Soil
Use the Soil tool to define horizontal or sloped soil layers for geotechnical analysis.
When you select Soil, a tool palette opens.
Main tools
- Define – create new soil layers based on the current settings
- Properties – check or edit the properties of an existing soil region. Opens the Default settings dialogue for the selected soil
- Default settings – change default values for new soil definitions (read below in more detail)
Extra defining functions
When Define tool is selected, two definition methods become available:
- Region – define the soil shape by drawing the region
- 3D shape – select a set of continuously connected regions or the upper surface of a solid to convert into the soil object
The 3D shape is a converter function, that can be applied not only to terrain geometries imported from external files (e.g. IFC), but also to continuously connected regions and solid objects drawn directly in FEM-Design.
Additionally, there are drawing tools available when using the Region method:
- Rectangular – define the soil layer by drawing a rectangle
- Polygonal – define the soil layer by drawing a closed polygon
- Pick lines – use existing lines to define the shape of the soil region
- Pick existing region – use a region boundary (like a solid or excavation) as the shape of the soil layer
Only one Soil object can be present in the model.
Default settings dialogue
When you press the Default settings button in the Soil tool palette, a dialogue window opens with three tabs: General, Strata and Ground water.
General tab
This tab defines general parameters of the soil element.
- Identifier – name or label for the soil region
- Limit depth level – use the numeric field to enter a value to limit how deep the soil layer extends
- Default filling – opens the material dialogue window for selecting a predefined soil fill
- Color – use the color picker to choose a color to visually represent the default filling in the model
Strata tab
This tab defines the composition of the soil region as one or more strata. Each row in the table represents a single soil layer.
- Material – click to open the materials dialogue
- Color – color used to represent the stratum in drawings
At the bottom of the table, there are two buttons:
- Insert stratum – add a new row to the table
- Delete stratum – remove the selected row from the table
Ground water tab
This tab defines one or more ground water levels for the soil region. Each row in the table defines a ground water level.
- Name – user-defined label
- Color – used for graphical representation in the model
At the bottom of the table, there are two buttons:
- Insert level – add a new ground water level
- Delete level – remove the selected level from the list
Soil material
The Default filling in the the General tab and the Material in the Strata tab both open the soil material dialogue window.
To read about soil material see the topic
User interface ➔ Tab menus ➔ Structure ➔ Additional dialogues ➔ Soil material