Structural Steel
Plates and fittings for steelwork connections: base plates, end plates, fin plates, gussets and cleats, with their bolt holes at the usual edge distances, gauges and pitches. A drawing whose industry is Structural steel offers these tools in the toolbar and in Edit › Tool.
Tools
| Tool | Does | |
|---|---|---|
| Hole Pattern | Holes on a bolt circle (PCD), in a row or in a grid, measured from an edge | |
| Slot | A slotted hole: between two points, or round a centre at a length and angle | |
| Gusset Plate | A gusset or stiffener in a corner, sniped, its toes cut square | |
| Base Plate | A column base plate with its bolt holes and a grout hole | |
| Part Mark | Numbered part marks on the Etch layer | |
| Beam Cope | A cope in a beam's end, top, bottom or both, its inside corner rounded | |
| Weld Preparation | A bevel's line and label on an edge to be bevelled for a butt weld | |
| Weld Number | Welds numbered in balloons for a weld map, with their type, size and WPS |
The production tools (Registration Mark, Drill Hole) are offered for every industry.
The Hole Pattern tool's Row and Grid patterns are measured from an edge as a steel detailer gives them: the edge distance, the gauge and the pitches. Slotted holes (for adjustment) are drawn with the Slot tool. Gussets and stiffeners are sniped at their inside corner to clear the weld, and each part can be given a part mark, etched or punched, on the Etch layer.
A beam that frames into another with their tops level is coped at its end with the Beam Cope tool (the library's Beam cope template works out the cope from the two sections), and an edge to be bevelled for a butt weld is marked with its bevel line and preparation by the Weld Preparation tool.
Output for the machines
File › Export › Export… writes each plate or coped beam as a DSTV NC file (.nc1), one file per
piece, for beam drilling lines, plate drilling and punching machines and plasma tables: its outline, holes, slots,
part mark and marking lines, weld preparations as bevels on its edges, and in its header the order, drawing, steel
grade, quantity, thickness or profile from the drawing's classification, and a beam's skew end cuts. A channel,
angle or hollow section's other faces (flanges, legs, the back) are drawn a face a page
(faces). DXF and G-code are offered too.
File › Export › Export… also writes the pieces as an IFC steel model (.ifc, IFC4) for BIM programs:
each plate an IfcPlate, each piece of a profile an IfcBeam with its section, holes and copes as openings, and its mark,
grade, quantity and weights attached.
Cutting list and bill of materials
File › Reports… › Steel cutting list lists each piece as the DSTV export finds it (its mark, profile, grade
and quantity from the classification: CLASSIFY "grade","S355J2", "quantity",
"profile", "thickness") with its length, width and thickness and its weight, and the bill of materials by
profile (plates by thickness) and grade: how many pieces, their length, a plate's area and the weight, and a cost
at a price per kg. A plate weighs its area, less its holes and cut-outs, × its thickness × the density (7850 kg/m³);
a profile its length × its weight per metre: EN 10365's for IPE, HEA and HEB, the classification's
"weight per metre" if you give one, else worked out from the sizes typed in the DSTV options. Save it as CSV for a
spreadsheet or as a web page to print (see Reports).
Designs in the library
File › Run Parametric… has a Structural steel folder (see Run Parametric):
| Design | What it is |
|---|---|
| Column base plate | A base plate with holding-down bolts |
| Beam end plate | An end plate bolted to the column or beam a beam frames into |
| Fin plate | A shear tab welded along one edge |
| Angle cleat pair | The marking-out of a double-angle web cleat |
| Bracing gusset plate | A gusset for a diagonal brace |
| Splice plate | A cover plate joining two members end to end |
| Web stiffener | A plate fitted between a beam's flanges |
| Beam cope template | A template for a cope in a beam's end |
| Lifting lug | A padeye with its hole |
Machine profiles
Make It (File › Export › Make It, Ctrl+Shift+M, or the Make It button at the top of the window) writes the DSTV files for the line (Steel fabrication line (DSTV NC)) and the Steel cutting list as CSV in one click, beside the drawing, after checking the design: see Make It.
File › Export › Export… lists this trade's formats first. File › Send Using Machine Profile sends the drawing to a machine in one click, with the format, options, layer names and pens it needs; those that come with the app for this trade: Plasma nesting software (DXF), Plasma table (G-code, arc lead-ins), Steel fabrication line (DSTV NC). See Export by Industry and Machine Profiles.
See also: Industries and Tool Sets, Tools.