How to convert individual surface element in a plate element

RE: How to convert individual surface element in a plate element

Sye — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 16:35:46 GMT

There is no way to do a part conversion.

RE: How to convert individual surface element in a plate element

Dennis Dolor — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 13:00:30 GMT

Thanks Sye however I'm only interested in converting some (not all) surface elements into plate elements. I think pressing F12 will convert all surfaces which isn't what I want. Judging from your response it sounds like the only way to do it is deleting all surfaces in question and adding plate elements manually which would be quite a bit of work on the model I'm working on (was hoping for a quicker solution). Thanks again.

RE: How to convert individual surface element in a plate element

Sye — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 23:24:20 GMT

There is no direct conversion of surfaces to plates. Here is what you can do.

Save your STAAD model file by a different name.

Analyze the saved STAAD.Pro model.

Press “F12” key on the keyboard which is going to convert the surface to constituent nodes and plates.

You will NOT see the plates at first. Save the file. Close it and reopen it and you will see the plates.

However please note that there would be some amount of manual cleanup that would be required after the conversion. The model will generate some errors while opening as all information related to the surfaces are not completely deleted from the file after conversion. You have to manually get rid of those. Also loads on surfaces would not be automatically converted to plate loads and has to be reapplied.