Design the joints that hold a steel frame together. Five connections share one engine: column base plates (concrete bearing, plate bending, anchor bolts, concrete cone breakout and the column weld), bolted moment end plates with yield-line plate and column-flange checks, fin plates for simple beam shear, and general bolt and weld groups by the elastic method. Every check follows AS 4100 Section 9, shows its working, and is drawn to scale in plan, elevation and 3D. Import member forces from the 3D Frame Studio and issue calculation sheets, an A3 drawing and Excel.
Scope & limitations
Preliminary connection design for study and feasibility. Confirm local effects in the supporting members, fabrication tolerances and anchor installation, and have the design checked by a qualified structural engineer.
What the Steel Connection Studio does
Five connection types share one AS 4100 Section 9 engine. The column base plate takes axial compression or uplift with shear and major-axis moment: concrete bearing to AS 3600 Cl 12.6, the bearing block and anchor tension by the rectangular stress-block method, plate bending on the compression and tension sides, anchor tension, shear and interaction, concrete cone breakout to AS 5216 and the column weld.
The bolted moment end plate (extended, four bolts at the tension flange) is checked by yield lines for thick-plate behaviour, bolt tension without prying, shear bolts and bearing, flange and web welds, and the unstiffened column flange, web bearing and panel shear. The fin plate covers eccentric bolt shear, bearing on the plate and beam web, gross shear, block shear, bending, the double-fillet weld and the ductility rules.
General bolt and weld groups take any pattern you type or generate, with in-plane shear and torsion and out-of-plane tension and moments by the elastic method; the critical bolt or weld point and its utilisation are drawn.
Member forces can be imported from the 3D Frame Studio envelope. Output: plan, elevation and end views, a 3D model, a utilisation chart, PDF calculation sheets, an A3 drawing and an Excel workbook.