Creating a Member-Driven Plate

You can create a plate whose position and orientation are determined by the catalog member geometry, plate geometry, or clip angle geometry.

Before you begin: Open a building containing catalog members.
  1. From the Steel Detailing section of the action bar, click Member-Driven Plate .
    The building is hidden, the catalog members are shown as transparent, and their neutral axes are displayed. Pickable segments of plates and of clip angles are also displayed.
  2. Select a positioning point on the neutral axis of a catalog member, a plate, or a clip angle.
  3. In the Member-Driven Plate dialog box, select the shape of the plate.
    • To create a rectangular plate, perform the following steps:
      1. Click Rectangle .
      2. In the Length U and Length V boxes, specify the lengths of the rectangle in the U and V directions.
      3. In the Rotation box, specify an angle to rotate the rectangle about its center in the same positioning plane.
      4. In the Chamfer length box, specify the chamfer length. Select the check boxes corresponding to the plate's corners that you want to chamfer.
      5. In the Thickness box, specify the thickness of the plate.
      Note: You can click to swap the values of the Length U and the Length V of the rectangular plate.
    • To create a square plate, perform the following steps:
      1. Click Square .
      2. In the Length box, specify the length of side of the square.
      3. In the Rotation box, specify an angle to rotate the square about its center in the same positioning plane.
      4. In the Chamfer length box, specify the chamfer length. Select the check boxes corresponding to the plate's corners that you want to chamfer.
      5. In the Thickness box, specify the thickness of the plate.
    • To create a triangular plate, perform the following steps:
      1. Select Triangle .
      2. To rotate the triangle by 90 degrees about its normal, click Snap Rotate About Normal .
      3. To flip the normal of the UV plane, click Reverse .
      4. In the Length U and Length V boxes, specify the lengths of the triangle in U and V directions.
      5. In the Rotation box, specify an angle to rotate the triangle about its center in the same positioning plane.
      6. In the Chamfer length box, specify the chamfer length. Select the Chamfer -U,-V check box to chamfer the right-angled corner of the triangle.
      7. In the Thickness box, specify the thickness of the plate.
      Note: You can click to swap the values of the Length U and the Length V of the triangular plate.
    • To create a round plate, perform the following steps:
      1. Select Round .
      2. In the Diameter box, specify the diameter of the plate.
      3. In the Thickness box, specify the thickness of the plate.
    • To create a plate of any other shape, perform the following steps:
      1. Select Profile .
      2. Select a closed profile.
      3. To rotate the closed profile by 90 degrees about profile’s normal, click Snap Rotate About Normal .
      4. To flip the normal of the UV plane, click Reverse .
      5. In the Rotation box, specify an angle to rotate the profile about its center in the same positioning plane.
      6. In the Thickness box, specify the thickness of the plate.

    Note: When you position a member driven plate on a round host member, a Revolve box appears. This parameter specifies the angle by which the plate is revolved around the neutral axis of the host member.
    Tip: You can use the dimension manipulators in the 3D area to modify the dimensions of the plate.

  4. To position the origin of the U, V axes of the plate relative to the host column, select any one alignment point.

    Note: The alignment points that can be selected are displayed in the work area.

  5. Click Snap Rotation To Next Plane to change the orientation of the plate and link it to another plane relative to the host member.
  6. Align the plate in the U and V directions.

    Orientation V minus V center V plus
    U plus
    U center
    U minus

  7. Select the thickness orientation of the plate.
    OptionDescription
    Front side Applies the thickness on the positive side of the UV plane.
    Back side Applies the thickness on the negative side of the UV plane.
    Both sides Applies the thickness centered on the UV plane.
  8. Click Member-Driven Plate Options and specify the offsets for the plate in the U, V, and W directions.

    Notes:
    • You can click to reset the offset values.
    • You can select the Show additional alignment points check box to display the additional alignment points that can be selected.

  9. Click Ok .
    The member-driven plate is created.