
November 13, 2019
Improved and Better Organized Drawing Tools
In structural steel projects, the transition from design to fabrication is a common source of coordination challenges. One of the biggest pain points? Connection design. Whether it’s miscommunication on end reactions or unclear design intent, connection assumptions can break down in the gap between engineering and detailing. By using RISA-3D and RISAConnection—and leveraging direct integrations with SDS2 and Tekla Structures—structural engineers can streamline the handoff to fabricators, reduce errors, and improve collaboration. This post walks through how to support real-world coordination using these tools in practice. 1. Model and Analyze the Steel Frame in RISA-3D Start by building your structural steel frame in RISA-3D. Define geometry, assign member sizes, apply loads, and analyze the model. Once you're satisfied with the analysis results, RISA-3D provides the connection forces—axial, shear, and moment reactions—for each member end. 2. Export Connection Forces to RISAConnection Next, send selected members and their design forces to RISAConnection. This direct integration eliminates the need to manually transfer loads or recreate geometry. Once in RISAConnection, you can: Choose from a library of shear, moment, and braced connections Model the full geometry, including bolt patterns, welds, and gusset plates View pass/fail results for each limit state, with clear failure mode…
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In this video, you’ll learn how to investigate your RISA-3D model for P-Delta divergence errors. This type of error is common in general structural analysis software and has two major causes: a model that is unstable or a model that is too flexible. For this investigation, two separate steel frame...
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