Roll-former file

From the model to the coil, one file per wall

An LSF roll former pulls the steel strip off the coil, forms the C section and, in the same pass, cuts it to length, swages, notches and punches it. It does not read drawings: it reads a list of members with the position of each tool operation. CalcSteel writes that list from the walls of the model, in the dialect of the chosen machine.

The button is on the LSF panel, right below Calculate: Machine (CSV). It opens a box with two sides. On the left, machine, format and joint detail, and the export button. On the right, the import side, which reads a CSV with positions and builds each panel as a wall.

The example house is the same 9x7 one from Exterior walls, redone in a new project. A new LSF project starts roll-formed on the FRAMECAD F325iT, and that is the machine this page follows. The reading example is the front wall, V6, with the door, the windows and the lattice column.

• 6: files, one per wall, V1 to V6, in a .zip
• 205: members in the house, all in C 89x41 at 0.95 mm
• 2,055: tool operations written in the six files
• 205 bars: back on import, in 6 walls

Stick-built or roll-formed

An LSF project asks, right at creation, how the steel will arrive on site. The wizard offers two answers, with the hint for each written on the button:

Stick-built

"The section arrives as a bar and is cut on site." The list that matters is the purchase and cut list: how many commercial bars of each section. The machine does not come in.

Roll-formed

"The members leave the roll former already cut, punched and swaged." Each member has its own length and its own operations, and someone has to hand that to the machine. That is what the file does.

Below, stud V6-M1a of the front wall as the FRAMECAD reads it: 2,796.28 mm and nine operations. At the ends, the cut, the dimple that will match the one on the track and the 55 mm swage that narrows the section so it fits between the track flanges. In the middle, twice, the lip notch and the dimple where the blocking crosses over.

• 9: operations on a common stud of V6
• 55 mm: of swage at each end that goes into the track
• 1.86 mm: between the end of the stud and the bottom of the track

Fabrication is part of the design

NBR 16970-2 does not mention CSV files or roll formers. It says what the design has to deliver, and the machine file is one way of delivering the fabrication part. The items that matter here:

The order of use on this house

The file is the last thing that leaves the model. Anything that changes after it forces a new export, so the order matters:

Joint detail

Format

1. Create the project and check fabrication

In New project · LSF, the header of the Project settings shows the country and the standard, Brazil · NBR 14762, and right below the choice Stick-built or Roll-formed. In a new project, Roll-formed is already selected and the machine is the FRAMECAD F325iT. A project saved earlier, without a fabrication model, reopens as stick-built; a project that already has a model does not change.

2. See the profiles the machine forms

On the Structure · profiles tab, the title becomes Profiles of FRAMECAD F325iT. Stud, track and blocking in C 89x41/39x12 at 0.95 mm, header at 1.15, bracing in RET 50x0.95 strap. The steel of the project is ZAR-230, and the stud spacing, 600 mm.

From here on the house is built as on the other pages: the six walls (see Exterior walls), the front openings (see Doors and windows) and the lattice column (see Columns). In the new project the walls get the labels V1 to V6, and the front one is V6.

3. Machine (CSV), below Calculate

The button is always on the LSF panel, without depending on the calculation. The box opens alongside, with the title Roll-former CSV. The project machine is already selected and, for the FRAMECAD, the machine's own model shows up first in the joint detail.

4. Switch machines, if needed

With the Howick FRAMA 3200, the format becomes Howick CSV v1 or v2, and the detail has two options, because the default belongs to the FRAMECAD. The text below the format says what it carries. On v1: "Only length and operations: the machine cuts, but the file does not rebuild the wall."

5. Export 6 wall(s)

With no wall open, the button says how many go: Export 6 wall(s). A single file comes out as .csv; several come out in a .zip named after the project and the machine, here CalcSteel_framecad_f325it.zip. The report shows on the right side of the box.

The report, line by line

FX and FC, the X strap and the blocking strap, are flat steel: the C roll former does not form them. They stay on the purchase list.

Members per file

6. Open V6 and export only it

With the wall view open, the box exports only the open wall, and the button becomes Export V6. The file is V6.csv, the same one that goes inside the .zip.

The same label V6-M1a appears on four lines, at x = 1,200, 6,000, 8,400 and 9,000: they are identical members in different places. A member with the same mark and different operations gets an extra letter.

7. Show how the roll former forms

In the 3D button group, the purple one says "Show how the roll former forms (swaging, fit, dimple)". It is already on, and the choice is kept in the browser. It works only in 3D or in the wall view.

When on, each member shows as the machine will deliver it: the swaged end narrower, the lip notched where another member crosses, and the dimples in orange. When off, the member goes back to the plain profile of the calculation. The operations seen here are the same as in the CSV, just carried from the wall plane to 3D.

8. Choose file

The right side of the box reads a CSV with positions, from the FRAMECAD or the Howick v2, or a .zip exported here. Each panel comes in as a wall, next to the project. With the house .zip, the report says "6 wall(s) built, 205 bars", the same 205 members that went out.

The FX and FC straps do not come back: they were not in the file. What comes back are the bars with profile, position and role.

The two machines and the fit in the track

The machine catalog belongs to CalcSteel, and the box reads it from there. There are two:

It is the FRAMECAD fit rule: the end stops t + 0.91 from the bottom of the receiving member, swaged if it does not fit and dimpled on the centerline; the receiving member has its lip notched in the strip and the dimple at the center. The top track receives the same way, so the stud has the same operations at both ends.

What goes into the six files

Operations, by type

Members, by role

STUD is the stud, the king stud and the column chord; NOG is the blocking; WEB is the diagonal and the truss vertical; TRIMSTUD is the jack stud under the header; HEADPLATE and SILL are the head track and the sill track. Bolt and service holes exist in the dialect and do not show up here because the house has none placed.

The clearances of the FRAMECAD default model

What the box says when it cannot

1. Importing the Howick v1 cut list. "V8.csv: the file is a cut list (howick_v1): it carries the length and the operations of each member, but not where it goes in the frame, and without that there is no wall to build." v1 is for the machine to cut, not for going back to the model.

2. A file from another machine, or a broken .zip. "no registered dialect reads this file". In the .zip: "not a .zip", "broken .zip index" or "compression N not supported". Only the .csv files in the .zip are read.
3. A panel without track or without stud. "the wall was not recognized (no bottom and top track, or no stud)". The panel needs both tracks and at least one stud to become a wall.
4. A member that does not fit between the flanges. With the Profile per member, no swaging model, a fit that does not fit is refused, and the message follows the pattern "fit: M with web 89 does not fit between the flanges of G (89 − 2×0.95)". If the member arrives from the back and would fit if turned, the message says that too. With swaging, the SWAGE solves it.
5. Expecting the strap in the file, or the section you chose. FX and FC come out as "outside the roll former". And in the single-section model, a member of another profile is swapped for the stud profile, with the notice "single section, A → B". Read the report before sending: a thicker member in the calculation, such as the profile header at 1.15, would come out at 0.95.

The file comes from the drawing, not from the calculation

The calculation engine checks the LSF bars. The roll-former file is built from the walls of the model, the machine catalog and the joint model: it carries what is drawn, and it does not read the calculation result. What that means in practice:

What the engine checks, and what goes into the file

What stays with the designer

1. The section swaps. Read each "single section, A → B" line in the report and check, on the Structure tab, that the calculation uses the profile that goes to the machine.
2. The steel and the straps. Send the manufacturer the sheet and the report with the steel shown prominently, as NBR 16970-2, 4.8 requires, and the purchase list with FX and FC.
3. The bolted connections. They stay on the sheet and in the report, per NBR 16970-2, 4.8 f).
4. Clearances and sides with whoever forms. Fit clearance, LEFT or RIGHT, FULL CHAMFER, WEB NOTCH width and hole diameter vary from machine to machine: a test panel before the first production run (see Parameters).

The path, in one line

New roll-formed project → machine profiles checked → walls, connections and calculation → purple button wall by wall → Machine (CSV) → export the .zip → read the report → steel and straps on the sheet → import into a new project, if you want to check.

The example so far

• 6: files, V1 to V6
• 205: members in 89S40_0.95
• 2,055: tool operations
• 108/108: fits found on V6