SPF Creator

A special facility for creating multiple SPF files on-the-fly is available from the main menu (Tools > Open SPF Creator...) or through the corresponding toolbar button . With the SPF Creator facility users are able to easily and quickly create several new SeismoStruct input files, by adapting an existing one. It is noted that no programming or scripting knowledge is required for these operations, since the program takes care of everything and automatically creates the new files.

Upon opening the program, the SPF Creator Main Window will appear. With the Open SPF & Select Parameters button, users may load their base SPF file, which will be used as the template to create all the new SeismoStruct input files.

The structure of the loaded input file is displayed as a tree-view at the left of the screen, starting from the Main Title and the general Project Data, to the Materials, Sections and Element Classes, through to the Output Settings. By selecting each branch of the tree-view all the data of a particular record, which includes properties of the structural model, are displayed at the right of the screen. These properties can then read and modified to create the new SPF files.

Users may select the properties, for which multiple values are to be introduced, by right-clicking on each value and selecting the Add Entry to

In the Change & Create SPF file tab the table entries can then be modified either directly on the table (by clicking on each table cell), or by copying and pasting to spreadsheet applications, such as MS Excel. The number of files to be created are determined by the No. of Files to be Created parameter.

After selecting the values of the selected properties, users are able to create the new files from the Create Files button. The files are created automatically in the folder, where the original file exists.

Notes

  1. SPF Creator has been designed as an independent application and can also be opened from the Windows Start menu without the need to open SeismoStruct.
  2. SeismoStruct input files are binary files, i.e. non-text files, where all the data structures are stored as a sequence of bytes. A detailed description of the structure of the file format (*.spf) can be found by clicking the Show SPF File Structure button.