2.4: Quick Component Reference

License

	License	Returns the program version, license information and can be used to manage the license file.

Params

Karamba3D introduces seven new classes for defining structural models and corresponding containers:

	Cross-section	Container for cross section objects
	Element	Container for finite elements
	Element Set	Container for ordered groups of elements
	Joint	Container for connectivity conditions between elements
	Load	Container for load objects
	Material	Container for materials
	Model	Container for models
	Support	Container for supports

Model

This subcategory contains components for assembling a model, converting geometry into finite elements and defining support conditions.

	Assemble Model	Creates a finite element model by collecting given entities (points, beams, shells, supports, loads, cross sections, materials, . . . ).
	Disassemble Model	Decomposes a model into its components.
	Modify Model	Changes the model's nodal positions.
	Connected Parts	Returns groups of interconnected lines of the model.
	Activate Element	Activates the elements of a model according to the activation list. Uses the soft kill approach for inactive elements.
	Line to Beam	Creates beams with default properties from given lines. Lines that meet at a common point result by default in rigidly connected elements. Karamba3D assumes input to be in meter or feet.
	Connectivity to Beam	Creates beams with default properties from a given connectivity diagram.
	Index to Beam	Creates beams with default properties from given node indexes.
	Mesh to Shell	Creates shells with default properties from given meshes. Quad faces are split to triangles.
	Modify Element	Multi-component for modifying elements. Works either directly on an element or indirectly as an autonomous agent:
	Modify Beam (default)	Modifies beams only
	Modify Shell	Modifies shells only
	Point-Mass	Attaches a point mass to a node of given index or position. Does not result in additional weight, only translational inertia.
	Disassemble Element	Decomposes elements into their components.
	Make Beam-Set 🔷	Puts beams designated by their beam identifier into a group.
	Orientate Elem	Decomposes elements into their components:
	Beam (default)	Sets the local Z-axis of beams according to a given vector and adds a rotation angle DAlpha about the longitudinal axis. Flips beam direction according to a given x-vector.
	Shell	Sets the local X- and Z-orientation using global coordinates.
	Select Element	Selects elements according to a given identifier and puts all incoming elements in two groups: selected or rejected. The identifier may be the element index, name or a regular expression.
	Support	Creates supports at nodes of given node-indexes or node-coordinates. Lets you select translations/rotations which should be zero and the support orientation with respect to the global or a local coordinate system.

Load

The components in this subcategory let one define and manipulate external actions which impact a structure.

	Loads	Multi-component for defining loads:
	Gravity (default)	Creates gravity from a specified direction vector for given load-cases.
	Point-Load	Creates point loads at points of given index or position.
	Imperfection-Load	Defines imperfections for beams under normal forces .
	Initial Strain-Load	Sets initial axial strains on beams.
	Temperature-Load	Imposes a temperature difference on an element with respect to its initial temperature at construction.
	Line-Load on Element	Creates a uniformly distributed load on a beam.
	MeshLoad Const	Creates approximately equivalent point- and line-loads from a constant surface load on a mesh. The constant surface load is defined by one vector.
	MeshLoad Var	Creates approximately equivalent point- and line-loads from a variable surface load on a mesh. The variable surface load is defined by one vector for each mesh face. The longest list principle applies when the mesh-faces outnumber the load-vectors.
	Disassemble Mesh Load	Splits a mesh-load into corresponding line- and point-loads
	Prescribed Displacement	Prescribes displacements at nodes of given node-indexes or node-coordinates. Select translations or rotations which should be prescribed. For load-cases with no displacements prescribed this will create a support.

Cross Section

	Cross Sections	Multi-component for creating cross sections:
	Box-Profile (default)	Creates rectangular, trapezoid and triangular hollow cross sections.
	Circular Hollow Profile	Creates circular hollow cross sections.
	I-Profile	Creates I-shaped cross sections.
	Shell Const	Lets you set the height and material of a shell with constant cross section.
	Shell Var	Lets you set the height and material of each face of a shell.
	ShellRC Std Const	A standard reinforced concrete cross section consists of four layers of orthogonal reinforcement. This component allows to define such a cross section which is constant throughout a shell.
	ShellRC Std Var	Same as above, lets one set the reinforced concrete cross section properties for each shell face separately.
	Spring-Cross Section	Defines the spring stiffness of an element.
	Trapezoid-Profile	Creates filled rectangular, trapezoid and triangular cross sections.
	Disassemble Cross Section 🔷	Retrieves properties of a cross section.
	Beam-Joint Agent 🔷	Crawls around in the model and adds joints to beams on the basis of geometric relations. Is of type cross section.
	Beam-Joints 🔷	Adds hinges at the end-points of beams. Is of type cross sections.
	Eccentricity on Beam 🔷	Sets the eccentricity of a cross section relative to the element axis in global coordinates.
	Eccentricity on Cross Section 🔷	Sets the eccentricity of a cross section relative to the element axis in local beam coordinates.
	Modify Cross Section 🔷	Multi-component for modifying cross sections. Works either directly on a cross section object or indirectly as an autonomous agent:
	Modify Beam Cross Section (default) 🔷	Modifies beam cross sections only.
	Modify Shell Cross Section 🔷	Modifies shell cross sections only.
	Cross Section Range Selector	Lets you select cross sections by country, shape, family or maximum depth or width.
	Cross Section Matcher	Returns for a cross section the best fitting cross section contained in a given list. The matched cross section is equal or better in all mechanical aspects at minimum weight.
	Cross Section Selector	Lets you select cross sections by name, regular expression or index from a list of cross sections.
	Generate Cross Section Table	Converts a list of cross sections into a string which can be streamed as a csv-file and used as a cross section table.
	Read Cross Section Table from File	Reads cross section data from a csv-file.

Material

	Material Properties	Sets the characteristic parameters of an isotropic or orthotropic material.
	Material Selection	Lets you select a material by name, regular expression or index from a list of materials.
	Read Material Table from File	Reads a list of materials from a table given in csv-format.
	Disassemble Material 🔷	Outputs the physical properties of a material.

Algorithms

	Analyze	Calculates the deflections of a given model using first order theory.
	AnalyzeThII 🔷	Calculates the deflections of a given model including the effect of axial or in-plane forces.
	Analyze Nonlinear WIP	Handles calculations involving large deformations. Is work in progress: the speed of convergence will be improved in future releases. Currently it works best for beams, but can also handle shell structures.
	Large Deformation Analysis	Does an incremental geometrically non-linear analysis for loads in load case zero. Return displacements only, no stresses of cross section forces.
	Buckling Modes 🔷	Calculates the buckling-modes and buckling load-factors of the given model under normal forces .
	Eigen Modes	Calculates the eigenmodes of the given model according to the special eigenvalue problem.
	Natural Vibrations	Calculates the natural vibrations of the given model.
	Optimize Cross Section 🔷	Iteratively selects optimum cross sections for beams, trusses and shells.
	BESO for Beams	Optimizes the topology of beams in a structure by using Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization.
	BESO for Shells	Optimizes the topology of shells in a structure by using Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization.
	Optimize Reinforcement 🔷	Performs reinforcement design for shells. It uses linear elastic cross section forces and the assumption of zero tensile concrete strength for determining reinforcement quantities.
	Tension/Compression Eliminator 🔷	Removes beams or trusses under axial tension or compression. By default compression members will be removed.

Results

	Model View	Lets you inspect the general properties of the model.
	Deformation-Energy	Retrieves deformation energies of the elements of the model.
	Nodal Displacements	Returns nodal displacements: translations in global x-, y-, and z-direction; rotations about the global x-, y- and z-axis.
	Principal Strains Approximation	Approximates the principal strain directions from the model deformation at arbitrary points.
	Reaction Forces 🔷	Returns reaction forces and moments at supports.
	Utilization of Elements 🔷	Multi-component that returns the utilization of elements. “1” means 100%:
	Utilization of Beams (default) 🔷	The utilization of beams is calculated according to EC3 (see section A.4).
	Utilization of Shells 🔷	Returns the maximum Van Mises stress in each face of the shell.
	Beam View	Lets you inspect beam properties: section forces, cross sections, displacement, utilization and stresses. Is to be plugged into the definition after the “ModelView”-component.
	Beam Displacements 🔷	Returns displacements along elements: translations in global x-, y-, and z-direction; rotations about the global x-, y- and z-axis.
	Beam Forces	Retrieves section forces along beams and trusses.
	Beam Resultant Section Forces	Retrieves resultant section forces of beams.
	Shell View	Lets you inspect shell properties: displacement, utilization, principal stresses and Van Mises stress. Is to be plugged into the definition after the “ModelView”-component.
	Line Results on Shells	Multi-component for generating line results on shells:
	Force Flow (default)	Computes flow lines for forces in given direction at user defined positions.
	Isolines	Creates lines that connect points of same value for selected shell results (e.g. principal stresses, displacement, utilization, cross section thickness) at user defined positions. Also returns values and can thus be used for probing the shell state.
	PrincMoment	Returns the principal moment lines that originate from user defined points on shells.
	PrincStress	Outputs the principal stress directions in the center of each shell element.
	Results Vectors on Shells	Multi-component for generating vector results in each element of a shell:
	PrincStress (default)	Outputs the values of first and second principal stress on a given layer in the center of each shell element.
	PrincForces	Outputs the first and second principal normal forces and moments in the center of each shell face as vectors.
	Shell forces	Outputs the values of the local or principal normal forces and moments in the center of each shell element.

Export 🔷

	Export Model to RStab 🔷	Exports a model to RStab5, RStab6, RStab7, RStab8 or Robot by creating a DStV-file.

Utilities

	Closest Points	Connects each node of one set to a given number of nearest neighbor nodes or neighbors within a specified distance of another set.
	Closest Points Multi-dimensional	Performs a multidimensional nearest neighbor search on two sets of vectors.
	Cull Curves	Inputs a data tree of straight lines and thins them out so that no lines in different branches are closer than a given limit distance.
	Detect Collisions	Counts the number of intersections between the model and a given mesh.
	Get Cells from Lines	Creates closed cells from a graph and vertices on a user supplied plane.
	Line-Line Intersection	Intersects given lines and returns resulting end-points and pieces.
	Local Vector	Transforms a vector from the global to a local coordinate system given by a plane.
	Line-Mesh Intersection 🔷	Returns the points where given lines intersect given meshes.
	Mesh Breps	Takes multiple breps and generates a unified mesh from them. The algorithm takes account of common edges and insertion points. This lets one define positions for supports or point-loads on shells.
	Principal States Transformation 🔷	Transforms given principal vectors of stresses, moments or in-plane forces to an arbitrary direction.
	Remove Duplicate Lines	Eliminates identical lines.
	Remove Duplicate Points	Eliminates identical points.
	Simplify Model	Changes a model by straightening the connecting elements between nodes that connect to more than two neighbor nodes.
	Element Felting 🔷	Felts elements of a model by connecting them at their mutual closest points.
	Mapper 🔷	Applies mappings (like Simple Stitch) to a model.
	Interpolate Shapes 🔷	Interpolates between a base geometry (0.0) and given shape(s) (1.0).
	Stitch 🔷	Multi-component for defining modes of connection between sets of beams:
	Simple Stitch (default) 🔷	Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements.
	Stacked Stitch 🔷	Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements that do not intersect each other.
	Proximity Stitch 🔷	Connects beam sets by a preset number of elements whose maximum inclination can be controlled via min/max offset-limits from their starting point.
	User Iso-Lines	Creates iso-lines on a model based on user supplied nodal values.
	User Stream-Lines	Creates stream-lines on a model based on user supplied vectors at the nodes.