Grating Grades

The Grating Grades screen lets you add a new grade or edit existing grades so that you can assign it to grating material, grating treads, or stair treads.
These settings are stored for your currently selected Connnection design method.
  • General Overview
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The columns shown here are for the latest AISC Connection design method. Additional columns may be shown if another Connection design method is selected.

To add a new Grade Type or Grade, right-click inside the table and select Add Grade Type or Add Grade.
  • Warning: When you change a grade definition, all materials that used the previous definition automatically adopt the new grade. Because grades are linked to materials by their index, switching the 3rd and 4th grades in the table will also swap the grades of all existing materials that use them.
  • The grade entered to line 1 on this screen is assigned as the default Grating grade to the first grating tread that is added using Add Material or Add Miscellaneous Member after you first start Modeling . Each subsequently added grating tread is assigned that grade until you change the grade or edit a grating with a different grade.

Settings

Grade Type: Any text string (up to 29 characters) to denote the name of the grade type (e.g., Steel, Stainless, Aluminum).

Grade: Any text string (up to 29 characters) to denote the name of the grade (e.g., A36 , A401 , Peter , Joe , whatever name you want). Grades entered here are selectable ( ) (in Home > Project Settings > Fabricator > Stair Treads ) and on the Grating Tread Material window (in Modeling ).

Nonstandard Notation: Any text string (up to 29 characters) to denote that a particular grade is not the standard grade.

Density: The density value of the grade. If you are using imperial dimensioning, density is measured in lb/ft3. If you are using metric dimensioning, density is measured in kg/m3. The value you enter for density is used to calculate material weight.

For submaterials: A callout is generated next to that material's submaterial piecemark callout on the member detail when Home > Project Settings > Fabricator > Piecemarking > Member and Material Piecemarking > Submaterial > Show non-std grade notation with piecemarks on member details is checked. The callout will consist of the grade if you do not enter a Nonstandard Notation. If, on the other hand, a Nonstandard Notation has been entered, that notation would be called out instead of the grade. For example, you might enter Non Std as a Nonstandard Notation.

  • The position of these form buttons on the screen tells you what settings they apply to. Click here for more information.
  • You can Copy the settings on this screen, then Paste those settings to a different screen of the same type.
  • You can Save the settings on this screen to a global folder that is used by your current version of SDS2. Give the file a name that will help other users identify its purpose. You can Load a saved file to replace the settings on this screen with the settings that are stored in the file you select.
  • When editing multiple screens at the same time, Paste and Load replace mixed entries to a single field with a single entry. Copy and Save ignore fields with mixed entries, treating them as if they have no entry or do not exist.

OK (or the Enter key) closes this screen and applies the settings.

Cancel (or the Esc key) closes this screen without saving any changes.

Reset undoes all changes made to this screen since you first opened it. The screen remains open.

  • To delete a grade, left-click to select the grade, then right-click and select Erase grade.
  • To move a line up or down in priority: Left-click to select the line and hold down the left-mouse button, then drag the line up or down.
  • Cut ( Ctrl + x ), copy ( Ctrl + c ) and paste ( Ctrl + v ) are available to help you more quickly edit grades.
  • There are no Fy or Fu values on this window. This is because connection design does not reference a grating tread's Grade. The usual reason to assign a grating tread a Grade in its stair tread definition is so that tread will have its Grade listed in a stair's bill of material.
  • Red or yellow exclamation point icons or indicate that a setting field is required to be filled out or corrected before the settings can be accepted by clicking OK. Hover your mouse cursor over the icon to make a tooltip appear with more information.