Masonry Design Software 1

[Floridastructures]

I am doing quite a bit of masonry design as of lately....including bearing walls, shear walls, lintels, beams, and pilasters. Does anyone have an opinion on a good design software that would cover all these situations using updated code checks? Crunching numbers by hand is really getting old.

Thanks in advance.

 

[manstrom]

NCMA has some software. NCMA Masonry. It looks a little antiquated, but it works.

Enercalc does it as well, but I don't trust it personally.

For simple ASD stuff, you should be able to write a spreadsheet fairly easily.

When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

-R. Buckminster Fuller

 

[CURVEB]

RAM elements has a pretty handy masonry wall module that allows input of lots of different loading conditions, multiple spans with parapets, openings, etc. But be warned - it uses FEM and makes some assumptions that might not necessarily match what is normally assumed for masonry. It also does not check lintels for out-of-plane loading.

 

[sponton]

@manstrom, I don't trust enercalc either.

 

[jayrod12]

There's a program call MASS (Masonry Analysis Structural Systems) that will do all of that stuff. But I can't comment on how well as I only have basic experience with it.

 

[kipfoot]

This questions sounds like a marketing ploy by IES, but I'll bite. I like their other software packages, but haven't tried quickmasonry:

link to ies quickMasonry page

 

[JedClampett]

You could buy TEDDs or the latest edition of Amrhein's Book.
I'm not convinced software is any faster than using the tables in Amrhein. But TEDDS is pretty good.

 

[Floridastructures]

Thank you all for your comments and information.

'kipfoot' - trust me this is not a marketing ploy for IES....although that is one of the software packages I'm looking at.

FS

 

[Rainbowtrout]

I second manstrom. You can watch the webinars here to get a flavor of how the software works.

http://ncma.org/education/concrete-masonry-units/concrete-masonry-design-webinars-complimentary/

It is a simple program and reasonably priced. It designs to the latest IBC and does both ASD and LRFD, which can be really helpful if you have a hybrid system and have all the LRFD load values handy already.

 

[CBSE]

I haven't used programs for masonry, but I'm testing as well to see what I like.

IES so far is the most user friendly and intuitive I have demo'd so far. The NCMA software is "okay" but I don't like the limited loading conditions.

I haven't found any software that designs the opening jambs though. Probably have to stick with the handy dandy spreadsheets. I know many people like to stick with their spreadsheets, and I do like mine and I'm partial to them because I put a lot of effort into getting them the way they are...BUT...it's so time consuming going through and updating them or checking them as codes change.

 

[RFreund]

I haven't found any software that designs the opening jambs though

You mean like designing the entire opening rather than just designing is like a pier? Or you can't input point loads?

Just curious...

EIT

http://www.HowToEngineer.com

 

[CBSE]

You can't input point loads or partially distributed loads in most programs. Risa 3D even states that it doesn't design the jambs and requires a hand calc. It's easy to just design as a pier in my spreadsheets though.

IES software doesn't allow a pier that is less than 2 blocks in depth. I don't think the NCMA software allows the different loading conditions one may encounter (multiple openings in the same vertical plane causing multiple point loads and distributed loads, etc.)

Maybe I'm missing something that the programs do, but I haven't been able to see it done yet.

 

[sandman21]

http://www.cmacn.org/bookstore-computer.htm

Best software

 

[CBSE]

sandman21:

Do you happen to have any screen shots of the program? I don't see anything on the website to show what/how the program works.