January 3, 2019
What wood wall design method should I use?
RISA-3D is one of the few pieces of software on the market offering wood shear wall analysis and design accompanied by multiple design methods to best suit your detailing needs.
Year-End Is One of the Few Times Engineers Can Actually Rethink Tools Most engineers don’t change core analysis software in the middle of a deadline-driven project. End of year is different. Budgets are closing out, project schedules tend to soften slightly, and teams finally have a moment to evaluate what worked — and what slowed them down. That combination creates a rare window to reassess tools without the pressure of an active permit submission. For many firms, it’s also when leadership asks bigger operational questions: Are we spending too much time reworking models? Are our engineers relying too heavily on spreadsheets? Are we confident scaling into slightly larger or more complex jobs next year? Budget Resets and Training Calendars Create Natural Momentum Year-end decisions often align with practical realities. Software budgets reset in January, making it easier to justify a purchase that didn’t fit earlier in the year. Training calendars are also easier to plan before the new project backlog fills up. Engineers can start the year productive instead of learning a new workflow mid-project. This timing matters. Firms that switch tools before the new year often avoid the “we’ll deal with it later” trap — and later rarely comes…
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RISA-3D is one of the few pieces of software on the market offering wood shear wall analysis and design accompanied by multiple design methods to best suit your detailing needs.
With the initial implementation of wood wall design in RISA-3D, the wall aspect ratio was calculated as the full height of the wall divided by the width of the region.This was intended to accommodate balloon framed multi-story walls that were drawn as one continuous wall stack. With recent...
With the recent release of RISA-3D v17 the program now offers the user the option to use Chord Straps between floors of a wood shear wall building in lieu of using hold downs. Chord Straps are a great option for transferring tension load between floors of a multi-floor building and can be installed...
The new AWC NDS 2018 code has been implemented into RISA-3D v17.0 and RISAFloor v13.0. To select this code for your design, simply choose this code from the Codes tab within Model Settings.
The latest releases of RISAFloor and RISA-3D include the following updates to wood design per the Canadian codes:
The new CSA O86-14 code has been implemented in RISA-3D v15.0 and RISAFloor v11.0
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.
The latest versions of RISA-3D and RISAFloor now incorporate the AWC NDS 2015. The new provisions have been implemented in RISA-3D v14.0 and RISAFloor v10.0 and can be utilized by selecting the AWC NDS-15: ASD from the Wood dropdown menu on the Codes tab of Model Settings.
You may notice discrepancies in the wood design values when comparing RISA with the NDS 2012 and older versions of the code. The American Wood Council updated the wood design values in the Addendum, which supersede the values used in the NDS 2012 and previous versions of the Design Values for Wood...
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