Getting started
PerCode AEC is where you build a building's model, check it and report it. This chapter covers starting the program, making or opening a file, and the project the file belongs to. The commands it names are in the command reference.
Two ways in
The desktop installation adds two shortcuts. Both start the same program, and only one copy runs at a time.
| Shortcut | Opens |
|---|---|
| PerCode | PerCode AEC, at its start screen. |
| PerCode Projects | The Project Manager: your projects, their calculations, every other tool (retaining walls, beams, wind…), the combined report and its cover sheet. |
If the program is already running, the second shortcut opens or brings forward the window it names. Closing a window closes only that window, after asking about unsaved changes; the program stops when its last window closes.
The start screen
With no file open, PerCode AEC shows its start screen:
- NEW — a new file. See A new file.
- NEW FROM TEMPLATE — a new file started from a template. See Templates.
- OPEN — a file you already have. See Opening a file.
- PROJECT EXPLORER — the Project Manager.
- Recent — the files you opened last, each with its project folder under its name. Click one to open it.
Nothing can be saved without a file, so the start screen stays until you make or open one.
The guided tour
The tour builds a small house with you, one step at a time. Each step lights the control it is about, and the assistant's panel says what to do. When you have done it, the next step starts. SKIP goes on without doing it, BACK goes to the step before, and END TOUR leaves the tour. Type a question in the assistant's panel at any step: the step and the part of this manual it comes from go with your question.
The tour has a part on the basics (the new file, the levels and the modes, the drawing you trace, the walls, the views and saving), then one part for each mode, all on the same house: Architectural (a door, a window, the roof, the floor, a kitchen and a look in 3-D) and Structural (the project's site, the slab, the walls and the roof framed, the roof's loads, CHECK MODEL, the analysis, the design and the report). A part started on a file that does not have the house it goes on with offers OPEN THE READY HOUSE: a copy of that house is put beside your file and opened, and the part goes on there.
The first time PerCode AEC starts for you, the start screen asks whether to take the tour. After that, TAKE THE TOUR on the start screen and in HELP starts it. When you are signed in, the tour remembers your account, so another computer does not ask again; offline, it goes by this computer.
A new file
NEW asks where to save the new file and what to call it. The name offered is the next free label in that folder
(A01F1, A02F1, …); you can type any name.
The folder you save the new file in becomes its project folder.
If that folder is not a project yet, it becomes one: its project is named after the folder, and Project & Hazards opens next for the rest — the project code, the engineer, the client, the address and the site data. If the folder already is a project, the new file joins it and takes the project's data (its code, engineer, client, address and code basis).
A file that already exists in the folder is never replaced — pick another name.
NEW is also in the FILE menu. A file that is open is saved first, then the new one opens in its place.
Templates
A template is a file's Short List (its sections, products — connectors among them — and gravity loads) and its assembly templates — nothing that is drawn. Starting from one saves setting up the same library on every project.
- NEW FROM TEMPLATE (start screen or FILE menu) lists the templates: Default, which ships with the program, and the ones you saved. Pick one, then name and place the file as for NEW.
- SAVE AS TEMPLATE (FILE menu) keeps the open file's Short List and assembly templates under a name you give. A name that is taken is refused; REPLACE writes over it.
The Project Manager's + Add offers the same templates when it adds a calculation.
Opening a file
OPEN (start screen or FILE menu) asks for a calculation file:
- a PerCode AEC file opens in this window (the one open is saved first);
- another tool's calculation (a beam, a retaining wall, a wind calculation…) opens in its own window;
- a project's own file (
.project.toml) opens the Project Manager on that project.
The project
A project is a folder. Its project file (.project.toml) holds what every calculation in it shares: the project's name and code,
the engineer, the client, the address, the site and its hazards, and the code basis. The calculations are the files in the folder.
- PROJECT & HAZARDS (FILE menu, and the Project & Hazards link in the Project window's code basis) opens the project's form over the model. What you save there is the project's: the open file takes the blanks it had, and the project's code basis when it has none of its own.
- PROJECT EXPLORER (FILE menu, start screen) opens the Project Manager on this file's project — where the project's other calculations are, where the other tools are added, and where the combined report is built.
Saving
SAVE (FILE menu, Ctrl+S, or click UNSAVED in the menu bar) writes the file. The FILE menu also has:
- RENAME and DUPLICATE — type the name in File, then press one. Each saves the open file first. DUPLICATE opens the copy.
- FILE HISTORY — the copies you can go back to: the last three saves, and up to three each kept when an analysis passed, a report was exported and a link was shared.