Please fix purlin lap macro

[iwafb]

Hi Dev's,

The purlin lap plate macro does not behave consistently with other purlin connection tools. Furthermore, the number of bolts created is wrong. Obviously there are workarounds to be had, but on a typical job with hundreds of lapped connections, it is causing several hours of unnecessary work. Please fix as the alternative (do nothing) is resulting in several thousand extra purlin bolts getting called up and ordered...

1) Because there are no options to "provide only holes", the macro assumes that a bolt should be added at every position, resulting in 10 bolts per connection. This is wrong. In fact, there should only be 6.

2) The Edge distance value should relate to the the distance from the outer bolt to the edge of the cleat as indicated in the dialogue help image. All other purlin macros behave in this way as well. However, the lap macro does not always give this result and sometimes the edge distance relates to the edge of the purlin instead... Understand that the cleat height can be used to achieve the desired result. However this value then needs to be edited if there is a change in the purlin offsets, again creating extra work.

Hoping for resolution...

Thanks,

Dart

[yurikim]

Hi @iwafb

What is the settings at Flange bolts tab? You could put this as None, and if you need holes only, you could create holes manually on flanges. 

Also please raise your idea in here for feature requests:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/advance-steel-ideas/idb-p/144/tab/most-recent

Thank you. 

[iwafb]

HI @yurikim,

Thanks for your reply.

As I said, there are workarounds. However, what you are suggesting is essentially more than doubling the time it takes to create these joints. You should be able to simply copy the joints throughout the model. This way we are forced to copy the joints, then drill the purlins.

Please consider that we are not talking about a handful of connections, but hundreds on the average project (thousands over a year).

I have already reported this as a bug directly to Autodesk, which is why I hadn't posted in ideas station as a request.

Hoping it gets resolved.

Thanks,

Dart

[johnjmbennett]

Hi,

i see the issue,  agree different option required.  

possible workaround you may not have tried: 

Create the joint and add in the bolts to the flange.  

come out of the joint and select the 4 flange bolts,  go to the bolt properties itself. 

in the bolt properties,  go to the behaviour tab and unchecked use for BOM.   this way those flange bolts are not called up in the BOM

with this set,  then use joint copy to copy the joint around the model.   you should see the behaviour follow through the joint copy operation.

this way you get the holes automatically, but remove the call up for the bolts.

Not ideal, but may help avoid over ordering of bolts.

Cheers

JB

[iwafb]

Thanks John,

That's a really good suggestion I hadn't thought off...

Unfortunately, the behaviour of the bolts (at least in my model) is more unpredictable. That is, when I copy or modify the joint, then all the bolts get excluded from the BOM. Can't seem to isolate the properties...

There's also a bit of a problem in de-selecting for inclusion in BOM. If you do the bolts individually, it kind of works, but if you do all 4 flange bolts at the same time, then the web bolts also get excluded.

Cheers,

Dart

[Anonymous]

Dart,

This is one of my Pet hates with AS

We too have been struggling along for the last 5 years with this connection (have reported it every year to no avail).

What the dev team don't seem to realise is that this is by far the most common used connections in terms of quantity - certainly here in Australia. I've just done a quick count in my current model and I have over 1300 of them.

There are other issues other that the ones you have pointed out:

- Joint group - multiple -  does not work with this connection

- There are issues with the fly bracing holes (if you have slotted holes in your purlin, it puts a slotted hole in the fly brace as well)

- There are issues with the fly bracing welds on the stay plates (it always puts an upper and a lower weld and puts 2x welds each plate)

- It does not put the plate centred on PFC's or angles

- If the purlin is not 90 degrees to the rafter it puts the plate in completely the wrong position (which is strange because the single purlin plate connection works in this instance?!

We can all do workarounds, but if this was fixed I'd say it would save our office several hundred hours each year in wasted time. Times this by all the drafting offices around the world that use this function......probably quicker to have it fixed?

As for putting it in the idea station - It's not an Idea - Its a bug that has been reported many many times that nobody has looked at.

[iwafb]

The reply from Autodesk was essentially that the connection is working as intended. But as you pointed out, the single purlin cleat macro works fine and it's essentially the same connection?

Don't know how else we can convey the sort of frustration and problems these type of issues are causing...