August 15, 2023

RISA | Custom Wood Materials and Wood Schedules in RISA

In RISAFloor (and RISA-3D), the entire NDS species list is available as well as glulam materials but you may need to design a wood product that is not available in the program. In RISAFloor, you can create custom wood materials and wood schedules. Save these to your RISA databases and then your custom wood materials can be read in RISAFloor and RISA-3D.

CUSTOM WOOD MATERIAL

Three typical ways to create custom wood material in RISAFloor

Shape Selection Tool
Materials Spreadsheet
Custom Wood Species Database

OPTION 1: Choose the Shape Selection Tool. Navigate to the Wood tab. Create Wood Material under Material Selection by clicking the ellipsis.

OPTION 2: Choose the Materials Spreadsheet from your Data Entry Spreadsheets. Click the red arrow to open the Select Custom Material window. Enter your custom material properties.

OPTION 3: Enter custom wood material in the toolbar Spreadsheets. Choose Custom Wood Species Database. Enter your custom wood properties here.

CUSTOM WOOD SCHEDULE

Each database of wall panels is specified by an XML file in the "Shear Panels" sub-directory of the Wood Wall panels directory. This directory is located based on the information in the File Locations tab of the Application Settings dialog (By default C: Drive > RISA User Data >%username > Wood Schedules).

Edit wood schedule information for: Diaphragms, HoldDowns, I-Joists, Shear Panels, and Straps

For example, edit your Wood Diaphragm Spreadsheet by choosing it from the Data Entry spreadsheets.

Similarly, edit your Sheathing Panels Schedule by choosing the Wall Design Rules spreadsheet in the Data Entry spreadsheets.

OPTION 1: Choose from existing database.

OPTION 2: Add a custom group to an existing database. Open existing xml file in Excel. Add new tab with your Custom wood panel sheathing.

OPTION 3: Add a custom wood panel sheathing spreadsheet to the file location folder. Assign custom code name to your custom sheathing panel databases.

For more information about wood shear walls, click the link below to visit our help file.

RISA-3D Help File: Wood Shear Walls

Tags: RISA-3D, RISAFloor, Wood

January 7, 2016 | RISA-3D, RISAFloor, RISA-2D, New, Wood

Mechanically Graded Wood Design now Available

Mechanically graded wood materials have been added for the AWC NDS 2015 design code per Table 4C, and CSA O86-14 design code per tables 6.3.2 and 6.3.3. This specification includes the updated MEL and MSR design values. A Mechanically Graded material can be selected in the Material spreadsheet in the Wood tab. The user can choose any of the existing species that are applicable, per NDS table 4C Footnote 2, from the Species dropdown menu. The shear capacity design value, Fv, depends on the species selected for the material. There are 85 new grade options available in the Grade dropdown menu from the MSR and MEL tables in the code. The Custom Wood Properties dialog now allows the user to input more specific material. Mechanically Graded wood materials can be utilized in this dialog by choosing MEL or MSR in the Type dropdown menu. To access the Custom Wood Properties input dialogue, click the Custom Wood button on the Advanced tab. This can also be accessed In the Wood Material Properties spreadsheet by selecting Custom from the Type dropdown menu, and then click the ellipses in the Species cell. Additionally, a custom wood size factor can now be entered in…

September 16, 2015 | RISA-3D, New, Analysis, Deflection

How RISA-3D Calculates Member Deflection Ratios

After solving a model, you will see in the Member Deflections spreadsheet the following deflection ratios: These ratios are calculated using the full length of the member (L) minus any member end offsets. This length does not consider individual span length in continuous span members. Also the length does not consider 2*L for the length of cantilevers. It is RISA’s plans to consider these features for a future enhancement of the program. The variables y and z are the local y-axis and z-axis deflections relative to the straight line between the deflected positions of the end joints. For cantilevers the deflection is relative to the original position of the member. Expressed as an equation, n = L/deflection, where n is what is tabulated in the spreadsheet above. The smaller the deflection, the larger the n value will be. If ‘NC’ is listed, that means the ‘n’ value is greater than 10000 which is a very small deflection. The minimum value that will be shown is ‘1’. For example, if the deflection criteria is L/360, check here to make sure no tabulated values are less than 360. Greater than 360 is sufficient…

December 20, 2018 | RISA-3D, RISAFoundation, New, Rebar

How to Create and Apply A Custom Rebar Layout

Applying a Custom Rebar Layout in RISA-3D: To begin creating a custom rebar layout, simply click the Custom Rebar Layout button located in the Advanced tab of the ribbon toolbar. In RISA-3D, within the rebar layout dialog you can create a custom rebar layout for concrete beams, concrete columns and even create a custom shear rebar layout. Using the rebar layout editor is very easy and the following example will demonstrate creating a custom rebar layout for a rectangular concrete column. Click “New” to create a new rebar layout and create a label for the layout. Select whether the rebar layout is for a rectangular column or circular column. You can also choose the rebar standard and yield stress for your custom rebar configuration. To create the reinforcement layout, input the parameters into the spreadsheet to configure each row of rebar. Each parameter is explained below: 1. Placement: This is the direction that will determine where the reinforcement will be measured from (based on the reference graphic). Top or Bottom: The row of reinforcement will be measured from the top or bottom of the concrete member and will distributed the number of rebar horizontally and evenly between the concrete cover…