Table of Contents

SAF FEA link example

This example links an FEA application to IDEA StatiCa Checkbot through SAF files. The FEA application saves the selected part of its model as a SAF file, and the IdeaStatiCa.SAF2IOM package converts the file for Checkbot. A small fake FEA application stands in for yours, so the example runs without any FEA software.

To link through the API of your application instead, see the FEA link example. Why use SAF for a Checkbot link? helps you choose.

The fake model is a steel truss: 25 members, one load case, and the internal forces of the members. It comes as two SAF files in the SafFiles folder: the truss as designed, and the same truss with smaller cross-sections.

What it shows

  • Importing connections and members from a SAF file.
  • Synchronizing: Checkbot asks for the objects it imported before, and updates them from a new SAF file.
  • Keeping track of which IDEA StatiCa object came from which SAF object, so a sync updates the objects instead of adding new ones, even after Checkbot has been closed and opened again.

Projects

Project What it is
SafFeaExampleLink The link. Start your own link from a copy of it.
SafFeaExampleApp The fake FEA application: a window that starts Checkbot. Your application saves its own SAF files instead.

Start reading at CheckbotLink.cs, then ISafExport.cs, then SafApplication.cs.

  1. CheckbotLink.Run starts Checkbot, and answers its requests until Checkbot is closed.
  2. When the user imports connections or members in Checkbot, SafApplication asks the FEA application to save the selected objects to a SAF file: ISafExport.ExportSelection.
  3. SAF2IOM reads the file, and BimImporter builds the IDEA StatiCa model from it. For connections, BimImporter finds the nodes where members meet.
  4. When the user synchronizes, SafApplication asks the FEA application for the objects Checkbot imported before, by their SAF ids: ISafExport.ExportObjects. Then it imports them again.

Every object keeps its SAF id from one export to the next. The link remembers which IDEA StatiCa id belongs to which SAF id, in bimapi-data.json in the Checkbot project folder. The last SAF file stays in the same folder, as export.xlsx, so you can open it to see what was imported. Close it before the next import or sync: while Excel has it open, the FEA application cannot overwrite it.

Requirements

  • Windows with IDEA StatiCa 26.1 or later installed.
  • The .NET 10 SDK.

The link targets .NET Framework 4.8 and .NET 10. The fake application runs on .NET 10. All packages come from nuget.org.

Run it

  1. Build SafFeaExampleApp. It references the link, so the link is built with it.
  2. Start SafFeaExampleApp.
  3. The window shows the path to Checkbot of IDEA StatiCa 26.1. Change it if your Checkbot is elsewhere, and click Start Checkbot.
  4. Checkbot opens and asks for a new project. Keep the EN design code and create the project.
  5. Import the connections. Checkbot imports the 25 members of the truss and a connection at each of its 14 nodes.
  6. In the example window, tick Smaller cross-sections. Then click Sync in Checkbot. All the members change to SHS100/100/6.0.

If Checkbot does not know a cross-section or material name from the SAF file, it asks you to pick the matching one from its library.

The Checkbot project is kept in the folder SafFeaExampleCheckbotProject next to the application, and the next run opens it again. Delete the folder to start over. The application writes its log to %TEMP%\IdeaStatiCa\Logs\SafFeaExampleApp.log.

Make it your own

  1. Copy SafFeaExampleLink and rename it, for example to MySafLink. Its package references take their versions from Directory.Packages.props at the root of this repository, so add Version="26.1.0.5973" to each of them.
  2. Implement ISafExport with the SAF export of your application. Give every object the same SAF id in every export.
  3. Call CheckbotLink.Run from a command in your application. Give it a writable folder for the Checkbot project, one per model, for example next to the model file.
  4. Change ApplicationName in SafApplication.cs: Checkbot shows it as the name of your application.
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