I am Dawid, an independent programmer who creates macros for Tekla Structures. I was a steel detailer, and I have experience with Tekla Structures models and drawings.

My macros can help you with industrial steel structures. I sell them in subscription, which you can purchase on this website. The subscription price depends on the number of computers and selected programs.

💰 About prices: Programming custom solutions is an expensive and time-consuming task. I don’t do it anymore. I decided to make products and sell them for 1/100 of their real cost.

I met a situation where I had a model created in a newer version of Tekla Structures than it should have been. For very simple models, without connections and details, there is a way to export it to an older version of Tekla Structures.

In this atricle I show you two solutions:

  • Export and import using ACSII
  • Export and convert using IFC

1. Export and import ASCII

Export ASCII – This option exports model to the text file named model.asc in model folder. You can open this file using notepad. After export you have to copy this file to another model folder and rename it to import.asc. Then you can use option: Import ASCII. The new parts will appear in model.

See video bellow:

Limitations

  • only beams
  • no connections
  • no welds
  • no bolts

How to export model using ASCII?

  1. Select all parts which you want to export
  2. Click File > Export > Ascii
  3. Open model folder and find file model.asc
  4. Close Tekla Structures
  5. Copy file model.asc to another model folder
  6. Rename file model.asc to import.asc
  7. Open Tekla Structures and load another model where the import.asc file is
  8. Click File > Import > ASCII

2. Export and import using IFC

You can export model from new Tekla Structures program to IFC model and then add this model as reference model to old Tekla Structures. Some ifc files can be converted to native tekla beams and plates.

See the video bellow:

Limitations:

  • only beams and plates
  • sometimes holes but no bolts
  • you have to properly export ifc model