Snap Imported Bolts
Face plates of bolts are only accounted for in finite element computations if bolt heads are installed on the surface of external. Bolts generated using Add Bolts or Add Bolts to Selected options automatically places the bolt heads on the targeted surface. In contrast, bolts generated through the Import Bolts from CSV File feature strictly follow the input location data, which may not have their heads positioned on the surface. This approach accommodates a wide range of bolt configuration, including cases where bolts are intentionally modeled with imperfect installation. However, in other cases, where the bolts are not snapped - often due to the difficulty of pinpointing the exact surface location and the resulting unintended gap between the bolt head and the surface - Snap Imported Bolts feature can be used to re-position the bolts so they are installed on the surface of the external geometry, based on a user-defined tolerance. See below for a demonstration of repositioning of bolts to snap the heads to the excavation surface through Snap Imported Bolts feature.
Snap Method
Two (2) snap methods are available:
- Intersection point (in bolt direction) – the bolt would snap to the slope in the direction of its length. This method is preferred for preserving bolt pattern spacing.
- Closest point – the bolt would snap to the closest point on the slope surface from the bolt head. If there is at least one potential slope surface, then the bolt would snap to the closest point it finds first.
Snap Tolerance
A bolt is snapped to the slope surface if a snap point can be found within the user defined tolerance, expressed as a percentage of the bolt length and with reference distance from the bolt head. The value must be greater than 0% and less than or equal to 100%. This means that no snap point would be found if 1) the snap method is “Intersection Point” and the bolt is completely outside the slope, and 2) the snap method is “Closest Point” and the closest point from the bolt head to the slope is greater than 100% the bolt length. If there are different bolt lengths used in the model, then the tolerance is applied to the bolts individually.
Option to Remove Unsnapped Bolts
This is an option to remove bolts that could not be snapped to the slope because they are outside the user defined snap tolerance. The bolts would be removed from the model and would not participate in kinematic computations.
Preview
A preview of the adjusted bolts is available from the 3D viewports. The preview shows the new bolt locations and highlights any bolts that could not be snapped.
Figure below shows a case where the imported bolts have an error in its location data, causing the pointed bolts to fail snapping to the external surface. Such case can be easily accommodated by repositioning them through Snap Imported Bolts feature.
Below demonstrates the use of Snap Imported Bolts feature to translate the bolts using Intersection point method to properly place the bolts' heads on the excavation surface.
