Newly created steel plates will have a meaningful material automatically assigned when created manually or by a steel connection.
The default material of newly created steel plates depends on the unit chosen for Length in Manage 
Project Units. See
Project Units.
- If imperial units (e.g., inches) are selected, the default material for newly created steel plates is Steel ASTM A36.
- If metric units (e.g., millimeters) are selected, the default material for newly created steel plates is Steel, S 235.
If the default material is not loaded into the model, the steel plates will have the first steel material that is loaded into the model (e.g., Metal Stud Layer).
Model Upgrade to Revit 2026
If the appropriate materials for metric or imperial models (Steel ASTM A36 / S 235) are loaded while upgrading the project file to Revit 2026, existing or new plates will behave as follows:
- Individually created plates with default/unchanged material (e.g., Metal Stud Layer) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
- Individually created plates with a modified material (e.g., Grade 80) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
- A plate from base plate connection with default material (e.g., Metal Stud layer) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material is changed to the default Steel ASTM A36/ Steel, S 235.
- A plate from base plate connection with modified material (e.g. Grade 80) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
- An individual plate from a custom connection with default/unchanged material (e.g., Metal stud layer) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
- An individual plate from a custom connection with a modified material (e.g., Grade 80) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
- A plate from a base plate connection nested in a custom connection with default material (e.g., Metal Stud layer) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material is changed to Steel ASTM A36/ Steel, S 235.
- A plate from a base plate connection nested in a custom connection with modified material (e.g., Grade 80) in previous releases: on upgrade, the material remains the same.
For additional information, see Structural Plate Instance Properties.