Create a conical or a cylindrical bent plate

Tekla Structures
2021
Tekla Structures

Create a conical or a cylindrical bent plate

You can create cylindrical or conical bent steel plates either by selecting two parts or two part faces. The parts that you use for creating a bent plate must be contour plates, or beams whose profile is a plate (for example, PL200*20). Position the parts so that there is some room on both sides, so that Tekla Structures can create a curved section between them.

After creating a cylindrical or conical bent plate, the individual parts no longer exist in the model. The bent plate gets its properties and coordinates from the first part that you selected when creating the bent plate. The first part is the main section of the bent plate. You can later change the main section, if needed.

Limitations

  • Only the side faces of the part can be used for creating a bent plate.

  • Chamfered or cut faces cannot be used for creating a bent plate.

  • Curved beams and deformed parts cannot be used for creating a bent plate.

  • Details (such as bolts, welds, cuts, chamfers, and preparations) in simple cases are supported on the curved section of the bent plate.

In addition to the cylindrical and conical bent plates, you can also create stand-alone bent plates which do not require any input parts.

Create a cylindrical bent plate

You can create a cylindrical bent plate by selecting two steel parts or two part faces. Cylindrical bent plate has a radius that you can modify. The bent plate properties, such as the ID, thickness, class, and material of the plate, are determined by the first part you select.

You can create cylindrical bent plates also when the selected parts are intersecting.

  1. On the Steel tab, click Plate > Create cylindrical bent plate .
  2. On the bent plate toolbar, select whether you want to create the bent plate by selecting parts or by selecting part faces.

    Additionally, you can enter the radius of the cylindrical bent plate. If no radius is entered, Tekla Structures creates the bent plate using the default radius.

    • If you selected By parts:

      1. Select the first part.

      2. Select the second part.

        Tekla Structures creates the cylindrical bent plate.

    • If you selected By faces:

      1. Select the first part face.

      2. Select the second part face.

        Tekla Structures creates the cylindrical bent plate.

Create a conical bent plate

You can create a conical bent plate by selecting two steel parts or two part faces. Conical bent plate has two radiuses that you can modify. The bent plate properties, such as the ID, thickness, class, and material of the plate, are determined by the first part you select.

To be able to create conical bent plates, the selected parts or part faces need to be of a shape that creating a conical bent plate is possible. If the selected parts or part faces are such that creating a cylindrical bent plate is possible, a cylindrical bent plate is created. You can create different shapes of conical bent plates: inward bend, outward bend, or with 180 degrees opening angle.

  1. On the Steel tab, click Plate > Create conical bent plate .
  2. On the bent plate toolbar, select whether you want to create the bent plate by selecting parts or by selecting part faces.

    You can enter two radiuses for the conical bent plate. If no radiuses are entered, Tekla Structures creates the bent plate using the default radiuses.

    • If you selected By parts:

      1. Select the first part.

      2. Select the second part.

      3. Tekla Structures creates the conical bent plate.

    • If you selected By faces:

      1. Select the first part face.

      2. Select the second part face.

      3. Tekla Structures creates the conical bent plate.

Modify the bend radius

When you create a cylindrical bent plate, you can enter a radius for the plate. For a conical bent plate you can enter two radiuses. If you do not enter any radius, Tekla Structures uses a default bend radius when creating bent plates. You can later change the bend radius to suit your needs.

  1. Ensure that Direct modification is switched on.
  2. Select the bent plate.

    A blue line handle appears in the middle of the curved section.

  3. Select the line handle.

    Depending on the type of the bent plate, one (for cylindrical bent plate) or two (for conical bent plate) blue dimension arrows appear.

    • For cylindrical bent plate:

    • For conical bent plate:

  4. To modify the radius, do one the following:
    • Drag the arrow or arrows forward or backward along the magenta line.

      The dimension "r =" changes accordingly. When you release the arrow, the radius also changes in the model.

    • On the contextual toolbar, enter the radius or the radiuses.

    • Alternatively, you can select the arrow and type a dimension. When you start typing, Tekla Structures displays the Enter a Numeric Location dialog box. Click OK to confirm the dimension.

Modify the shape of a bent plate

When you create a bent plate, Tekla Structures adds a curved section between the parts you select. You can modify the curved section by choosing one of the predefined options or by modifying the shape manually. You can also modify the flat sections, which are the original parts the bent plate was made of.

  1. Ensure that Direct modification is switched on.
  2. Select the bent plate.

    A blue line handle appears in the middle of the curved section.

  3. Select the line handle.

    A contextual toolbar appears.

  4. On the contextual toolbar, select one of the predefined shape options:

    Option

    Description

    Example

    Tapered bend

    A gradual decrease in the width between the parts.

    This is the default shape.

    Narrow bend

    Constant width between the parts. The width is determined by the narrowest part.

    Wide bend

    Constant width between the parts. The width is determined by the widest part.

  5. To modify the curved section manually:
    1. Select the blue line handle.

      You can modify the side boundaries or the lateral boundaries of the bends both in the cylindrical and in the conical bent plate. Tekla Structures displays the boundary handles in blue:

    2. Drag the handles to change the shape of the curved section.

      For example:

  6. To modify the flat sections:
    1. Select the bent plate.

      Tekla Structures displays a green selection handle in the middle of each flat section:

    2. Click the selection handle of the section you want to modify.

      The direct modification handles of the selected section become visible:

    3. Use the direct modification handles to change the shape of the flat section.
  7. To modify the angle of the bent plate:
    1. Click the green selection handle in the middle of the flat section whose angle you want to modify.
    2. Select the line handle.

      A contextual toolbar appears.

    3. On the contextual toolbar, click Enable angle manipulator.

      The angle manipulator wheel appears in the model.

    4. Modify the angle using the wheel.

      If you want to modify the angle of another flat section, click the other green selection handle.

  8. To change the main section of the bent plate:
    1. Click the green selection handle of the section that you want to set as the main section.

      A contextual toolbar appears.

    2. On the contextual toolbar, click Set main section.

      The direct modification handles become active in the new main section. The main section and the coordinate system of the bent plate change accordingly, changing the bent plate orientation in an unfolded drawing.

Remove curved sections

You can return bent plates into individual objects, and then edit and use them as any other model object. If the bent plate consists of several curved sections that are all joined to the same part, you can either remove each curved section separately or explode the entire bent plate all at once.

To

Do this

To remove individual curved sections

  1. Ensure that Direct modification is switched on.

  2. Select the curved section you want to remove.

    A blue line handle appears.

  3. Select the line handle.

    A contextual toolbar appears.

  4. On the contextual toolbar, click Remove bend.

    Tekla Structures removes the selected curved section. For example:

To explode the entire bent plate

  1. Select one of the curved sections.

  2. Right-click and select Explode.

    Tekla Structures explodes the entire bent plate into individual objects. For example:

Examples

Here are some examples of bent plates that you can create:

Starting point

End result

Modify bent plate properties

  1. If the property pane is not open, double-click the bent plate to open the Bent plate properties.
  2. Change the properties as needed.
  3. Click Modify.

Bent plate properties

Use the Bent plate properties in the property pane to view and modify the properties of a bent plate. To open the properties, double-click the bent plate. The file name extension of a bent plate property file is *.bpl.

If you have customized the property pane layout, the list of properties may be different.

Setting

Description

General

Name

User-definable name of the plate.

Tekla Structures uses part names in reports and in Document manager, and to identify parts of the same type.

Profile

Profile of the plate.

Material

Material of the plate.

Finish

Type of finish.

Finish is user definable. It describes how the part surface has been treated, for example, with anti-corrosive paint, hot galvanized, fire retardant coating, and so on.

Class

Use to group plates.

For example, you can display parts of different classes in different colors.

Numbering series

Part numbering

Part prefix and start number for the part position number.

Assembly numbering

Assembly prefix and start number for the assembly position number.

More

UDAs

Click the User-defined attributes button to open the user-defined attributes (UDAs) of the part. UDAs provide additional information about the part.

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