Saving, opening and exporting

Struxt3D keeps your current project in the browser automatically, and lets you save any project to a file, open it again, and export results and models for other tools. This chapter covers each.

#Automatic saving

A moment after every change, the project is saved in your browser's local storage on this computer. When you open the app again, the template gallery offers Continue “name” to pick up where you left off.

• Only the last project is kept. Starting another one replaces it as soon as you change something.
• Results are not kept: run the analysis or design again after reopening.
• Local storage belongs to one browser on one computer. It is cleared if you clear the site's data, and it does not work in some private windows.

Your interface choice (Simple or Full, if you ticked Open in Full next time) and whether the tables are open are remembered the same way.

#Saving a project file

Save with Ctrl+S, the save button in the top bar or toolbar, or File › Save. The browser downloads a file named after the project, such as Office block.s3d, to your downloads folder (or asks where to put it, depending on your browser settings).

A .s3d file is a plain JSON text file holding the whole project: the template and its values, the geometry (nodes, members, panels, supports, added loads), groups and sections, code, material and grade, loads, seismic inputs, slab thicknesses and design settings. It does not hold results, so it is small and quick to share. Send it to a colleague and they can open it in their own browser.

#Opening a project file

Open with Ctrl+O, the open button in the top bar or toolbar, File › Open…, or Open a project at the foot of the template gallery. Pick a .s3d (or .json) file. The project replaces the current one and opens in the workspace. If the file is not a Struxt3D project, a message says it could not be opened and your current model is kept. Opening can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

#Exporting tables as CSV

In the Full interface, every table at the bottom — members, nodes, supports, loads, member forces, reactions, displacements, modes and all the design tables — can be exported as a CSV file for a spreadsheet. Use the download button on the table bar or File › Export the table as CSV. The file holds the rows the table shows, so set the load case, level filter or row filter first. It is named after the project and the table, for example Office block reactions.csv.

#Exporting to OpenSees

File › Export to OpenSees (.tcl, .py)… writes the analysed model for OpenSees, the open-source earthquake engineering framework, so you can take it further — nonlinear, pushover or time-history analysis. It needs an analysis first (F5), because it writes the model as the solver saw it.

The download is a .zip with a folder named after the project, holding:

File	Contents
model.tcl	The model as an OpenSees Tcl script
model.py	The same model for OpenSeesPy
README.md	What is in the model, how to run it and the output files it writes

The scripts contain the members split as Struxt3D's solver splits them, as elastic beam-column elements with their sections and orientation (or truss elements for pin-jointed members); end releases as separate end nodes joined by stiff springs for the kept actions; slabs and walls as MITC4 shell elements; supports and soil springs; the static load cases, solved one after another; and, with earthquake on, the masses for the vibration modes. A message after the export sums it up — nodes, member pieces, shells, load cases and whether modes are included. Nothing runs in the browser: run the scripts in your own OpenSees installation.

#Reports and drawings

Calculation reports are exported as PDF (through printing), Word or HTML — see Calculation reports. Shop drawings are exported as PDF, DXF, NC1, BVBS and lists — see Shop drawings.