Fixed-End (FE) anchors are single point spring elements that can be used to model anchors, struts and other types of ‘flexible’ supports. PLAXIS 2D and 3D allow for only one FE anchor per geometry point. However, in some situations, it may be required to fix a structure in different directions using spring supports, such as indicated in the figure below.
This would require two or more FE anchors to be applied at the same geometry point, which is currently not possible.
The way to overcome this limitation is to use None-to-Node (N2N) anchors instead of FE anchors. N2N anchors form a spring connection between two geometry points. However, the second point may also be a fixed point at the model (bottom) boundary, which makes that the N2N anchor basically works as an FE anchor.
In the above example case, the vertical FE anchor could be replaced by a vertical N2N anchor with its lowest point connected to the bottom boundary.
Now, there are three issues to consider: