Plate drawing

This feature lets you design the plate drawing in a complete CAD environment. Let’s see how it works. First of all you have to be in one of the first 3 modalities:

 

  • Free Calculation
  • Calculation with Plate from Archive
  • Verify Exchanger

 

Let’s see an example with the first modality, Free Calculation:

 

 

To start the drawing of the plate, you have to click on the corresponding button on the top tool bar:

 

 

The following form will appear:

 

 

As you can see, the form is divided into many areas. In the center part, in the gray area the program will show the drawing of the plate. On the top, we find a toolbar with many options:

 

 

These buttons activate the following features:

  • Exit: closes the drawing of the plate form
  • Plate drawing: perform the drawing of the plate
  • Print: print the drawing of the plate
  • Export: exports the drawing in a CAD format like DWG or DXF
  • Delete tubes: lets you remove unwanted holes from the plate
  • Clear selection: reset the holes layout to the original shape
  • Zoom in: perform the zoom in of the main drawing
  • Zoom fit: reset the view of the main drawing
  • Pan: perform the pan (move) of the drawing

 

On the left side of the form, there are two grids. The first shows the input parameter of the drawing, like the tubes diameter, the shell internal diameter, etx. These parameters will be taken as an input to generate automatically the drawing of the plate:

 

 

Below this part, we find the output number of total tubes, and the partial number of tubes for each quadrant:

 

 

Now let’s draw the plate. To do so, click on the Plate Drawing button:

 

 

The program will calculate the best distribution of the tubes and will show the result:

 

 

As you can see, in the center the program shows the detailed drawing of the plate: 

 

 

As you can see it also shows the shell internal value and the outermost external circumference of the tubes. The drawing is also complete with quotes, automatically calculated. In addition it shows the imaginary divisions of the plate as red lines.

 

The program has also filled in the tubes disposition grid:

 

 

At the right of the center drawing, we find other two drawings. The first shows the tubes disposition:

 

 

And the second the number of tubes for each quadrant:

 

 

For each drawing the following quick tool bar is available:

 

 

The options available are:

  • Zoom area
  • Zoom tool activation
  • Pan
  • Rotate
  • Zoom fit

 

Let’s now click on the Print button:

 

 

The following print preview will appear:

 

 

This very useful page can be printed and used in the production department, or exported in one of the following formats:

 

 

PDF:

 

 

Word:

 

 

Excel:

 

If we go back and click on the Export button:

 

 

We can export the drawing of the plate into an Autocad compatible file. The following form will appear:

 

 

Here we can specify the path and the file name of the exported drawing. Finally we click on Save:

 

 

To save the exported drawing.

 

Let’s now take a look at the Delete Tubes function. This lets you remove unwanted holes from the plate. The first thing to do is to select the unwanted holes, by clicking on the border of them:

 

 

 

Once selected all the unwanted holes, we click on the Delete Tubes button:

 

 

And the unwanted tubes will be deleted:

 

 

Refining the design of a plate in the archive

With the plate drawing feature, you can actually refine the design of an existing plate in the archive. To do it, we have to create a new project in the Calculate with Plate from Archive modality:

 

 

As usual, we have to select the TEMA type. We can skip this part click on the Cancel button:

 

 

Now the main calculation window will appear. We have to select the plate model from the list:

 

 

 

 

Now we have to click on the Plate Drawing button:

 

 

As we can see, the parameters of the plate have been loaded from the archive:

 

 

Also we can see two new buttons on the top tool bar:

 

 

The first saves the tubes layout in the archive, the second restore the saved parameters from the archive. Let’s draw the plate, by clicking on the Plate Drawing button:

 

 

After the plate has been drawn, we select some unwanted tubes to be deleted:

 

 

And we click on the Delete Tubes button, like before:

 

 

At this point we want to save the modification in the archive, to the plate we have selected. To do so, we click on the Save as Default button:

 

 

If the next time we want to restore the situation, after clicking on the Plate Drawing button, we have to click on the Open Default button: