Going back to the Simpson strong wall idea - surely you have interior walls that could be used on upper levels for the cantilevered diaphragm methods and then just use the strong walls on the lowest level? I'm surprised to hear in your region that builders hate strong walls more than a steel...
Appreciate the responses so far. Few things to unpack.
1. This metal building appears to be torsionally braced, so for this load case, one x-brace is taking the entire base shear in one direction. The dead weight from the building is so low it isn't counteracting the uplift which results in a...
Got the following situation for a metal building foundation pier and I'm struggling with the idea of having uplift when solving for soil bearing pressure. The forces shown are ASD and are from a seismic load combo. As you see, there is net uplift and a lateral bracing force at the top of the...
I've normally seen the program not require any bottom bracing. Even now I just opened up to see what joist I last modeled and it's required bracing spacing is the full length of the joist - in other words, not bracing. Wondering if you have the settings correct on the "Spans and Supports" tab to...
Also, the Errata removed the allowance to increase the 7/16 sheathing capacities to that of 15/32 if meeting either requirements of panel direction or stud spacing. Made me sad for that lost 20 plf.
However, it looks like all the drywall shear walls got destroyed. They maintained the same nominal values in 2021 as 2015, but now penalized more with the 2.8 ASD reduction factor. Ouch.
To add to some additional support for other's comments:
1) Totally agree that transcripts do not indicate a good engineer. Had a gal work for us for 2 years and in a performance review I was blunt about how she was doing. She broke down a bit and said "I don't really know what I'm doing." I...
Most of the students have actually expressed how fun and different it is. That comes from those in the interview but also those who've been hired. IMO it was better than the technical challenge we gave before because we can see clear patterns. And again, I express my previous record of 25 offers...
We mostly hire students as fresh hires and then use the following years to pick the cream of the crop as salaried, but there was a time where I had consecutively extended 25 offers and had 100% acceptance rate. This is my interview process. Keep in mind we even hire freshman and sophomores who...
I would appreciate comments that give specifics of what should be done. The present comments bring me no closer to having an idea of what is recommended.
I was considering the framing supporting the shotcrete would be 15psf (matching partitions) and the shotcrete would be 2" thick, and just using conservative normal weight concrete as the basis, that gets 25psf. So that's where I got 40psf. However, we also have the 100psf live load in there too...
I'm re-designing the floor slab and beams for an upper level mezzanine for various exhibits in an aquarium, one being a snow leopard exhibit. Pictures show that those tend to have mini mountains, which I assume is just shotcrete over framing. This will likely be the heaviest exhibit in the area...
I asked this question less than a year ago (link below), and my conclusion is because Risa hasn't gotten that far yet. They've built the easy version of the calc and haven't advanced it yet. I built my own spreadsheet based on the advice to those who responded (thanks to them, really helped me...
I should add that I am considering:
1) the vertical component only relative to the plan (cos(angle)) which reduces the pressure a bit
2) we live in an area of higher elevation (>4,900ft) which is reducing the wind by 16%
3) My beam is a hefty glulam weighing about 27plf
4) I'm designing...
Appreciate everyone's responses so far. Has definitely helped me do a deeper dive into the differences between C&C and MWFRS winds.
However, this actually makes my situation even more confusing. If I were to calculate MWFRS winds, my wind pressure is less than the dead weight of my roof right...
I was running my own calcs for a long ridge beam (30', 10ft of trib) and found that my roof dead weight was enough to nearly offset all the suction for components and cladding. The roof dead load is about 15psf normally and then you have the self weight of such a massive beam. This has me...
In regards to the comments about a garage for $300 - it's not us, believe me. It's just the nature of the market we are in. We would be laughed at if a simple garage cost more than that. Lot of engineers here willing to do it for even less.
Unfortunately it is a very proprietary spreadsheet. That is impressive you have one in the works to complete lateral analysis. While we have a lot of automation, on small jobs we are simply reduced to taking a plethora of measurements and entering them into our analysis, which will autosize most...
