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Atlas TubeAtlas TubeWhere you can use this: Atlas Tube HSS Connections Hub and Calcs.comStatus: Released, with features in beta · Region: US, CA · Design codes: AISC 360-22Routes differ in status and platform. See the supported routes table below.

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What linking does

When you design a column brace and then the shear connection in the same project, you normally re-enter beam and column sections, grades, orientation, design method and connection demands by hand. That duplication is slow, and worse, the connection sheet silently goes out of sync when brace loads change. Typed linking closes that gap. The bracing sheet publishes a defined set of properties, and the connection sheet imports them.
Linking wires the data path. It does not add new capacity clauses. The connection calculator runs exactly the same checks it always did, just driven by imported rather than typed inputs.

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What gets published

When a link is active, the bracing sheet exports:
  • Beam section properties, grade and orientation
  • Column section properties, grade and orientation
  • Design method (ASD or LRFD)
  • Governing connection demands: beam shear and axial, column axial and moment

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Video walkthrough

The High Strength Connector is the Cast Connex preset that feeds the links described below.

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Supported routes

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Bidirectional linking: Column Bracing and HSS to HSS Shear Connection

This route runs both ways:
  1. Bracing to connection. Exports HSS section, design method and governing demands (axial, shear, moment).
  2. Connection to bracing. Optionally feeds refined connection capacity or demand adjustment back into the bracing sheet for interaction checks.
Both calculators agree on member naming, section lookups and demand definitions through a shared property contract, so data flows reliably in either direction. Previously the one-way link forced users to re-check bracing demands after connection design, losing the design loop.
  1. Design the brace in the Column Bracing or Column Bracing Cast Connex sheet, in the same project as the connection.
  2. Open the connection calculator.
  3. Set Link Member Properties from Column Bracing? to Yes.
  4. Select the source Column Bracing sheet. Only same-project sheets with a supported member pairing appear in the list.
  • Local beam and column selectors are gated.
  • The design method input is gated.
  • Load type inputs are gated.
  • Section properties and factored demands are taken from the linked sheet.
Set the toggle back to No at any time to return to manual entry. Manual behaviour is entirely unchanged, and editing properties on either end does not break the other calculator. Unsupported geometries or connection types leave individual members, or the whole link, inactive, with in-sheet guidance explaining why. A WF column, for example, will not appear as a valid source for the WF to HSS route.