AutoCAD Plant has 3 different disciplines available when modelling you design.  Pipe (it’s primary function), Structural components and equipment (Tanks, pumps etc).

On of the structural components which is extremely easy to produce is the ability to create plating for your structural element.  This plate can either consist of plate or grating.  One scenario that comes up quite often is the ability to have holes in the plate as you might have a cylindrical piece of equipment situated between levels.

The type of shapes that you are able to create are either rectangular, a polyline that you define on the fly while creating the plate/grate or an existing polyline that you have created prior.

We all know what the rectangle will give us but the create new polyline is a little different to your normal creation of a polyline.  The first thing that you will notice is that there is no option to create an arc.  This makes it a little difficult to create a hole in the plate using this method.  Only straight lines can be create as well as there is no close close sub command so make sure you have your object snaps on.

When creating your grate/plate you also do not have the option to filter out a hole that is situated in the middle of a rectangular plate like below.

One solution that works out well is to create the profile of the grate with the hole before hand but with a deviation.  Plate does not accept a circle as geometry but it will accept an ac that has been converted into a polyline.

So the solution to the grate with a hole in it would be to create the following shape and then mirror the resulting grate after it has been created.