Beam Display

The appearance of a beam can be controlled separately in the Floor Plan, 3D View, and Section View. You can define, among other settings, the floor levels on which the beam is visible, how it is represented in the Floor Plan, and which hatch and line display settings are used.

Display on Other Floor Levels

By default, a beam is displayed only on its own floor level.

To display the beam on additional floor levels of the building, open the Properties dialog and select the required levels in the On Which Floors Is It Visible? group.

On its own floor level, the beam is displayed according to its normal display settings. On the additional selected levels, it is displayed with a gray outline.

Floor Plan Display

In the Floor Plan, a beam is displayed with its outline by default.

In Schematic Display Mode, the beam is represented by its axis line instead of its outline.

In other display modes, enable the Centroid Axis property to display the axis of the beam.

Note: Centroid Axis and Display with Centerline are two different display settings. The centerline represents the reference line of the beam.

Additional 2D and 3D Display Settings

Additional display options are available in the Properties > Other group.

3D Display

The 3D representation of the beam can be turned off.

In this case, the beam is not displayed in the 3D View, while its 2D Floor Plan representation can remain visible.

2D Display Based on the 3D Top View

The Floor Plan representation of the beam can also be generated from the 3D top view of the element.

This setting allows you to switch between displaying the nominal beam length and the actual geometric length after trimming has been taken into account.

For inclined beams, the end faces are visible in the Floor Plan when this option is enabled.

Display with Centerline

Enable Display with Centerline to display the beam's reference line in 2D.

Important: The centerline is not the same as the Centroid Axis. The centerline represents the reference line used for positioning the element.

2D Display in Printing

The 2D representation of the beam can be disabled separately for printing.

In this case, the beam can remain visible while editing the drawing, but its 2D Floor Plan representation is not printed.

Setting the Hatch

The Floor Plan hatch of the beam can be defined in the Properties dialog.

The hatch can be used to graphically distinguish the structure or material of the beam from other elements in the Floor Plan.

Display in Section View

In a Section View, beams intersected by the section plane are displayed with a thicker outline.

The hatch of a cut beam is determined by the material assigned as its Body Material.

To modify the section representation:

1. Open the beam Properties dialog.
2. Locate the Body Material setting.
3. Open the properties of the assigned material.
4. Click Hatch in Section.
5. Define the required section hatch.

This setting determines the section representation of elements using the specified material.

Displaying Profile Dimensions

The cross-sectional dimensions of a beam can also be displayed directly in the Floor Plan.

To display profile dimensions:

1. Right-click the beam.
2. From the context menu, select Profile Dimensions > Display Profile Dimensions.

The profile dimensions are displayed above the beam as freely formattable text.

The displayed field is dynamically linked to the beam. If the beam cross-section or dimensions change, the displayed values are updated automatically.

Note: Display Profile Dimensions is a global setting. Enabling it does not apply only to the selected beam; profile dimensions are displayed for all elements that support this feature.