The grid of a building or a structure is a conventional arrangement necessary
As a general, grids pass through building structural column centers or
The grid lines are patterned both horizontally and vertically, thus making
up the grid a three-dimensional object.
To avoid the 3D view overloading, the grid is visible only in its plane
section at a specific building elevation or a sectional view of the building,
otherwise, the model image would look as it is shown in the above picture.
Sectional views of the building and plane sections at specific building
elevations are displayed in the eye gaze direction from the major axis
to the minor axis. Thus creating an axis view has a predefined display
orientation, which can not be changed.
Axis 4 view
+3,000 elevation section view
Axis B view
By creating a new basic view, we get only one view and one grid. It has
a +0,000 elevation (section) view.
We also created basic views in the XZ plane corresponding to the А-axis
Thus, we have already got 3 (three) views, each available on the plane
By selecting the views and using the Ctrl+P hotkey combination, we get
2.2.1 The “Grid properties” window in Tekla Structures
Enable the “Select Grids” snapping tool by pressing the respective
button of the bottom tools ribbon, as is shown below.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2020
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key
Go to the “Grid Properties” menu by executing a double-click
at any grid line.
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Tekla Structures v2021
If the dialog window opened looks different from the one presented above,
it means you made a double-click on the work area, not at a grid line,
and the dialog window that appeared is the "View Properties"
menu. In this case, close the window and repeat the algorithm until succeeded.
The “Grid settings” menu may refer to one single grid line
The “Modify” button performs settings modifications in a model.
If no modifications are done, the “Modify” button does not
perform any action. Changing the grid settings in the model requires modification
of the values of the parameters and their confirmation by pressing the
“Modify” button.
The “Modify” button runs the updates only in case at least
one of the values of the parameters is changed. Let’s examine the
first parameter, by writing into the respective field a new value and confirming
it by pressing the “Modify” button.
The first “Grid Properties” menu field stands for
Coordinates,
which specifies
the distances between the grid lines.
Note that coordinate 0.000 in all the fields is a constant value and should
Make up the grid coordinates values for the axes X, Y, and Z equal to
Proceed as follows:
1. Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key
2. Make sure the required grid is selected (enabled), if not, make a left-click
3. Press the “
Modify
” button.
4. In the ‘ Replace confirmation’ dialog window, confirm the
updates by clicking the “Yes” button (valid for the older TS
versions).
The selected grid gets shaped as follows:
Tekla Structures v21.1
Note that the “Modify” button acts only in case there was
selected at least one object. If no objects are selected, pressing
the “Modify” button performs no modifications in the 3D model.
Tekla Structures v2021
Note that prior to any parameter value modification, the “Modify”
button is not active. Introducing any modifications activates the button.
Thus we created the grid in the coordinate 0.0.0, defined by axes X, Y,
Z. The current alignment of the axes is displayed at the right
bottom
corner of the view.
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Tekla Structures v2021
Add a grid line at the axis OX at the distance of 6 meters from the origin
point. Go to the "Grid Properties" menu, and insert into the
X-axis field the required distance value of 6 meters expressed in mm right
after the coordinate 0.00. Spacing is the mandatory separator between
the field values.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Let's create one more grid line on the axis X at a 1000 mm distance
from the previous line, thus inserting into the X-axis field the following
values: “0 6000 1000”. The TS automatically sets up the decimal
places after the comma. Keep in mind that all the dimensions shall be expressed
in millimeters, and the spacing between values is the mandatory separator.
Confirm the updates by pressing the “Modify” button and compare
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Thus adding up a new grid line requires introducing into the axis field
a new distance value. As a case study, let’s insert two more grid
lines with the distances between them of 6000 mm.
Thus the “0.000 6000.000 1000.000 6000 6000” values
Note that the consecutively repeating values are automatically simplified
where:
N stands for the number of occurrences of a value
L stands for the distance value between the grid lines
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Let’s modify the X-axis coordinates values from “2*6000.000”
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Tekla Structures v2021
Note that the newly created grid lines are not tagged by any symbol, since
Add to the Y-axis 4 new grid lines with the distance between them of 6000
Proceed similarly to the algorithm for completing the X-axis coordinates
field and refer to the
below
picture:
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Tekla Structures v2021
It is important to understand that the coordinate field values for the
axes X and Y represent distances between the grid lines, but in the case
of the Z-axis field, the values define the elevation point from +0,000.
Insert the following values into the Z-axis coordinate field: “0
3000”
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
The elevation grid line was created, but it is labeled not as +3,000,
according to the coordinates field value, but -1,500 which is incorrect,
though the real distance to the grid line is +3,000 meters. It is
always a very confusing case for those who just started to work in the
TS.
That is why we would like to highlight that a label is just a text, editable
at the “Labels” section fields. The “Label” field
is a specific field, where the grid lines’ titles are specified.
We will get back to this topic, meanwhile, let’s familiarize ourselves
with all the features of the “Label” section.
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Tekla Structures v2020
The grid lines titles may not have an orderly sequence and can be expressed
in letters of the alphabet, as well as by various symbols. Thus the
grid lines titles labeling is not automatically set up by TS and is due
to the manual typing in. The already existing labels are the default values
of TS and their number is limited.
Let’s write in the missing gridlines titles and adjust the elevation
Let’s write in the missing labels for the X-axis grid lines by inserting
their titles by space and pressing the "Modify" button.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Thus all the X-axis labels are displayed on the view. If required,
proceed the same way for the Y-axis. In the current case study, it is not
required. All the Y-axis labels are tagged.
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Tekla Structures v2021
Let's fix up the appropriate titles for the Z-axis grid lines.
To get a clear understanding that the values introduced into the “Labels''
field are just textual data, let’s express the grid line titles in
words: ”Alex”, “John”. Compare your results
to the below:
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Tekla Structures v2021
As soon as the spacing is the mandatory separator, we can not employ this
symbol into the grid lines titles, unless we enclose the title body into
the double quotes. Exercise setting up the following titles for the Z-axis
grid lines: "Ground level", "1st floor". Compare your
results to those presented below:
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Tekla Structures v2021
Along with the elevation values expressed in mm, the symbols "+/-"
shall be specified. Let’s write in a couple of elevation labels in
the ascending order.
Do not deviate from the ascending order:
”-250 0 3000 6000 9000 12000”,
this being a very strict TS requirement.
Example of the labels with the distances expressed in meters:
“-0.250 0.000 +3.000 +6.000 +9.000 +12.000”.
Do not miss the
0.000
elevation label!!
If there is a large number of labels to be inserted, follow the shortcut
by copying the Z-axis coordinates field values, pasting them to the labels
field, and editing the values’ line by adding the symbols ”+/-"
and converting the values from mm to meters.
Also, you can use a special plug-in to perform automatic labeling in a
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
The “Line extensions/ Extended grid lines” field
This section defines the required grid lines extension from the intersection
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
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Tekla Structures v2021
If we specify the field values equal to zero, then the grid lines endpoints
coincide with the grid lines intersection points, which makes it quite
difficult to examine a drawing, due to the collisions between grid lines
and grid lines labels.
Examine the case by setting to zero all the “ Line extensions”
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Substitute in succession the values of the parameters to 5000 mm and examine
Each axis ( X, Y, Z) has its origin and the endpoint, thus the extensions
of the grid lines shall be applied to the beginning of the axis and its
end accordingly.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
After completing the exercise, set out the values of the “Line
extensions” parameters to 2000, thus preventing the interference
of the grid lines extensions.
The “Origin'' section fields allow you to relocate a grid
line or to create a new one at the designated coordinates in the global
reference frame. However this field is seldomly used, as far as there are
other tools preferably applied to relocate a grid.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Go to the “Grid Properties” menu.
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Fill in into the “Origin'' section fields the following
values: Y =35000, X=0, Z=0.
Press the “Create” button. ( It is important to make a single
click at the button, to avoid creating grid duplicates).
Tekla Structures v2021
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Go to the grid tab at the top main menu and select the “Create rectangular
grid” option.
By a left-click, allocate the new grid randomly.
Fill in into the “Origin” section fields the following values
accordingly: Y =35000, X=0, Z=0.
Press the “Modify” button.
To check whether any duplicates were created, select the grid by
holding on the mouse cursor pressed in the direction from left to right
and refer to the number of the selected objects displayed in the right
bottom corner of the main TS window.
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Tekla Structures v2021
If it shows more than 1 (one) object, then delete unwanted grid duplicates.
Tekla Structures v21.1
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The “Magnetic grid plane” tool snaps objects to the grid.
For example, snapping columns to the magnetic grid lines intersection points
allows relocating the columns to any new coordinates upon the distance
changes between the gridlines. (Objects can be snapped only to the intersection
points of the grid lines).
But in practice, this tool is not frequently used due to the structure's
Also, in the applied practices, it is conventionally agreed that the distances
between the columns are multiples of 6 (six) as well as the necessity
to edit them during the project design is a rare occurrence.
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Tekla Structures v2021
We will skip on this tool at the moment.
The Grids/ labels color and font size.
Try out changing the grid color and the font size and color of the labels
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This function is not available in the old TS versions.
Tekla Structures v2021
The User-defined attributes
All the Tekla Structures parameters, which are specified by the user or
a localization package are accessible via the UDA section. The UDA
can be edited by adding various new parameters (attributes).
As an example, let’s examine the attribute “locked”.
Activating this parameter makes editing the grid impossible. This is a
very useful tool while working in the multi-user regime when any accidental
grid displacement may cause unwanted consequences.
If editing a grid is required, it is always possible to restore the possibility
to proceed on this by resetting up the user-defined attributes. Let’s
examine the activating/deactivating the “locked” attribute.
Go to the “Grid properties” menu.
Make sure all operations are cancelled or press the ESC key.
Go to the “User-defined attributes” menu.
In the menu window find parameter “locked” and change its
status to “yes” .
Make sure the required grid is selected and press the “Modify”
button.
Close the “User-defined attributes” menu.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Now deleting or editing the grid is not possible and any such attempt
See for yourself by trying deleting the grid:
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Select the grid.
Press the “Delete” key.
Confirm deleting the grid by pressing the “Delete” button
in the pop up window:
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
To delete a grid, follow the below algorithm :
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Go to the "Grid Properties" menu, "User-defined attributes"
tab.
Find the “Locked” parameter and change its status to “no”.
Make sure the required grid is selected.
Press the “Modify” button.
Select the grid and press the "Delete" key.
Confirm deleting the grid by pressing the "OK" button in the
pop-up window.
The grid should get deleted. If not, then you did not set up the “Locked”
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Cancel the delete operation by enabling the CTRL+Z hotkey combination.
The grid objects can be extremely complex and composed of a large number
It is recommended to keep such a grid's settings saved under a name;
thus in the case of any accidental deletion, it could be easily restored.
Also, saved grids may serve as a pattern for other models and help to avoid
creating grids anew.
To save the grid settings, use the standard "Saving Settings"
The "Saving Settings" field is identical to the other fields
and is used for keeping up settings of various objects, such as grids,
beams, columns, etc.
All the data introduced into the "Grid Properties" menu are
essentially textual. Thus saving the settings means saving textual data
which become accessible in a click at a respective title in the "Saved
Grid Settings" field.
Let’s save the settings of the current grid under the title “My
After typing in the grid title, press the “Save as/ Save”
button. Pressing the “Modify” button is not required.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
As a result, the saved grid is available for selection in the boot menu
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
You might observe that in the drop-down menu of the "Saved grid settings"
there already are two options available for selection, one of them being
the very grid, titled “My grid 1”, and another, specified as
“Standard”, which is the TS default grid configuration.
Let’s switch the grid configuration by selecting the “Standard”
Tekla Structures v21.1
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Make sure the grid object is selected.
Choose the “Standard” option from the boot menu.
Press the “Load” button ( it performs data uploading into
all the settings fields).
Press the “Modify” button.
The grid changes its geometry.
Tekla Structures v2021
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Make sure the grid is selected.
Choose the “Standard” option from the boot menu.
Press the “Modify” button.
The grid changes its geometry.
Restore the grid to “My grid 1” by repeating the above algorithm.
Exercise randomly changing the values of the grid settings fields and
save a new grid under the title “My grid 2”. Toggle between
the saved grids.
The main distinctions between the "SAVE" and "SAVE AS"
Tekla Structures v21.1
The “Save” button retains the grid’s (or any other object’s)
values of the parameters. This button does not create any new grid (or
any other object). It comes in handy in case any rectifications to the
existing grid settings are required.
The “Save As” button retains any arbitrary title written into
the ‘Name’ box, including any already existing title.
Tekla Structures v2021
The new Tekla Structures versions are available only on the “Save”
button, which executes creating a new grid (or any other object), as well
as allows selecting and retaining settings modifications of an already
saved configuration of an object.
Also, the new TS versions do not have the ‘Load’ button. All
the data are automatically filled in into the fields upon a click at any
of the saved configurations.
It is possible to upload saved grids into other TS projects. Saving a
grid makes the TS build-up textual files, describing the current configurations,
and store them in the model folder.
To open the model folder, please proceed as shown in the below picture:
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Go to the “File” tab and click on the "Open Model Folder"
option. The respective folder opens in a new window. The number of
the folder files and the contents depend on the localization package in
use and other numerous settings.
All the user settings and saved configuration are stored in the files
in the “Attributes”
folder . Open it .
In the list of the files find the ones titled accordingly: “My grid
The file “My grid 1.grd” contains all the grid settings, except
The file “My grid 1.grd.more” contains user attributes
All the files are stored in the plain text format which is readable in
any text editor.
It is sufficient to copy-paste the files into the new model’s "Attributes"
folder. After executing the pasting of the files, the respective data (configurations)
get available in the new model. Toggle to the required grid (or any other
object) option in the boot menu.
For our further exploration of the TS software functioning, we have to
examine the snapping tools. The snapping tools aim to facilitate choosing
the right geometry types for the physical snapping of the objects during
any structure modeling. Thus snapping indicates the points' or objects'
position at the geometry. There are several snapping tools. You can read
their descriptions by pointing the mouse cursor to any snapping tool icon.
Familiarize yourself with all of them.
Activate all the snapping tools, except for “Snap to lines and edges”.
In common practice, real grids have a complex shape and consist
of several grids which are diversely located or rotated in relation to
each other.
Complex grid
Model with the complex grid
Building up a complex grid requires creating several simple grids and
allocating them with respect to each other at some specific coordinates.
A simple moving of a grid does not require knowing the precise destination
coordinates, and it is possible to visually arrange its location at the
work plane. Thus creating simple grids and allocating them at the specific
coordinates builds up complex grid structures.
The algorithm for moving a grid is as follows:
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Select the required grid.
Enable the Ctrl+M hotkey combination.
Indicate the 1st point defining from where the grid shall be moved.
Indicate the 2nd point defining where the grid shall be moved.
In case of the alert message “Objects outside the work area and
view depth” pop up, confirm the action by clicking at the “Expand”
button.
Press the Esc key to cancel the moving operation.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
When moving a grid, make sure that snapping tools are activated
Try out displacing the grid and restore its initial position by enabling
Copying a grid differs from moving a grid (or any other object) only at
the point that copying does not delete the initial object (grid) from its
origin coordinates, but duplicates the grid (or any other object) in the
new coordinates specified by the user.
The algorithm for copying a grid is as follows:
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Select the required grid.
Enable the Ctrl+C hotkey combination.
Indicate the 1st point defining from where to copy the grid.
Indicate the 2nd point defining where to copy the grid.
Press the Esc key to cancel the copying operation.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Try out copying the grid and restore its initial position by enabling
the CTRL+Z hotkey combination.
The “Radial grid” tool is the one seldomly invoked. Usually,
this tool is used when designing structures with round (curved) facade
elements.
Tekla Structures v21.1
The older Tekla Structures versions are not available on the "Radial
grids" tool, but it is possible to copy a grid several times from
the indicated point at a certain angle. Here we go to the first method
for creating a radial grid.
Radial grids, created by the first method, are displayed as straight sections.
This method can be exercised in all the TS versions.
Tekla Structures v2021
In the new Tekla Structures versions, the “Radial grid” tool
is a separate tool, which defines the second method for creating a radial
grid.
Use only this method when drawing up a radial grid. It is important to
mention that, at the moment, the features of the “Radial grid”
tool are not quite full and have some shortcomings. For example, it is
not possible to create a view along the curvilinear grid line.
Method 1
Method 2
Note that the grid created by the 2nd method has a continuous arc line,
but not a spotty arc formed of the line segments as it resulted by the
first method.
Let’s create a radial grid using the first method by copy-pasting
an additional grid consisting of a single grid line at the indicated point
to a predetermined angle.
Let’s edit the main grid in the way that the central line of the
The number of the horizontal grid lines is to be impair, thus set out
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Copy-paste the new grid in the way its origin coordinates to coincide
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Go to the new “Grid Properties" menu and indicate the zero
value for the X-axis coordinate field and the "0.000 2*6000.000"
value for the Y-axis coordinate field.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Copy the new grid circle-wise around the indicated rotation center a certain
Make sure all operations are canceled or press the ESC key.
Select the main grid.
Go to the right-click menu.
Select the “Copy Special” tab.
Enable the “Rotate” option.
Indicate the center (copy center/ rotation center) point by a left-click
on it.
In the window opened, indicate the number of copies equal to 5.
Specify the rotation angle as -30.
Press the “Copy” button.
Note: it is important to follow the sequence of the operations, otherwise
you might fail on the procedure and will have to repeatedly run it. The
“Copy Special” tool will be examined in detail in the following
chapters.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
Let’s create a radial grid by using the 2nd method and applying
Tekla Structures v21.1
Tekla Structures v2021
As older TS versions are not available on the “Radial grid”
tool, keep going with the 1st method. In the new TS versions let’s
examine the second method.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Let’s create one more grid by indicating the positive rotation angle
value.
Tekla Structures v2021
The "Radial grid" tool is available in the new TS versions and
is located on the main menu toolbar. As it was formerly mentioned, at the
moment the features of the "Radial grid" tool are not quite full
and have some shortcomings. For example, it is not possible to create a
view based on a curvilinear grid line.
Tekla Structures v21.1
Indicate the following values in the "Copy Special-Rotate" dialog
window: number of copies equal to 7, and the rotation angle of +30.
Delete all the redundant grid lines.
Tekla Structures v2021
Point out the rotation center of the radial grid.
Open the new “Grid Properties" menu and indicate the radial
coordinates equal to "0.000 2*6000.000", and angular coordinates
equal to "90 6*30".