Modeling plane stress/cable

[mfstructural]

I'm trying to model a 12 gage (3" wide) cold formed strap in SAP to hold back some existing siding in need of repair The repair is at a exhast stack. It's 4.5 ft long and attached to the existing girts with screw/bolts (not yet decided). I have run two models: one as a cable and the other as flat plate. I'm trying to get the in plane tension reaction on the strap (membrane or cantenary action). The load on the strap is 75 psf. It's an industrial structure and this is what it needs to be designed for. My model is not outputting any in plane reaction, and I can't understand why. The supports are pinned. Is there a certain type of plate section I need to specify to get in plane end reactions? I've tried several of them already.
Thanks,

 

[agostage]

I'm a little foggy about your application yet, but I can say that in order to capture catenary action you will need several segments of the strap element, i.e. several nodes along its length and a geometric nonlinear analysis. Depending on how much catenary deflection you're expecting, you may also need large displacement analysis.