Risa Tips & Tricks: How to Use Our Structural Analysis Software

September 1, 2026

Celebrating RISA Since 1987

1987 was the year President Reagan told Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and the New York Giants won their first Super Bowl. Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” topped the charts. While Pope John Paul II’s visit to Los Angeles drew national attention, the engineering world was also getting exciting news out of Southern California. RISA was founded there in September 1987. For nearly four decades, RISA has partnered with engineers to turn vision into structure. RISA-2D started it all, offering a simplified and straightforward software for the analysis and design of 2D structures. Today, that foundation has grown into a family of 10 products that support engineers throughout the design process from a single steel connection to a multi-story, post-tensioned concrete building. Through every stage of our company’s growth, RISA’s focus has remained the same: put the engineer first. RISA develops practical software with intuitive interfaces and efficient workflows, helping engineers spend less time on redundant tasks and more time applying their expertise to complex design challenges. We are grateful to the engineers who have been part of the RISA journey. Your trust, feedback, and challenging projects have helped shape…

Read More

New (32)

September 13, 2018

Steel Design per AISC 15th Edition Steel Manual now Available

The new AISC 360-16 15th Edition changes have been implemented into...

Read More
September 06, 2018

Copy Elements from Floor to Floor

RISAFloor v13.0 now includes the added ability to graphically copy...

Read More
August 23, 2018

P-Delta Instability with Gravity Only Loads

“Why am I receiving a P-Delta instability error when I run my DL + LL load...

Read More
August 16, 2018

Modeling Cables in RISA-3D

One of the support questions we get most often is, “How can I model a...

Read More
August 09, 2018

RISA-Tekla Link v8 Now Available

RISA is pleased to announce the release of the latest RISA-Tekla Link that...

Read More
August 02, 2018

Governing Load Combinations for Shear in Concrete Columns

For concrete column members, the load combination producing the maximum...

Read More
July 26, 2018

How to Troubleshoot Unsupported Deck Edges

Have you ever received error message 2054 when modeling in RISAFloor?

Read More
July 19, 2018

Designing Multi-Material Models for ASD & LRFD with one solution

RISA-3D includes material specific checkboxes on the Design tab of the...

Read More
July 12, 2018

Plate Elements Available in Material Takeoff

RISA-3D now includes plate elements in the Material Takeoff.

Read More

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Our monthly "Structural Moment" newsletter is the best way to keep up with RISA’s product updates, new releases, new features, training events, webinars and more...