Hi,
Rhino 8, Sofistik 2026-5.
Why doesn’t the component allow different load values to be entered for P1–P6?
At the moment, we can only model a constant load.
Hello Piotr,
The component currently only supports a constant load value. We’re aware of this limitation, and adding support for multiple values in the component would make the input setup a lot more complex, so it’s not something we’ve built yet.
However, if you need different values at specific points, you can edit the exported SOFiLOAD text directly by adjusting the P1 to P6 values for the points you care about. You don’t need to specify all of them either. SOFiLOAD interpolates any missing point values automatically, so giving only the corner values and leaving the rest blank works fine.
Another option is to split the load geometrically into a few separate area loads with different average values, though that gives a stepped result rather than a smooth interpolation.
Hope that works,
Dariusz
Hi Dariusz,
does this mean, that no linear loads can be applied to area elements? As “hosted area loads” also create AREA-loads in sofiload, I also only have the option to assign one load value that is assumed constant throughout the area (as opposed to applying a QUAD-load, in which case I could use DPZ for example), is that correct?
Are you planning to include multiple load values for area loads anytime soon in the Grasshopper plug-in? For me this would be a very useful use case, considering that at the moment, I can define complex geometries beautifully with the Grasshopper extension, but then cannot apply the correct loads (these being earth pressure, water pressure, earth pressure from vehicle traffic loads etc.) when not modelling simple, line-based structures.
Thank you for your help!
Frank
Hello Frank,
Yes, that is correct for the current Grasshopper implementation.
Area loads are exported as SOFiLOAD AREA loads, and the component currently supports only one constant load value. DPX/DPY/DPZ are parameters of the separate QUAD load record and are therefore not available here.
For AREA loads, a varying distribution can instead be defined by assigning different values to the area points (P1, P2, P3, etc.). We are planning to extend the Load components to support this, but there is currently no fixed release date.
As a temporary workaround, I’m sending you a simplified Grasshopper example that includes a small C# component generating the CADINP string for the load. The example contains a vertical surface with the corresponding SAR and defines a hosted area load using several points with different load values to reproduce the varying pressure distribution.
Variable area load values - SOFiSTiK.gh (19.5 KB)
If you run the generated CADINP input, you should get the type of load distribution you are aiming for.