractor. These print in the title block.

Under People and dates, a blank field uses the title block default, so type a name only when this job is different.

Project notes print after your general notes, on every sheet of this project.

For revisions, select Add revision. ILX proposes the next letter with today's date. Add a description and your initials, then select Save.

Project overrides

Now suppose one client needs a different firm line. Open Settings, and select the project in the scope bar.

Change one field, here the firm name. It is marked Project. Every other field is marked Inherited, and keeps following your defaults, even when you change them later. The scope bar counts the overrides.

The small reset arrow removes one override. Copy from project takes the overrides of another job. Make these my defaults turns them into your defaults. Reset project removes them all. Select Save for this project.

Making a drawing sheet

Now open connection B-1, a single plate. Below the drawings is the output bar.

The Drawing sheet button shows its size, here 11 by 17. The arrow beside it picks another size, and marks your default. Select Drawing sheet. The PDF opens in a new browser tab.

The sheet at a glance

Here is the whole sheet. Let's get our bearings.

The views are on the left: the elevation on top, the plan section below. The general notes are in the middle, with the design summary under them. The title block runs down the right edge.

How is the scale chosen? Each view gets its own space, and ILX picks the largest standard scale at which the view still fits. Here, one and a half inches to the foot for the elevation. Each view title prints its scale and a bar scale.

On letter sheets the scales are smaller, and long callouts become numbered keynotes. On portrait, the title block becomes a strip along the bottom.

Reading the elevation

Zoom in on the elevation. The members are labelled: the W14x90 column and the W16x50 beam.

The plate callout gives the thickness, width and length, and the material: a quarter inch, by four and a half inches, by one foot, A36 steel. The arrow on top is the required shear, with LRFD.

Read the vertical dimensions from the top: one and a half inches to the first bolt, then three spaces at three inches, then one and a half inches to the bottom of the plate. Twelve inches overall.

The horizontal dimensions locate the bolt line, and give the edge distances on the plate and the beam. The plan section shows the same plate from above.

Bolt and weld callouts

Now read the bolt callout. Four bolts, three-quarter inch diameter, two inches long. A325, with threads included. ASTM F3125 is the standard. SSL horizontal means short slotted holes, slots horizontal. ILX works out the length from the grip, the washers, the nut and the stick-out.

The weld symbol follows the AWS standard. The arrow points to the joint. The horizontal line is the reference line. The triangles are fillet welds: below the line is the arrow side, above is the other side. Here there is one on each side, so the plate is welded on both faces, three sixteenths of an inch each. The tail holds the electrode, E70XX.

Notes and design summary

In the middle column are the general notes from Settings, then the project notes.

Below them, the design summary records the mark, the method, the required shear, the governing check, its ratio, the status, the plate, and the code basis. A ratio below one is adequate. Here, plate block shear governs, at point nine four.

The title block

Now the title block, from the top. First, your firm, from the title block settings. Then the seal block, with the engineer of record. While the status is preliminary, it says the sheet is for interim review only.

Then the project box and the revisions, from Project info. Then drawn by, checked by, the engineer, the date, the scale, the units and the sheet size. The status bar repeats the stage of the job. At the bottom are the sheet title and the sheet number, S-501.

Check the sheet before issuing

Before you issue a sheet, take one minute to check it.

Is the status right for this issue? Is there a revision for it? Does the design summary say OK, with the ratio you expect? Do the plate, bolts, holes and welds match your design? Do the notes name the right bolt standard and electrode? And on a full-size print, does the bar scale measure true?

The DXF file

For your CAD drawings, select Drawing DXF. The file goes to your downloads folder.

In your CAD program, model space holds the views at full size. Paper space holds the sheet, with one viewport per view at its scale.

Dimensions are real dimension objects. Layers follow the National CAD Standard: members, plates, bolts and welds each have their own, and notes, weld symbols and the title block are on annotation layers. The title block is a block with attributes, so you can edit a field in CAD.

Report settings

Now the calculation report. In Settings, select the Report tab. A project can override it too.

Start with a preset. Standard is the default. Full calculation package works every step. Summary for review keeps the tables. The last preset, checks only, keeps just the two tables of checks. Change anything below, and it becomes Custom.

The groups follow the document. Cover page prints a cover for packages, always, or never, with a table of contents. Header and footer places the project, mark, date, page and firm. Under Calculations, the detail level is summary, standard or full. Other groups append the drawing sheet, add the clause appendix and revision history, and set the units.

Preview report shows a real PDF before you save. For one special report, use Customize this report, beside Calc report. It saves nothing.

The report, page by page

Select Calc report. Here is the PDF for B-1.

The header block gives the connection, the mark, the date, the method, the units, and the input hash. The hash is a fingerprint of the inputs, so a printed report can be matched to its design.

The status banner says adequate or not, with the governing check. Then the project information, and a small drawing beside the key data.

The input summary lists every input value. Check it first. Most design mistakes are input mistakes.

Checks, calculations and summary

Next is the summary of checks, grouped by element. Each row shows the demand, the available strength, the ratio, and the clause.

The code compliance table lists the detailing rules, such as spacing, edge distance and weld size, with what is provided and the limit.

The detailed calculations work out each check step by step, with the values and the clause, so a reviewer can follow every number.

The report ends with the drawings, the appendices, the sign-off block and the disclaimer. The drawing sheet can be added as the last page.

Outputs for the whole project

For a whole project, open the project menu in the project panel.

Calc package makes one PDF: a cover page with an index of the connections, a table of contents, each report, and the drawing sheets at the end. All sheets makes the sheet set, numbered S-501, S-502, and so on.

PDFs open in a new browser tab; save them to your project folder from there. DXF files go to your downloads folder. Export project file saves the whole project as a backup.

Tips

To finish, four tips.

Set your defaults once. Every new project then starts right.

Use project overrides only for what is really different on a job.

Keep the status and the revisions current.

And review every sheet and report before you issue it. ILX Connection does the arithmetic. The engineering judgment, and the seal, are yours.

Questions? Write to us at support@ilxstudio.com. ILX Studio, LLC is not affiliated with AISC.