Command Reference

In the following the most important commands provided by the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface are listed. All SOFiSTiK commands are preceded by _sof. So, by typing simply _sof in the command-line all commands available through the SOFiSTiK interface will be shown by autocomplete.

• sofRhino

  This command displays the current release version number and the installation path of the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface.

  It may be used to activate the Interface in case it is not loaded automatically on startup of an empty project.

• sofLoadRhino

  This command enforces the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface to be loaded if not yet loaded and actived. No further action will be triggered by this command except loading and activating the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface.

  The Interface might not be loaded in case Rhino 3D models (3dm) not containing any FEA structural information is being loaded or in case of prior problems with this interface (e.g. licensing issues).

• sofGeneralSettings

  This command opens a dialog for general options of the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface.

  The options are basically distinguished between system wide and project specific settings. System wide settings are stored globally and thus are valid for any project on the given computer. Project specific settings are stored in the Rhino file and can be set for any project differently.

• sofStructProperties

  This command opens the dialog to specify and modify structural properties assigned to geometric entities.

  You can also open the dialog via the SOFiSTiK menu SOFiSTiK ‣ Structural Properties.

• sofToolbar

  This command opens the SOFiSTiK toolbar providing quick access to features of this interface (e.g. sofExportModel).

  The toolbar will be opened in case it was closed without any further action being triggered. You can also open the toolbar via the SOFiSTiK menu SOFiSTiK ‣ SOFiSTiK Toolbar.

• sofShowAnnotation

  This command triggers the structural IDs of selected entities to be shown in form of annotations (textual labels).

  The annotation labels will be placed on separate layers with specific names. You may change the layer names and layer assignment. However, we recommend keeping the default layer strucutre and naming.

• sofHideAnnotation

  This command will hide all active and visible structural ID annotations in the model.

• sofMatchProperties

  This command allows to copy selected properties of a structural item to other objects. Also new objects can be initialized with the structural properties of an existing item.

• sofSelectObjects

  This command gives access to entity selection methods using SOFiSTiK-specific property filters (e.g. object type filter).

  Wildcards can be used in the input masks of the dialog. For example, by entering the filter ’1*’ when searching for line numbers, all lines with an id starting with ’1’ will be selected (e.g. 1, 1001, 101254…).

• sofExportModel

  Exporting Rhino models with their structural properties to SOFiSTiK analysis is triggered by this command

  A dialog is opened to specifiy options and entire/partial model selection to be passed to SOFiSTiK for meshing and all downstream analysis tasks in SOFiSTiK. .

  When the command is started by right mouse click on the corresponding toolbar icon, the model is passed directly to SOFiSTiK with the previous export settings without extra opening the export dialog (’Silent Mode’).

• sofExtractVisualizationMesh

  Extracts the SOFiSTiK FE mesh of structural elements and converts them into Rhino mesh objects.

  After extraction the FE mesh now accesible in form of a Rhino mesh object can be modified and handled like any other native Rhino mesh by the mesh methods offered by Rhino (e.g. move mesh vertices). Without the use of this command, the finite element mesh generated by SOFiSTiK meshing and visualized on a structural object is not accessible by the user.

• sofSupportVisualisationSettingsDialog

  This command openes a dialog to change visualization settings of structural analysis support conditions at structural objects (e.g. symbol height or line thickness).

• sofLCSVisualisationSettingsDialog

  This command openes a dialog to change visualization settings of local coordinate systems at structural objects (e.g. symbol height).

• sofVisualisationSettings

  This command is utilized by the toolbar buttons to turn on or off SOFiSTiK specific visualization items, e.g. the visualization of structural boundary conditions.

  You may use this command manually, but typically this is a command used indirectly via the toolbar buttons. An example for manual use of this command would be sofVisualisationSettings type=display_all and sofVisualisationSettings type=display_none to show all or noen of the SOFiSTiK specific visualization items.

• sofShowHelp

  This command gives access to the full help and user documentation of the SOFiSTiK Rhino Interface.

  In case of an active internet connection you will be referred to the latest online help documentation. You can also access the help documentation via the menu SOFiSTiK ‣ Help.

• sofOpenExternalProgram

  This command allows you to call and execute any SOFiSTiK applications (e.g. Teddy, Wingraf, Animator, …) manually by its name.

  In general the interaction with the SOFiSTiK applications like editors, FEA and structural modules as well as utilities like SOFiSTiK viewers (e.g. Animator) is technically realized by calling the external SOFiSTiK applications out of Rhino respectively.

  However, easy access to the standard applications frequently used for a typical Rhino-SOFiSTiK analysis workflow is provided by seprate toolbar buttons.

• sofOrientLCoordToObject

  The local coordinate direction can be oriented towards other objects with the help of this command.

  The selected object as well as the target object to orient the coordinate system towards to, have to be SOFisTiK structural objects. The béhaviour is slightly different depending on the object type chosen to be oriented (SPT, SLN, SAR). This command is also utilized from wothin the structural property dialogs, where the orientation logic is described by the property tooltips.

• sofNewCoupling

  A new mechanical coupling of structural elements is defined by this command.

  Such a coupling can only be generated for pairs of element, to which such a coupling mechanically applies within SOFiSTiK FE analysis. Currently, couplings can be defined between the following object pairs: SPT-SPT, SPT-SLN, SLN-SLN.

  Entities will be converted to SOFiSTiK structural objects if necessary when being selected for a mechanical coupling (e.g. point to SPT). There are two selection modes for this command. You can either select two objects for 1-to-1 selection (Selection_mode=Single) or N-to-N multi selection modus (Selection_mode=Multiple).

• sofEditBoundaryHinge

  Boundary hinges are defined on BRep edges of surface boundary wires with the help of this command.

  Boundary hinges only apply to edges serving as bounding edges for surfaces with SOFiSTiK structural properties associated (SAR). Those edges are not to be confused with the document edge objects accessible to the user to which SLN structural properties can be applied but rather the actual geometric bounding edges of a surface object. You can also visually explore those edges using the native Rhino command _ShowEdges.

  After exporting the model to SOFiSTiK for meshing, geometric clean-up routines are applied to form mechanically conforming FE models. In this context geometrically intersecting or overlapping edges are mechanically merged together assuming mechanically rigid coupling of geometrically coincide entities. However, this might not be the desired mechanical behaviour, e.g. between a wall and slab where not all degrees of freedom might be coupled. In this case you will have to utilize this command to specify the numerically elastic or non-rigid degrees of freedom explicitly.