Tips & Tricks

February 18, 2025

Ready to Reconnect? How to Make the Most of Returning to RISA

Whether you’re coming back to RISA after a short break or revisiting it after years away, we’re here to make your return seamless and rewarding. From updated features to enhanced training resources, RISA is more equipped than ever to support your structural engineering needs. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you re-engage with RISA and maximize your experience. 1. Assess Your Needs Before diving back in, take a moment to consider your current project requirements. Are you focusing on steel design, concrete analysis, or something else? Knowing your priorities will help you identify the RISA products and features that align with your goals. Quick Tip: New to RISA? Check out our products with an engineer to see which tools best match your project scope. 2. Explore What’s New RISA software evolves continuously to meet industry demands. If it’s been a while, you might be amazed by the new features and integrations we’ve introduced. For example: Enhanced RISA-3D and RISAFloor integration for seamless lateral and gravity design workflows. New templates and tools for complex systems like semi-rigid diaphragms. Improved interoperability with Revit and other BIM software. Next Step: Visit our New Features page to catch up on the latest updates. 3…

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How Do Flexible Diaphragms Work on Sloped Roofs?
April 23, 2020

How Do Flexible Diaphragms Work on Sloped Roofs?

RISAFloor supports the use of flexible diaphragms on both flat and sloped roofs. Before reviewing the workflow for utilizing a flexible diaphragm on a sloped roof, it makes sense to review and understand the basic behavior of flexible diaphragms within RISAFloor. To do this, please first review the...

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RISA-3D v18.0.4 Released
April 15, 2020

RISA-3D v18.0.4 Released

Over the last few weeks, we have been working hard to add the features and functionality that our customers have requested as well fix some of the issues that have been reported. With that in mind, we have prepared a new update of RISA-3D (v18.0.4) that includes the following features as well as...

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Understanding Out-of-Plane Shear Capacity of Concrete Wall Panels
April 7, 2020

Understanding Out-of-Plane Shear Capacity of Concrete Wall Panels

When designing concrete shear walls for lateral loading, RISA-3D includes design checks for both in-plane and out-of-plane shear. In the condition where a concrete wall is under both axial tension and out-of-plane shear, the out-of-plane shear limit state for a specific region within the concrete...

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Introducing RISA Live!
April 1, 2020

Introducing RISA Live!

With many of us working from home, our support team wanted to be able to connect with our customers where they are: in front of their computers. With that in mind, we are excited to introduce RISA Live. These live sessions, will take place every Thursday at 2pm EST (11am PST) and will focus on...

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How Can I Optimize My Members in RISA-3D?
March 30, 2020

How Can I Optimize My Members in RISA-3D?

In RISA-3D when drawing members you must start with initial sizes. After loading and load combinations are completed the model is solved and then member design must be done, making sure that members pass for both strength and serviceability considerations. For both strength and serviceability...

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