PDF Formatting

Tribli can read PDF markups from PDF backgrounds in order to automatically generate models. The PDF markups must be formatted in accordance with this documentation in order to be correctly read by Tribli.

Tribli recognises structural elements by the name they are given in the subject box of the markup properties dialog in Bluebeam. This dialog can also be used to pass values for certain element properties directly to Tribli. The element properties box should be formatted as per the below example, with each different property defined on a new line and with no units provided. All properties are optional and default values will be assigned if a property is not explicitly defined by the user. Neither element types nor element properties are case sensitive.

It is suggested that each class of element type markups be separated onto its own layer within the PDF to provide clarity when creating and reading the PDF. Tribli does not care about markup layers so this is not strictly necessary for Tribli to be able to read the file.

Upon reading the PDF file, Tribli will raise a warning if a given property input line cannot be read, or is not a valid property for the given element type. This warning can be suppressed by placing a hash (#) at the start of the line. This is useful for labelling certain element types such that they can be easily identified by another engineer updating the PDF.

Markup groups cannot be read by Tribli. Rotations are only supported for rectangular markups.

If using Bluebeam Revu, we recommend using the ‘Tribli’ toolset that comes included in the ‘Resources’ folder in your Tribli installation (this will usually be located at 'C:\Program Files\Tribli\Tribli\Resources'). This toolset will ensure markups are correctly named and consistently formatted, as well as automatically assigning markups to the correct layer within the PDF.

The following is a summary of the different element types that can be defined.

Columns

Markup Subject: ‘column’ or ‘column under’ or ‘column over’
Tribli Action: Adds a column to the structure. ‘column’ is assumed to define a column over
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘D’: depth of the column in mm. Defaults to 500mm
• ‘B’: breadth of the column in mm. Defaults to 500mm
• ‘fc’: characteristic concrete strength of column in MPa. Defaults to 50MPa
• ‘shear throw’: shear throw value used in load rundown. Defaults to 1.0
• ‘chain’: preferred column chain name. Chain names are automatically generated if no name is specified
• ‘k’: buckling effective length factor for column design. Defaults to 1.0
• ‘cover’: The nominal cover to reinforcement in mm. Defaults to 30mm
• ‘wall’: Whether column should be designed as a wall (blade column). Defaults to ‘no’
• ‘hastrib’: Whether or not the column attracts load at the current level. Defaults to ‘yes’
• ‘FRL’: The required fire resistance level for this column in minutes. Defaults to 90 mins
• ‘type’: The name of the column type defining this column section
• ‘fsy’: The characteristic reinforcement bar yield strength in MPa. Defaults to 500MPa
• ‘extra dead’ & ‘extra live’: As point loads are not possible using the tributary area method, it is sometimes necessary to manually specify additional load to be applied to a column at a given level. Both dead and live parameters default to 0 kN.
• ‘ex’ & ‘ey’: The load eccentricities in the x and y axes respectively in mm. Defaults to 0mm
• ‘Mx’ & ‘My’: The applied moments about the x and y axes respectively in kNm. Defaults to 0kNm
• ‘Bm’: The moment ratio between the top and bottom of the column as defined in AS3600:2018 cl 10.3.1. Defaults to -1.
• ‘rf ratio’: The reinforcement ratio of the column. Defaults to 0.01
• ‘precast’: Whether the column is precast. Defaults to ‘no’

Walls

Markup Subject: ‘wall’ or ‘wall under’ or ‘wall over’
Tribli Action: Adds a concrete wall to the structure. Note that separate walls will be created for each edge of a rectangle or polygon mark-up
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘thickness’ or ‘t’: thickness of the wall in mm. Defaults to 300mm
• ‘fc’: characteristic concrete strength of wall in MPa. Defaults to 50MPa
• ‘k’: buckling effective length factor for column design. Defaults to 1.0
• ‘chain’: preferred wall chain name. Chain names are automatically generated if no name is specified
• ‘cover’: The nominal cover to reinforcement in mm. Defaults to 30mm
• ‘fsy’: The characteristic reinforcement bar yield strength. Defaults to 500MPa
• ‘extra dead’ & ‘extra live’: As point loads are not possible using the tributary area method, it is sometimes necessary to manually specify additional load to be applied to a column at a given level. Both dead and live parameters default to 0 kN.
• ‘shear throw’: shear throw value used in load rundown. Defaults to 1.0
• ‘hastrib’: Whether or not the wall attracts load at the current level. Defaults to ‘yes’
• ‘FRL’: The required fire resistance level for this wall in minutes. Defaults to 90 mins
• ‘group’: The name of the wall group to which this wall belongs. Wall groups can be used to report combined loads in a group of walls, such as a core.

Slabs

Markup Subject: ‘slab’
Tribli Action: Adds a concrete slab to the structure. Where slabs overlap, the thicknesses are additive.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘thickness’ or ‘t’: thickness of the slab in mm. Defaults to 200mm
• ‘fc’: characteristic concrete strength of slab in MPa. Defaults to 40MPa
• ‘prestress’: The effective pre-stress in the slab used for punching shear calculations. Defaults to 0 MPa

Slab Voids

Markup Subject: ‘void’
Tribli Action: Adds a void within a concrete slab to the structure.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• None

Area Loads

Markup Subject: ‘area load’
Tribli Action: Adds an area load to the structure.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘sdl’: superimposed dead load in kPa. Defaults to 0 kPa
• ‘ull’: unreducible live load in kPa. Defaults to 0 kPa
• ‘rll’: reducible live load in kPa. Defaults to 0 kPa
• ‘label’: text describing the load

Line Loads

Markup Subject: ‘line load’
Tribli Action: Adds a line load to the structure.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘sdl’: superimposed dead load in kN/m. Defaults to 0 kN/m
• ‘ull’ or ‘ll’: live load in kN/m. Defaults to 0 kN/m
• ‘wall’: whether the line load is a wall or not (‘yes’ or ‘no’). Defaults to ‘no’. (used to fill out column load rundown spreadsheet correctly). Live loads assigned to walls will be ignored.
• ‘label’: text describing the load

Beams

Markup Subject: ‘beam’ or ‘band’
Tribli Action: Adds the dead load of a band beam of a given size to the structure. By default, the mark-up is converted to a line load when it is imported to Tribli, however it can be converted to a slab area if the option is flagged in the Tribli settings prior to importing the PDF. If the mark-up is rectangular, the line load will be added along the centreline of the longest dimension of the rectangle.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘width’ or ‘w’: width of the beam in mm. Defaults to 2400mm
• ‘depth’ or ‘d’: depth in addition to the slab depth of the beam in mm. Defaults to 250mm

Transfer Plate

Markup Subject: ‘transfer plate’
Tribli Action: Adds a transfer plate/slab to the structure. Transfer ratios can be calculated once the transfer plate has been created in Tribli
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘thickness’ or ‘t’: analytical thickness of transfer in mm. Defaults to 1000 mm
• ‘cf’: crack factor applied to plate bending stiffness. Defaults to 0.6
• Transfers can be manually specified within the PDF markup using the following notation within the transfer properties field; “Column Under:Column Over:Percentage Transfer” ie. The string “C1:C5:50” would specify that 50% of the load from column C5 at the level above, should be transferred to column C1. Specifying transfers this way however, requires chain names to be entered into the column/wall markup properties.

Transfer Beam

Markup Subject: ‘transfer beam’
Tribli Action: Adds a transfer beam to the structure. Transfer ratios can be calculated once the transfer beam has been created in Tribli
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘depth’: analytical depth of the beam in mm. Defaults to 1000mm
• ‘width’: analytical width of the beam in mm. Defaults to 2400mm
• ‘cf’: crack factor applied to the frame bending stiffness. Defaults to 0.6
• Transfers can be manually specified within the PDF markup using the following notation within the transfer properties field; “Column Under:Column Over:Percentage Transfer” ie. The string “C1:C5:50” would specify that 50% of the load from column C5 should be transferred to column C1. Specifying transfers this way however, requires chain names to be entered into the column/wall markup properties.

Pad Footings

Note

Although footings can be specified in PDF markups for import into Tribli, it is easier to not include the footings in the PDF markup and add them manually in Tribli, once the PDF has been imported.

Markup Subject: ‘pad’
Tribli Action: Adds a concrete pad footing to the structure. Must be positioned beneath a column.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘length’ or ‘l’: Length of the footing in mm. Defaults to 2000mm
• ‘width’ or ‘w’: Width of the footing in mm. Defaults to 2000mm
• ‘depth’ or ‘d’: Depth of the footing in mm. Defaults to 600mm
• ‘fc’: Characteristic concrete strength of pad in MPa. Defaults to 40MPa
• ‘cover’: The nominal cover to bottom reinforcement in mm. Defaults to 50mm
• ‘bearing’: Allowable working bearing capacity of soil supporting pad. Defaults to 250kPa.
• ‘chain’: The column chain name that the pad supports. The pad can be automatically snapped to the nearest column if no chain name is specified.
• ‘fsy’: Yield stress of reinforcing bars. Defaults to 500MPa
• ‘w bars’: Diameter of the reinforcing bars running parallel to the Width dimension in mm. Defaults to 20mm
• ‘w spacing’: Spacing of the reinforcing bars running parallel to the Width dimension in mm. Defaults to 200mm
• ‘l bars’: Diameter of the reinforcing bars running parallel to the Length dimension in mm. Defaults to 20mm
• ‘l spacing’: Spacing of the reinforcing bars running parallel to the Length dimension in mm. Defaults to 200mm
• 'l bars first': Whether the bars parallel to the length dimension are laid first. Defaults to 'yes'
• ‘type’: The name of the pad type if applicable

Strip Footings

Note

Although footings can be specified in PDF markups for import into Tribli, it is easier to not include the footings in the PDF markup and add them manually in Tribli, once the PDF has been imported.

Markup Subject: ‘strip’
Tribli Action: Adds a concrete strip footing to the structure. Must be positioned beneath a wall.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘width’ or ‘w’: Width of the footing in mm. Defaults to 2000mm
• ‘depth’ or ‘d’: Depth of the footing in mm. Defaults to 600mm
• eccentricity or ‘e’: Eccentricity of the wall above on the footing in mm. Defaults to 0mm
• ‘fc’: Characteristic concrete strength of footing in MPa. Defaults to 40MPa
• ‘cover’: The nominal cover to bottom reinforcement in mm. Defaults to 50mm
• ‘bearing’: Allowable working bearing capacity of soil supporting the footing. Defaults to 250kPa.
• ‘fsy’: Yield stress of reinforcing bars. Defaults to 500MPa
• ‘bars’: Diameter of the bottom reinforcing bars running accross the width of the footing in mm. Defaults to 12mm
• ‘bar spacing’: Spacing of the bottom reinforcing bars running accross the width of the footing in mm. Defaults to 200mm

Raft Footings

Markup Subject: ‘raft’
Tribli Action: Adds a concrete raft footing to the structure.
Allowable Markup Types:

Properties:

• thickness or ‘t’: Thickness or depth of the raft in mm. Defaults to 600mm
• ‘fc’: Characteristic concrete strength of footing in MPa. Defaults to 40MPa
• ‘bearing’: Allowable working bearing capacity of soil supporting the footing. Defaults to 250kPa.
• ‘subgrade modulus’ or ‘k’: Subgrade modulus (spring stiffness) of the soil supporting the raft. Defaults to 20,000 kPa/m
• ‘cf’: crack factor applied to the uncracked plate bending stiffness. Defaults to 0.4

Triblines

Markup Subject: ‘tribline’
Tribli Action: Adds a line that can be used to adjust the calculated tributary areas of a column or wall. Conceptually, a tribline acts like a beam, attracting load to itself then transferring it back to a column or wall. A tribline must pass within a specified tolerance distance from a column or intersect with a wall in order to apply load to that element.
Allowable Markup Types:

Alignment Markers

Markup Subject: ‘alignment marker’
Tribli Action: Used to specify offsets in page content between pages. The marker should be positioned such that it sits at the same position in relation to the structure on all pages (eg. on the intersection of grid lines). The position of the offset marker is set the first time it is encountered within the PDF document. All subsequent pages with alignment markers defined are offset according to this page.
Allowable Markup Types: Any
Properties:

• None

Page Information

Markup Subject: ‘page info’
Tribli Action: Defines page metadata. The position of this mark-up on the page is not critical, it only acts as a container for a few page specific properties.
Allowable Markup Types: Any
Properties:

• ‘name’: Name of the level associated with this page. Defaults to “New Level”
• ‘height’: Height of the level in m. Defaults to 3m
• ‘repeat’: No. of times this level should be repeated when creating structure. Default is 1

Grids

Markup Subject: ‘grid’
Tribli Action: Adds a grid line to the Tribli model. Grids can be used for snapping geometry and columns.
Allowable Markup Types:
Properties:

• ‘label’: The label (or name) to be assigned to this grid line