Gusset Plate [TB]

A gusset plate connects multiple truss members that frame into a common Insertion Point. The plate can be defined from a predefined section or a custom polygonal shape, positioned in three dimensions, and optionally refined into a shell-element mesh for detailed analysis of the connection region.

Plate

Insertion Point: Insertion Point at which the gusset plate is centered. The plate picks up all truss members connected to this insertion point. The user must provide a value.

Select/Custom Section [Select/Custom]: Chooses how the plate outline is defined. Select uses a predefined section from Properties > Sections; Custom uses the user-defined polygon in Custom Section.

Select Section: Section used as the plate outline when Select/Custom Section is set to Select. Pick a previously defined section from Properties > Sections.

Custom Section: User-defined polygon (list of X,Y vertices in the plate's local plane) that defines the plate outline when Select/Custom Section is set to Custom. Used to draw gusset plates of any shape required by the truss geometry.

Plate Material: Material assigned to the plate when Custom Section is used. Pick from Properties > Materials.

Plate Thickness: Out-of-plane thickness of the gusset plate. Used both for the 3D model and for refined FEM computations.

Position

Rotate about X Axis: Rotation of the plate about the local X axis of the Insertion Point. Use to orient the plate relative to the connecting members.

Rotate about Y Axis: Rotation of the plate about the local Y axis.

Rotate about Z Axis: Rotation of the plate about the local Z axis.

Offset along X Axis: Translation of the plate center along the local X axis of the Insertion Point. Use for eccentric placements relative to the connection.

Offset along Y Axis: Translation of the plate center along the local Y axis.

Offset along Z Axis: Translation of the plate center along the local Z axis.

Bolt

Bolt Arrangement: Layout of bolts on the plate, entered as a list of bolt positions. Used to position bolt holes in the 3D model and to drive the bolt-group stiffness calculation in the refined FE analysis.

Bolt Segment: Number of segments used to discretize each bolt hole in the 3D model.

Show Bolt Holes (Detailing) [No/Yes]: Toggles rendering of bolt holes in the 3D view. Visualization only.

FEM

Generate Refined Mesh [Yes/No]: Enables shell-element meshing of the gusset plate in the FE model. When Yes, the plate participates in the analysis as a shell mesh connected to the truss members via rigid links; when No, the plate is 3D-only and does not contribute to FEA. The FEM parameters below apply only when Yes is selected. Switching this on may significantly increase solve time.

Rigid Section: Section used to model rigid links between the plate mesh and the connecting truss members. The user must provide a value when refined mesh is enabled.

Bolt Segment: Number of mesh segments used around each bolt hole in the refined FE model.

Mesh Size: Target element size for the refined plate mesh.

Mesh Option [MeshAdapt/Automatic/Initial mesh only/Delaunay/Frontal-Delaunay/BAMG/Frontal-Delaunay for Quads/Packing of Parallelograms/Quasi-structured Quad]: Selects the 2D meshing algorithm used to generate the shell mesh of the plate. Default is Automatic.

Truss Restraints: Optional list of restraints applied to individual truss members' ends at this gusset, overriding their global end releases for the refined analysis.

Truss Loads: Optional list of loads applied to individual truss members' ends at this gusset for the refined analysis.

Transferable Data

Compute Transferable Data: Precomputed data (truss geometry, bolt layouts, section properties, material constants) used when the gusset plate is exported as a shared object for refined standalone analysis. Populate using the Compute Elevations cell action.

3D Detailing

Display Local Axis [No/Yes]: Toggles display of the plate's local axis triad in the 3D view.

Plate Opacity: Opacity of the plate in the 3D view. Values from 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque).

Plate Color: Color of the plate in the 3D view, entered as a hex color code (e.g., #ffe6d1).