Creating Grid-Driven Plates

Grid Driven Plates lets you add structural plates using your building grid or reference plane grid to control the position and orientation of the plates.

Before you begin: Create a building grid or a reference plane grid.
  1. In the Grid-Driven Plate dialog box, from Type, select the type of plate.
    OptionDescription
    Plates

    		 Creates a general plate at the selected grid segment.
    Web

    		 Creates a web plate at the selected grid segment. Select web type plates to support flange plates and carry shear loads.
    Flange

    		 Creates a flange plate at the selected grid segment. Select flange type plates to resist bending movements.

    While editing multiple structure features, you can click for different shapes of different members.

  2. Specify the values for Width and Depth of the plate.
  3. To position the grid-driven plate on a grid, click Position on Grid .
  4. To position the grid-driven plate on a wire, click Position on Wires , select one or more wires and then specify the direction of the plate.

    Notes:
    • You can click Reverse to reverse the direction of the grid-driven plate.
    • The direction specifies the orientation of the local V axis of the member. Thus you can control the base rotation of the member around its axis. This is useful when attempting to orient a number of members on wires in the same direction.

  5. To set the plate location, from Create Mode, click one of the following:
    OptionDescription
    Single Inserts plates only on the selected segments.
    Along gridline

    		 Inserts plates on all similar segments along the gridline of the selected segments.
    All in story Inserts plates on all similar segments in the story of the selected segments.
    Above and below

    		 Inserts plates on all similar segments above and below the selected segments.
    Diagrid Inserts plates in an ascending diagonal pattern from a pair of selected points.
    Plane to plane

    		 Inserts plates between selected planes. This option is only available for reference plane grids.
    All on side Inserts plates on the selected side of the building. This option is only available in the context of a building.
    All interior Insert plates on the interior of the grid.
    All in building Insert plates on all similar segments in the structural grid.
  6. To create a grid driven plate in a new geometrical set, select the Create in a new geometrical set check box.
  7. To change the zero angle orientation for the plate, in the Grid-Driven Plate dialog box, click either:
    • Snap Rotation Counterclockwise
    • Snap Rotation Clockwise
  8. Align the plate along the U axis and the V axis.
  9. To set the trim, offset, and plate rotation, expand Options and specify the following values:
    1. In End 1 trim, enter or click to set the trim value.
    2. In End 2 trim, enter or click to set the trim value.
    3. To offset the plate horizontally, enter a value in U offset.
    4. To offset the plate vertically, enter a value in V offset.
    5. From Rotation, enter or select the angle in degrees to rotate the plate counterclockwise about its length.
    6. To rotate the plate relative to the surface or input body instead of relative to horizontal, select the Rotate relative to surface check box.
    7. To create a second plate symmetrical to the first about the selected grid segment, select the Mirror across the grid segment check box.
  10. Expand Grid Segment Display and in the Grids to Display box, select the grids to display, and then select the checkboxes according to the requirement:
  11. Click .

 

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