To assign plate offsets

To add rigid link offsets to one or more corners of a plate, use the following procedure.

Plate corner offsets can be used to model any situation where the corners of a plate element do not coincide with the analytical node used for the plate incidences. For example,

walls that meet at a corner (e.g., so that walls do not overlap)
wall and slab intersections (e.g., a wall that bears on top of a slab)

(Optional) Select the plates which will have the same plate offset specifications assigned.
Either:

on the Specification ribbon tab, select the Plate > Offsets tool in the Specification group

or
on the Specifications - Whole Structure dialog, click Plate

The Plate Specs dialog opens to the Offset tab.
Select the Direction in which you want to specify offsets:
- Local - the nodal offsets at a specified joint are given in the element local axes.
- Global - the nodal offsets at a specified joint are given in the global axes.
- Z Offset - the offset is specified along the local z axis of the element (i.e., parallel offset to the plane of the element)

Specify the offset values:

For…	Do…
Local or global offsets	Select the local incidence node number and then specify the offsets in the local or global directions.
Z offsets	Type the offset value to use. By default, the same value will populate in all the node fields (i.e., a parallel offset to the plane of the plate). You can override these values by typing different values at different nodes.

Tip: To quickly identify the order of element corners, use the Plate Cursor tool and double click a plate. The Plate query dialog displays the nodes in order on the Geometry tab.

Note: The joint offsets must result in offset corners which are co-planar to prevent a warped surface.

Either:

To…	Do the following…
add the specification to the model and assign to the current plate selection	click Assign.
add the specification to the model for later assignment	click Add.

The dialog closes.