Transshipment cranes of the checkpoint of the Lenpodyemtransmash plant are widely used in river and sea ports, at industrial enterprises for grappling transshipment of bulk cargo and for working with piece loads or containers, as well as for transshipment of scrap metal and rolled metal using lifting electromagnets. It is proposed to eliminate the uncertainties caused by the incompatibility of one-dimensional (rod) and two-dimensional (plate) finite elements having a different number of degrees of freedom, 12 and 20, when developing digital twins of portal cranes of the Lenpodyemtransmash plant on the example of the CHECKPOINT 16/32t crane by approximating axisymmetric shells of the portal head with rod finite elements. The method is based on the equality of the potential shear energy of the finite element model of the plate and the potential energy of the approximating rod model, the elements of which work on tension/compression, which made it possible to move from the finite element model of the GEARBOX 16/32t reloading crane, built on the basic finite elements of Kirchhoff plates, to the finite element model of the crane based on the core base finite elements. A mathematical model of a matrix equation of static equilibrium with many degrees of freedom is proposed, the numerical solution of which by the Gauss method allows us to proceed to six-component internal forces in each finite element due to the corresponding vector of external loads reduced to the degrees of freedom of the calculated finite element model. The possibility of inter-pretation of bearing elements of spatial metal structures of portal cranes by both one-dimensional rod and two-dimensional plate finite elements is investigated, a re-evaluation of traditional views on the computational analysis of the stress-strain state of metal structures of portal cranes in the field of reliable determination of their bearing capacity during operation in ports, especially in the field of assessing post-repair risk analysis and the resource of reloading cranes is proposed, those who have completed the standard service life in the port and have undergone capital repairs. A calculated rod finite element idealized model of a PPC 16/32t gantry crane for transshipment of cargo in river and sea ports is constructed, demonstrating the transition from a real design to a calculation model based on geometric principles of discretization of both rod and continuum elements by the basic rod end elements of the crane, as a result of which the digital calculation model should be detailed and complex, like a system with many degrees of freedom. The algorithm of application of the digital calculation model of the crane is given on the example of static finite element calculation analysis of the KPP 16/32t crane.