Tutorials DetailCraft help Walkthroughs
Add base plates and anchor rods
Put a welded base plate with four anchor rods under a column, set its sizes, and copy it to every similar column.
Written for DetailCraft 0.3. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
A base plate connection puts a plate under the column, cuts the column short by the plate thickness, welds the two together, and adds four anchor rods through holes in the plate.
Add a base plate
- Choose Select (VV) and click a column. It must be vertical.
- Choose Base plate in the Connect group, or Add base plate in the Properties panel.
- The status bar says "Base plate added with four anchor rods." The new connection is selected.
A column can have one base plate. If it already has one, the status bar says "This column already has a base plate."
Change it
Select the base plate (click the plate or a rod). Under Plate, bolts and weld (mm):
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Plate thickness | 25 | The column is shortened by this much |
| Plate length | 450 | Along the column depth |
| Plate width | 400 | Across the column |
| Rod diameter | 20 | Anchor rod size |
| Hole diameter | 33 | Hole in the plate |
| Bolt grade | F1554 Gr 36 | The rod grade, as text |
| Rod spacing (along depth) | 350 | Between rod centers, along the plate length |
| Rod spacing (across) | 300 | Between rod centers, across |
| Rod projection above plate | 100 | From the plate top to the rod top |
| Rod embedment below plate | 450 | From the plate underside down into the concrete |
| Fillet weld size | 8 | All around the column base |
| Plate material | A36 | Text |
Rod length = embedment + plate thickness + projection. With the defaults that is 575 mm.
Warnings appear when the rod holes are closer than 1.2 × the hole diameter to the plate edge, when the rods fall inside the column outline, or when the plate is smaller than the column.
Copy it to similar columns
- Select the base plate.
- Choose Apply to similar (n) or Similar.
- Every vertical column with the same profile that has no base plate and does not stand on another column gets a copy.
Base plates and footings
A base plate does not need a footing, and a footing does not know about the base plate above it: the anchor rods are not tied into the footing's bars. Place footings with Footing; see Place footings with rebar.