Tekla Structures can show plates as the equivalent flat bars for manufacturing. Tekla Structures shows the plates as flat bars in reports and drawings.

1. Set the advanced option XS_​USE_​FLAT_​DESIGNATION to TRUE.
2. Indicate the prefix that you want to use for flat bars using the advanced option XS_​FLAT_​PREFIX.

   For example, XS_FLAT_PREFIX=FLAT.

   Tip:

   To prevent Tekla Structures from showing the profile in metric units in the US environment Imperial role, add the flat bar prefix to the profitab.inp file as a parametric profile.

3. Set other advanced options related to plate work in the Advanced optionsdialog as required:

   XS_​FLAT_​TOLERANCE: Tekla Structures uses this value to check plate width to determine whether to convert it to a flat bar.

   XS_​FLAT_​THICKNESS_​TOLERANCE: Tekla Structures uses this value to check plate thickness to determine whether to convert it to a flat bar.

   XS_​CHECK_​FLAT_​LENGTH_​ALSO: Tekla Structures checks plate length and plate width, and then compares those with the possible dimensions for flat bars in fltprops.inp.

4. Define materials, thickness, and width of available flat bars in the Fltprops.inp file.