Section : Standard sections

Section dimensions

Standard sections can be rectangular, circular, I, channel, T or angles, etc. Rectangular and circular sections can be either solid or hollow. Specify the overall external dimensions of the section and the thickness of component parts as shown in standard sections below.

Transform section

The basic section may not be in the required orientation, so there is an option to rotate and translate sections. By default this is not offered.

Standard sections

The standard sections are identified by a code for the section shape, followed by a list of dimensions defining the section. The section shape descriptors can be followed by an optional unit if the section is not defined in mm, where the shapes are:

Section shape	Shape code	Dimensions	Description
Rectangular	R
Rectangular hollow	RHS	Note that top and bottom flanges are always the same thickness, as are left and right walls of a rectangular hollow section.
Circular	C
Circular hollow	CHS
I section	I
Tee	T
Channel	CH
Angle	A
Taper	TR
Ellipse	E	Ellipse index (n) - This field is only available for the ellipse section type. It allows superellipses to be entered. A value of 1 corresponds to a diamond, 2 to an ellipse, and ∞ to a rectangle.
General I section	GI
Taper T section	TT
Taper angle section	TA
Recto-circular	RC
Recto-ellipse	RE
Taper I section	TI
Secant pile section	SP
Secant pile wall	SPW
Oval	OVAL
General C	GC
General Z	GZ
Cruciform	X
Cellular/catellated	CB
Sheet pile	SHT

Note:

Symbol	Definition
	width
	bottom width
	flat width
	top width
	distance between pile centres
	depth, diameter
	flat depth
	order (ellipse only)
	number of piles
	thickness
	flange thickness
	top flange thickness
	bottom flange thickness
	web thickness
	top web thickness
	bottom web thickness

so the section description is as follows:

STD <Shape(unit)> <Dimension> <Dimension>…

Thus a 320 × 120 rectangular section would be

STD R 320 120

or an 8in diameter circular section would be

STD C(in) 8