The Plate menu contains commands for working with plates.

Add a plate defined by the four contours selected in the front window. You must first select two contours on opposite sides of the plate and then the other two sides.

Add a surface as a plate. This will automatically use the four edges of the surface as the boundaries of the plate.

Delete the plates currently selected in the front window. You select a plate by clicking inside the plate.

Displays a dialog for the currently selected plate allowing you to set plate properties.

Displays a dialog for the currently selected plate allowing you to set the UCS (User Coordinate System) for the plate.

Displays a dialog for the currently selected plate allowing you to set the location of forming templates along the plate.

Displays a dialog for the currently selected plate allowing you to set the UCS (User Coordinate System) for the assembly the plate belongs to.

Calculate the developed shape of all of the plates.

Creates the shell expansion drawing.  This drawing is displayed in the Part window, shell expansion mode (click on the Shell Expansion icon in the Part toolbar).

For more information on creating a shell expansion drawing see Shell Expansion on page 74.

Flip the expanded shape in the Part window vertically.

Flip the expanded shape in the Part window horizontally.

If this option is turned on, after developing each plate, Workshop will fit a smooth spline through each of its edges. This is useful in situations where very long plates may result in faceting of the lines along the edges. Smoothing the edges removes this potential problem.