RISA | Tips & Tricks

December 23, 2024

How To: Maximizing Productivity During Winter Slowdowns

The winter months bring a unique set of challenges to structural engineering: projects slow down, site conditions become less predictable, and downtime can be harder to avoid. However, this season also brings opportunities to work smarter, streamline workflows, and plan ahead for a productive year. Here’s how you can help keep projects on track even in the frostiest months. 1. Winter Prep: Tackle Delayed Analysis Cold weather is often the perfect time to tackle those time-intensive analyses that may have been put on the back burner. With RISA-3D’s robust modeling environment, winter downtime becomes the ideal chance to dive into in-depth analysis and design. RISA-3D lets you quickly model complex geometries and visualize load paths in ways that manual calculations simply can’t replicate. And for foundation design, RISAFoundation can handle everything from frost heave assessments to wind uplift forces, enabling you to get the clearest picture of how your structures will withstand winter’s impact. Take advantage of the winter slowdown to refine and validate your foundation designs, ensuring every project element is prepared to endure the season. 2. Expand Your Toolset with RISA’s Comprehensive Training Programs Winter is an ideal time for skill building. RISA offers a range of training…

April 24, 2013

How to Export Detailed Drawings from RISAFoundation

RISAFoundation has the ability to export detailed reinforcement drawings for footings, pile caps, pedestals, and slabs.

April 9, 2013

Internal Force Summation Tool Basics

The Internal Force Summation Tool has the ability to "cut through" elements in the model and produce a summation of forces that corresponds with a given load combination. For this example, we will use the following model and review the summation of forces in the horizontal concrete plates.

March 27, 2013

Nesting Load Combinations

The Load Combinations spreadsheet in RISA-3D is limited to ten columns of BLC and Factor combinations. However, there are times where you may need to include additional entries to your Load Combination. To do this, you can simply “nest” your load combinations.

March 20, 2013

Plate Contours Compared to Spreadsheet Values

After solution in RISA-3D, you can use Results View Settings to view the Plate Contours graphically on your model.

February 7, 2013

Tapered Member Design Using AISC Design Guide 25

RISA has now incorporated the tapered member design provisions from Steel Design Guide 25: Frame Design Using Web-Tapered Members written by Richard Kaehler, Don White and Yoon Kuk Kim. These code checking procedures are used whenever the AISC 13th or 14th edition steel codes are selected.

January 31, 2013

Slab Modifications in RISAFoundation

This video shows how slab modifications can used to add an opening or change the thickness of a portion of the slab in RISAFoundation.

January 7, 2013

Import DXF Drawing Grid in RISAFloor

This video shows how to import a DXF as a drawing grid in RISAFloor. To do this, you can save any drawing file as a DXF file format and import points, lines, polylines, arcs and circles into RISAFloor. This gives you the ability to create your own drawing grids with complex geometries and use this...

October 15, 2012

Updated Torsional Shape Properties

RISASection v2 includes updated torsional shape properties for a more accurate analysis. Check out the video below for more information:

October 10, 2012

Using Virtual Joist Girders in RISAFloor

The Steel Joist Institute (SJI) has recently put together a Virtual Joist Girder table which converts common joist sizes into equivalent wide flange beams. This topic describes how to use these Virtual Joist Girders within the RISAFloor program.

Tips & Tricks