The “Inspect” tool in Plate Monitor (Joint Properties) is a little known and certainly underutilized tool in the Truss Studio design software that can help you quickly deal with joint plating changes and issues. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] We developed this tool for investigation and testing, but made it available to designers for at least these reasons:
- A. You want to change the plate size or the position to something else that works.
- B. You want to see why a particular plate size or orientation doesn’t work.
- C. You want to attempt a plate with a positioning that the program didn’t try.
This article will explain how to use this tool, and how it can help you be more efficient when manipulating joint plates becomes necessary or desired.
When you select a joint after running a truss, the Properties for that joint are given as shown below. If you then click inside the “Plate” size property drop-down list and scroll all the way up to the top, you will see “Inspect” as an option. For example:
Selecting that option will open a new dialog that looks like this:
This is the “Inspect” tool. This tool has the following options to choose from:
- Select the Minimum Plate Width that is acceptable for this joint, or that you want to attempt. If you leave it as is, it will start with the minimum from plate handling.
- 18-ga. only – this option specifies to skip all 20-gauge plates. Useful particularly for BC splicing when you already know that 20-ga. will be insufficient.
- Passed only – this option will step through your plate inventory showing only attempted solutions that pass analysis for the selected joint.
- Skip Boundary Failures – certain joints where boundaries (attic rooms, for example) limit the success of a plate attempt can be skipped with this option.
Using this tool is accomplished by pressing the buttons that you see at the bottom of the Inspect tool dialog above. Clicking “Start” will show you the first attempted plate, and then that button will change to “Next Plate” and the leftmost button will be activated for “Previous Plate” – this allows you to navigate through your plate inventory in both directions. The “OK” button serves to save the current plate and position in view, and you will get the usual “PM” after the plate label due to this being a Plate Monitor change. The “Cancel” button exits the dialog without changing or saving anything.
Note that as you navigate through the different plate attempts with the Next Plate option, the program is sorting the order based on plate cost, not size. For example, a 4x10 plate may be attempted after a 5x7 plate, because the 5x7 has less square inches, and therefore typically less cost (35 sq. in. for the 5x7 vs. 40 sq. in. for the 4x10), making the 5x7 more desirable. (This is intentionally different than in the regular Properties plate drop-down list where the order is sequential based on plate depth.)
- A. You want to change the plate size or the position to something else that works.
- After opening the dialog, select the “Passed only” checkbox, then click on Start.
- The first plate that shows is the same plate that is already there. Click “Next Plate” to work through your inventory to find other passing plate options. It will progress something like this (depending on your inventory and the joint selected):
- Note that all of these options pass analysis because you checked “Passed only.” Also note that the 5x7 was attempted in two different orientations that worked.
- B. You want to see why a particular plate size or orientation doesn’t work.
- After opening the dialog, select the “Minimum Plate Width” that you are interested in (you cannot select the length) but do NOT select the “Passed only” option, then click on Start. Click on “Next Plate” until you reach the plate length that you wish to try (note that other widths may be intermixed – the “Minimum Plate Width” creates a starting point in the inventory only, then it progresses based on cost).
- The info in Properties shows why that plate doesn’t work. For example, let’s try a 4x8 on the above hip joint. Set the “Minimum Plate Width” to “4x*” then Start and Next until the 4x8 appears, then note in Properties why it doesn’t pass analysis (area!):
- C. You want to attempt a plate with a positioning that the program didn’t try.
- Select the joint using the Move Plate toolbar option, or right-click on the joint and select the Move Plate option from the list. (For this option, you cannot just select the joint!)
- After selecting the joint with Move Plate, THEN go to Properties and select the Inspect Tool at the top of the drop-down plate list.
- Select the options you want, similar to “B” above. For example, I want to try the 4x8 plate, but slide it left to get more area on the sloping top chord where the area is lacking with the auto-placement. So, select “4x*” and Start and Next until you get to the same result as in “B” above.
- Because you invoked the Move Plate option, you can now click-and-drag on the 4x8 plate on the joint to move it around, or click-and-drag near a plate corner to rotate, trying different positions to see if you can find a location where the plate passes (it will turn black as you are adjusting the location and the Properties info will indicate a passing CSI Max value):
- Click on “OK” if you want to save this plate at this location. If you can’t find a location that passes the plate, you can continue clicking on Next Plate and trying other sizes, moving each in a similar manner.
Additional notes on this feature:
- Clicking through your inventory with Next and Previous without checking any boxes will show you all the different attempts to plate the joint that the program has automatically considered. The program accepts the first successful size and orientation.
- There are some EnvData plating settings not covered in this article that can influence the plating attempts made, whether using this tool or not.
- This tool works best on joints with single plates. It may not work well if multiple plates are applied, for example heel joints with longer scarf cuts. This is because the tool is intended for one-at-a-time usage, but a joint like that needs to combine the two (or more) plates in order to get the acceptable solution.
The “Inspect” tool is a powerful Plate Monitor option and can save you time compared to selecting plates manually one at a time in the Properties dropdown list. Give it a try!
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