Plates

Creating Plates

Open the builder dialog and click the Plates icon to access the plate settings and tools.

Set the plate thickness and then click the 'Build Plate' button to activate the plate tool.

By default, the plate tool will create rectangular plates. Press the ALT (Mac: COMMAND) key to switch to polygon creation mode.

Creating Rectangular Plates

In the example below, we'll create a cap plate at the end of a beam.

The face you are hovering the mouse over determines the orientation plane of the new plate.  Watch the mouse cursor to see the indication for how the plate will align to the hovered face. 

You can also use arrow keys or SHIFT to lock the orientation of the plate before you click the first point.

In the image below, see how the cursor shows that the plate will align to the hovered face.  Click the corner point for the plate.

The first click determines the first corner, base, and orientation of the plate.  The next determines the width.  Move the mouse across the end of the beam and click the opposite corner as shown.

The third click determines the length of the rectangular plate.  Move the mouse directly upwards and click the top corner of the beam to complete the cap plate.

After performing the third click, the plate geometry is generated using the thickness shown in the dialog. 

Creating Polygon Plates

In the example below, we'll create a 1/2" thick web stiffener plate.

First, we'll create a guide line (SketchUp Tape Measure Tool) at the stiffener position (optional) and enable Hidden Geometry (menu View -> Hidden Geometry) so that we can see where the curvature of the beam profile starts and stops.

Click the Build Plate tool button.  With the tool active, toggle Polygon Mode using ALT (Mac: COMMAND).  The cursor changes to indicate the mode.

Next, tap CTRL (Mac: OPTION) to place the plate 'by center' rather than 'by base'.  This means the plate will get extruded in both directions, not just outwards from the base. (Note the status bar text to help indicate which mode you are currently using)

BEFORE clicking the first point, we'll tap the left arrow key to lock the desired orientation of the plate.  Now, no matter what point is clicked, the orientation will be correct.

Move the mouse to the intersection point between the guide line and the edge of the beam. The cursors shows an 'x' to indicate that this is the intersection point. Click here to start the plate.

After clicking the first point, move the mouse towards the web of the beam. Then click the edge at the start of the profile radius.

Next, click the edge at the end of the profile radius as shown below.

Move the mouse upwards and click somewhere on the web to set the height of the plate.

Next, we use SketchUp inferencing techniques to set the next point.  Press the arrow key to lock the red axis and then click the corner point of the beam as shown.  This technique ensures that the edge of the plate will perfectly align to the edge of the beam. (There are other ways to accomplish this. Feel free to use whatever inferencing techniques you are most comfortable with)

Finally, click the start point of the plate to finish and generate the plate geometry. Notice that the plate is centered on the guide line because we used the 'place by center' mode when using the Build Plate tool.

Editing Plate Geometry

The thickness of the selected plates can easily be edited using the builder dialog.

However, plates are special objects in DECAsteel in that they can also be edited using native SketchUp tools, or even using other extensions!

In this example, the stiffener plate was edited using native SketchUp tools:

• Holes were created using the Circle Tool with Push / Pull
• The corner was rounded using the Arc Tool with Push / Pull
• The thickness was increased to 1" by selecting all faces and scaling the plate to 1" thick.

After making these changes, DECAsteel will still recognize the object as a DECAsteel plate and you can still edit the object using the builder dialog!

Valid DECAsteel Plates

In order to be a 'valid' DECAsteel plate, the object must meet these criteria:

• It must be originally created using the DECAsteel Plate tool.
• The object's blue axis must point along the 'thickness' of the plate.
• There must be exactly one face pointing along the blue axis (top face)
• There must be exactly one face pointing opposite the blue axis direction (bottom face)

The plate below meets this criteria.  If the object does not meet the above criteria, it will not be considered a valid plate and DECAsteel tools will not be able to interact with it.