RISA | Tips & Tricks | RISA-3D (19)

February 25, 2025

A Day in the Life of an Industrial Structural Engineer

If you've ever wondered what it’s like to be an industrial structural engineer, let me paint you a picture: Imagine juggling a dozen problems at once—steel frames, conveyor supports, pipe racks, tank foundations—all while trying to decipher a set of drawings that look like they were faxed from 1997. And, of course, every single solution is needed yesterday. But don’t worry! With the right tools (cough RISA and ADAPT cough), navigating this daily chaos becomes a lot more manageable. So, grab your coffee (black, obviously), and let’s walk through a typical day. 6:30 AM: Morning Coffee & Evaluating Additional Loads The first email of the day: “Can we add another 10,000 lbs of equipment to the mezzanine? What about seismic drift and vibration?” Instead of a lengthy hand calculation, you fire up RISAFloor and check gravity load distribution. Exporting to RISA-3D, you analyze modal frequencies and check if the additional weight will push the structure into an uncomfortable range for human occupancy. Seismic drift is next. A quick response spectrum analysis in RISA-3D confirms that the drift is still within acceptable limits. You send your report with confidence—no major framing changes required. 9:00 AM: Field Issue - Pipe Rack Base…

February 15, 2017

CSA S16-14 Canadian Steel Code now Available

RISA-3D now supports hot rolled steel design for the Canadian market according to CSA S16-14.

January 11, 2017

What's New in IBC 2015?

These include:

December 16, 2016

Viewing Coordinates in Cursor Display

In RISA-3D, RISAFloor, and RISAFoundation the cursor now provides additional information regarding the cursor coordinates. As you move your cursor around on your screen, a box adjacent to your cursor will appear and populate with the coordinates of the cursor.

November 16, 2016

How the Analysis Offset feature can be used to design WT Braces

In the RISA-3D when you model a WT brace it exists at the member centroid, which means that no bending ends up in the brace due to the fact that the brace is actually eccentric to the braced frame.

November 2, 2016

Basic Code Terms for Seismic Behavior and Why We Use Them

Seismic Forces are generated automatically using seismic parameters R, SD1, and SDS in the Seismic Load Generator when using the Director to go from RISAFloor to RISA-3D or when inserting Seismic Loads on a rigid diaphragm in RISA-3D. Additionally, Seismic Load Combinations can be generated using...

October 19, 2016

Instabilities in RISA-3D with Flexible Diaphragms

In a model that contains both RISAFloor and RISA-3D data it is possible to define your diaphragms as either flexible or rigid for lateral design. You can do this from the Diaphragms spreadsheet in either program:

August 31, 2016

Why Do My Wide Flange Members Fail in the AISC 14th Edition Code?

In RISA-3D’s addition of the AISC 14th Edition code we added Section E4 checks to wide flange members. Section E4 is Torsional and Flexural-Torsional Buckling of Members Without Slender Elements and is for compression capacity.

August 17, 2016

How Does RISA-3D Account for Torsional Warping?

Twisting of a member or frame induces torsional forces and stresses. This is included in the RISA-3D analysis as long as you have the Torsional Warping checkbox selected on the Solution tab of (Global) Model Settings.

August 16, 2016

Why Can’t I See My RISASection Shapes in the Shape Database?

When using RISA Integration between RISASection and RISA-3D, RISA-2D and/or RISAFloor, there are a few common mistakes that people make when attempting to access the RISASection files from the Shape Database.

Tips & Tricks