One of the questions that come up quite often in the Advance Steel discussion, especially with the customers who have used some of the other steel packages, is can Advance Steel “easily” create grids with variable spacing?

Obviously, the answer is YES WE CAN!!!

(I just like this expression, YES WE CAN, it is such a powerful expression)

OK, back to Advance Steel and grids with variable spacing, here is the procedure for doing that:

1. From the Objects ribbon tab > Grid ribbon panel, invoke the Grid with groups by distance tool, as encircled below; you are prompted to define the start point of the grid line:

2. Specify the start point of the grid axis; you are prompted to specify the endpoint.

This is where you can use the polar tracking to define the length of your grid axes.

3. Using the polar tracking, specify the endpoint of the grid axis. This will also define the length of the grid, as shown below. On doing so, you are prompted to specify the direction of the group.

4. Use polar tracking, if required, to define the direction of the group, which is generally normal to the first grid axis direction. On doing so, you are prompted to define the distance between the axes.

This is where you can start defining the spacing between the axes to create the grid with variable spacing.

5. Enter the spacing between the first and second grid axes; you are again prompted to specify the spacing between the grid axes.

6. Enter the spacing between the second and third grid axes.

7. Enter the spacing between the third and fourth grid axes.

8. Repeat this process till the time you create all the required grid axes. The figure below shows the grids with the spacing between the axes as 2500, 3500, 5000, 3500, 2000, 5000, 1200, 3500.

9. After specifying the last distance, press ENTER; the Advance Steel – Axes, parallel dialog box is displayed.

10. If required, activate the Group tab of the dialog box and use the Group index spinner to cycle through various grid axes groups and change their spacing.

11. Repeat the same process in the other direction to create vertical grids as well. The following figure shows the variable grids created in the other direction as well.

How cool is that…