Very often in steel structures, you will need to create a metal deck, but how do you do this in Advance Steel? The answer is simpler than you might think. You just need to create cladding and lay it horizontally.
Define the Metal Deck Area
The first step to creating a metal deck in Advance Steel is to define the area where you want to create the metal deck. You can do this using the Define Cladding Area tool, which is available in the Extended Modeling tab:
Extended Modeling > Define Cladding Area
To define the metal deck area, click on the Define Cladding Area tool. You will be asked if you want to select supporting beams; answer “no” <N>. Then you will be asked to create the area using a Rectangular <R> or Polyline <P> shape.
Choose how you want to create the shape; the most common selection is <R> rectangular .
If you choose Rectangular, you will be asked to specify the Start Point and then the End Point.
Be advised that you going to create the Cladding Area on the current X,Y plane, so make sure to insert the plane where you want to create a metal deck. You can adjust the shape of the metal deck area by adjusting the position of the blue grips belonging to the Cladding Area:
Create the Cladding Area Using a Polyline Shape
The other option for creating a Cladding Area is to choose a Polyline shape. In order to create a Cladding Area with a Polyline shape is to create the Polyline first, and then activate the Define Cladding Area tool from the Structural Elements menu. You will be asked to specify which polyline you want to use in order to define the Cladding Area.
Creating a Metal Deck
Once the area of the metal deck has been specified, go to the Create Claddings tool. You can find this tool in the:
Extended Modeling tab > Structural Elements
Both tools (Define Cladding Area and Create Cladding) are also available in the Home tab:
Home tab > Extended Modeling
When you engage the Create Claddings tool, you will be asked to specify which Cladding Area you want to use to create decking. Click on the Cladding Area you just created. The new metal deck will be created, and a dialog box will open where you can tweak all the parameters of your metal deck such, i.e., profile type, orientation, etc.
You can change the direction of the metal deck by going to the Cladding General Properties tab and switching between Horizontal and Vertical cladding:
Making Openings in the Metal Deck
In order to make an opening in an existing metal deck, use the Define Cladding Opening tool:
Home > Extended Modeling > Define Cladding Opening
This tool is also available in the Extended Modeling tab in Structural Elements:
Click the Define Cladding Opening tool. You will be asked if you want to create a Rectangular <R> opening or Polyline <P>. Choose Rectangular and you will be asked to select the area object. Select the area of the metal deck. Then you will be asked to define the Start Point and the End Point of the opening.
The opening will be created:
If you would rather create the opening with a Polyline, you need to create the Polyline first because you will be asked to specify an existing Polyline.
Metal Deck Material List
After you run the parts numbering, all the sheets with corresponding part numbers and their length will be listed as all the components of your Project in the Material List.
Here is a Material List Summary example:
As you can see, the two sheets of 1.6F 22 Ga are marked as #internal 1 and 2.
The length of each piece is 5′-9 1/4″ and the total length is 11′-6 1/2″.