Generation of Structural elements

Hi David, I think I know the answer but just wanted to confirm the following:

  1. I am using beams to reinforce a plate which is modelled with liner. Initially, the beams were created by connecting two existing nodes of the liner elements by using “stru beam create by-nodeids …”. I thought in this way, the beam can interact with the liners by sharing the same nodes, and in a way the same as rigidly connected nodes. However, it does not seem to work (could you please explain why?), so I have to use “stru beam create by-line …” to form the beams which have their own nodes at the same postions as the nodes of the liners. Then I use “stru node join” to join the nodes of the liner and the beam together. I would like to confirm this is the correct and best way to go for such modelling?
  2. In the process above, I found that each liner element (triangle) has their own nodes. It looks like that neighbouring liner elements does not share nodes at the same position, the interaction between the liner elements is by the rigidly connected nodes at the same postion. Could you please confirm whether my understanding is correct? Thanks!