Steel Connection Material

[sampie]

It is really difficult to change materials on steel connections. Some of the connection parts ex. Bolts can be assigned a default material in Object Styles. But other parts ex. Plates does not use the default material assigned in Objects Styles. One must manually select the plates and then assign a material.

2 Options could work:

1. Fix the default material "problem" in object styles

2. Add material parameter in the Steel Connection Macro

[MOR-ConorMacken]

The bolts should use a material in the materials database so we can dictate their properties E.g., apply different colours to different bolt types or material grades, as well the the different mechanical properties.

[Andy6640]

This sort of thing should be basic and included OOTB. People out here are trying to use this for serious purposes, and making clear graphics that reduce errors in fabrication and on site is vital. So we grasp at any tools that help to do that. The way that connections are implemented here is really sub-optimal and it would seem a very modest amount of development work would be needed to square this up.

[matthew_taylor]

A possible workaround:

I'm not sure how this would work in a live model, but here is a (hideous) workflow that works in a test model.

(The workaround won't work if the plate created in the first step doesn't have a material assigned.)

1. Create a plate.
2. Select the plate.
3. Delete the material that the plate is on.
4. The plate will now have a new material assigned to it.
5. If the new material is not the correct material, then repeat steps 3-4 again (and again...and again...).
6. Once it's on the correct layer, create a new plate.
7. The new plate should be on the correct layer.
8. Now the crazy bit. Undo all of the delete materials.
9. Create a new plate.
10. The new plate should still be on the correct layer. (Why? Who knows. I imagine that the settings do not reside in a place that works with undo/redo.)