Rather than having to draw common structural shapes such as I beams, channels and angles, Section Maker lets you generate such shapes by typing in a few key dimensions.

To generate a standard shape

§    Choose Place Shape from the Shape menu

A dialog box will appear with a diagram of the shape and its key dimensions

§    Choose the type of shape you wish to generate

§    Choose a material for the shape

§    Type in the dimensions of the shape

§    Click the OK button

The generated shape will be placed in the Shape window centred about the origin of the x-y axes.

If you enter non-zero values for the fillet and/or toe radii, r1 and r2, these radii will be modelled as small polygons in the placed shape. This improves the calculation of section properties so that the computed values compare very closely to values published by manufacturers. The radii of the fillet and toes are also stored in section property fields r1 and r2 in the sections library.