Connection from Tekla — idealisation + check

What this page does

This page brings a node's geometry from a Tekla Structures model directly into JointLib, as a starting point for the connection analysis. Instead of re-entering the plate, bolt and profile dimensions by hand, you select the node's parts in Tekla and their topology is imported automatically.

How the flow works

1. Select in Tekla the parts that make up the node — members, plates, bolts, welds.
2. An agent running on your machine, alongside Tekla, reads the geometry of the selection through the Tekla API and sends it to JointLib.
3. JointLib receives the topology of the node (which parts there are, how they are positioned and connected) and prepares it for analysis.

The agent bridges Tekla (running locally) and the platform, without exporting files by hand. It is the same agent infrastructure used to run the external computation engines (CalculiX, pyCUFSM).

Why it matters

Modelling a node by hand for checking is laborious and prone to transcription errors. By bringing the geometry directly from the fabrication model, you check exactly the designed node, not an approximate reconstruction of it — and any change in Tekla can be re-imported.

What follows the import

The imported geometry feeds the connection analysis — the end-plate idealisation or the solid analysis of the full node. The import is the first step of the flow, not the check itself.

Requirements and limitations

• Requires Tekla Structures installed locally and the agent connected.
• It brings the node topology (parts and positions); the full mapping to a check model depends on the node configuration.
• It is a workflow feature (import), not a resistance calculation — the check is done in the dedicated connection pages.
• Support for various node types is being extended gradually.

Related calculations

• End plate — the FEM analysis of the end plate
• Beam-to-column connection — the solid analysis of the full node
• T-stub — the analytical component check