Hilti Premium

[JStructsteel]

Anyone here use Hilti Preimium? Is it worth it? I looked, but does it allow to customize anchor bolt spacing/layout?

I see I can do 9 (3x3) but wanted to do 8 (without center) not sure how to do it.

Thanks

 

[Eng16080]

My free version of Hilti Profis (not Premium) does what you're asking.

 

[phamENG]

Yep. You can do whatever arrangement you want with the Canvas tool:

It's not expensive at all. I think it paid for itself in the first use or two when I got it, and they keep expanding the functionality. Base plates to concrete, anchoring to masonry wall (URM brick, URM CMU, and reinforced CMU), anchoring toconcrete filled steel deck, steel deck diaphragm design, and concrete to concrete connection design (structural joints, construction joints, and shear doweling where their epoxy products would be useful).

There's a bug right now that hopefully will get fixed soon, but if you're a RISA Connection user it integrates with RISA Connection for the anchorage design of base plates.

 

[JoelTXCive]

I pay for the premium and have been happy with it.

The big selling feature for me is the finite element modeling of the baseplate or wall plate with small gussets.

Also, you can do load cases too.

You can test drive the premium version for 30 days. Just set up a new gmail account and register with it. (i'm a lawbreaker at the misdemeanor level)

 

[JStructsteel]

Thanks,
I did play around a bit more and figured out how to delete a anchor.

You are right for the baseplate/wallplate.

Im just torn paying for software to specify a manufactures items. Me specifying them I should get all the support needed.

 

[jerseyshore]

It's such a small fee that even tho it is a manufacturer's software, it's well worth it.

Over the years they added so many options (e.g. cast-in-place anchors, more modules, etc.) that when it switched from free to paid it was still a no-brainer.

If you want free, you have their catalog which is good for about 90% of applications. The design of baseplates and stuff like that seems fair to charge for IMO.

 

[phamENG]

I agree with jerseyshore. I have a general aversion to post-installed anchors - difficulties installing them without hitting/damaging concrete, poor QC for drilling and cleaning, etc. All the contractor has to do cut a template out of plywood and set it in place. But I use Hilit because a) post installed anchors have their place and are sometimes unavoidable, and b) they analyze cast-in anchors, too. The baseplate analysis with odd shapes and stiffeners and concrete bearing pressures are worth it on their own.

 

[jerseyshore]

My recent experience has been the opposite. I have used Profis/ Hiltis so much more in recent years. No one wants to cast in anchor bolts these days around here. Even for bigger structures everyone wants to post-install. I think it's a combination of these quick construction schedules and inability to coordinate trades. GC's just can't be bothered trying to plan ahead for anchor bolts so they prefer the flexibility post-installed anchors give them.

I also use Profis more now because it is so easy to open it up and check a simple anchor pattern for edge/spacing/embed/thickness etc. Much faster than flipping thru the book and multiplying the factors one by one.

 

[Eng16080]

Im just torn paying for software to specify a manufactures items. Me specifying them I should get all the support needed.

[ol 1]
[li]There's also Simpson Strong-Tie Anchor Designer, which isn't quite as good, but is free.[/li]
[li]I wrote my own software to do anchorage design. I don't regret it, but considering the amount of time it took and the fact that it's not nearly as good as the free version of Profis, I'm surprised what Hilti is willing to give away for free. I suppose it's not really free as they're selling anchoring products, but still. Getting through ACI Ch. 17 is rough. Considering what it does, I'd have no issue paying for the free version if it suddenly wasn't free.[/li]
[/ol]

 

[phamENG]

jerseyshore - same thing around here. But to that I say too bad. I work primarily for Architects, not contractors. So if a contractor says "hey, I want to epoxy it in" I tell them no. If they say they already did it, I tell them to provide me with a design saying it is equal to or exceeds the capacity of what I had designed for my approval. I also tell them that if they hit/cut through any rebar, they'll probably have to chip out the concrete, repair the rebar, and recast it, though that depends on what it is and how critical it is. And once you really start looking at the installation procedures for those...they don't work very well if you have any rebar in the vicinity. And the edge distance almost never works in foundation walls with slabs on grade.

 

[jerseyshore]

I'm the opposite. I almost never hear any problems with epoxy anchors I specify. CIP anchors there's always a problem. Wrong location, wrong height, half the time it feels like I'm retofitting them with epoxy anchors anyway. The new HIT-Z anchors eliminate most of that annoying installation procedure anyway (that they didn't do in the first place) so it makes me feel a lot better about using them. I also put a note on my drawings about avoiding conflicts with rebar and out of the thousands of anchors I have specified I've never once had that issue come back to me. So that's not to say it doesn't happen or that they just cut thru the rebar anyway, but the flexibility they allow is usually worth it.

 

[phamENG]

Haha. I think there have only been 2 or 3 times I've observed them that they didn't hit rebar. I guess neither of our samples are particularly representative.

There was another time that there was a late architectural design change adding a cantilevered canopy to the top of a cantilevered concrete column (it was a high school football stadium for a swanky private school). I was able to get the column to do it, but the anchor design was nuts...had to embed them something like 16 inches with all sorts of reinforcing. I got a call for an approval for an epoxy option. I laughed and said you'll never drill a hole straight enough and, even if you could, there's not enough clearance through the rebar cage with the bit they'd need. "Umm...we already poured the column." Oops. Had to design a crazy clamp thing that had bolts that had to be tensioned and then install welded straps. Then the bolts and the tabs we bolt through could be cut off and ground smooth to accept a wrap. They're still there, about 6 years on.

It's things like that that give me limited sympathy for contractors that like to assume any bolt can just be epoxied.

 

[JStructsteel]

I took the plunge, and yes its pretty cool the way it can do the baseplates/anchorplates.

Also do like load combos.

 

[wrantler]

Do you all spec testing on the post installed anchors? Might help with the QC issues.

 

[phamENG]

The ones who would follow that spec are not the ones I worry about following the installation procedures...

 

[jerseyshore]

The Hilti rep said based on their experience less than 10% of contractors install the anchors per the installation specs. It was the main reason they came up with the HIT-Z's.