Konstru FAQ

Some often asked questions....

How often to 'sync' to Konstru?

We recommend to sync at least daily. Because this is usually how often people save backup files as well.

Also, when syncing at least once a day, you will generate a detailed change log of your design process. This means that, when necessary, you will be able to revert you model to an earlier backup.

How to organize Konstru models?

We recommend to organize your models the same way you'll organize or split your Revit project files. Otherwise syncing models will be difficult. Create logical cuts like tower / plinth / base - most of you have rules of thumb like keep every project file below x MB or x number elements.

Konstru allows you to upload partial models, as well as to merge two models into one, so you can always change the way that models are split up.

What's the latest version of the model?

You can upload as much as you want to Konstru and you will always see your latest upload online. And you might think your model simply gets replaced like on any other BIM cloud service. But Konstru is different. Every time you upload to Konstru, it is actually uploading changes only and not the entire model. If you are looking at your model online you'll see the latest state, built from all your uploads you have made over time. This way every step is captured and its easy for you to go back in time. Konstru's history tab gives you easy access to all historic model versions. We don't want you to get lost between all the Revit, ETABS or Tekla files looking for the right version. Konstru handles all of this automatically while you just have to hit upload.

How do I delete a model?

If you want to clear a model entirely by uploading an empty Revit or Etabs Model into Konstru, keep in mind that those models are never entirely empty. All platforms are containing a minimum of levels or predefined section sizes, etc. So an empty Model is not really empty. The easiest way to clear a model is to delete it the following way:

How does Konstru deal with object rotation?

All Platforms Konstru is working with are orienting slanted columns towards their inclination angle. This means a cross section rotation of 0 degrees results in a profile orienting towards inclination. like this:

In Grasshopper you can force slanted columns to orient towards one direction if necessary. This affects vertical beams as well (see image below) where rotations are kept at one specific angle except when beams are vertical. Please keep this behavior in mind when translating models across platforms.

Does Konstru support Tapered Sections?

Tapered sections are partially supported in Konstru. By default Konstru will chose the section at start as the default section for the entire frame.

Tapered Sections between ETABS & SAP2000 & Grasshopper are fully supported.

There is limited support for tapered sections into Revit: If your ETABS section is tapered the profile can be downloaded into Revit. Make sure the Profile Mapper in Revit is set to "Create New" for the tapered section coming from ETABS. Revit will create a new family containing the tapered profile. By Default ETABS defines tapered sections centered (like in the image below) and aligns both sections to top or bottom depending on the frames alignment settings. Revit on the other hand requires a new family for each alignment. That's why we recommend to use different section names for different alignments in ETABS to get best results in Revit.

Please keep in mind that you might have to adjust section placements in the new family because section positions are at absolute locations by default when Konstru creates a new tapered family.

Have a look at this example setup to understand how tapered sections are defined in Grasshopper.

What's is in the Log files?

Connection Logs

If you want to check on Konstru connection logs simply press F1 in our desktop dialog. A new window ill appear displaying a detailed connection log like this:

Detailed Logs

Is any element in particular causing issues? If you activate our detailed logging Konstru will write a konstru.log file into the temp folder containing all changes. You can activate this feature in the Registry Editor (regedit). To activate the logging mode, simply create a String Value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Konstru called LogFile with value True.

How does Konstru deal with Justifications?

We already explained Konstru storing centerlines only instead of meshes and we pointed out the advantage for interoperability to create new elements using their centerline. But we haven't told you everything. We know there are some tools out there providing centerline interoperability but not always your columns or beams are centered. So you have to apply adjustments manually in order to fix the location of your elements.

Luckily Konstru handles this for you. Besides the centerline, we are storing all justification settings. So if your beam was top justified in Revit it will download top justified as well and the centerline remains where it was. But not only this, we are applying justification settings across all tools we are supporting whenever it is possible. So your top justified Revit beam will be a top justified Tekla beam. So you don't have to handle all justifications manually, which we think is a great time saver.

Can I activate Proxy Settings?

If you wish to activate Proxy Settings - simply download and run this Proxy reg file or follow the instructions in the image below. Also please make sure your firewall is not blocking any of the applications trying to connect to Konstru. If you are trying to connect from Revit, Revit should have internet access. Same for Rhino, Etabs, etc. Konstru requires Port 443 TCP to connect to the server.

Click Start, and search for regedit and run the regedit program.