JTB Rebar - DetailBeam


JTB World Inc.

How it works

General Usage Instructions

The Detail Beam window has 2 command buttons: Draft Beam and Detail Beam

Draft Beam draws rebars base on your beam's elevation polyline. Rebar will have hook at corner, unless noted otherwise.

Draft Beam also insert anchors, break points block at possible positions on the rebar.

Detail Beam make the final drawing.

All the workload you have to do is making the draft drawing. You have to arrange concrete information, rebar information, anchor and break information blocks to the right positions of the beam's design. The rest of the work just a click to run the Detail Beam command button.

Following section focus on the draft drawing.



Draft Beam - Setup The Input For Detail Beam

The unique feature of DetailBeam command is, you sketch a simple draft drawing of the beam, then JTB Rebar will make the detail beam drawing base on your sketch.

To make this, draft drawing must be created using JTB Rebar "Input Beam *" blocks.

1. Drawing should be within the Input Beam Detailing block, which is like a canvas

You can always insert this canvas block from the first tab of DetailBeam window:

This is a dynamic block that can extend its width and height for making a longer multi-span beam.

It is divided in two frames. Let's call them 2 canvas:

  • + the left canvas is where to draft the sketch of the beam
  • + the right canvas is where the app generate the final drawing of the beam
  • It also has attributes:

  • + BARLIST: the beam's name. Callouts which are generated later will take this value as its BARLIST attribute
  • + SCALE: scale of callout blocks which are generated later
  • + DRAFT-STATUS and DETAIL-STATUS: this is for the app to report any error
  • After "Insert DetailBeam Input Form", you will have a sample of it with instruction attached on each item, as following image.

    2. The Drafting Canvas

    Click on items in the following screenshot to see instruction:

    Here is the result of DetailBeam from above drafting drawing

    1. Beam's elevation polyline

    Beam's elevation polyline must be one orthogonal polyline drawn on layer "Concrete". Top and bottom rebars will be generated later by the app based on this polyline.

    2. Top and Bottom Rebars

    As noted above, top and bottom rebars are generated by the app once you have the beam elevation polyline. A rebar can have hook, anchor and break point on it.

    At "closing" corner, rebars drawn by the app will have hook. Hook's length is just for illustration, will be corrected later by Detail Beam command according to rebar diameter. You can trim the hook from the polyline if it is not required.

    At "opening" corner, anchor block is placed. The anchor length drawn is just for illustration, will be corrected later by Detail Beam command according to ANCHOR attribute and rebar diameter.

  • 2 attributes of this anchor block that:
  • + ANCHOR: can be an absolute length, or relative length. For example, "3' 1", or "30d", or plain number as "1200", or "60"
  • + METRIC: if "Yes", then default unit of plain number length is millimeter. Otherwise, inch.
  • If ANCHOR = "30d", and rebar diameter is #5 (imperial rebar), then calculated anchor length will be 50 inches.
  • If ANCHOR = "30d", and rebar diameter is N10 (metric rebar), then calculated anchor length will be 300 mm.
  • Therefore, relative length is calculated according to the rebar nature, not the current Unit Setting. This rule is also applied to other length, like splice length.

    Break point is placed where rebar should be cut and splice. It is just a simple block, no attribute. Splice length is calculated according to the rebar itself. See SPLICE attribute in Rebar Input block.

    3. Middle Rebar

    Middle rebar, or custom rebar is manually drawn, must be one polyline in "Rebars" layer. A rebar input block should be placed over this. It can have hooks, and/or anchor, break point on it (also manually drawn).

    4. Rebar Input Block

    Rebar Input Block holds information about rebar. Block's name is actually "Input Beam Rebar", just because "Input Beam" prefix is a must to sort these input blocks by name.

    The app "reads" the draft drawing, get rebar shape from the polyline, and get rebar diameter, splice length etc. from this block. The relationship that links rebar polyline and rebar input block is detected by their positions.

    Top rebar input block: It should be placed above the beam concrete polyline. If top rebars change, a new block should be placed over the section where the change happens. A white line drawn by the app shows relationship between this block and the rebar.

    Bottom rebar input block: It should be placed below the beam concrete polyline. If bottom rebars change, a new block should be placed below the section where the change happens. A white line drawn by the app shows relationship between this and the rebar.

    Middle rebar input block: It should be placed over the middle rebar so the app can easily detect their relationship.

  • Rebar Input Block has following attributes:

  • + CALOUT: the number and the diameter of rear, e.g. "5#10"
  • + SPLICE-LENGTH: if rebar is too long, so it should be cut and spliced. Splice length can be absolute length, or relative length. This is similar to ANCHOR in above section.
  • + HOOK
  • + METRIC: similar to the anchor block in above section, if METRIC = "Yes", plain number in splice length means millimeter. Otherwise, inch.
  • 5. Beam Section Input

    Beam Section Input stores information about the concrete beam's width and rebar covers. Beam height is not included because its height (or varying height) is already defined by the beam's elevation polyline.

    If beam width and/or covers change, place a new Beam Section Input block over position where the change happens.

    6. Columns are Input Pier blocks

    Pier should be drawn using "Input Pier" dynamic block. This pier can have special ties at 2 sides, defined by SPECIALTIE attribute.

    This dynamic block needs some special focus:

    It has 1 attribute: SPECIALTIE. In above example, specialtie is 4#3 @ 8":

  • + The number of special ties and the spacing should be specific. 4#3 @ 8" mean on each side of the pier, there are 4#3 tie rebars.
  • + If the spacing length written in feet-inch format, don't forget the mark ' or " at the end.
  • + If the spacing length written in plain number, it is assumed millimeter!
  • (similar to the sytax of Rebar Callout block)
  • Pier has dynamic block properties:

  • + Width: adjust its width here, especially, custom width
  • + Pier Width: this is a list of preference widths for you to select. But because the pier scale can be other than 1, therefore, Width = PierWidth * Block Scale
  • + LeftTie and RightTie: these lengths control the positions of 2 yellow X marks on the Pier block. Where to place the the first left tie? Where to place the first right tie? At positions where these yellow X marks appear!
  • + TileLocation: special ties can be placed from pier edge, or from pier center. See above screenshot of 2 piers with 2 different TileLocations.
  • 7. Input Tie block for tie and stirrup rebars

    Input Tie blocks are for tie and stirrup rebars. It has CALLOUT and BENDING-TYPE attributes. Shape dimensions will be automatically generated later after you click Detail Beam button.

    The syntax of CALLOUT is similar to callout in Rebar Callout block, or special tie an pier.

    Bending type should be T1, T2, S1, S2, S3, S7, S8 or S9. Other bending types are not supported.

    If tie rebar varies, copy and place other Input Tie block along the beam.

    After runNing thr "Draft Beam" command, you can note there are |----| |-------|----------| |-----| lines drawn below and along the beam.

    These lines show how the app "knows" that beam has many sections. One each section, the height is unchanged. Each section have its own section input, rebar inputs, tie input block found within its range. If not, it finds the nearest one to the left or to the right.


    Go back to the Drafting Canvas  

    Go back to How it works screenshot video