How to create a User Interface - Part 1
Not version-specific
Tekla Tedds
Tekla Tedds for Word
Environment
Not environment-specific
British Standard
One of the most significant enhancements introduced in Tedds 14 was the new Tedds Interface Designer. This tool allows you to create user interfaces for your custom calculations so that the input for a specific design case can be changed quickly and easily. You can also create standard, simple to use, professional looking calculations which can be easily shared with other Tedds users. In effect you can turn your calculation documents into mini applications that can be re-used time and time again.
This is the first part of a step-by-step guide which will show you how to use the Tedds Interface Designer to create user interfaces which use different input controls, Data lists and Active Sketches. You will start by creating an interface for a simple Steel Tie Force Design calculation and then in each part of the guide you will learn new techniques which allow you to progressively enhance the user interface to create a more sophisticated solution.
This guide is written for Word 2007/2010 some of the steps described may be slightly different if you are using an older version of Word.
The calculation
In order to teach you how to create a User Interface this guide uses a Steel Force Tie design calculation which is deliberately very simple so that you can focus on learning the techniques required without being distracted by the calculation itself. In this first part of the guide you won't actually write any of the calculation, you will just create the user interface for the input variables of the calculation.
Creating a new interface
- In Tedds for Word create a new blank document
- From the Ribbon select the Tedds Tab
- In the Insert group click User Interface
You will now be looking at the Manage User Interfaces dialog.
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This dialog allows you manage the User Interfaces in the current document; you can create a new interface or edit any existing interfaces that Tedds finds in your document.
- Click New
You will now be looking at the Tedds Interface Designer.
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There are four key areas to the interface designer
- User Interface - Where you interactively design your user interface
- Toolbar - Where you access the most commonly used commands for creating your interface
- Properties window - Where you modify all of the properties of the currently selected object in the User Interface
- Page controls - Where you add, delete rename and navigate the pages in your user interface
The first thing to do is to give your user interface a title.
- Click on the title bar of the user interface and enter the title Steel section tie design
Adding controls
A user interface needs one input control for each input value that is used in the subsequent calculations. The default input control is an edit control which allows the user to type a number or any valid Tedds expression. Before adding any input controls you should first think about how you can logically group together the required inputs so that the user can enter related information at the same time. For each edit control you create the minimum properties you need to specify are the description, variable name, and units, you will often want to specify a default value as well.
For the next step you will add the input controls for the following variables of the calculation:
| Description | Variable name | Default value | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum yield strength | Fy | 275 | N/mm2 |
| Tie force | Tf | kN | |
| Effective length | Le | 2m | mm |
| Slenderness limit | λL | 300 |
- On the main toolbar Click Add group
A new group will be added and a new control will also be added to that group.
- On the main toolbar click Add control three times to add the controls for the remaining three inputs
- Click on the group title and enter the title Design details
- Click on the description of the first input control and enter the description Minimum yield strength
- Click on the name and enter Fy, you can format the subscript using the x2 button
- Click on the actual edit control and enter the default value of 275
- Click on the units and enter N/mm2, you can access common units from the u button
Repeat the above steps for each of the three remaining inputs.
Testing an interface
To test your interface click Close on the main toolbar and answer Yes when asked if you want to return your changes to Word. Now simply calculate your document to see your user interface in action.
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Note that because this is the first time you have run the interface the default values you specified for some of the inputs will automatically appear. Before entering any more values click the Finish button. Tedds will automatically check that you have entered a value for each input control; in this case you haven't so an appropriate validation error will be displayed. Click OK and then enter values for each of the inputs.
Modifying an interface
Once you've created a User Interface it's just as easy to modify it.
- From the Ribbon select the Tedds Tab
- In the Insert group click User Interface
This time the Manage User Interfaces dialog should include in the list of existing user interfaces the interface that you created earlier, select it from the list and click Edit
Add a new group with the title Steel section and add the following input controls to that group.
| Description | Variable name | Default value | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Area | A | mm2 | |
| Radius of gyration about x | rxx | mm | |
| Radius of gyration about y | ryy | mm |
Summary
Congratulations you've just finished creating your first Tedds user interface, it really is that easy. The Tedds Interface Designer allows you to enhance your custom calculations so that they are simpler to use and can be more easily shared with other Tedds users. You can find out more about creating your own user interfaces by searching for "Interface Designer" using the search.
Downloads
Steel section tie force design - Part 1, completed document for this part of the guide.
Related articles
- An introduction to the Tedds Interface Designer and the benefits it offers you when creating your own custom calculations.
- The next part of this step-by-step guide which will show you how to enhance your user interface to incorporate different types of input controls.