This is one of the more frustrating things I've encountered because it is never done right and the fix is not pretty.
Anyway in multi-family buildings the stair shafts can be masonry in many cases but the stairs are wood. With the typical stair layout there is a landing beam that picks up quite...
I personally use gypsum shear walls, but I've also been lucky and have been in SDC A, so R values are unimportant. The good thing about gypsum is that the building will be a heckuva lot cheaper to build. If we are talking demising walls in a multi-family building, they are sheathed with gypsum...
Perhaps others can chime in with better explanations, but I'll provide examples based on my experience.
CAD = Autocad and I would say it is used for the purpose of producing drawings.
BIM is more of a concept than an actual piece of software. In my case I use Autodesk Revit. We create 3d...
Jumping in a couple of months late. I see this sort of detail all the time, and would say that it is pretty typical. The rim being used to transfer in-plane shear is really nice because it does allow for the wall to be panelized which many walls are these days. The thing to keep in mind is...
Pretty much the reaction I expected...and I agree. There is no capacity guarantee unless each one is load tested.
I also see it implicitly forbidden by IBC.
Wondering what the thoughts on here regarding wet setting anchor rods. In my opinion it is implicitly prohibited by ACI as the two types are cast-in which is defined as having concrete cast around the anchor rod or post-installed which is defined as anchoring into hardened concrete. Since...
I have not given it much thought, but I suppose that the welds are less ductile. I tend to design my fastening pattern for diaphragm action using the #12 tek screws as the main fastener and #10 tek for sidelaps. Since that is the lowest capacity I'll give the GC the option to use the pins or...
TSD is Tekla Structural Designer.
I don't do much with wood, but a lot of masonry. Wood is usually an accent with a glulam here and there. It seems that most of my buildings are steel with masonry shear walls. A lot of times I do the masonry by hand or as a separate calc.
Just annoying...
Thanks! I checked out the etabs website. It looks similar to TSD which I have a small amount of experience with. I like the wall panel inputs. Less of a black box that way.
The only thing missing is that they only do steel and concrete.
Many of the buildings I do are mixed with steel...
Any users of RISA Floor and Foundation in conjunction with RISA 3D have any opinions as to how it compares to RAM? I have RISA 3D and RAM both but am intrigued by ditching RAM in favor of adding RISA Floor.
RAM is good at designing steel beams and columns for gravity loads, but seems to fall...
Finally upgraded from RISA V12 to V17. Looking forward to this. RISA is one of the few programs that doesn't have many glaring flaws.
I've always been one to enjoy change though.
I like my uni-ball ONYX. They come in red, green, black, and blue. I prefer pens to pencils simply because there is less effort in getting a mark on paper and it looks cleaner. Personal preference.
As an aside, when I mark things up I use red for the things that need to change and green for...
I prefer Hilti Profis because I find it to be the easiest to use. I haven't noticed breakout checks being omitted unless you check that there is anchor reinforcement present to eliminate concrete breakout. If you check that box then the checks go away. You will have to manually design the...
Here's my experience. I started out of college (2008) with absolutely no CAD/Revit experience. I began my second job with only Microstation experience that I picked up at my first job. We currently use Revit on our building projects and CAD for our smaller projects. We had a technician who...
I have bugged them about it and, you are correct, it is not available in the US. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be. Hopefully they will change this soon, because it is annoying to have to run separate programs.
Powers PDA and the Simpson Strong-tie program both have thickness design calculations.
I sold a few of mine back because I needed some $. You could check to see how much the older version costs vs how a used current version sells for. You could sell it and then buy the same one later when it is out of date.
I kept my CERM though, and still use it from time to time.
I did not have the SERM for the exam (Oct. 2012), but did have the CERM. CERM was a big help for me and by far my most used book on the exam. I thought that the practice exams were very useful (both PPI and NCEES issued). I put in close to 6 months of study and felt fine during the exam.
I...
