To optimize this situation retroactively, RFEM and RSTAB provide the shortcut menu function "Merge Identical Cross-Sections/Materials" in the material and cross-section tables.
This function compares the selected table entry to all other entries and merges identical table entries into one entry.
To open the context menu with this function, right‑click in the description column of the material or cross‑section table. If there is no corresponding identical entry for the selected cross‑section / material, the mentioned function appears dimmed.
This merging becomes important when assembling the calculation model from several components via the Windows clipboard. This is because when inserting the clipboard model data, new material and cross-section definitions are automatically created for the affected elements due to a missing connection. Thus, after inserting several components, duplicate definitions result, which can be combined again with the merge function.
