Tekla Structures midas Gen/Civil link guide

Tekla Structures - midas Gen/Civil link has been developed by Harpaceas Srl
CspFea is the Italian official partner of midas software
Harpaceas is the official distributor of midas Gen/Civil for North West of Italy

Introduction
Tekla Structures midas Gen / Civil link is a tool developed in order to speed up the time usually
required to generate structural models and to perform the phase of analysis and design.

Operative systems, Tekla S. midas Gen compatibility

Tekla Structures V 20.0
midas Gen 2014 midas Civil 2014
Windows 8 / Windows 7, 32/64 bit.

Notes for correct procedure

Structural elements can only be transferred using the interface. Any secondary parts must be
unselected. Data related to Tekla S. Macro is not supported.
In order to prevent errors during importing data to midas Gen, verify Tekla S. model in advance.
The error can occur due to irregularities or unsupported elements. Steel detail elements or other
miscellaneous objects need to be specified as beams or columns.

How the procedure works

Refer to the AVI video called: Tekla_Midas_v20_ENG.avi or Tekla_Midas_v20_ITA.avi

Units
Tekla S. allows to use different units between drawing models and A&D models.
Also, the procedure works differently depending on the Merge option.
a) When Merge option is not activated

The model file is transferred considering the units defined by the user from the option
command. Nodal coordinates are updated according to the selected units.
B) When Merge option is activated
The model file is transferred considering the following input:
The units defined by the user from the option command.
When the model file is exported from midas (MGT / MCT file), unit defined in midas
model will be applied.
If the units are not identical, the units defined by the user will be applied in order to
avoid errors in load data values.
Current limitations & types of elements/objects transferred from Tekla S. to midas Gen/Civil are
shown in the table below.

Category

Features

from Tekla

from midas

OS

W8 / W7; 32 - 64 bit
concrete

cnv file (including env)

cnv file

steel

cnv file (including env)

cnv file

pre cast - wood and other types

user defined

user defined

Material user defined

user defined

user defined

vertical

inclined

straight

curved

a curved is divided into

beams

N/A

slab

vertical panel

N/A

slab/panel with openings(wall)

N/A

N/A

MATERIAL

Column

ELEMENT
TYPE/ROTATIONS

Beam

Concrete panels and

slabs are transferred as
plate elements.
2D ELEMENTS

Concrete panels and slab

If Shear wall is selected

in analysis properties of
2D element, then a wall
element is transferred in
midas Gen.

Each element is
transferred as 2D
element

BOUNDARY
CONDITIONS

STATIC LOAD

LOAD COMB

MERGE OPTION

support

beam end release

section offset

beam end offset

N/A

Self-weight

Self-Weight is
automatically generated

linear load (uniform or

trapezoidal)

v
(load group defined by
the user)

transferred as uniform
also if trapezoidal

floor loads

N/A

N/A

auto generate

N/A

N/A

new element

new element that divides other

elements

topology changes

section change

delete element

divide element

change only the offset

Rectangular

Circular

solid round

T shape

T inverted

L shape

U shape

I shape

Box shape

C shape

Pipe

N/A

N/A

new element outside original

new element inside original
GET RESULT FROM
midas

change only the rotation

CROSS SECTION
SHAPES

BEAM OFFSET

beam offset inside the section

beam end offset

pinned-pinned for
beams

N/A

2L

N/A

2C

N/A

Column(vertical)

beam

Beam(straight)

beam

Beam column (truss in

analysis properties)

TWIN PROFILES

ELEMENT ANALYSYS
OPT.

Slab
Panel

v
v

Truss
Plate (thick /w drill dof)
Plate (thick /w drill dof)

Panel (Shear Wall in analysis

properties)

curved 2D elements

N/A

N/A

static/dynamic

N/A

N/A

SEISMIC LOADS

Wall (plate sub - type)

Beta angle for 1D elements

In order to correctly transfer beta angle data to midas, the data is transferred according to the rule
in the table below:

Tekla Elem PART name

midas beta angle

Column

Tekla S angle-90

Beam twin profile

Tekla S angle

Beam single profile

Tekla S angle+180

Beta angle for 1D TWIN profiles elements

In order to correctly transfer beta angle data to midas, the data is transferred according to the rule
in the table below:

Tekla element position

midas beta angle

Front

-180

Top

-90

Back

Below

90

Materials management
To transfer data related to material, MATEXP_MIDAS.CNV file is used. The example of file
structure is shown below.
TEKLA
!EN05(S)]

midas
EN05(S)]

S235JR

S235

EN05(S)

S275JR

S275

EN05(S)

S355JR

S355

EN05(S)

S450JR

S450

EN05(S)

S275N/NL

S275N/NL

EN05(S)

S355N/NL

S355N/NL

EN05(S)

The !EN(05) is the Title of the section

The first column is Tekla S. material name.
The second column is midas Gen/Civil material name.
The third column is the specification name used in midas Gen/Civil.
Cross section data table
Section type

midas
section Code

Tekla S.
section Code

Remarks

I profile

(IPE,HEAB,HEA, HEM, not IPN)

L profile

C profile

T profile

B (box)

Rect hollow

UNDEFINED

P (pipe)

Circ hollow

UNDEFINED

Double angle

2L

Twin profile

UNDEFINED

Double channel

2C

Twin profile

UNDEFINED

Solid Rect

SB

Rect section

Solid round

SR

Circular section

Cold F (cold formed)

CC

Not transfer

U Rib

URIB

Not transfer

T section inverted

UDT

UNDEFINED

RCDL

To transfer section data, PRFEXP_MIDAS.CNV file is used.

This file contains information of Tekla material and the corresponding midas material. It can be
modified by the user if required.
TEKLA

MIDAS

UPN80

UPN80

UNI

UPN100

UPN100

UNI

UPN120

UPN120

UNI

UPN140

UPN140

UNI

UPN160

UPN160

UNI

UPN180

UPN180

UNI

UPN200

UPN200

UNI

UPN220

UPN220

UNI

UPN240

UPN240

UNI

The first column is the Tekla S. section name.

The second column is the midas Gen/Civil section name.
The third column is the specification name.

The interface works in the following way:

- The material and sections will be linked using the CNV material / section file.
- If the material/section can be successfully linked, a cross section type 1 (DB section for midas
Gen/Civil) will be used.
- If the material/section can be linked using CNV file, a cross section type 2(section defined with
section property values) is used.

The user can add new types of materials/sections in CNV file. It is required when the new
sections/materials are available in midas Gen/Civil.

Twin profiles management

In case a TWIN profile in Tekla S. is used, the user needs to be aware of some considerations.
Tekla S. provides several different ways to input a twin profile (see the follow image).

In particular, it is important to understand which way Tekla S. transfers data for each of the
following position

Refer to the table below for which principal TWIN coupling is reported with the Cross section
CODE used by Tekla S.

The table below outlines how a twin profile is transferred to midas

TWIN "L"
PROFILE

TWIN "C"
PROFILE

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

TWIN 14
Transfered to Midas as a
DB section

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

TWIN 13
Transfered to Midas as a
DB section

TWIN 15
Transfered to Midas as a
DB section

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

DB - TWIN ??
Transfered to Midas as a
DB section

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
general section
(area,Iyy,etc.)

Transfered to Midas as a
Combined section 2L+2L

At this moment, only TWIN L sections are transferred. Position 2 and 3 are supported.
All other position will be transferred as user section in midas and as undefined profiles in Tekla S.

Section offset
Midas model file can be exported to Tekla S. considering reference axis as the Barycentric axis or
default axis.

- If a Tekla S. model is exported by neutral axis, then elastic links will be created in midas model (if
the option

is selected).

- If a Tekla S. model is exported by model default, then it will be possible to see a section offset in
the midas model.

It is also possible to export an offset from midas to Tekla S.

The user has to specify User Offset Reference as Extreme Fiber in order to export the offset
data to Tekla S.

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