https://communities.bentley.com/products/ram-staad/f/ram-staad-forum/70436/mat-foundation-with-pedestal---2d-and-3d-elements---staad-helpI was just trying to analyze a mat foundation with 5 pedestal on it. Some pedestals are square in shape and others are octogonal. I modelled the mat using plate element with thinkness of 0.5m. (plate element with 4 nodes) pedestals modelled as beamen-USTelligent Community 12https://communities.bentley.com/thread/253577?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 02 Aug 2013 10:35:56 GMT6dad98f5-dbc9-4c4d-a9ba-e9da8dc6aa8e:fe4c515a-d43b-4598-ba5b-9eb6237e513dSurojit Ghosh<p><span style="color:#333399;font-size:small;">Hi,</span></p> <p><span style="color:#333399;font-size:small;">STAAD can analyze this type of structure. Make sure that the beam members have proper connectivity with the plate elements. Else the force from the beam members will not be trasferred properly to the plate elements. You can use &quot;Check Beam Plate connectivity&quot; option (Tools &gt; Check Beam Plate connectivity) to check the connection.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#333399;font-size:small;">You can specify the support type as elastic mat or plate mat support. You can go through example problem 27 for more details.</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>