User interface

Menu Bar

The Menu bar contains file operations (File), drawing (Draw), editing commands (Edit), assistant tools (Tools), settings (Settings), views (View), window-system (Window) and user-guides (Help).

Menu commands having icons next to their names can be organized in Toolbars around the Application window. Some commands can be executed by hotkey displayed behind the command name.

Tab menus

Tab menus contain the main functionalities and their order displays the recommended structural design workflow.

By default, Tab menus have different Object layer settings to protect their elements from the others. That means, for example, structural elements (defined at Structure tab) are protected against load editing (Load tab) although they can selected for load definition. Of course, the available layers of tabs can be customized (Status bar > Current layer). The optional module Documentation can be launched from the Tab menus bar

Toolbars

The Menu bar commands can be grouped in toolbars with their icons and placed next to Application window.

By default, the Standard and the View toolbars are displayed and the other toolbars are hidden. If you right-click anywhere on the menu or on one of the displayed toolbars, a list appears, where toolbars can be set visible or hidden.

Customize… allows you to edit the command content of the toolbar, on which the right-click is used. A toolbar can be moved into new position by dragging it with its “thick vertical line” start.

Application window

Two main windows types are available in FEM-Design:

• Graphical window
  It works as a drawing board and displays the model defined in the current project.
• Detailed result window
  Analysis and design results with detailed background calculation formulas (code references), figures and tables can be displayed by single elements or by design groups in separate windows. Quick navigation is powered with zooming details.

An arbitrary number of windows can be opened (Window menu) to show for example a model in different views at the same time. The list of the currently available windows is shown at the bottom of the windows (tabs) and in the Window menu. You can swap between the windows by clicking on their name tabs or by choosing the requested one in the Window menu. Applied windows can be arranged by Window > Arrange. Right-clicking on a window tab, the window’s name can be edited.

Quick tools

Quick tools is a tool window that contains the often used functions such Layers, Results and Filter.

Quick tools can be enabled in several ways:

1. Settings > Environment > General > Quick tools
2. Right click on the toolbars > Quick tools
3. Window tab > Other windows > Quick tools

Quick tool window can be placed anywhere on the screen and it can be docked to the left and right side of the FEM-Design model view area. The docked Quick tool window can be also collapsed.

Status bar

The Status bar is situated under the Application window and separated into the following parts.

• Selection
  Number of the selected elements (bars, shells, supports, loads, etc.) can be seen in the lower part of design area.
• Co-ordinate box
  It shows the exact coordinates of the crosshair cursor in the current co-ordinate system. Coordinates can be also given for point/direction definition in a dialog appears after clicking on the Co-ordinate box (see Entering Co-ordinates).
• “Current layer” button
  Clicking the button opens a dialog contains the layer-system of the current project. All layer operations like defining new, renaming, color-assignment, showing/hiding and deleting are available in the layer-system dialog. The “Current layer” button displays the name of the current drawing layer.
• “Current style” button
  This button shows the line type currently available for drawing lines, arc, circles, edges etc. (Draw menu). Clicking the button opens a dialog, where new line type can be defined or line types can be edited.
• Point/Direction editor
  Editor tools provide reference points and lines by using existing lines and points during element definition, drawing and editing.
• Object snap tools
  Here you can set the snapping distance and turn object snaps on and off.
• “Current color” button
  Here you can set the drawing color independently from the color of the current drawing layer. This color is used for numeric values on result figures too.
• “OK” and “Cancel” buttons
  These tools approve or reject the current operation.
• Command line
  Here you can directly communicate with the program for example by typing coordinate values in it. In the command line coordinates can be defined in several ways (see Entering Coordinates). Command line also displays additional messages to show the steps of the current command.

Tool palette

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Dialog

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