What It Does
Modeler is a V1 structural workflow for steel frames, columns, beams, braces, trusses, and floor/roof/wall panels.
Use it to create a warehouse or multi-story frame, apply supports and building loads, run linear static analysis, see member and surface result visuals, and print a concise analysis report.
Quick Start
Fastest Way To Analyze A Building Frame
- Use + Create to generate a Warehouse, Multi-story frame, or grid frame.
- Enter the main dimensions: floors, building length, building depth, floor height, and roof rise when needed.
- The generated model assigns starter steel sections, frame/truss member types, base supports, self-weight, and starter roof loads.
- Select or right-click joints and members to add supports and loads. Use Analyze to review readiness and solve.
- Click Run Static for force/displacement results, or Run Modal for natural frequencies and mode participation.
- In Results, switch between member force/stress views and surface displacement, stress, membrane force, shell moment, and shear contours.
For Users
What You Can Do In V1
- Create common steel building frames quickly instead of starting from a blank model.
- Mix frame3d beams/columns with truss3d braces in one structure.
- Draw floor, roof, and wall panels as load-transfer panels or solver-active membrane, plate, and shell panels.
- Apply gravity, roof member loads, selected-member loads, point loads, point moments, and nodal loads.
- Check deflection, support reactions, member response, and surface contour results.
- Use verified solver checks and generated concept examples to confirm the workflow before modeling your own project.
Workflow
How The Interface Is Organized
The app is organized around three main modes: Model, Analyze, and Results.
- Model is for geometry creation, 2D panel authoring, selection, right-click editing, loads, section/material changes, copying, arrays, mirrors, and joint cleanup.
- Analyze is for readiness checks, load case review, combinations, and solving the current model.
- Results is for solved output only. It stays disabled until analysis is available.
- Use the topbar, Sketch ribbon, right inspector, and right-click context menu for modeling actions.
Model Layers
Physical, Analytical, And Mesh Views
V1 edits structural authoring objects and converts them into a solver-ready analytical model during validation and analysis.
- Authoring model is what users edit: members, joints, supports, loads, and floor/roof/wall panels.
- Analytical model is what the solver receives: nodes, frame/truss elements, surface panels, supports, load cases, and combinations.
- Mesh/results model is generated for analysis: line elements, triangular surface elements, deformed shape, diagrams, and contour results.
- Phase 0 makes these layers explicit before adding broader physical objects, advanced analysis, and BIM interoperability.
Model
Create Or Generate 3D Geometry
Use Model to generate starter buildings, create blank models, draw extra members, and edit the current 3D model.
- Warehouse creates a single or low-rise steel frame with roof framing and optional bracing/truss members.
- Multi-story frame creates stacked floor framing with columns, beams, and floor levels.
- Floor plate length is the X direction; building depth is the Z direction; floor height is story height in Y.
- Use the sketch tools to draw beams, columns, braces, trusses, panels, arcs, rings, and splines in the XZ floor, XY elevation, or YZ elevation plane.
- Use chain mode, snaps, and optional length input to keep geometry connected and repeatable.
- Select a member or joint to edit it. The Smart Panel changes based on what is selected.
Loads By Selection
Assign Supports And Loads By Target
Use selection, the right-click menu, and the Smart Panel to define analysis inputs on the objects they affect.
- Use Dead for self-weight and permanent loads. Use Live for roof UDL and selected-member loads.
- Select joints, then apply Fixed, Pinned, or Roller supports.
- Select joints, then apply nodal loads with global Fx, Fy, and Fz components in kN.
- Select members, then apply gravity UDLs or point loads in global or local directions.
- Roof UDLs and selected-member UDLs are line loads on frame members. Joint loads display as arrows at joints.
- Use the right inspector and context menu for object loads. Generated models include starter load cases and self-weight.
Surface Panels
Model Floors, Roofs, And Walls
Use the surface drawing tools to create planar panel boundaries. The app generates triangular finite elements from the panel shape.
- Load-only transfer panels create equivalent member loads and do not add surface stiffness.
- Membrane panels resist in-plane action for walls and diaphragms; normal area loads and normal self-weight components are blocked.
- Plate panels resist out-of-plane bending for slabs and roofs.
- Shell panels combine membrane and plate behavior for floor, roof, and wall panels.
- Semi-rigid diaphragms use membrane or shell in-plane stiffness. Rigid floor and roof diaphragms export in-plane node constraints for static, modal, and response-spectrum analysis.
- Right-click any panel to edit its 2D element type, area load, load case, and direction in one compact menu.
- Surface self-weight uses material unit weight and panel thickness when gravity loads are active.
Support Data
Supports, Footings, Soil Springs, And Mats
Foundation records live with selected base joints and supports instead of a separate topbar mode.
- Save support-linked isolated footing, strip footing, mat foundation, and pile cap records for physical/source mapping.
- Apply preliminary nodal soil springs where support flexibility should affect the linear static solve.
- Create a mat foundation plate over selected supported joints with tributary soil springs.
- Foundation records are not final geotechnical or concrete design checks; verify bearing, settlement, punching, sliding, overturning, and reinforcement outside V1.
Analyze
Check Readiness And Run The Solver
Use Analyze to check model readiness, then run linear static analysis for the current load cases and combinations, modal eigenvalue analysis for natural frequencies, or elastic response-spectrum preview for dynamic response review.
- Check Model flags missing supports, missing loads, duplicate members, unused joints, and broken references before solving.
- Run Static sends the current members, joints, supports, load cases, combinations, sections, and materials to the solver.
- The static geometry selector supports Small displacement and P-Delta / second-order for 3D frame static solves. P-Delta runs iterative member geometric stiffness and reports convergence metadata.
- Run Modal uses the same 3D stiffness model with lumped mass from material unit weight to return natural frequencies, periods, and mass participation.
- Run Buckling computes elastic critical load factors and buckling mode shapes for the current static load pattern.
- Run Spectrum uses manual period/acceleration points or simplified SDS/SD1/TL design-spectrum controls, then combines modal response using SRSS or CQC.
- Spectrum results include selectable directions, 100/30 X+Z directional envelopes, optional vertical Y scaling, base-shear upscaling, ZPA missing-mass residual correction, accidental-torsion envelopes, modal contribution rows, story drifts, and recovered member/reaction envelopes when returned by the solver.
- The elastic spectrum preview does not apply service load-to-mass factors, automated site-hazard lookup, design-code load combinations, or member code checks.
- Member connection intent helps communicate behavior: moment, pinned, brace axial, or truss axial.
- For mixed frame/truss models, beams and columns carry axial, shear, bending, and torsion response. Brace/truss members carry axial response only.
- Fix blocking issues first. Results are available only after a successful solve.
Results
Review Displacements, Reactions, And Member Response
Use Results to inspect the active load case or combination after analysis has completed.
- Open the results viewer to inspect solved response in the 3D workspace.
- Switch between result sets with the load case or combination selector.
- Display axial force, axial stress, bending moment, displacement magnitude, reaction magnitude, surface contours, modal shapes, linear buckling modes, or response-spectrum envelopes.
- Adjust deformation scale to make deflected shape behavior easier to inspect.
- Reaction arrows show support forces. Bending moment mode shows a moment diagram overlay for frame members. Surface result modes color generated triangular panel elements.
- Use PDF Report to print the current analysis summary and results.
Examples
Use Verified Checks Before You Trust A Workflow
The Examples dropdown mixes closed-form solver checks with generated concept models. Treat concept examples as starters, not exact real structures.
- 3D axial bar is a closed-form sanity check with expected displacement, reaction, and stress.
- Warehouse frame + truss/bracing checks a generated mixed frame/truss building.
- Multi-story frame checks generated floor framing and vertical columns.
- Frame3D member UDL uses a Live case. If Dead is selected, results are correctly zero because that case has no UDL.
- 3D FZ load + UZ restraint checks out-of-plane frame loading and support validation.
Save & Exchange
Save, Import, Export, And Reports
Use the built-in save and exchange tools to keep work moving between sessions and reviews.
- Save and Save Local preserve the project in browser storage.
- Load Local restores a previously saved project.
- Download JSON and Import JSON exchange model data between sessions or users.
- Export prepares the solver-ready payload for inspection and integration work.
- PDF Report prints the current analysis summary and result tables available in V1.
Limits
V1 Analysis Scope
V1 is intended for model preparation, load path review, preliminary small-displacement linear static analysis, and solver workflow validation. It is not final code design.
- Confirm units, sections, material assumptions, connectivity, supports, and load direction before using results.
- Member connection intent is a modeling input for expected behavior; verify that the analysis idealization matches the physical system.
- Surface shell results are suitable for workflow validation and load-path review; benchmark hardening is still required before final design use.
- For mixed frame/truss models, validate axial-only members, releases, and stability paths outside the app before design decisions.
- The section library and result summaries are workflow aids and do not replace engineering design checks.
- V1 includes modal eigenvalue and elastic response-spectrum preview with SRSS/CQC, 100/30 horizontal envelopes, vertical scaling, base-shear scaling, ZPA missing-mass residual correction, and accidental-torsion envelopes. It does not yet include service load-to-mass factors, full code spectrum site lookup, automated code combinations, or design checks.
- V1 includes P-Delta / second-order static and linear buckling as elastic stability indicators. It does not yet include time-history, material nonlinear, large-rotation, post-buckling path following, staged-construction, fatigue, thermal, moving-load, true solid-element, concrete foundation design, connection design, or code-check workflows.