P3D Structural Member Problem

[Anonymous]

I continually encounter a problem involving the placement of structural members in 3D.  This may be a programming issue but when I place any member it offsets its position slightly from the point where it was actually placed.  This happens each and every time which means that I must manually move every single member to where it needs to be.

Is anyone else experiencing this or is it just me?  Either way it is unacceptable and needs a fix.

Chuck A. - Designer

Upper Consulting, Inc.

[Dadspackard]

Hi All,

I am just getting into laying out ACAD steel and read this thread and was curious of why we are having this the offset issue. As I was doing some searching on this issue and came across this thread incorrect-dimensions-in-cisc-structural-members.

I downloaded the sqliteexpert installed it and then open the Structural Catalog.ACAT (first making a back up) from the C:\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2015 Content\CPak Common folder.

For example I looked at the height for a W12x53 in the Structural Catalog.ACAT the height is set to 12.1

the steel books I have on hand

Theoretical dimensions and Properties for Design the H = 12.06

Approximate dimensions for Detailing H = 12

As some found in order to place the steel as close to our reference lines we have to set the precision up or down before placing the member.

FYI, I change the unit to decimal and precision to 4 places and set the member to TOS and BOS and it placed right on the line.

So a few issues here

Having Unit set to Frations the members don't seem to place right

Some H dimension in the catalogs are not correct.

What is the best practice for structurral detailing using the Theoretical or Detailing dimensions?