106 — Ledger & Top Plate¶
A ledger is what floor or roof structure bears on. A top plate is the plate along the panel’s top edge. They share one dialog and one record, because on a panel they are the same kind of thing: a run along an edge, with bolts.
Two ways in:
Main Panel Details → tick Ledger/Top Plate
ConstructiVision menu → Ledger/Top Plate (
c:cv-feat-ledgertp)
Note
This lesson also exists in the browser. Work it in ConstructiVision on the web — same steps, same values, so you can follow either and end up with the same panel.
Read the column headings twice¶
This is the dialog’s one genuine trap. Three of its columns carry two names:
heading |
as a ledger |
as a top plate |
|---|---|---|
Inset/Height |
how far in from the face |
how tall the plate is |
Offset/Width |
offset along the edge |
how wide |
Diameter/Length |
bolt diameter |
how long the run is |
Same row, same fields, different meaning depending on what the row is carrying. That is exactly why these are one feature and not two — and why a lesson that split them would hide the thing you most need to know.
The rest of the row reads the same either way:
column |
what it means |
|---|---|
Enable |
whether this run exists |
Measure / Snap To |
which edge, and which end the distance is read from |
Distance, Length |
where it starts and how far it runs |
Elev Left, Elev Right |
the two ends — set them apart to follow a slope |
Size/TP/(E)dge |
what it is |
Trim from, Max Bolt, Quan |
the bolting |
Steps¶
Open Main Panel Details and tick Ledger/Top Plate.
Enable row one. Watch which fields wake up — Inset and Offset stay grey.
Length
120— a ten-foot run.OK, then OK.
Reopen from the menu and lengthen the run to
144. It draws on OK.
Note
Inset and Offset are greyed, and already filled. On this row the product owns them —
it carries 4 and 6 before you touch anything, derived from the panel and the edge the
run is snapped to. As with a corner-attached pilaster (tutorial 105), a greyed field here
means the answer is already known, not that something is broken. Length is the field
this lesson sets.
The bolts come with it¶
You do not place anchor bolts separately. The product draws them from this record, using Max Bolt and Quan to space them along the run.
They land on the hardware layer — which is also where slab dowels go. So if you are checking your own work, “the hardware layer has entities” does not tell you the ledger bolts drew. Count them, or look.
What to take away¶
One row describes a run and its bolting. Which of the two things it is decides what three of its columns mean, and the headings tell you so if you read them.