Advance Steel Tips & Tricks

Advance Steel Tutorial Part 09: Adding T-Braces

By ArturUpdated 5 min read

To place a brace at a height that doesn’t match any existing level in Advance Steel, draw a temporary line at the brace’s real position and length, read the end elevations in the Properties panel, and create levels at those elevations. Then place the brace as a column between the two new levels, pick the WT section and set its positioning.

This is Part 09 of my Advance Steel tutorial series for beginners, on the CTA maintenance platform. The platform needs WT braces near the bottom and near the top, plus an angle brace at the far end. These braces sit at odd heights that don’t line up with any existing level. So the real trick in this part is setting up the right levels first; after that, placing the braces is easy.

Adding T-braces in Advance Steel

Follow along with the project file

Download the project file free here, unzip it and open it.

What do the drawings call for?

Four inches above the bottom of the platform there are two T-braces:

Detail C4: two lower T-braces

On the upper level there’s one T-brace and one angle brace:

Details C1 and C3: upper T-brace and angle brace

Watch the video

Why do the braces need their own levels?

I model the T-braces as columns, so the bottom and top of each one has to be attached to a level. If you need a refresher, see part 02 on creating levels.

How do I find the elevations for a brace?

Create a level below Level 0, 4″ above the bottom of the platform. I called it Level A-Plate. According to the drawing, the brace is 2″ + 5″ + 4″ = 11″ tall.

To avoid doing math (and making mistakes), I draw a temporary line that starts 4″ above the bottom of the platform and is exactly 11″ long, the height of the brace. Click the line and the Properties panel shows the real elevations of its ends. Here that’s -3′-7 3/16″ for the bottom and -2′-8 3/16″ for the top.

Now fix the level I made earlier: double-click it, type the bottom elevation, set the base level to Level 0, and click OK. The level jumps to the bottom of the temporary line.

Then create the level for the top of the brace:

  1. Click Create Level and check Add level below the building.
  2. Rename the level and set its altitude.
  3. Set Top level to <none> and click OK.
  4. Open the new level’s properties, set Base level to Level 0 and click OK.

The new level sits at the top of the temporary line. Delete the line; you don’t need it anymore.

How do I place a WT section as a column?

  1. Go to Workplanes and set the top and bottom of the column to the two new levels.
  2. Go to the Top view and switch to 2D Wireframe.
  3. On the Home tab, in Objects, click Create Column.
  4. Place the column on the edge of the existing vertical plate. I put it there on purpose: the plate is a good reference point, and the column isn’t buried under the beam where it’s hard to pick. It’s easy to move into place later.
  5. In the dialog, choose T-Sections, then WT (Imperial), then WT10x73.5.
  6. In Positioning, choose the top center as the alignment point and set the rotation to 90°. Close the dialog.

Switch to Conceptual and look in 3D. The brace is there, but it needs to slide over to sit against the face of the plate. Move it to the right until the gap is gone.

How do I mirror a brace to the other side?

The second brace goes on the other side of the plate. Lock the UCS to the current elevation view (any 2D plane works). Then use Mirror from Modify, with the mirror line through the center of the plate.

The first two braces are in.

Levels for the upper T-brace

The next brace goes 4″ below the top of the stringer on the left. It’s 2″ + 5″ + 2″ = 9″ tall, so it needs two more levels.

  1. Click Create Level. I named it Level C-Plate, set the altitude to -13″, set Top level to <none> and clicked OK.
  2. Find it in Model Views, edit its properties, set Base level to Level 0, and click OK.
  3. Create another level called D-Plate at -4″. Click OK.
  4. Edit its properties too, set Base level to Level 0, and click OK.

Place the upper T-brace

This one goes in the top left corner of the platform.

  1. In Workplanes, pick the top and bottom levels for the column.
  2. Go to Home > Objects > Create Column and place it at the corner of the plate.
  3. Adjust the WT’s Positioning, then check it in 3D.

How do I add the angle brace?

Last piece: the angle at the far end of the beam. Draw two temporary lines to find exactly where it goes. Use TR (Trim) to remove the parts you don’t want, then select the lines and type G to group them.

The drawing calls for an L6x3 ½x3/8, 10″ long, kept 1/2″ away from the L4x4.

  1. In Workplanes, set both top and bottom to Level -1.
  2. Pick Rolled I Section from Home > Objects and click the end point of the temporary line.
  3. In 3D it’s easy to go in the wrong direction, so point toward the other end of the line and type 10. Press Enter.
  4. Double-click the beam. Choose Angle, Not Identical, L6x3 1/2×3/8.
  5. In Positioning, set the offset at the angle corner, rotation 180° and Mirrored. Close the dialog.

Now it has to move to keep the 1/2″ gap from the L4x4. If you try to move it, you’ll find it won’t go: it’s glued to the level. The workaround is to copy it and delete the original. Then use Move, snap to the corner of the angle, and type 4 1/2.

Finally, line up the faces of the angle and the T-brace: select the angle and the temporary lines, and move them onto the face of the WT.

Why won’t my member move?

Members placed between levels are tied to them, so Move may not do anything. The workaround from above works: copy the member and delete the original, and the copy moves freely. You can also change the levels or offsets in the member’s dialog instead of moving it.

What to do when a brace is at the wrong height

  • Check the level altitudes in Model Views. A level created with the wrong base level ends up in the wrong place.
  • Check the base level is Level 0 for every new level, like in the steps above.
  • Check positioning. Top center vs center moves the WT by half its depth.
  • Measure in an elevation view with DI from a known point, like the bottom of the platform.

Using a temporary line to read elevations is the main idea of this part. It avoids adding and subtracting fractions in your head, which is where most level mistakes come from.

All the T-brace brackets for the angle bracing are ready. In the next part, the bracing itself goes in: 10: Slanted beams.

T-braces and angle brace placed on the platform

The whole mini tutorial series

If you’d like to see the hardware and software I use every day, it’s all on my toolbox page.

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