Flat Straight Plates

Apart from given standard shapes and freely defined special shapes of any kind, you can insert plates of any shape into the model – in the program, such plates are called poly-plates. Such plates are flat or three-dimensionally bent plates of equal thickness such as gusset plates or other types of connecting plates and butt straps.

The other plate types commonly used for steel structures such as base plates, end plates or stiffeners can be created by the program using automatic functions. The program also names them. These functions are explained later in the user‟s guide; here you find a general explanation of plates of any thickness.

Length plate length at rectangular insertion Width plate width at rectangular insertion

Thickness plate thickness; it is indicated in list form. The list can be edited to add certain thicknesses not included in the list.

To do so, open the file ..\Prg\pro_st3d.ptt with an editor and complete it with the desired thicknesses.

Alternatively, you can switch on overwriting with any values in the ‟Global Settings/Plates‟. Otherwise, you can only take values from this list.

Insertion Height This is the height of the plate above the current UCS.

X-Offset x-offset of the plate related to the selected insertion position.

You can either enter this value or define the insertion point by means of the points on screen.

Y-Offset y- offset of the plate related to the selected insertion position.

You can either enter this value or define the insertion point by means of the points on screen.

Item No. Here you can directly use an item number.

Grid If this value is activated, an additional grid is visible at the upper side that can be set. By this way you can show that it isn‟t a plate but a component part such as e.g. gridirons. In the settings/plate, you can enter a reduction of weight in percent for this case.

Insertion Plane Indicates the user coordinate system to be used. The option Object-ECS is only possible if you want to enter the plate by means of a selected contour. Then, the plate is situated in the

Page B.9 - 3 Insert Edge Indicates the vertical position of the plate related to the current

UCS or ECS-system, depending on the selected input form.

Label You can take the name of your plate from an editable file. The content of this file is displayed in this list. The file is

..\Prg\pro_st3d.pdc. In addition to the name, you can define a weight as well which has to be indicated in plain text.

After selection of a name, the material is directly set as well.

Material List of all available materials

Part Family If part families are defined, you can set them here. The selection of part family can influence the colour of the component part.

Detail Style If detailing styles are defined, you can determine them here.

Display Class If display classes are defined, you can determine them here.

Area Class If area classes are defined, you can determine them here.

Description If general part descriptions are defined, you can determine them here. The selection of the description can influence the colour and the layer.

Layer Here, you can specify on which layer the plates have to be stored.

This option permits free picking of a polygon. This polygon is used to form a poly-plate after the dialog was closed.

No construction lines or similar things are necessary. Take care that no crossings are generated by your input. Then, plate creation will not be possible.

This option permits to form a plate on the base of an existing contour. The contour can be a poly-plate, a circle or an arc which is not closed.

The plates can alternatively be created on the current UCS or on the contour ECS.

A rectangular plate with the desired dimensions is created at the selected insertion point using this option. The form of polygonal plates can be modified as you like whereas rectangular plates always remain rectangular unless you change this status using Change Properties.

Insert a plate at any line using this option. The length of the line determines the plate length; the width and the thickness are defined by your input.

After having realized this insertion, you can select the position, rotation and the insertion point via the dialog. The rotation can either be modified in 90°

increments or in freely selectable increments. The plate then is rotated around the insertion line.

+Phi The plate is rotated in positive direction using the entered angle.

- Phi The plate is rotated in negative direction using the entered angle.

+90 The plate is rotated in positive direction by 90 degrees.

-90 The plate is rotated in negative direction by 90 degrees.

Rotation The value used for rotation in the first two options.

This option permits creation of a plate by means of four points.

These points don‟t have to be situated in the current UCS. The first three selected points specify the plane. The order is:

bottom left; bottom right, top left, top right.

A flat is transformed into a poly-plate using this option. All processing actions will be adopted.

A plate is inserted according to its diagonal. The alignment of x- and y-direction is specified by the current UCS.

CL After insertion, the plates are still connected with the dialog.

Further modifications are still possible. Use this button to interrupt this connection.

Dialog-Commands

Page B.9 - 5 PLATE DIMENSIONS

Click on this button to define the calculation direction. First select the plate and then the direction according to which calculation has to be made. You can cancel the manual specification of direction in the plate properties.

BEND

Click on this button to add edged or bent segments to the plate. The result is a three-dimensionally bent plate which however is representing a single component part and which can be depicted as flat via unfolding.

A dialog opens where you can select the reference edges and make further settings (see under „Bent plates‟).

Analysis of Dimensions

The calculation of plate dimensions is either carried out according to an automatic pattern or it can be specified manually. At automatic calculation, the following order is respected:

1) Are there any parallel edges and is their distance sufficient?

2) Is there any rectangular corner?

3) Search for the longest side

Depending on the geometry, the found direction is recognized as length direction and the plate dimensions are aligned to this direction.