Bent Through/Shear Plate

You may have a situation like below, one or more skewed beams connecting to an HSS column that you want to run a continuous bent plate through to support both beams.

First, take a component like (189) or (47) and apply the connection to each beam of the column, since neither will actually bend the plate as desired.  Doing this will provide us with parts we can use later, like the bolts and cuts in the column wall.  Adjust the values to get your bolts where you want them.



Explode the components.  For each beam, highlight the set of bolts, Right-click and select Bolt Parts, then select the beam and finish with a middle mouse click.  This will make the bolts go through only the beam, not the plates, so we can delete the plates without losing the bolts as well.



Next, double-click on Create Polybeam and load the Plate properties.  Change the profile to be the plate thickness you want, and the length to be the depth ofthe shear plate (i.e. 12" for a 4 row plate).  Click apply the create a polybeam plate along the edge of the plates you have in the model.  Finish with a middle mouse click.



After the plate is in, you may have to change it's properties on the position tab for the Rotation, and the On plane value to get it into the proper
position.

    

Next, create the Default Views of part from the right click menu so you can see how our plate lines up with the others created by the connection macros.

If the plate is too high in the front view, use the move commands to line it up with the others, or to the position you would like if the edge distances are different.



Next, in the plan view delete the old plates and the cuts that you do not need since the plate is bent.  Use the weld tool to weld the new plate to the column.

Finally, highlight each bolt group and Rightclick > Bolt Parts, then select the plate, then the beam, and finish with a middle mouse click to bolt through all parts.