MINIMUM GRAPHIC FONT SIZE.....................................................................................................................................

2
BUBBLE SIZE.................................................................................................................................................................. 2
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS................................................................................................................................................. 2
DISPLAY OPTIONS FOR ACTIVE WINDOW....................................................................................................................... 2
GRID DATA.................................................................................................................................................................... 3
DEFINING AREA SECTIONS............................................................................................................................................. 4
DRAWING SECTIONS..................................................................................................................................................... 4
AREA THICKNESS OVERWRITES – METHOD 1 – THICKNESS BY POINTS............................................................................4
AREA THICKNESS OVERWRITES – METHOD 2 – THICKNESS BY JOINT PATTERN...............................................................6
REVERSE LOCAL 3.......................................................................................................................................................... 8
EXTRUDED VIEW......................................................................................................................................................... 10
EDIT – REPLICATE......................................................................................................................................................... 11
3 – D VIEW.................................................................................................................................................................. 11
DIVIDE AREAS.............................................................................................................................................................. 11
EDGE CONSTRAINTS.................................................................................................................................................... 12
DEFINE JOINT PATTERN............................................................................................................................................... 13
ASSIGN JOINT PATTERN............................................................................................................................................... 13
DISPLAY JOINT PATTERN.............................................................................................................................................. 14
LOAD PATTERNS.......................................................................................................................................................... 15
AREA LOADS................................................................................................................................................................ 15
LOAD CASES................................................................................................................................................................ 17
LOAD COMBINATIONS................................................................................................................................................. 17
SAP RESULTS............................................................................................................................................................... 17
USING TEMPLATE TO GET THE RESULTS IN USEFUL FORMAT........................................................................................ 18
MINIMUM GRAPHIC FONT SIZE

BUBBLE SIZE

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Options  Customize Keyboard Shortcuts

DISPLAY OPTIONS FOR ACTIVE WINDOW

GRID DATA

Quick Start . . .
DEFINING AREA SECTIONS

One area section is assigned to one wall.

First Part – Name of the wall as defined in excel file and AutoCAD drg

Second Part – Thickness of wall in mm. V indicates variable thickness.

Third Part – No of such walls as defined by First & Second Part.

Bottom part of the above wall is of variable thickness – 600 m to 300 mm

Top part of the wall has uniform thickness 300 mm as defined by W3-V-1

DRAWING SECTIONS

Always draw the walls between the grids.

AREA THICKNESS OVERWRITES – METHOD 1 – THICKNESS BY POINTS

KEYBOARD SHORTCUT = ALT + T

Following method to be used at start of the project before meshing the area objects, Otherwise Thickness
specified by joint pattern is to be used.

Important – Area thickness overwrites shall be given after reversing the Local 3 axes, if required as explained
below in the relevant point.
Point 1 – Bottom Left ; and then move in anticlockwise direction to Point 2, 3 and 4, if the Local 3 axes is
towards the user and clockwise direction, if the Local 3 axes is away from the user.

Use following steps to display Area Thickness overwrites

AREA THICKNESS OVERWRITES – METHOD 2 – THICKNESS BY JOINT PATTERN

In the following figure, thickness was overwritten as varying from 0.75 to 0.30 m by using Method 1, i.e.
thickness by points and the area was subsequently divided. We will change the thickness as varying from 0.8 to
0.3 m by using Method 2, i.e. thickness by joint pattern.

Define logical joint pattern name. Here it has been defined as Th 0.8 to 0.3

Select the area and assign the joint pattern.

Note that the variation in thickness is along Z-direction. At Z = 0, Th = 0.8 m and at Z = 2.5 m, Th = 0.3 m.
Constants A, B, C and D are given the values to get the desired results from the equation.

Use the previous selection commend (Shortcut Ctrl + J) to select the area again. Select the area and assign the
joint pattern to the User Defined Thickness Specified by Joint Pattern.
And the thickness changes as desired.

REVERSE LOCAL 3

KEYBOARD SHORTCUT = ALT + R

When an area is drawn in XZ or YZ plane, Local 3 axes (perpendicular to the plane of wall) points towards the
user. This is top face of the area. Other face is called the bottom face.

Generally the top face of the wall is kept towards the inside the tank and load is applied on top face of the
tank (unless the wall is a common wall of two tanks). Therefore Local 3 axes need to be reversed.

If the Local 3 axes is reversed after assigning the loads, then the second option, i.e. Keep assigns in same local
direction is chosen. If the loads have not been assigned, then this option does not matter.

Loads are applied after meshing.

Notice the change in colour and direction of Global X (or Y) and Local 1 after the Local 3 is reversed. Now the
Local 3 axes is pointing away from the user, i.e. into the screen.

Important – In case Area thickness overwrites have been given and Local 3 axes is being reversed, we need to
give the area thickness overwrites again as variation in thickness given for the vertical direction get changed to
horizontal direction after Local 3 axes is reversed.

EXTRUDED VIEW

Note that assigns are not visible in extruded view.

EDIT – REPLICATE

After replicating a wall, remember to change the area sections.

Note the changing the area section does not affects the area thickness overwrites.

Reversing Local 3 axes affects the area thickness overwrites and therefore in case where area thickness
overwrites have been done and Local 3 axes need to be reversed after the wall is replicated, wall shall not be
replicated.

3 – D VIEW

When we view a wall in XZ plane, it is as if we are standing in 4 th quadrant (when the axes X, Y and Z are
passing through the wall) as shown by blue colour arrows.

When we view a wall in YZ plane, it is as if we are standing in 1 st quadrant (when the axes X, Y and Z are
passing through the wall) as shown by red colour arrows.

Note that when viewing the walls in XZ and YZ plane meeting at point 10, we will see bottom face for wall in XZ
plane (Note that its Local 3 axes has been reversed) and top face for wall in YZ plane.

Note that reversal of Local 3 axes is indicated by the fact that direction of Local 1 axes is opposite to the
direction of Global X (or Y) axes.

Have a close look of 3-D view before reversing the Local 3 axes.

DIVIDE AREAS

Divide the areas individually such that divided areas are in either 500 x 500 mm or 250 x 500 mm
Along Edge from Point 1 to 2 = Horizontal Direction for walls whose Local 3 axes has not been reversed.
Otherwise it is vertical direction.

Along Edge from Point 1 to 3 = Vertical Direction for Walls for walls whose Local 3 axes has not been reversed.
Otherwise it is horizontal direction.

Note that along horizontal direction, different walls can have different mesh size. However, in vertical
directions all walls will have the same mesh size as this is governed by the Z-axes.

EDGE CONSTRAINTS
DEFINE JOINT PATTERN

ASSIGN JOINT PATTERN

Select all the walls for which Z-coordinate at Zero Pressure for water load is same and water load has to be
applied. Assign the joint pattern as shown below.

Note that weight per unit volume has been taken as 10.5 kN / cum.

Different joint pattern is defined for the earth loads. Note that weight per unit volume has been taken as 6.0
kN / cum (= 18 * 0.333)

In case water table is involved or surcharge load has to be given, value of Added uniform value per unit area
shall be provided.

After defining the earth load joint pattern, assign this joint pattern to all those walls for which this earth load is
to be applied.
DISPLAY JOINT PATTERN
LOAD PATTERNS

Water load is to applied separately for each tank so that if one tank is full the other tank may be empty. For
this various load patterns are defined.

Define  Load Patterns . . .

These are the individual loads.

AREA LOADS

Select all the walls for which a particular load pattern is to be applied, say WL1 on the same face, i.e. top face
or bottom face.

Before selecting the walls in XZ and YZ views, note the grids between which the walls are to be selected and
not by left or right.
Things to be checked here

Load Pattern name; Face on which load is applied; Joint pattern name; Multiplier; Add / Replace existing Loads

Note that load multiplier = 1

After applying the loads, do check the same in 3-D view. In the figure below, water load WL2 has been applied
on top face of the outer walls for second tank

In the figure below, water load WL2 has been applied on bottom face of the common wall for second tank

Similarly earth loads are also applied.

LOAD CASES

Define  Load Cases . . .

In case there are no Non-linear load cases, Load patterns automatically appear in the following table

LOAD COMBINATIONS

SAP RESULTS

M11 – Horizontal Moment ; M22 – Vertical Moment

Negative value of moment means Tension on Top Face ; Positive Value is tension on Bottom Face
USING TEMPLATE TO GET THE RESULTS IN USEFUL FORMAT

Clear contents in columns A:K in W1-JC Sheet including the headings, if not already blank

Run macro ‘Clear Sheet’ in Sheet SCQ

Clear Contents of Sheet Results including the headings, if not already blank

Select any particular wall in XZ or YZ plane in SAP and copy the Joint coordinates to W1-JC sheet for the
selected wall only. In case of a complex structure, select the wall by its property as each wall has been given a
separate property.

Export the contents to Excel and paste columns A:K from Book1 to W1-JC sheet.

Close Workbook Book1

Columns A:K are used by a macro “sort” (shortcut ctrl+q) to get a table in cells T2:W8 (cells with green
background)

Fill in the cells with yellow background in W1-SCQ sheet.

Following explanation is for a wall in XZ plane.

Quadrilateral section cuts are defined in columns M:O for the direction as indicated by second digit of the
plane of the shell (Z-direction for XZ plane). And coordinates are arranged in X-Y-Z format in columns I:K.
Naming of the section cut is given in column H.

Plane of the section cut is perpendicular to the direction in which moments are sought. Plane of section cut
cuts the no of elements as indicated in cell M10. For vertical direction moments, integrating distance is along
X-Direction and so meshing along X-direction is used.

W2-V-1-Z-E1-1
Last Digit 1 = coordinate of 1st section cut (as indicated in column G). There are five section cuts in one vertical
direction

Second Group E1 = Edge E1

Third Group Z = Direction

Balance Group W2-V-1 = Wall Name

For each quadrilateral section cut, there are four coordinates. Four coordinates for each section cut are
indicated by 1, 2, 3 and 4 and are given in Column D.

There are five vertical directions located at Edge 1 (E1), Quarter 1 (Q1), Middle centre (MC), Quarter 2 (Q2)
and Edge 2 (E2) and along each vertical direction, five section cuts have been defined.

Run macro “Copy Data” (shortcut ctrl+w) to get the data in SCQ and SCG sheets. This data has to be pasted in
SAP Interactive Database Editing.

Expose All Input Tables and select the two tables as shown
Delete existing records, if any by selecting the table and pressing button “Delete Record”

After deleting the records both for Section Cut – General & Section Cut – Quadrilateral, Apply this to model by
pressing button “Apply to Model”

Take one of the Table to Excel by pressing ‘To Excel” Button and paste the values in Book1 from SCG Sheet

After Pasting the values press button “From Excel” to get the values in SAP

Repeat the process for Section Cut Quadrilateral

Press “Done” and Apply the changes to Model

Analyze the model

Get the Section Forces results from the following table. Remember to select the Load Case for which the
results are required. It may be individual Load Pattern or a combination.
Export the table to Excel. Paste the values from Book1 to Sheet Results.

Close Book1 without saving.

PROGRAMMING SAP

Extract the following tables from the Access File to Excel File

Each Area section Property defines a separate wall / slab, say n nos.

In the Connectivity – Area Sheet, add formulae in columns G:P and sort as per the section (wall / slab) to know
that whether a local axes of the section (wall / slab) is reversed or not.

The process described below will be repeated n times to get the results for n walls / slabs.

Work with Connectivity – Area, Joint Coordinate and Area Section assignment sheets to get the joint
coordinate for the first wall / slab. Refer W1-JC Sheet, where the data for one wall has been added. Note that
the data in W1-JC sheet is as per SAP 16.

The idea is to get the following info, which we shall be able to extract from SAP16 or SAP18.

Wall Plane YZ    
       
  X Y Z
Min 0.00 0.00 0.00
Max 0.00 14.75 6.00
Mesh Size   0.25 0.50
Avg 0.00 7.38 3.00

The above info gets transferred to W1-SCQ sheet. SCQ – Section Cut Quadrilateral

Value given in cells D2 (Wall Name) and D4 (Reversed or not) is to be changed for a particular wall / slab.

Value in Cells F2 and D10:F10 has been given as default and is not likely to be changed by a normal user.

Cells in W-SCG sheet gets filled up through formulae. SCG – Section Cut General

A small macro has been written – CopyData to copy the values of SCQ and SCG to SCQ and SCG sheets
Similar data for SCQ and SCG is to be prepared for all the walls / Slabs and to be written in the above file to get
the comprehensive data of section cuts for all walls / slabs

Note that SCQ and SCG are to be pasted as values below for the successive walls / slabs.

Also Note that there are formulae in the SCG sheet, which need to be extended as per the data

The values from the SCQ and SCG need to be transferred to the model. Same is done through Edit 
Interactive Database Editing. Macros to be written to make the process error free.

Changes in the model are applied to the model.

Analyze the model.

Access file is again exported. And Sheet Section Cut Forces – Design from Access is pasted in Results Sheet in
Excel.

In the Summary Sheet, Wall name and axes along which results are required are filled up to get the result for
each wall.

Note that the in the first summary table, axes Z or Y are filled up depending on whether the component is in XZ
/ YZ plane or XY plane. And in the second table the other axes, X/Y or X is filled up.

Results in desired format are ready