Plate Loads

Plate loads are uniform surface pressures applied to quadrilateral or triangular plate elements. Use them for slab area loads, wall pressure, roof pressure, and other loads distributed over a plate surface.

Load Type

AutoCalcs currently supports Plate Pressure loads. Each row applies a uniform pressure over either a plate group or one or more individual plate elements.

Adding Plate Loads

Using the Loads Dialog

  1. Click Loads in the ribbon to open the Loads dialog.
  2. Select the Plate Pressure tab.
  3. Enter the load case, plate group or element IDs, pressure magnitude, and direction.
  4. Click Apply to add the loads to your model.

Using the Context Menu or Properties Panel

  1. Select one or more plate elements in the 3D view.
  2. Right-click and choose Plate Pressure Loads, or use Plate Pressure from the selected plate's Loads section in the properties panel.
  3. The Loads dialog opens on the Plate Pressure tab with the selected plate elements pre-filled.

Plate Pressure Properties

  • Case: The load case ID this load belongs to.
  • Plate Group: A meshed plate group. Selecting a group applies the pressure to every tile in that group.
  • Element(s): One or more individual plate element IDs. This is disabled when a Plate Group is selected.
  • Magnitude: The pressure value in the current pressure unit, such as kPa or psf.
  • Direction: Normal, Global X, Global Y, or Global Z.

Direction

  • Normal: Pressure acts perpendicular to the plate, along the plate's local +z normal.
  • Global X / Y / Z: Pressure acts along the fixed global axis per actual plate surface area. The solver resolves it into perpendicular and in-plane components for each plate.

For full axis and sign details, see Sign Conventions.

Applying to Groups or Elements

For a meshed slab, wall, or panel, prefer Plate Group when the whole plate should receive the same pressure. Use Element(s) when only selected tiles need the load.

The Element(s) field supports the same range/list style used elsewhere in the app, such as 12-20 or 12,15,18.

Load Visualization

Plate pressure loads are displayed when the Loads display is enabled. They use the load case colour and follow the distributed-load scale, so hold L and scroll to adjust their visual size.

Mass and Analysis

Plate pressure loads participate in static analysis as applied loads. Gravity-direction plate pressures can also contribute mass in modal analysis according to the selected mass/load pattern.

Units

Pressure values use the current unit system, for example kPa in metric or psf in imperial. Units can be changed in Settings.