Mat foundation design

Question

Hi, 
 I am designing a mat foundation supporting a steel structure. 
 I am asigning the loads from the columns as NODAL LOAD. 
 I do not think this is the right approach because I have a base plate that distributes the load from the column uniformly under the area of the base plate. 
 My question is, how do I apply in the model this approach? 
 Regards.

Sye · Accepted Answer

Please refer to the last wiki article on the following page 
 communities.bentley.com/.../2066.aspx

Sye · Answer

The dimensions for the dummy members can be anything. You only need to make them very stiff and you would do that by increasing the E to say 100 times that of the material you are using for the rest of your structure. These members would lie in the plane of the mat and would radiate from the point of application of the load to the neighboring joints in your mat.