About Curved Structural Members

The smoothness (tessellation) of curved edges is controlled by the FACETDEV variable. This variable sets the number of facets to display on curved AEC objects. The default value is 1/2'' for drawings created from imperial templates and is 12.7 mm for drawings created from metric templates.

The number you specify for facet deviation defines the maximum distance from the chord to the arc—the chord being an edge that is created from faceting the curve to the true mathematical arc. The facet deviation has a range of greater than zero (0) and no upper limit.

The minimum number of facets is 8. For example, if you create a cylinder mass element to have a 1' radius, and specify 1' for FACETDEV, the cylinder has 8 faces.

The plan representation of individual curved components of columns uses the true curved representation of the member shapes. The above and below cut components will always be faceted.

The maximum number of facets is controlled by the FACETMAX variable. This variable can be set from 100 to 10,000. Note that using a small value for FACETDEV and a large value for FACETMAX will adversely affect drawing performance.

The face deviation settings apply to all curved objects in the drawing, including curved structural members.