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

April 22, 2026

RISA-3D to RISAConnection: Making the Link Work

RISAConnection is designed to work directly with your RISAFloor and RISA-3D models, not as a separate “export‑and‑forget” tool. When the integration is set up correctly, RISAConnection can read your geometry, member sizes, connection rules, design method, and load combinations, then send connection results back into RISAFloor and RISA-3D for review. This article walks through how the integration behaves, what you can and cannot change in RISAConnection, and how to work with grouped connections efficiently. 1. What Actually Comes into RISAConnection When you integrate from RISAFloor or RISA-3D, RISAConnection creates a .rcn file with the same file name as your model in the same folder. You’ll see that the project is populated with all valid connections—only connection types that RISAConnection can design will be brought in. Data that is integrated: Geometry and member sizes Connection Rules from RISAFloor / RISA-3D (including bolted vs. welded settings) Design Method (ASD or LRFD) Applicable Seismic Design Rules from RISA-3D (for seismic connection types) Load combinations that have the “Connection” check‑box enabled in the RISAFloor / RISA-3D Load Combinations spreadsheet If a connection type or configuration is not supported by RISAConnection, it will not be added to the .rcn project and a warning will be…

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New (56)

May 12, 2010

Let’s Customize Your RISA Toolbar

The customizable toolbar is a new feature in RISAFloor. It’s really useful...

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April 20, 2010

How to Correctly Define Unbraced Lengths

There are four different values for Unbraced lengths in RISA-3D, RISA-2D...

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March 26, 2010

What Are Physical Members?

Members (beams, columns, braces, etc.) are defined in RISA by an I-Node...

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March 19, 2010

How to Model a Two-Dimensional Component in RISA-3D

If you have ever tried to solve a two-dimensional model in RISA-3D, you...

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March 17, 2010

Do You Ever Get the “LOCKED” Message on a Simple Beam Model?

Do you get an instabilities warning when you’re trying to do a simple 2D...

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